Ptiloprora meekiana

General description: 

Nominate race has top and side of neck and upperbody yellowish-olive with bold blackish-olive streaking, streaks fine on top of head and hindneck, broader elsewhere, most prominent on mantle and back, streaking on side of head fairly dense, giving diffusely masked appearance in which pale eye prominent, upperwing and uppertail blackish-brown to dark brown, darker than upperparts, narrowyellowish-olive edges on upperwing-coverts, remiges and rectrices, pale yellowish-olive below, with paler yellowish chin and throat and yellowish belly, strong dusky olive streaking throughout, strongest on throat, yellowish tuft at side of breast below angle of wing, undertail dusky brown, underwing pale yellowish with dark trailing adge and tip, iris light grey to greenish-grey, bill black, grey lower mandible and cutting edges, gape olive, legs blue-grey. Sexes alike in plumage, male larger than female. Juvenile and immature apparently undescribed. Race occidentalis is on average larger than female with apparently shorter bill than nominate, also brighter all over, greenish above, with brighter rump and wing and tail edges, brighter throat with darker dusky streaking, and brighter yellowish underbody.

Conservation status: 

Not Threatened

Diagnostic description: 

Nominate race has top and side of neck and upperbody yellowish-olive with bold blackish-olive streaking, streaks fine on top of head and hindneck, broader elsewhere, most prominent on mantle and back, streaking on side of head fairly dense, giving diffusely masked appearance in which pale eye prominent, upperwing and uppertail blackish-brown to dark brown, darker than upperparts, narrowyellowish-olive edges on upperwing-coverts, remiges and rectrices, pale yellowish-olive below, with paler yellowish chin and throat and yellowish belly, strong dusky olive streaking throughout, strongest on throat, yellowish tuft at side of breast below angle of wing, undertail dusky brown, underwing pale yellowish with dark trailing adge and tip, iris light grey to greenish-grey, bill black, grey lower mandible and cutting edges, gape olive, legs blue-grey. Sexes alike in plumage, male larger than female. Juvenile and immature apparently undescribed. Race occidentalis is on average larger than female with apparently shorter bill than nominate, also brighter all over, greenish above, with brighter rump and wing and tail edges, brighter throat with darker dusky streaking, and brighter yellowish underbody.

Size: 

16-17 cm, one male 18.5 g (nominate), two females 20-21 g (occidentalis)

Phylogeny: 

Taxonomy: Ptilotis meekiana Rothschild & E. J. O. Hartert, 1907, Upper Aroa River, south-east New Guinea. In E New Guinea, isolated records at Tari Gap (Southern Highlands), Trauna Gap, near Baiyer River Sanctuary (Central Highlands), and Mt Michael (Eastern Highlands) involve birds of unknown racial identity; may represent an undescribed race (but specimen from Mt Michael intermediate between occidentalis and nominate). Two subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)

Distribution: 

Subspecies and Distribution:

    * occidentalis Rand, 1940 - upper slopes of E Nassau Mts and W Oranje Mts, in W New Guinea. * meekiana (Rothschild & E. J. O. Hartert, 1907) - Saruwaged Mts (Huon Peninsula), Herzog Mts and mountains of SE New Guinea (including upper Mambare R and Mt Tafa-Efogi area).
Habitat: 

Mid-montane to montane forest and secondary growth. Recorded at 2200-2800 m in Snow Mts (occidentalis) at 2440 m at Mt Michael, and from c 1300 m to 2300 m, mainly 1500-2100 m.

Trophic strategy: 

Mainly srthropods, including medium-siyed insect, also nectar from flowering trees. Forages usually in middle and upper levels of forest, and often in flowering trees, usually seen when gleaning through crowns of substage trees.

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith