Black-naped Monarch
Hypothymis azurea
Beautiful azure-blue male exhibits a black nape patch and a thin black gorget. Female lacks the black nape patch and gorget markings, with gray-brown wings and bright blue only on the head. Both male and female show black feathers on top of the bill and grayish-white underparts. Inhabits both dry and wet forested areas from sea level up into foothills. Like flycatchers, hawks in mid-air to catch its prey. Often joins mixed flocks. Song is a bland, unremarkable “wi-wi-wi-wi-wi-wi-wi.” Calls include harsh nasal “wheh” and an explosive “whi-cheh!”
识别特征
The adult male black-naped monarch is about 16 cm long, and is mainly pale azure blue apart from a whitish lower belly. It has a black nape and a narrow black gorget. The female is duller and lacks the black markings. Its wings and back are grey-brown. However, several geographically separated breeding populations differ in the extent and shade of markings. The Indian peninsula has subspecies H. a. styani (which subsumes H. a. sykesi of Stuart Baker), in which males have very distinct black markings and a whitish abdomen. Males of the Sri Lankan race H. a. ceylonensis lack the black nape and gorget and the shade is more purplish. The subspecies of the Andaman Islands, H. a. tytleri, has the underparts blue grey. The form on Car Nicobar Island, H. a. idiochroa, has a greyish white belly, while H. a. nicobarica from the southern Nicobars has a smaller and finer bill. The colour of the gape is yellowish to green.
分类信息
The black-naped monarch was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Muscicapa azurea in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. Buffon specified that his specimen had been collected in the Philippines, but in 1939 the American ornithologist James L. Peters restricted the type locality to Manila on the island of Luzon. The black-naped monarch is now placed in the genus Hypothymis was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826 with the black-naped monarch as the type species. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek hupothumis, the name of an unidentified bird mentioned by the playwright Aristophanes. The specific epithet azurea is from the Medieval Latin azureus meaning "azure-coloured" or "azure-blue".<p>Alternate names for the black-naped monarch include black-naped blue monarch and black-naped monarch flycatcher. Some authorities separate two former subspecies, H. a. blasii (Banggai Island) and H. a. puella (Sulawesi), and place them as subspecies of the pale-blue monarch (Hypothymis puella).<p>Twenty-three subspecies are recognized:
- 学名
- Hypothymis azurea
- 命名信息
- (Boddaert, 1783)
- 目
- Passeriformes
- 科
- Monarchidae
- 属
- Hypothymis
分布与栖息地
The black-naped monarch breeds across tropical southern Asia from Iran and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia and the Philippines. This species is usually found in thick forests and other well-wooded habitats.<p>The calls are a sharp and abrupt skrip.The main breeding season in India is in summer from May to July. Two to three eggs are laid in a cup nest placed in the fork of a tree. The nest is decorated with spider-egg cases.
- 迁徙
- Complete migrants
行为
The black-naped monarch has short legs and sits very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike. It is insectivorous, often hunting by flycatching. When alarmed or alert, the nape feathers are raised into a pointed crest. They join mixed-species foraging flocks, being among the most significant members of such flocks in the Western Ghats, and are active in the understory of forest canopies. A study in Sri Lanka showed that they are affected by human disturbance causing them to recede from disturbed edges by about 75 m.<p>Although they are largely residents, local seasonal movements are known. The breeding season in India is March to August and the nest is a neat cup placed in a fork. The cup is lined with filaments of webbing and fungi including those of the genus Marasmius which are known to produce antibiotics and may benefit the birds by protecting the young from infection. The nest is built by the female while the male guards. The typical clutch is three eggs, which both parents incubate and both feed the young, which hatch after about 12 days.<p>The webs of large spiders such as Nephila maculata have been known to trap the bird. An astrovirus was detected in a black-naped monarch in Cambodia, a virus that was earlier unknown from passerines. The feather mite Proterothrix hypothymis (Pterodectinae: Protophyllodidae) has been described from black-naped monarchs in Vietnam.
保护状况
- 种群趋势
- stable
照片
分布
鸟叫声
其他鸟类
Miombo Rock-Thrush
Monticola angolensis
Attractive rock-thrush in which males and females are strikingly different. Males have a gray head and back and rufous underparts, while females have a brown, heavily scalloped head and back and mostly white underparts. Found very locally in miombo broadleaf woodland. The song consists of musical, vibrating whistles. Similar to migratory Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush, but male lacks white back and female has little or no scalloping below.
Noisy Pitta
Pitta versicolor
A distinctive bird with a chestnut crown. This species has green and black wings, dull yellow underparts, a black facial stripe, a bright blue shoulder patch, and a red patch under the tail. A very colorful species, it can although be inconspicuous while it hops around foraging on forest floors. Primarily found in rainforest, this species undertakes seasonal movements and can be found very close to the coast (including in mangroves) during winter. It is usually heard before it is seen: its call, a loud, well-known “walk to work”, is a typical sound of rainforests within its range. Sometimes calls from high in the canopy.
Striated Yuhina
Staphida castaniceps
Typical yuhina: a small crested bird, usually encountered foraging in the upper and middle levels of broadleaf forests in large flocks. Brown above and white below, with a brown patch behind the ear. Crest is brown in north Indian subspecies and gray in all others. Gray-headed birds are all but identical in appearance to Indochinese Yuhina, which barely overlaps in range. A frequent member of mixed-species foraging flocks. Chatters, twitters, and whistles incessantly while foraging, especailly when moving between trees.
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