The common smoky honeyeater (Melipotes fumigatus) is a medium-sized bird found in central

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

and Eastern

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It is one of four species in the

Meliphagidae The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family (biology), family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Epthianura, Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, Manorina, miners and melidectes. They are m ...

family. The common smoky honeyeater can be identified by its charcoal-colored body and blotchy neon orange circle around its eyes. This bird breeds in September and October, which are considered dry seasons. Its diet consists of small fruits, insects, and floral plants. This bird breeds in September and early October above ground or next to a tree branch.

Description

The common smoky honeyeater has a bright orange splotch around both eyes. The bird's upper wing has brown tips, olive-colored edges, and a lighter shade of brown on the base of its wings. This bird has a brown and black base. The common smoky honeyeater has a brown belly with white crescent-shaped scaling and gray and brown legs. The best way to differentiate between males and females is to look at their size because male common smoky honeyeaters tend to be bigger than females.

Habitat

Its habitat is in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, specifically in Eastern

and Central

. It soars at altitudes around 1,400 to 3,400 meters. However, the females and males tend to live at different altitude levels. The females live much higher in the mountains, at around 2,160 to 2,490 meters. The males typically live anywhere between 1,830 and 2,160 meters. During the common smoky honeyeater's migration season, they descend to the mountains of Papua New Guinea, anywhere from 750 to 1,200 meters in altitude.

Vocalization

The common smoky honeyeater makes a "sit-sit-sit" or a faint "swift-swift-swift" sound. When it is near the young, it makes a "wheat-wheat-wheat" to alarm other common smoky honeyeaters.

Diet and foraging

The common smoky honeyeater primarily eats raw

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

and fruit-like

produce In American English, produce generally refers to wikt:fresh, fresh List of culinary fruits, fruits and Vegetable, vegetables intended to be Eating, eaten by humans, although other food products such as Dairy product, dairy products or Nut (foo ...

, but they have been observed eating various

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s and

floral Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants (Flowering plant, angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls in ...

parts. Despite its name,

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

is not a part of its diet because the common smoky honeyeater only eats fruit, insects, and floral plants. This bird consumes fruits that are typically 2 to 8 millimeters in diameter. Common smoky honeyeaters peck at flowers that attract insects as a method to find food. This bird strikes on insects by rushing at insects with its nose down. The common smoky honeyeater is also known for driving other

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

away from its feeding sites. It does this by chasing away other birds, such as the Superb Bird-of-Paradise.

Breeding

The common smoky honeyeater breeds above ground or near the end of a branch off a small tree. Their

breeding season Seasonal breeders are animal species that successfully mate only during certain times of the year. These times of year allow for the optimization of survival of young due to factors such as ambient temperature, food and water availability, and ch ...

aligns with New Guinea's

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...

, which is in

September September is the ninth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 30 days. September in the Northern Hemisphere and March in the Southern Hemisphere are seasonally equivalent. In the Northern hemisphere, the b ...

and early

October October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôctō'' meaning "eight") after Januar ...

. Its nest consists mainly of

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

and other plant material. One nest was observed to be 14 centimeters wide and 14 centimeters deep. Typically, their nests are 4.5 to 12 meters above ground.

References