Included within this EBA are the Adelbert mountains and also the Finisterre, Saruwaged and Rawlinson ranges of the Huon peninsula in north-east Papua New Guinea. The EBA's lower limits have been defined by the 1,000 m contour although a few of the restricted-range birds may occur below this and might therefore overlap with the ranges of restricted-range species from the North Papuan lowlands (EBA 176).

Habitats include montane and subalpine forest, with alpine grassland above the treeline at c.3,000 m.

All of the EBA's restricted-range species occur in forest, apart from Anthus gutturalis which occurs at the highest altitudes in alpine grassland.

Locality data for this EBA are generally poor, especially in the Finisterre range, which is virtually unstudied. Of the ten species present in the Huon peninsula, two extend into the Adelbert mountains, and these two regions thus qualify as a single EBA. One species, Sericulus bakeri, is confined to the Adelbert, and thus has one of the most circumscribed distributions known for mainland Papua New Guinea. Five species occur more widely in other Papuan montane EBAs.

Birds not certainly identified but similar to the Obscure Berrypecker Melanocharis arfakiana (known only from the Arfak mountains, EBA 173, and the upper Angabunga river, EBA 178) have been recorded from the southern Huon peninsula (B. M. Whitney per P. Gregory in litt. 1994).

As elsewhere in New Guinea, this area is inhabited by a large number of tribal groups who depend on biological resources for sustenance. The optimum altitudes for settlement and subsistence agriculture coincide with the narrow altitudinal preferences of Sericulus bakeri and Parotia wahnesi, which are therefore considered threatened (see WWF/IUCN 1994-1995). Salvadori's Teal Salvadorina waigiuensis is a widespread threatened species (classified as Vulnerable) which is also recorded from the Huon mountains, on alpine lakes and fast-flowing streams. The region has been identified by Beehler (1993) as being important for terrestrial biodiversity.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Endemic Bird Area factsheet: Adelbert and Huon ranges. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/eba/factsheet/177 on 23/11/2024.