Ptiloprora guisei
Nominate race has top of head and hindneck black with irregular olive to olive-grey streaking, merging to rufous-brown mottling on lower hindneck and lower side of neck, side of head blackish with grey streaking and wash, especially prominent on supercilium and around eye, upperbody black to black-brown, mottled with rufous-brown, heavily so on mantle and scapulars and more diffusely and more weakly on rest of upperbody, upperwing and uppertail blackish-brown, pale olive to yellowish-olive margins on madian coverts and outer edges of greater coverts, pale olive to olive-rufous outer edges of primaries, chin and throat light grey, diffusely mottled dusky, breast and belly largely pale grey to greyish-white with bold but irregular blackish streaking merging to rufous-blackish with rufous-brown streaking on sides of breast and belly and on flanks, vent and undertail-coverts as belly, but washed rufous brown or yellowish and only faintly streaked, undertail brownish-grey, underwing off-white, pale greyish-brown mottling on coverts and brownish-grey trailing edge and tip, iris typically green to pale grey-green, bill black, legs vary, from light blue-grey to ligt blue, blue or blue-black, soles yellow. Sexes alike in plumage, male larger than female. Juvenile is like adult, but duller and with more diffuse and weaker streaking above and below washed olive-yellow, with reduced and duller rufous. Umbrosa slightly smaller, with crown streaking brownish-grey.
Not Threatened
Nominate race has top of head and hindneck black with irregular olive to olive-grey streaking, merging to rufous-brown mottling on lower hindneck and lower side of neck, side of head blackish with grey streaking and wash, especially prominent on supercilium and around eye, upperbody black to black-brown, mottled with rufous-brown, heavily so on mantle and scapulars and more diffusely and more weakly on rest of upperbody, upperwing and uppertail blackish-brown, pale olive to yellowish-olive margins on madian coverts and outer edges of greater coverts, pale olive to olive-rufous outer edges of primaries, chin and throat light grey, diffusely mottled dusky, breast and belly largely pale grey to greyish-white with bold but irregular blackish streaking merging to rufous-blackish with rufous-brown streaking on sides of breast and belly and on flanks, vent and undertail-coverts as belly, but washed rufous brown or yellowish and only faintly streaked, undertail brownish-grey, underwing off-white, pale greyish-brown mottling on coverts and brownish-grey trailing edge and tip, iris typically green to pale grey-green, bill black, legs vary, from light blue-grey to ligt blue, blue or blue-black, soles yellow. Sexes alike in plumage, male larger than female. Juvenile is like adult, but duller and with more diffuse and weaker streaking above and below washed olive-yellow, with reduced and duller rufous. Umbrosa slightly smaller, with crown streaking brownish-grey.
16-18 cm, male 21-27 g and female 19-22 g, male 21.3-27.7g and female 17.6-24 g.
Taxonomy: Ptilotis (?) guisei De Vis, 1894, Mount Maneao, south-east New Guinea. Formerly considered conspecific with P. erythropleura, P. mayri and P. perstriata, but the four differ in size, plumage (crown colour, dorsal coloration, colour of wing-covert edgings, distinctness of ventral spotting, flank colour) and iris colour. May form a superspecies with P. mayri, and often treated as conspecific with that species alone, but comparative studies indicate that the two are better considered separate species. Has sometimes been thought conspecific with P. perstriata, but the two occur sympatrically (with mutually exclusive altitudinal ranges) over at least 560 km in E New Guinea. Birds of Huon Peninsula intermediate between nominate and umbrosa, but closer to latter and generally included within it; populations of Adelbert Mts and Mt Bosavi likewise provisionally placed in umbrosa. W limits of nominate race uncertain; populations of Bismarck Range and Kubor Range placed in nominate, but may belong with umbrosa (or intergradient between the two races). Two subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * umbrosa Mayr, 1931 - Adelbert Mts, Mt Bosavi, Huon Peninsula (Saruwaged Mts), Schrader Range and Eastern Highlands (W at least to Tari), in NE & E New Guinea. * guisei (De Vis, 1894) - mountains of SE New Guinea, E from Bismarck and Kubor Ranges and Herzog Mts.
Montane and upper montane primary forest, especially moss forest, also forest edge and secondary growth. Preference for moss forest, or is associated climatic conditions, shown by lower altitudinal limit of the species, from c. 1340 m to 2500-2900 m in central Ranges. Altitudinal overlap with P.perspitriata of up to several hundreds of metres.
Predomiantly arthropods, also fruit, seeds and nectar. Ranges from understorey to canopy, mainly in shrub layer and middle storey occasionally visits flowering trees and shrubs. Forages gleaning and probing, and often hangs upside-down while foraging. Observed to steal to pierce to flowers.
Few data. Nestling recorded early Feb and juvenile early May. Two nest found 1. 25 and 2 m above ground in sapling, another nest described as of this species, but suggested as more likely to be that P.perspitriata.