Mount Diatuto is a mountain in

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...

, a country occupying the eastern end of the island of

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

in the

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up t ...

Wallacea Wallacea is a biogeographical designation for a group of mainly Indonesian islands separated by deep-water straits from the Asian and Australian continental shelves. Wallacea includes Sulawesi, the largest island in the group, as well as Lo ...

Description

Mount Diatuto, at an elevation of 1770 m, is the highest point in an area of steep hills and ridges on the central spine of the island in the

Manatuto District Manatuto (, ) is one of the municipalities (formerly districts) of East Timor, located in the central part of the country. It has a population of 45,541 (Census 2010) and an area of 1,783.3 km². The capital of the municipality is also n ...

, about 42 km south-east of the national capital,

Dili Dili (Portuguese/Tetum: ''Díli'') is the capital, largest city of East Timor and the second largest city in Timor islands after Kupang (Indonesia). It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in ...

. The mountain is covered by, and surrounded with, a 345 km² forested area on ultrabasic rocks, formerly known in

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

as ''Hutan Querelau Lauberio''. It is characterised by a somewhat stunted vegetation of what was originally semi-

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

monsoon forest Seasonal tropical forest, also known as moist deciduous, semi-evergreen seasonal, tropical mixed or monsoon forests, typically contain a range of tree species: only some of which drop some or all of their leaves during the dry season. This tropic ...

, now degraded and mainly confined to the higher ridges, with

eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', '' Corymbia'', '' Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

subject to

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

elsewhere.

Birds

The site has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because it supports populations of

bar-necked cuckoo-dove The bar-necked cuckoo-dove, also called the dusky cuckoo-dove was split into the following species in 2016. The name "bar-necked cuckoo-dove" remains valid when used to describe the ''Macropygia magna'' species complex as all of its members have bar ...

s, Timor green pigeons,

pink-headed imperial pigeon The pink-headed imperial pigeon (''Ducula rosacea'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae found in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical ma ...

yellow-crested cockatoo The yellow-crested cockatoo (''Cacatua sulphurea'') also known as the lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo, is a medium-sized (about 34-cm-long) cockatoo with white plumage, bluish-white bare orbital skin, grey feet, a black bill, and a retractile y ...

olive-headed lorikeet The olive-headed lorikeet (''Trichoglossus euteles''), also called the perfect lorikeet, is a species of parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It is found in forest, woodland and cultivated areas on Timor and smaller nearby islands. Description T ...

Jonquil parrot The jonquil parrot or olive-shouldered parrot (''Aprosmictus jonquillaceus'') is a species of parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It is found in forest, woodland and acacia savanna on the islands of Roti, Timor and Wetar. It is fairly common, but ...

Timor friarbird The Timor friarbird or plain friarbird (''Philemon inornatus'') is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is found on Timor island. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forest A forest is an area of land dominated b ...

flame-eared honeyeater The flame-eared honeyeater (''Lichmera flavicans''), also known as the yellow-eared honeyeater, is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is found on Timor island. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest ...

plain gerygone The plain gerygone (''Gerygone inornata'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is found on the islands of Wetar and Timor. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical mangro ...

olive-brown oriole Olive-brown oriole has been split into the following species: * Timor oriole, ''Oriolus melanotis'' * Wetar oriole, ''Oriolus finschi'' Birds by common name {{Short pages monitor