The Raja Ampat pitohui (''Pitohui cerviniventris''), or Waigeo pitohui, is a species of pitohui in the family Oriolidae found on the western Papuan Islands 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 ...

. Its natural

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 ...

is subtropical or tropical moist lowland

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s. It is also one of the few known poisonous birds.

Taxonomy and systematics

This species was split from the northern variable pitohui in 2013.

Subspecies

Two

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognized: * ''P. c. pallidus'' - van Oort, 1907: Found on Sagewin and

Batanta Batanta is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. Its area is 453 km² and its highest point is 1184 m. The Pitt Strait separates it from Salawati, while the Dampier Strait separate ...

Islands (western Papuan Islands) * ''P. c. cerviniventris'' - ( Gray, GR, 1862): Found on

Waigeo Waigeo is an island in Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi, or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat, or the ''Four Kings'', is an archipelago loc ...

and Gemien Islands (western Papuan Islands)

References

Pitohui Pitohui (genus) Birds described in 1862 Taxa named by George Robert Gray {{Pachycephalidae-stub