The masked flying fox lives on islands in the North Moluccas. A 2016 study described the Gag Island population as a separate subspecies.
In the subspecies from the Halmahera group, the back has silvery-white to creamy hair tips, and the mantle around the neck is golden buff.
For the Gag Island subspecies, the paper reports four records: one specimen from a coconut plantation and three from valley forest.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.