Habitat

Across its range, the species occupies alpine and subalpine grasslands, and heather-dominated meadows with scattered bushes and scrub above the treeline, as well as montane forest. On Sumatra, van Marle and Voous (27 van Marle, J. G., and K. H. Voous (1988). The Birds of Sumatra. An Annotated Check-list. B.O.U. Check-list 10. British Ornithologists’ Union, Tring, UK. Close ) described it as inhabiting “upper montane scrub, including alpine ericaceous meadows”, at 2,100–3,500 m, whilst on Java the species is more frequently recorded in montane forest and forest edge, as low as 1,300 m in West Java (16 Eaton, J. A., B. van Balen, N. W. Brickle, and F. E. Rheindt (2016). Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago: Greater Sundas and Wallacea. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ). On Sulawesi, subspecies renatae is found in grassland with scattered shrubs above the treeline, at 2,000 m (3 Schuchmann, K.-L., and H. E. Wolters (1982). A new subspecies of Serinus estherae (Carduelidae) from Sulawesi. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 102(1):12–14. Close ), whilst the undescribed taxon in Lore Lindu National Park occurs in Agathis-dominated montane forest with adjacent shrubs and scrub (but not in dense forest), at 1,600–2,300 m (22 Watling, D. (1983). Ornithological notes from Sulawesi. Emu 83(4):247–261. Close , 9 White, C. M. N., and M. D. Bruce (1986). The Birds of Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia). An Annotated Check-list. British Ornithologists’ Union Check-list 7. British Ornithologists’ Union, London, UK. Close , 2 Ottaviani, M. (2018). Is the subspecies of Mountain Serin Chrysocorythus estherae from Lore Lindu National Park, northern Central Sulawesi province, Indonesia, an undescribed taxon? BirdingASIA 30:54–59. Close ).