Mottled Honeyeater Microptilotis mimikae Scientific name definitions

16·5–17 cm; male 24–32·5g, female 22–29 g (bastille). Nominate race has top and side of head and neck and upperparts dark greyish-olive to brownish-olive, with grey tinge on forehead; blackish-olive lores, pale olive eyering, yellow lower ear-coverts (forming fairly large patch), and yellow to dull orange gape that meets fairly narrow and contrastingly paler yellow rictal streak (not extending to pale ear-patch); upperwing-coverts and alula dark brown with dark olive-green fringes, remiges dark brown with olive-green outer edges and olive-buff or pale buff inner edges; tail feathers dark brown with yellow-olive outer edges; olive-grey below, pale yellowish tinge or faint streaking on belly, and with darker brownish mottling on chin to upper belly; underwing-coverts olive-ochre to olive-yellow; iris brown or brownish-grey; bill blackish; legs grey. Differs from M. orientalis in larger size, more robust bill and finer rictal streak; from M. montanus in yellow (not white) ear-patch and pale yellow (not white) rictal streak. Sexes alike in plumage, male on average larger than female. Juvenile undescribed. Race granti is larger than nominate, has greener upperparts, greyer forehead, more prominent mottling on underparts; bastille is similar in size to nominate but darker, and with more prominent mottling below.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Forest, mainly in foothills and lower montane slopes, c. 150 m to 1150 m, locally down to sea-level and as high as 1800 m. Nominate race recorded from sea-level to 900 m, mainly in hills; bastille at 400–1370 m; granti above 750 m, to 1800 m.

Resident at Crater Mt; probably sedentary throughout range, with some local movements.

Diet includes fruit, arthropods (mainly insects) and almost certainly nectar. Forages mainly in shrubby understorey and lower middle storey, also among inflorescences of canopy epiphyte Schefflera (Araliaceae) and Piper (Piperaceae); sometimes on ground. Difficult to observe but not shy; typically very active. Singly or in twos (probably pairs); seen to forage in large flowering tree with other honeyeaters and sunbirds (Nectariniidae).

Loud, short “tuck” or “chip” or “chup” note, similar to those of congeners; race granti (and possibly other races) utters repeated nasal piping, likened to call of Eurasian Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula).

Details from two nests in Crater Mt, in mid-Mar and late Apr. Nest a slightly oval open cup made of fine plant fibres, twigs and vines, thickly covered externally with live moss and fern, thickly lined with loose, shredded and fluffy plant down (partly covered eggs when adult off nest), external diameter 7·5–9 cm, depth 7·5 cm, internal diameter 4·5–5 cm, depth 4·5 cm, placed 1·7m and 2 m above ground in horizontal fork of branch of understorey tree. Each nest contained 2 eggs. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Generally fairly common to abundant, infrequently observed. One of the most abundant forest birds at Karimui, and the most common of the six closely similar species of this genus in the basin.