From Opus

Alternative names: Mid-mountain Berrypecker; Yellow-bellied Berrypecker; Long-tailed Berrypecker

Melanocharis longicauda

[edit] Identification

12.5cm. A small Berrypecker with a medium-length tail.

[edit] Male

• Black upperparts with glossed blue-green on mantle and crown
• White base on outer tail feathers (difficult to see in field)
• Pale olive-grey underparts
• Tinged yellow flanks
• Paler and yellower belly
• Pale yellow pectoral tufts
• White underwing-coverts

[edit] Female

• Slightly bigger and looking shorter-tailed
• Dull olive-green upperparts
• Brownish tail with wite base on outer tail feathers
• Pale olive-grey underparts with paler chin, yellowish flanks and paler yellow belly

Immatures are similar to females but they have a yellowish lower mandible.

[edit] Similar species

Has a longer tail than Black Berrypecker and yellow (not white) pectoral tufts.
Smaller than Fan-tailed Berrypecker, with shorter tail, yellower underparts and yellow (not white) pectoral tufts.

[edit] Distribution

Endemic to New Guinea.
Common in some areas, uncommon in others. Easily overlooked.

[edit] Taxonomy

Five subspecies recognized:^[1]

• M. l. longicauda

• Mountains of north-western New Guinea (Vogelkop and Wandammen Mountains)

• M. l. umbrosa

• North-western New Guinea (slopes above Idenberg River)

• M. l. chloris

• Western New Guinea (Weyland Mountains and southern slopes of Jayawijaya Mountains)

• M. l. captata

• Mountains of central New Guinea (Huon Peninsula and Central Highlands)

• M. l. orientalis

• Mountains of south-eastern New Guinea

[edit] Habitat

Forest and secondary growth in mountains. Often in dense shrubs and thickets at forest edge.
Occurs from 700 - 2100m, between Black Berrypecker and Fan-tailed Berrypecker with only little overlap.

[edit] Behaviour

Feeds on small berries and spiders, Likely to take insects.
Forages inconspicuously in understorey and middle levels of forest.
Usually seen singly. Seems not to join mixed-species foraging flocks.
Breeding poorly known. Nesting recorded in January, a female in breeding condition in September. One known nest was a neat cup bound to a horizontal ranch fork 7.5 m above the ground.
Presumably a resident species, perhaps some altitudinal dispersal.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2011. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to August 2011. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
2. Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2008. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 13: Penduline-tits to Shrikes. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553453

• List of references

[edit] External Links