Monarch flycatcher

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Monarchidae
Mascarene paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone bourbonnensis)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Superfamily: Corvoidea
Family: Monarchidae
Bonaparte, 1854
Subfamilies
  • Terpsiphoninae
  • Monarchinae
Synonyms[1]
  • Grallinidae Mayr, 1950

The monarchs (family Monarchidae) comprise a family of over 100 passerine birds which includes shrikebills, paradise flycatchers, and magpie-larks.

Monarchids are small insectivorous songbirds with long tails. They inhabit forest or woodland across sub-Saharan Africa, south-east Asia, Australasia, and a number of Pacific islands. Only a few species migrate. Many species decorate their cup-shaped nests with lichen.[2]

Taxonomy and systematics

Some of the one hundred or more

Corcoracidae
.

With the new insights generated by the

Dicruridae, along with the fantails,[5] although it is now treated at familial rank as Monarchidae.[6]

More recently, the grouping has been refined somewhat as the original concept of Corvida has proven paraphyletic. The narrower 'Core corvine' group now comprises the crows and ravens, shrikes, birds of paradise, fantails, monarchs, drongos, and mud nest builders.[7]

The monarchs are small to medium-sized insectivorous passerines, many of which hunt by flycatching.

Taxonomic list

The monarch family has fifteen genera as follows:[8]

FAMILY MONARCHIDAE

Description

The monarchs are a diverse family of

Terpsiphone. Sexual dimorphism in plumage can be subtle, as in the paperbark flycatcher, where the female is identical to the male except for a slight buff on the throat; strikingly, in the Chuuk monarch, where the male is almost entirely white and the female entirely black; or non-existent, as in the Tahiti monarch. In some species, for example, the Malagasy paradise flycatcher, the males have two or more colour morphs.[10]

Distribution and habitat

The satin flycatcher is fully migratory, breeding in southern Australia and migrating to northern Australia and New Guinea.

The monarchs have a mostly Old World distribution. In the western end of their range, they are distributed through sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, and the islands of the tropical Indian Ocean. They also occur in South and Southeastern Asia, north to Japan, down to New Guinea, and most of Australia. The family has managed to reach many Pacific islands, and several endemic genera occur across Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia as far as Hawaii and the Marquesas.

The paradise flycatchers of the genus

Clytorhynchus) and the Mayrornis monarchs, both of which are found in Melanesia and west Polynesia, and the Pomarea
monarchs, which are exclusively Polynesian in origin.

The majority of the family is found in forests and woodland habitats. Species that live in more open woodlands tend to live in the higher levels of the trees but, in denser forest, live in the middle and lower levels. Other habitats used by the monarchs include savannahs and mangroves, and the terrestrial magpie-lark occurs in most Australian habitats except the driest deserts.

While the majority of monarchs are resident, a few species are partially

Japanese paradise flycatcher is almost entirely migratory. The African paradise flycatcher
makes a series of poorly understood intra-African migratory movements.

Breeding

Female pale-blue monarch on a nest constructed on a fork in a tree.

The monarchs are generally

Elepaio). Only three species are known to engage in cooperative breeding, but many species are as yet unstudied. They are generally territorial, defending territories that are around 2 ha in size, but a few species may cluster their nesting sites closely together. Nesting sites may also be chosen close to aggressive species. For example, leaden flycatchers' nests may be located near the nests of the aggressive noisy friarbird.[11]
The nests are in turn often aggressively defended by monarch species. In all species, the nest is an open cup on a branch, fork, or twig. In some species, the nests can be highly conspicuous.

References

  1. ^ "Monarchidae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  2. ISBN 1-85391-186-0
    .
  3. ^ Roberson, Don (9 March 2012). "Monarchs". creagrus.home.montereybay.com. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  4. Ahlquist, Jon Edward
    (1990): Phylogeny and classification of birds. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.
  5. ^ Christidis, L.; Boles, W. E. (1994). The Taxonomy and Species of Birds of Australia and its Territories. Melbourne: RAOU.
  6. ISBN 978-0-643-06511-6
    .
  7. ISBN 0-19-517234-5
    .
  8. doi:10.14344/IOC.ML.11.2
    . Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  9. ^ Duston, Guy (2006). "The Pacific shrikebills (Clytorhynchus) and the case for species status for the form sanctaecrucis" (PDF). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 126 (4): 299–308. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-01-05.
  10. doi:10.1034/j.1600-048X.2002.02888.x
    .
  11. doi:10.1071/MU9830119
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monarchidae.
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