The bearded honeyeaters of the New Guinea highlands are in two widely separated lineages (Beehler and Pratt 2016, Marki et al. 2017, Andersen et al. 2019, Hay et al. 2022) and are hence only convergently similar. Thus, both English and scientific names of Sooty Melidectes Melidectes fuscus including its subspecies Melidectes fuscus occidentalis and Melidectes fuscus fuscus; Short-bearded Melidectes Melidectes nouhuysi; and Long-bearded Melidectes Melidectes princeps change to Sooty Honeyeater Melionyx fuscus; Short-bearded Honeyeater Melionyx nouhuysi; and Long-bearded Honeyeater Melionyx princeps.