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Black-faced Monarch - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Neil
Sydney, Australia, November 2004
Monarcha melanopsis

Identification

  • Black face not extending to the eyes
  • Grey upperparts, wings and upper breast
  • Rufous belly
  • Dark eye with thin black eye ring, lighter area of pale grey around it
  • Bill is blue-grey with a hooked tip

Young birds are similar without the black face. Black bill and rather a brownish body and wings

Similar Species

Black-winged Monarch and Spectacled Monarch

Distribution

Juvenile
Photo by daKing
Gold Coast Queensland, Australia, March 2008

Eastern Australia (more common in north), migrating to New Guinea.

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species[1].

Habitat

Rainforests, eucalypt woodlands, scrub and damp gullies, in coastal areas

Behaviour

Diet

The diet includes insects.

Breeding

The female builds a deep cup nest using casuarina needles, bark, roots, moss and spider web, about 3-6 m above the ground in the fork of a tree. Both sexes incubate the eggs and feed the young.

References

  1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
  2. Birds in Backyards

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.

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