The lesser melampitta (''Melampitta lugubris'') is a medium-sized enigmatic

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 500 ...

of mountain forests of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. It is the only species in the genus ''Melampitta''. It is now classified (with the

greater melampitta The greater melampitta (''Megalampitta gigantea'') is a species of bird in the family Melampittidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Megalampitta'', although it was once placed in the genus ''Melampitta'' with the lesser melampitta. Former ...

) in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Melampittidae, but in some other sources it is variously considered close to or in the

Orthonychidae The logrunners (''Orthonyx'') are a clade of birds which comprises three species of passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Some authorities consider the Australian family Cinclosomatidae to be part of the Orthonychidae. The three ...

(logrunners),

Paradisaeidae The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. The family has 44 species in 17 genera. The members of this ...

(birds of paradise),

Corcoracidae Corcoracidae is a family of passerine birds known as the Australian mudnesters. The family has sometimes been called Struthideidae in the past; however, despite Struthideidae being an older name than Corcoracidae, the latter name takes precedence ...

(Australian mud-nesters),

Cnemophilidae The satinbirds or cnemophilines, are a family, Cnemophilidae of passerine birds which consists of four species found in the mountain forests of New Guinea. They were originally thought to be part of the birds-of-paradise family Paradisaeidae unti ...

(satinbirds) or

Monarchidae The monarchs (family Monarchidae) comprise a family of over 100 passerine birds which includes shrikebills, paradise flycatchers, and magpie-larks. Monarchids are small insectivorous songbirds with long tails. They inhabit forest or woodland a ...

(monarch flycatchers). A local name, used by the

Ketengban Ketengban, also known as ''Kupel'', is a Papuan language of West Papua, near the Papua New Guinea border. Dialects are Okbab (Okbap), Bime, Onya (Eastern Una; cf. Una Una and UNA may refer to: Places * 160 Una, the asteroid "Una", an asteroi ...

people of the

Jayawijaya Mountains The Jayawijaya Mountains, formerly known as the Orange Range, are the eastern mountain range of the Maoke Mountains in the central highlands region of the Indonesian part of New Guinea. The range extends for east of the Sudirman Range to the Star M ...

, is ''golík''. It is approximately 18 cm long and has an all-black plumage with long legs and short tail. Both sexes are almost similar, distinguished by the color of the

iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

. The male has

crimson Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, ''Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red colo ...

red

while the female's are dark brown. The lesser melampitta builds

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

-like nest in the forests. The diet consists mainly of

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

. Widespread and a common species throughout its

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

range, the lesser melampitta is evaluated as least concern on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

of Threatened Species.BLI (2004)

Footnotes

References

* Diamond, Jared & Bishop, K. David (1999): Ethno-ornithology of the Ketengban People, Indonesian New Guinea. ''In:'' Medin, Douglas L. & Atran, Scott: ''Folkbiology'': 17–46. MIT Press. * Jønsson, Knud A. & Fjeldså, Jon (2006): A phylogenetic supertree of oscine passerine birds (Aves: Passeri). '' Zool. Scripta'' 35(2): 149–186. (HTML abstract)

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q2225301, from2=Q2706005

lesser melampitta The lesser melampitta (''Melampitta lugubris'') is a medium-sized enigmatic terrestrial songbird of mountain forests of New Guinea. It is the only species in the genus ''Melampitta''. It is now classified (with the greater melampitta) in the fami ...

Birds of New Guinea