The lower wings and back are varying shades of brown, and the throat and chest are largely white.

Any surviving population would be very small, likely numbering fewer than 50 individuals, and would be threatened by habitat destruction and uncontrolled hunting.

The Sulu bleeding-heart was originally described in 1894 as Phlogoenas menagei by Frank Swift Bourns and Dean Conant Worcester.

[3] The specific name, menagei, honors Louis F. Menage, a Minnesota real estate tycoon who funded the expedition.

[1] Bright metallic green feathers stretch from the forehead and crown down to the mantle and sides of the breast.

[6] The scapular feathers are a dark chestnut color and are fringed with iridescence that can appear violet, green, or lilac in different lights.

[6] The back down to the upper portion of the tail is a ruddy-brown narrowly fringed with metallic green or violet.

The area around the bird's eyes is black with a faint hint of glossy green, and the chin, throat, and breast are pure white.

The bleeding-heart is believed to be extirpated on the Tawi-Tawi mainland, but there are indigenous reports of the species on the nearby islets of Tandubatu, Dundangan, and Baliungan.

There is also an unconfirmed nineteenth-century sight record of the species from the island of Jolo in the center of the Sulu Archipelago.

[6] The specimens, collected in October 1891 on the small islet of Tataan, are the last time anyone has definitely seen the Sulu bleeding-heart alive.

[2] However, an ethnobiological survey in 1995 generated reports that the bleeding-heart survives and is regularly seen on the nearby islets of Tandubatu, Dundangan, and Baliungan.

[1] Any surviving population of Sulu bleeding-hearts is likely to be small, possibly numbering fewer than 50 birds, and would be threatened by continued habitat destruction and uncontrolled hunting.