Alternative names: Mountain Honeyeater; Mountain Red-headed Honeyeater; Red-headed Mountain Honeyeater; Mountain Red-headed Myzomela; Adolphina's Myzomela; Elfin Myzomela; Midget Myzomela
- Myzomela adolphinae
Identification
9-10 cm. The smallest Honeyeater.
Male
- Red to bright red hood marked with blackish loral stripe, blackish eye-ring and short and narrow blackish line behind eye
- Mostly dark grey to dusky black plumage, merging to off-white on belly, flanks, vent and undertail-coverts
- Bright red rump and uppertail-coverts
- Dark grey uppertail
- Dark brownish-grey upperwing, sometimes also blackish
- Curved black bill
Female
- Mainly olive-grey plumage merging to paler dirty white on belly and flanks to undertail-coverts
- Diffuse reddish wash in malar area and reddish face
- Pale eye-ring
Juveniles and immatures undescribed.
Distribution
Patchily distributed in the mountains of New Guinea.
Common to fairly common.
Taxonomy
This is a monotypic species.
Some variaton between birds from Huon Peninsula and Arfak Mountains and southeast New Guinea needs to be studied.
Closely related to Cardinal Myzomela.
Habitat
Moist lowland forest and montanes, tall secondary growths and disturbed habitat.
Occurs mostly between 1150 and 2000m, locally lower or higher.
Behaviour
Diet
Feeds on nectar. Takes also small insects and other arthropods.
Forages in the canopy, also in gardens and disturbed habitats.
An active and vocal species but inconspicuous. Usually seen singly, sometimes in small groups. Associates with other species like Black Myzomela, Red Myzomela and Red-throated Myzomela in flowering trees.
Breeding
Two nest recorded in mid-July and late October. One neast was a neat cup made of dead bracken frond with an external roof. No other information.
Movements
Not well known. Possibly a resident species with some local movements in search of flowering plants.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved April 2015)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Mountain Myzomela. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 23 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Mountain_Myzomela
