Myzomela erythrocephala
Male nominate race has dark red hood marked with narrow black loral stripe continuous with thin black ring around eye, sooty brown upperparts, dark red on rump and uppertail-coverts, red of hood and rear upperbody often patchily mottled black, uppertail and upperwing blackish-brown, tertials and median and greater secondary coverts with narrow grey fringes, remiges with thin grey edges sooty-brown band across upper breast grading into light brownish-grey below, undertail dark grey, underwing dark grey with mostly white lining, iris dark brown, bill black or blackish-brown, sometimes brown or pink-brown basal half of lower mandible, gape black or yellowish, legs dark grey to brown r black, soles yellow. Female is smaller than female, has head, neck and upperbody grey-brown, merging to paler grey-brown on lower throat, and with obvious pink-red forehead, anterior ear-coverts, malar area, chin and upper throat and sometimes a few dark pink-red flecks on crown and uppertail-coverts, uppertail and upperwing dark brown, fringes and edges as for male although edges of remiges can be slightly paler, breast light grey-brown, grading slightly paler on lower underbody, and merging to off-white in centre of belly, bare parts as for male, gape yellowish. Juvenile is very like female, but rump and uppertail-coverts slightly paler and distinctl warmer brown than rest of upperbody, fringes of secondary coverts and tertials broader and light brown, pink-red on face sometimes much fainter, base of lower mandible yellowish, yellow gape initially swollen, and iris and legs possibly paler, immature male not well known.
Not Threatened
Male nominate race has dark red hood marked with narrow black loral stripe continuous with thin black ring around eye, sooty brown upperparts, dark red on rump and uppertail-coverts, red of hood and rear upperbody often patchily mottled black, uppertail and upperwing blackish-brown, tertials and median and greater secondary coverts with narrow grey fringes, remiges with thin grey edges sooty-brown band across upper breast grading into light brownish-grey below, undertail dark grey, underwing dark grey with mostly white lining, iris dark brown, bill black or blackish-brown, sometimes brown or pink-brown basal half of lower mandible, gape black or yellowish, legs dark grey to brown r black, soles yellow. Female is smaller than female, has head, neck and upperbody grey-brown, merging to paler grey-brown on lower throat, and with obvious pink-red forehead, anterior ear-coverts, malar area, chin and upper throat and sometimes a few dark pink-red flecks on crown and uppertail-coverts, uppertail and upperwing dark brown, fringes and edges as for male although edges of remiges can be slightly paler, breast light grey-brown, grading slightly paler on lower underbody, and merging to off-white in centre of belly, bare parts as for male, gape yellowish. Juvenile is very like female, but rump and uppertail-coverts slightly paler and distinctl warmer brown than rest of upperbody, fringes of secondary coverts and tertials broader and light brown, pink-red on face sometimes much fainter, base of lower mandible yellowish, yellow gape initially swollen, and iris and legs possibly paler, immature male not well known.
11-13 cm, male 7-11g, female 6-9.4 g
Taxonomy: Myzomela erythrocephala Gould, 1840, King Sound, north Western Australia. Forms a superspecies, and sometimes treated as conspecific, with M. dammermani and M. kuehni; all three closely related to the M. cardinalis superspecies. Races intergrade in C & S Torres Strait. Two subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * infuscata W. A. Forbes, 1879 - Aru Is, coastal S New Guinea (Triton Bay E to Domara, E of Cape Rodney) and islands of Torres Strait. * erythrocephala Gould, 1840 - islands of C & S Torres Strait, and from N Western Australia (near Broome, in S Kimberley Division) E along coast, including offshore islands and islets (such as Melville I and Sir Edward Pellew Group, in Northern Territory), to N Queensland (Cape York Peninsula S on E coast to Princess Charlotte Bay).
Primary rainforest, forest edge and tall secondary forest and regrowth, found in lowland alluvial rainforest and edge.
Nectar and small arthropods, occasionally beriess. Specialist of upper parts of crowns of flowering trees. Sometimes descendent to lower levels at forest edge Often gathers in small parties of flowering trees, where frequently associated with other meliphagas and other bird species.