need help with Sulawesi ID (1 Viewer)

Mary Crickmore · Oct 30, 2005

Visting Mamasi in SW Sulawesi I have a sunbird or honeyeater that is brown above, whitish below, and has bright red in the moustache-malar area. Some (males?) also have red backs. It was abundant in gardens in the town of Mamasa.
There were also white-eyes feeding young and I have not been able to find a photo of zosterops chloris to tell whether this is what I saw. I unfortunately came here without a copy of Birds of Wallacea, so am working from Photo Guide to Birds of Indonesia only.

cuckooroller · Oct 30, 2005

Hi Mary,
Constrained to give a rather circuitous response here and having had time only to really check out possible Meliphagidae. SW Sulawesi (or Sulawesi as a whole) escaped the major Meliphagid irradiation and is barely on the fringe. Unless I have missed something, the only two Meliphagids possible in SW Sulawesi should be Myzomela boiei juga (Wallacean Honeyeater), and Myza celebensis meridionalis (Lesser Streaked Honeyeater). The Myza is a uniformly brown bird and can be excluded per your description. If it is a Meliphagid, then it leaves only the Myzomela - possibly an immature male.

What nectariniids range: Leptocoma sericea porphyrolaema (Black Sunbird); Cinnyris jugularis plateni (Olive-backed Sunbird) and; Aethopyga siparaja beccarii (Crimson Sunbird).

If I had to take a guess and if the malar red is more a slash than a diffuse redness, I might guess that your bird is a juvenile male Aethopyga siparaja.

For the Z. chloris, PM me with your e-mail, I have three images I think. However, it is not the only Zosterops ranging if I remember correctly.

Edward woodwood · Oct 30, 2005

Wallacean honeyeater / sunbird possible is only juga (or Scarlet)

no sunbirds match the description

any chance it was a flowerpecker?

white-eye could be a chloris; there are a couple of other possibles though and distribution may not be entirely accurate in books

Tim

James Eaton · Oct 30, 2005

Hi Mary,

your honeyeater/sunbird sounds like Scarlet Honeyeater, Myzomela sanguinolenta juga, to me, they are locally abundant in south west Sulawesi. Their plumage is quite variable at this time of year too, as males go into eclispe and lose much of their red.

The coomon zosterops in Sw Sulawesi is chloris, Yellow-bellied White-eye.

Mary Crickmore · Nov 12, 2005

I think you have it

James Eaton said:
Hi Mary,

your honeyeater/sunbird sounds like Scarlet Honeyeater, Myzomela sanguinolenta juga, to me, they are locally abundant in south west Sulawesi. Their plumage is quite variable at this time of year too, as males go into eclispe and lose much of their red.

The coomon zosterops in Sw Sulawesi is chloris, Yellow-bellied White-eye.

I was able to find a photo on the internet of Z. chloris, that is indeed what I saw.

I found a photo of a female Myzomela sanguinolenta on the net and it looks like what I saw although mine had more distinct red markings. I had been wondering whether the males of this species go into eclipse, and you have answered my question, so I think that this is probably the ID. Do you have any more specifics on what the male eclipse plumage looks like? This would make me more confident of the ID. There were half a dozen of these birds in the yard.

One more question. On Bali I saw a similar plumage white-eye, all yellow underparts. According to the range information I have, this should have been Oriental white-eye. Do the oriental white-eye subspecies on Bali have all yellow underparts?

Thanks very much,

Mary

Mary Crickmore · Nov 12, 2005

photos of Z. chloris

cuckooroller said:
Hi Mary,
Constrained to give a rather circuitous response here and having had time only to really check out possible Meliphagidae. SW Sulawesi (or Sulawesi as a whole) escaped the major Meliphagid irradiation and is barely on the fringe. Unless I have missed something, the only two Meliphagids possible in SW Sulawesi should be Myzomela boiei juga (Wallacean Honeyeater), and Myza celebensis meridionalis (Lesser Streaked Honeyeater). The Myza is a uniformly brown bird and can be excluded per your description. If it is a Meliphagid, then it leaves only the Myzomela - possibly an immature male.

What nectariniids range: Leptocoma sericea porphyrolaema (Black Sunbird); Cinnyris jugularis plateni (Olive-backed Sunbird) and; Aethopyga siparaja beccarii (Crimson Sunbird).

If I had to take a guess and if the malar red is more a slash than a diffuse redness, I might guess that your bird is a juvenile male Aethopyga siparaja.

For the Z. chloris, PM me with your e-mail, I have three images I think. However, it is not the only Zosterops ranging if I remember correctly.

I did finally find one photo of Z. chloris on the internet, and that is what I saw.
It might be worth posting your photos on the Oriental Bird Images site.

Edward woodwood · Nov 12, 2005

Mary Crickmore said:
I
One more question. On Bali I saw a similar plumage white-eye, all yellow underparts. According to the range information I have, this should have been Oriental white-eye. Do the oriental white-eye subspecies on Bali have all yellow underparts?

Thanks very much,

Mary

Hi Mary

the montane race is all yellow but i don't think it occurs on Bali, just Java and Sumatra...

the lowland race has a yellow central stripe all the way underneath which can look very extensive at times

James Eaton · Nov 13, 2005

Hi Mary,

Eclipse males Myzomela sanguinolenta can come in a bewildering variety of reds. The red can be resticted to just the mantle, or face, or breast, as many of the males will be in a different transitional stage of their eclipse. I have no doubt that this is the species you saw.

Chloris occurs on Bali, and can be seen along the coast. A good way to seperate the two species is looking at the rump. Oriental White-eye shows a really bright yellow rump, compared to the dull yellowish rump of Yellow-bellied. This feature is suurprisingly distinct.

cuckooroller · Nov 13, 2005

Mary Crickmore said:
I did finally find one photo of Z. chloris on the internet, and that is what I saw.
It might be worth posting your photos on the Oriental Bird Images site.

Mary,
If they were my photos (i.e. my copyrights), I would. Two of the photos I have for that species are from OBI. A great resource for Oriental birds, and I sometimes give Krys a hand scaring up photos of the lacking and sometimes vetting ID's. Unfortunately, I am a lousy photographer and am more interested in dedicating spare time to conservation rather than going out birding, something I will do after I retire.

Mary Crickmore · Nov 19, 2005

I just looked at the Birdforum gallery and found photos of a female and juvenile male myzomela sanguinolenta. This confirms the ID of what I saw in Mamasa. Thanks everyone for your help!

need help with Sulawesi ID (1 Viewer)

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