Black-tailed Monarch Symposiachrus verticalis Scientific name definitions

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Black-tailed Monarch (Black-tailed)

15–16 cm. A medium-sized pied monarch with mostly white face and black throat. Male  has forehead, lores to over eye, eyering and chin to throat black, crown black with band of white, or hindcrown all white and merging with white of ear-coverts; upperparts mostly black, except white lower back to uppertail-coverts, but sometimes has a pale grey area on upper mantle; upperwing and tail black, median and inner greater upperwing-coverts white; ear-coverts, sides of crown and neck and underparts white; iris dark brown; bill grey or lead-grey; legs dark grey or blackish. Female is similar to male but has back and rump greyish, and shows less white in plumage. Juvenile has forehead and face pale grey, darker on crown, upperparts brown or greyish brown, buffish rump and uppertail-coverts, tail blackish, chin and throat to neck-sides and breast warm buffish, and rest of underparts off-white or tinged with buff.

Black-tailed Monarch (Djaul)

16–17·5 cm. A medium-sized pied monarch with mostly white face and black throat. Adult has forehead, lores, eyering and chin to throat black, crown black with cross-band of white, latter merging with white of ear-coverts; upperparts black, except extensive white lower back to uppertail-coverts; upperwing and tail black, median and inner greater upperwing-coverts white, outer three tail feathers with extensive white at tips; ear-coverts, sides of crown and neck, and underparts white; iris dark brown; bill grey or lead-grey; legs dark grey or blackish. Sexes similar. Juvenile has orange-rusty forehead, chin and head-sides, brown or grey-brown upperparts, buffish rump and uppertail-coverts, blackish tail, with throat to breast warm buffish, and rest of underparts off-white or tinged with buff.

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Black-tailed Monarch (Black-tailed)

Black-tailed Monarch (Djaul)

Hitherto (apart from in detailed original description (1 Salomonsen, F. (1964). Some remarkable new birds from Dyaul Island, Bismarck Archipelago, with zoogeographical notes. Biol. Sk. Kong. Danske Vid. Selsk. 14(1): 1–37, pls. 1–2. Close ) ) treated as conspecific with S. verticalis, but differs in its larger size, best reflected perhaps in longer and proportionately more graduated tail (allow 2); broad white tips on the three outermost rectrices (3); white vs grey-mottled or grey lower back and rump (2); and significant differences in immature plumage, notably orange-rusty vs (brown-tinged) grey forehead, chin and head sides (2). Monotypic.

Black-tailed Monarch (Black-tailed)

Bismarck Archipelago (New Hanover, New Ireland, Umboi, New Britain, Duke of York Is).

Black-tailed Monarch (Djaul)

Djaul I, off NW New Ireland (Bismarck Archipelago).

Black-tailed Monarch (Black-tailed)

Black-tailed Monarch (Djaul)

Black-tailed Monarch (Black-tailed)

Black-tailed Monarch (Djaul)

Black-tailed Monarch (Black-tailed)

Black-tailed Monarch (Djaul)

Few data. Forages in lower and middle levels of forest; joins mixed-species foraging flocks. Behaviour unlikely to differ much from that of S. verticalis, but is also known to flutter and hover frequently when feeding, like birds of latter species on New Hanover.

Black-tailed Monarch (Black-tailed)

Black-tailed Monarch (Djaul)

Black-tailed Monarch (Black-tailed)

Season mainly Aug–Jan. Nest cup-shaped, constructed of plant fibres and lichens, bound with spider web, placed c. 1·5 m up in vertical fork of young sapling. Clutch two eggs, pale pinkish with small dark spots concentrated at larger end, size 21·4–24 mm × 15–17 mm; no information on incubation and fledging periods.

Black-tailed Monarch (Djaul)

Black-tailed Monarch (Black-tailed)

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Restricted-range species: present in New Britain and New Ireland EBA. Common or locally common to scarce. Unobtrusive and easily overlooked.

Black-tailed Monarch (Djaul)

VULNERABLE. Uncommon to locally fairly common. This poorly known species, inhabiting a single island, is presumed to have a small population that is likely to be undergoing a slow and ongoing decline owing to habitat loss and degradation. It has a range of just 190 km², within which it is thought to number 2500–7000 mature individuals. Although a reasonable percentage of the original forest remains on Djaul, a significant loss of this important habitat appears to have occurred over the last 10–15 years (a three-generation period for the species (2 Hansen, M. C., P. V. Potapov, R. Moore, M. Hancher, S. A. Turubanova, A. Tyukavina, D. Thau, S. V. Stehman, S. J. Goetz, T. R. Loveland, A. Kommareddy, A. Egorov, L. P. Chini, C. O. Justice, and J. R. G. Townshend (2013). High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change. Science 342(6160):850–853. Close ) ), resulting presumably in a slow but ongoing population decline.