Tanahjampea Monarch
Symposiachrus everetti
A striking black-and-white flycatcher-like songbird confined to Tanahjampea Island. Black above, with a black hood and upper chest and a crisp white lower breast, belly, rump, and tips to outer tail feathers. Black areas are brown in juvenile, which has a buff belly and rump. Cocks tail regularly. Found singly or in pairs in forest, mangrove, and scrub in lowlands and foothills. Often joins mixed-species flocks. Unique within its tiny range. Song is a mournful, repeated whistle, “weeoo-weeoo...”. Also gives a rasping, agitated “grrr” and metallic, grating “weer” calls.
Taxonomy
This species was originally described in the genus Monarcha until moved to Symposiachrus in 2009. Alternate names include Djampea monarch and Everett's monarch. Some authorities have considered the Tanahjampea monarch to be a subspecies of the Kai monarch.
- Scientific name
- Symposiachrus everetti
- Authority
- (Hartert, EJO, 1896)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Monarchidae
- Genus
- Symposiachrus
Range and habitat
It is endemic to Indonesia's Tanah Jampea, the second largest of the Selayar Islands group in the Flores Sea. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical mangrove forest and subtropical or tropical moist shrubland. It is threatened by habitat loss.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Other Birds
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Small warbler-like bird with a gray head, yellowish-green body, and varying amounts of white around the eye; lacks the well-defined white “spectacles” of typical white-eyes. Birds in the montane regions of far western and far eastern Java have a dark patch between the eye and the base of the bill, and minimal white on the face (a full thin eyering in eastern birds, and a white crescent under the eye in western birds), while birds in central Java have a large but poorly-defined white patch around the eye. Forages actively in wooded and forested areas from foothills to mountaintops, often in pairs or groups. Joins mixed-species flocks. Song is a bright series of whistled notes; calls include rattling, high-pitched “tchrr”s and sharply falling whistles.
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Patagonian Tinamou
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Large, cryptically patterned chickenlike bird of Patagonian grasslands with bushes and low shrubs. Scarce and rarely encountered. Like related tinamous of open habitats, most often in trios or family groups (males take care of the young). Runs strongly in preference to flying (in flight note bright rusty wings). Striped head (without a crest) and spotted upperparts are diagnostic plumage features; only other tinamou in its range is the rather different Elegant Crested-Tinamou. Loud haunting whistles carry well, but the sound is easily whipped away in the wind.
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