Black-faced Monarch.
Photo: K Vang and W Dabrowka © Bird Explorers
Black-faced Monarch at nest.
Photo: Purnell Collection © Australian Museum
Distribution map of Monarcha melanopsis
Map © Birds Australia Birdata
Black-faced Monarch
Scientific name: Monarcha melanopsis
Family: Dicruridae
Order: Passeriformes
- Featured Bird Groups
- Small insect-eating birds
What does it look like?
Description
The Black-faced Monarch has a distinctive black face that does not extend across the eyes, grey upperparts, wings and upper breast, contrasting with a rufous (red-orange) belly. The dark eye has a thin black eye ring and a lighter area of pale grey around it. The blue-grey bill has a hooked tip. Young birds are similar but lack the black face, have a black bill and tend to have a brownish body and wings. The Black-faced Monarch is one of the monarch flycatchers, a forest and woodland-dwelling group of small insect-eating birds, and is strictly arboreal (found in trees).
Similar species
The Black-faced Monarch resembles the Black-winged Monarch, M. frater, but this species is paler grey and has mostly black wings and and a black tail, and is restricted to far northern Queensland, being a summer breeding migrant from New Guinea. The Spectacled Monarch, M. trivirgatus, has a black face mask that extends across the eyes, has a white lower belly and has a black tail with white tips and undertail.
Where does it live?
Distribution
The Black-faced Monarch is found along the coast of eastern Australia, becoming less common further south.
Habitat
The Black-faced Monarch is found in rainforests, eucalypt woodlands, coastal scrub and damp gullies. It may be found in more open woodland when migrating.
Seasonal movements
Resident in the north of its range, but is a summer breeding migrant to coastal south-eastern Australia, arriving in September and returning northwards in March. It may also migrate to Papua New Guinea in autumn and winter.
What does it do?
Feeding
The Black-faced Monarch forages for insects among foliage, or catches flying insects on the wing.
Breeding
The Black-faced Monarch builds a deep cup nest of casuarina needles, bark, roots, moss and spider web in the fork of a tree, about 3 m to 6 m above the ground. Only the female builds the nest, but both sexes incubate the eggs and feed the young.
References
Boles, W.E. 1988. The Robins and Flycatchers of Australia. Angus and Robertson and The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife, Sydney.
Pizzey, G. and Knight, F. 1997. Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. Angus and Robertson, Sydney.
Simpson, K and Day, N. 1999. Field guide to the birds of Australia, 6th Edition. Penguin Books, Australia.