Melipotes carolae
Wattled Smoky Honeyeater
Other common names: Farfak Honeyeater
Taxonomy: Melipotes carolae Beehler et al., 2007, Bog Camp (2°34.5' S, 138°34.9' E), 1650 m, Sarmi District, Papua Province, north-west New Guinea.
The Wattled Smoky Honeyeater (Melipotes carolae) is an Indonesian endemic, that was discovered in December 2005. It was found in remote montane forests of Foja Mountains range, Western New Guinea at an altitude over 1,150 metres. The first bird species found in New Guinea since 1939, the honeyeater was one of over twenty new species discovered by an international team of eleven scientists from Australia, Indonesia and the United States, led by Bruce Beehler.
Not Threatened
Plumage appears largely sooty black at distance, with paler lower underbody. Black bill. The most distinctive feature is arguably the extensive reddish-orange facial skin and pendulous wattle. In other members of the genus Melipotes, These sections only appear reddish when "flushed" and the wattle is smaller. Sexes alike in plumage, male larger than female. Juvenile is undescribed.
The new species is readily assignable to the genus Melipotes by the large circumorbital patch of bright facial skin, the overall sooty-gray plumage, and the short black bill. Each of the following four characters distinguishes M. carolae from all congeners: (1) elaboration of the circumorbital skin patch into a soft, loose, and fleshy pendant wattle at the base of the jaw on each side of the face; (2) the deep red-orange (rather than orangeyellow) coloration of the facial skin patch; (3) the nonflushing condition of the circumorbital patch (see below); and (4) the dull gray throat patch, only slightly paler than adjacent upper breast feathering. The three other species of Melipotes differ from carolae in the following ways: M. ater which inhabits the upland forests of the Huon Peninsula is substantially larger (more than twice the mass of all other Melipotes), with a yellow circumorbital patch, satin-black plumage, white spotting on the breast, and a nonpendant caruncle-like "sub-wattle" on the lower edge of the yellow circumorbital patch. Melipotes ater is considerably more sociable and noisy than any other member of the genus. Melipotes gymnops, which inhabits the upland forests of the Vogelkop and Bird's Neck Peninsula of westernmost New Guinea, has a dark throat, distinctive pale streaks on the lower breast and belly, ochre-washed undertail coverts, and a yellow circumorbital patch. Melipotes fumigatus, a widespread upland species of the New Guinean central cordillera, the Cyclops, Bewani, and Kumawa ranges, is in most ways similar to M. carolae but exhibits an orange-yellow (not red-orange) circumorbital face patch, lacks the pendant wattle, and exhibits a distinctly paler chin patch that contrasts with the dark breast plumage.
22 cm, one male 52.5 g, one female 54 g, unsexed and sexes combined 52.5-65 g
Taxonomy: Melipotes carolae Beehler et al., 2007, Bog Camp (2°34.5' S, 138°34.9' E), 1650 m, Sarmi District, Papua Province, north-west New Guinea. Genus closely related to Macgregoria; the fleshy wattle of this species provides a morphological link between the two. Forms a superspecies with M. ater, M. gymnops and M. fumigatus. Monotypic (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Foja Mountains range
Interior and edge of closed, humid tropical submontane forest. Type locality a sphagnum bog c. 500 m in diameter surrounded by mossy forst of moderate stature dominated by gymnosperms and montane angiosperms. Known only from above 1150 m.
Predominantly frugivorous, seen repeatedly to forage in middle and upper levels of vegetation, especially at plants producing small fruits.
No evidence of reproductive behaviour during late Nov and early Dec, when two individuals had non-enlarged gonads.