Blue Monarch

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Blue Monarch
Blue Monarch, illustration by Richard Bowdler Sharpe from 1888

Blue Monarch, illustration by Richard Bowdler Sharpe from 1888

Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Corvoidea
Family : Monarchs (Monarchidae)
Genre : Eutrichomyias
Type : Blue Monarch
Scientific name of the  genus
Eutrichomyias
Titmouse , 1939
Scientific name of the  species
Eutrichomyias rowleyi
( Meyer , 1878)

The blue monarch ( Eutrichomyias rowleyi ), also known as the silver paradise flycatcher , is a songbird species from the monarch family (Monarchidae). He's on Sangihe Besar , Sangihe Islands , endemic . The type epithet honors the British ornithologist George Dawson Rowley (1822–1878).

features

The blue monarch reaches a body length of 18 cm. He has an incomplete white eye ring that is broken at the top and bulges in front of and behind the eye. There are many very long bristles at the base of the beak. The head is dark deep blue. The forehead is lighter blue with a slight darkening around the beak. The top is deep blue, but a little lighter than the top of the head. The middle tail feathers are blue. The shafts and the centers of the tail feathers are black. The outer tail feathers are black with a blue distal half of the outer tangs. The wing feathers are blackish gray. The outside flags have wide blue fringes, the inside flags have narrow white fringes. The large upper wing coverts have very dark gray centers with wide deep blue fringes. The middle and small wing covers are bright blue. The chin and throat are light gray. The chest and upper flanks are gray with a slight bluish tint. The lower flanks and the rump are light gray. The middle of the abdomen is white. The underbust and the upper belly are matted gray and white. The clear blue tint suggests a chest band. The iris is dark brown, the beak is black, the mouth is yellow, the legs are blue-gray, and the underside of the foot is gray. The sexes look the same. The young birds have a dark blue top. The head is washed out with a strong gray-brown. The partial eye ring is thinner and less noticeable than in the adult birds. The smoky gray underside is much darker than that of the adult birds and the blue component is missing on the chest.

Systematics

The blue monarch was described by Adolf Bernhard Meyer in 1878 as Zeocephus rowleyi . In 1879 it was classified by Richard Bowdler Sharpe in the genus Hypothymis , but this was considered dubious by Harry Church Oberholser in 1911 . In 1939 it was placed in the monotypical genus Eutrichomyias by Wilhelm Meise . The morphology, the vocalizations and the behavior suggested relationships to Hypothymis and Terpsiphones . Therefore, the proposal was made to synonymize the genus Eutrichomyias with the genus Terpsiphone . A study published in 2018 concluded that it is closely related to the drongo fan tail ( Chaetorhynchus papuensis ) from New Guinea and the silk fan tail ( Lamprolia victoriae ) from Taveuni , Fiji islands, both of which are traditionally assigned to the fan tail family (Rhipiduridae) were. Therefore, it was proposed to place these three species in the family Lamproliidae, which was created in 2014 by Richard Schodde and Leslie Christidis as a subfamily of Rhipiduridae and raised to the family in 2016. The family is currently (2018) not yet listed in its classification by the International Ornithological Union and the blue monarch will initially continue to be classified among the monarchs.

Reproductive behavior

Little is known about reproductive behavior. Observations of adult birds feeding their fledged young took place in early October and early December. Two nests discovered in undergrowth are most likely of this species. The cup-shaped nest is constructed from dried palm leaf fibers and grass fibers and attached to a branch fork with harder climbing plant fibers. One nest was 2 m and the other nest 2.5 m above the ground. The nesting bag is slightly oval. The widest nest diameter is 47 mm, the narrowest 39 mm. The nest depth is up to 40 mm. In size and shape it resembles the nest of the black- nosed flycatcher ( Hypothymis azurea ).

status

The IUCN classifies the blue monarch in the category " critically endangered " and estimates the population at 19 to 105 specimens. In 1873 the German naturalist Adolf Bernhard Meyer collected the type specimen , a male that is in the Museum für Tierkunde Dresden . In December 1978 ornithologist Murray D. Bruce observed a single specimen on Mount Awu in the north of Sangihe Besar. However, this observation was not published until 1986. In May and June 1985 the ornithologists Frank Rozendaal and Frank Lambert searched in vain for the blue monarch. In 1986 K. David Bishop visited the same area as Bruce did in 1978. He too could not rediscover the Blue Monarch. This led to the assumption that this species may already have become extinct.

In September 1995 ornithologist Julian OH Small stated that he had observed a specimen near Talawid Atas on the lower slopes of Mount Awu. In August 1996 Frank Lambert undertook an expedition to Mount Awu, which remained unsuccessful. Between August and December 1998, John Riley and James C. Wardell went to the caldera of the Gunung Sahendaruman volcano in the south of Sangihe Besar for a long-term study , during which two specimens of the blue monarch were rediscovered on October 2, 1998. By February 1999, a small population of blue monarchs was confirmed in five valleys, an area that still has 8 km² of forest. Six specimens were counted during the 2013 observations. A study in May and June 2014 in 15 valleys on Gunung Sahendaruman yielded an estimate of 34 to 105 specimens. Almost on the entire island of Sangihe, the original forest has been cleared and converted into agricultural land. There are now likely 45 to 60 hectares of suitable habitat left. Hunting small birds by people with air rifles is an additional threat. With the help of ecotourism an attempt is made to sensitize the population to the protection of the remaining forests.

literature

  • James A. Eaton, Bas van Balen, Nick W. Brickle, Frank E. Rheindt: Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago Greater Sundas and Wallacea. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2016, ISBN 978-84-941892-6-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Moeliker, K. & Sharpe, CJ (2017): Cerulean Paradise-flycatcher (Eutrichomyias rowleyi). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, DA & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Retrieved from HBW Alive on February 2, 2017.
  2. ^ AB Meyer: Description of two species of Birds from the Malay Archipelago Ornithological Miscellany 3, 1878: p. 163-164.
  3. ↑ Richard Bowdler Sharpe: Family Muscicapidae In: Catalog of Birds in the British Museum Volume 4, 1878. P. 278
  4. ^ Harry C. Oberholser: A monograph of the flycatcher genera Hypothymis and Cyanonympha. Proceedings of The United States National Museum Vol. 39, 1911: p. 590
  5. ^ Wilhelm Meise Eutrichomyias - novum genus Muscicapidarum. Ornithological Monthly Reports, 47: pp. 134-136.
  6. ↑ a b Knud Andreas Jønsson, Mozes PK Blom, Martin Päckert, Per GP Ericson, Martin Irestedt: Relicts of the lost arc: High-throughput sequencing of the Eutrichomyias rowleyi (Aves: Passeriformes) holotype uncovers an ancient biogeographic link between the Philippines and Fiji , Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 120, 2018, pp. 28-32 doi: 10.1016 / j.ympev.2017.11.021
  7. ↑ Leslie Christidis, Richard Schodde: Relicts from Tertiary Australasia: undescribed families and subfamilies of songbirds (Passeriformes) and their zoogeographic signal. Zootaxa 3786 (5), 2014: p. 501-522.
  8. ↑ Knud Andreas Jønsson, Pierre-Henri Fabre, Jonathan D. Kennedy, Ben G. Holt, Michael K. Borregaard, Carsten Rahbek, Jon Fjeldså: A supermatrix phylogeny of corvoid passerine birds (Aves: Corvides). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 94, 2016, pp. 87-94.
  9. ^ Siegfried Eck, Christiane Quaisser: Directory of the types of the bird collection of the Museum für Tierkunde in the State Natural History Collections Dresden Zoologische Abhandlungen (Dresden) 54, 2004: S 233-316
  10. ↑ a b c Riley, J., and JC Wardill. 2001. The rediscovery of Cerulean Paradise flycatcher Eutrichomyias rowleyi on Sangihe, Indonesia. Forktail 17: pp. 45-55.
  11. ↑ CWM White, MD Bruce: The birds of Wallacea. Checklist No. 7, British Ornithologists' Union, Zoological Society of London, 1986.
  12. ^ T. Whitton, SD Nash, and KD Bishop: One or more extinctions from Sulawesi? Conservation Biology 1, 1987: pp. 42-48.
  13. ↑ Bashari, Hanom, Fauzan, Panji Ahmad and Lionata, Hilda. (2016). The current status of the critically endangered Caerulean Paradise-flycatcher Eutrichomyias rowleyi on Sangihe, North Sulawesi. Kukila 19: 21-29.