Melidectes foersteri
Huon Honeyeater
Other common names: Huon Wattled/Foerster’s Honeyeater, Huon (Wattled)/Foerster’s Melidectes
Taxonomy: Melirrhophetes foersteri Rothschild and E. J. O. Hartert, 1911, Rawlinson Mountains, Huon Peninsula, north-east New Guinea.
Has forehead white, rest of head and neck mostly dusky black, meeting into sooty brown with heavy but diffuse whitish scaling on nape, hind neck, side of neck and lower throat, with large area of pale blue bare skin, and fine white streaking over eye, below eye and on ear coverts, pale pink gape wattle bordered below by narrow whitish submoustachial stripe, small orange-red to red wattle behind gape wattle on side of lower throat, upperparts sooty brown to brownish black, conspicuous grayish-white scalloping on mantle, back and scapulars, dark yellowish-olive edges of remiges, broad dark yellowish-olive edges of rectrices, underbody dark grayish-brown to dusky grey, merging into off-white in center of belly, and spotter or scaled off-white on breast, undertail-coverts cinnamon-brown, iris pale brown, bill pale, legs grayish. Sexes alike in plumage, male larger than female and with larger gape wattle. Juvenile undescribed.
28-32 cm
Study of relationships within genus needed. Forms a superspecies with M. leucostephes, M. belfordi and M. rufocrissalis; all four, along with M. ochromelas and M. torquatus, comprise a group of relatively large species that differ from others in genus in size, morphology, plumage and voice. Considered a race of M. belfordi by some authors, but may be closer to M. leucostephes or M. rufocrissalis. Monotypic.
Upper montane and high mountains forest, to tree-line 1600-3700m.
Feeds on insect, fruit and nectar. Noisy and conspicuous, forages in canopy and middle levels of forest. Otherwise. Habits said to be like those of M.belfoldi.
