The Wattled Smoky Honeyeaters (Melipotes carolae) are Indonesian endemic and were discovered in December 2005. It was found in remote montane forests of the Foja Mountains range, Western New Guinea at an altitude of 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 an American ornithologist and Melanesia Conservation International vice-president Bruce Beehler.
The bird is named after the wife of Bruce Beehler, Carol Beehler.
Description
This honeyeater has a sooty-grey plumage and a 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.
Miscellaneous
Melipotes carolae is depicted in Indonesian stamps issued on November 6, 2006, along with the Golden-fronted Bowerbird, and two palm species native to Mamberamo, Licuala arbuscula and Livistona mamberamoensis.
