Black-faced Monarch
Monarcha melanopsis
A slim songbird with rather long tail and substantial bill. Gray above, rufous below, with gray head, black forehead and throat. Juvenile lacks black in face. In all plumages, small white crescent in front of eye. Often perches horizontally, slightly raising tail. Inhabits wetter forested areas along eastern coast of Australia, where it forages slowly for insects in foliage.
Identification
The black-faced monarch is grey, with rufous underparts and mature birds have a black patch on the face.
Taxonomy
The black-faced monarch was originally described as Muscicapa melanopsis by Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1818 from a specimen collected in New South Wales. The species is now placed in the genus Monarcha that was introduced by the naturalists Nicholas Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827. The specific name is from the Ancient Greek words melas "black" and ops "face". English naturalist William Swainson described it in 1823 as Muscipeta carinata, or "keel-billed flycatcher", unaware of Vieillot's earlier description. In his 1848 work The Birds of Australia, John Gould called it Monarcha carinata "Carinated flycatcher".<p>Australian amateur ornithologist Gregory Mathews described a paler specimen from Cape York as a distinct subspecies pallidus, though this was not recognised subsequently.<p>"Black-faced monarch" has been designated as the official common name for the species by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC). Alternate names include the "black-faced flycatcher", "carinated flycatcher", "grey-winged monarch" (particularly in New Guinea to distinguish from black-winged monarch), "grey-winged monarch flycatcher" and "pearly-winged monarch".<p>The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. Within the genus, it is most closely related to the black-winged monarch (Monarcha frater).
- Scientific name
- Monarcha melanopsis
- Authority
- (Vieillot, 1818)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Monarchidae
- Genus
- Monarcha
Range and habitat
The preferred habitat is rainforest and wet forest.
- Breeding range
- AU : ne QLD (s of Cape York Pen.) to se VIC (e Australia)
- Non-breeding range
- to sc, se New Guinea and satellites and Cape York Pen., ne QLD (ne Australia)
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Melaniparus niger
A large, active, noisy black tit with white shoulders, white edgings to the wing feathers, and a barred gray-and-white undertail. Pairs and small groups form the core of mixed-species feeding flocks in broadleaf woodland and thorn scrub. The species is often detected by its noisy buzzing and chirping vocalizations, including a sweet-and-scratchy “diddy-dzee-dzee-dzee-dzee-dzee.” The very similar Carp’s Tit is black under the tail; ranges only narrowly overlap.
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Small warblerlike tanager found in the Andes from extreme western Venezuela to Bolivia. Brownish above and tawny-orange below, with color concentrated on the breast. Note gray nape and crown, and black cheek. Some geographic variation: birds on west slope of Andes in Ecuador and Colombia are dullest with no black cheek, while birds in northwest Peru and southern Ecuador are brightest below with a bold white eyebrow. Usually uncommon; found in pairs in the understory or middle levels of montane forests and edges from around 1,400–2,500 m. Especially apt to be found in areas with chusquea bamboo. Listen for its sputtering chatter.
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