Short-crested Monarch - BirdForum Opus

Male ssp agusanae
Photo by James Eaton
Mindanao, Philippines

Hypothymis helenae

Identification

c. 14 cm.

Male

• Long crest
• Large cobalt-blue eye wattle
• Black face mask, edged bright cobalt-blue
• Bright azure rest of head, upperparts, throat and breast
• Black wing feathers with dark azure-blue edge
• Black tail with blue edges
• White belly and undertail-coverts

Female

• Dull cobalt-blue forehead, eyebrow and lower chin
• Whitish upper chin
• Greyish-blue upperparts
• Blue-grey throat and breast
• White belly and undertail-coverts

Immatures like females, agusanae is paler and brighter blue than nominate.

Distribution

Philippines.
A rare restricted-range species. Obviously declining, very few records from Luzon and Mindanao, suffers from extensive habitat loss.

Taxonomy

Three subspecies recognized:

• H. h. personata in the northern Philippines (Camiguin Norte)
• H. h. helenae in the northern Philippines (Luzon, Samar and Polillo)
• H. h. agusanae in the southern Philippines (Mindanao, Dinagat and Siargao)

Habitat

Moist lowland forests, usually in understorey.
Occurs below 1000 m.

Behaviour

Diet

Feeds probably on insects.
Forages singly or in pairs, usually close to mixed feeding flocks.

Breeding

Poorly known. Birds with enlarged gonads found in April and May, two nests cup-shaped and made of fine roots woven together with cobwebs, one nest contained two eggs.

Movements

This is a resident species.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2015. IOC World Bird Names (version 5.2). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved July 2015)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Short-crested Monarch. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 13 January 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Short-crested_Monarch

External Links

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