Orange-cheeked Honeyeater Oreornis chrysogenys Scientific name definitions

24–26 cm; one male 77 g, one female 62 g. Has head and neck dark olive to olive-grey with dark brown to blackish mottling on top, black fore supercilium and lores enclosing small patch of silvery grey in front of eye, short narrow black streak behind eye, conspicuous golden-yellow to orange-yellow cheek patch extending from beneath eye to rear ear-coverts, finely edged below by diffuse blackish malar area and fine blackish line beneath and behind rear of patch (partly divided by notch of black extending down from eyestripe); silvery grey chin washed olive; upperparts dark olive to olive-grey, paler and greyer on rump and paler olive on uppertail-coverts, diffuse dusky mottling on mantle and back; greater upperwing-coverts dusky, dark yellow-olive outer edges and tips of outer coverts, remiges blackish-brown with conspicuous yellow-olive outer edges (forming largely olive lower wing, contrastingly paler than upperparts); uppertail brownish-olive with dark olive centre, yellow-olive outer edges of rectrices; underbody greyish-olive, paler than upperparts, grading to pale olive-grey on flanks, belly and vent, faintly mottled or streaked slightly darker on throat, breast and fore flanks; undertail-coverts buff with olive wash, thighs yellowish-olive, undertail olive-grey; underwing pale buff, chestnut-orange patch at angle of wing and dark trailing edge and tip; iris red-brown to dark brown or grey-brown; bill black, fine and indistinct yellow gape-line; legs yellow. Sexes alike in plumage, male larger than female. Juvenile not formally described.

Upper slopes of Snow Mts and Oranje Mts (including Mt Carstensz and Mt Wilhelmina), in W New Guinea.

Subalpine forest and shrubland bordering alpine grassland, and commonly in ecotone between these, also patches of these habitats within grassland. In Mt Carstensz Range, one seen on ground in wet swamp-meadow dominated by tussock grasses and sedge at edge of subalpine forest of Dacrycarpus compactus, Rapanea and other low moss-covered trees. Recorded at 3225–4000m, mainly above 3250 m; occasionally as low as 2450 m.

Probably sedentary.

Takes fruit, arthropods (insects), and seeds of sedges. Often forages in low shrubland or thickets away from closed forest, and on ground in wet tussock grassland-sedgeland.

Calls include single bubbling note that rises in pitch, and wheezy downslurred “nnyau”.

Poorly known. Male in breeding condition and nest with egg in Aug. Single nest found, a basin-like cup, loosely made outer layer mainly of coarse moss and lichens, firm inner layer mainly of grass stems and some fern stems, thick lining of scales and plant down from fronds of tree-ferns and a few feathers, external diameter 20 cm, depth 11 cm, internal diameter 9·5 cm, depth 5 cm, supported on bases of several fronds of tree-fern 1·5 m above ground in scattered clump in alpine grassland (c. 150m from forest); contained 1 egg (not certainly known to be complete clutch). Recorded feeding chicks in Oct . No other information.

Not globally threatened. Restrictedrange species: present in Central Papuan Mountains EBA. Very poorly known, and no estimates of global population. Described as fairly common at high altitudes.