Slaty-headed Longbill

• It belongs to a family endemic to New Guinea with only a handful of species, whose place in the bird family tree remained uncertain until genetic analyses placed it close to the Australian pardalotes.
• Its curved bill lets it exploit tubular understorey flowers that the region's sunbirds and honeyeaters cannot reach, a little-contested niche.
• New Guinea, with less than one per cent of the world's land surface, holds close to five per cent of the world's bird species, and whole families like this one exist nowhere else.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Understorey and middle storey of montane rainforest in New Guinea

Sexual maturity

12 months

Gestation / incubation

15 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

2 eggs

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Toxorhamphus poliopterus