Monarchidae – Monarchs, Paradise Flycatchers & Allies

The Monarchidae (Monarchs, Flycatchers, Shrikebills, Maglpie-Larks & Allies) comprise a family of over 100 passerines.

They are small insectivorous birds, many with long tails. They feed on a wide range of arthropods including flying insects. Many are very adept at pursuing aerial prey. They inhabit forest or woodland across sub-Saharan Africa, south-east Asia, Australasia and Oceania. Only a few species migrate.

The monarchs are a diverse family of passerine birds that are generally arboreal (with the exception of the magpie-larks). They are mostly slim birds and possess broad bills. The bills of some species are quite large and the heavy-set bills of the shrikebills are used to probe dead wood and leaves.

The plumage of the family ranges from sombre, such as the almost monochrome Black Monarch, to spectacular, as displayed by the Golden Monarch. The tails are generally long and spectacularly so in the paradise flycatchers in the genus Terpsiphone.

Chestnut-bellied Monarch Monarcha castaneiventris	Vanikoro Flycatcher Myiagra vanikorensis
Melanesian Flycatcher Myiagra caledonica	Shining Flycatcher Myiagra alecto
The four photos above courtesy of ©Nick Ludovic Green Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

Sexual dimorphism in plumage can be subtle, as in the Paperbark Flycatcher, where the female is identical to the male except for a slight buff on the throat; striking, as in the Chuuk Monarch where the male almost entirely white and the female entirely black; or non-existent, as in the Tahiti Monarch. In some species, for example the Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher, the males have two or more colour morphs.

Spot-winged Monarch Symposiachrus guttula	Buff-bellied Monarch Neolalage banksiana
Frilled Monarch Arses telescopthalmus	Tanimbar Monarch Carterornis castus
The four photos above courtesy of ©Dubi Shapiro

They have a mostly southern half of the Old-World distribution. In the western end of their range they are distributed through sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar and the islands of the tropical Indian Ocean. They also occur in South and Southeastern Asia, north to Japan, down to New Guinea and most of Australia. The family has managed to reach many Pacific islands, and several endemic genera occur across Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia as far as Hawaii and the Marquesas.

Oriental Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone affinis	Banda Sea Monarch Symposiachrus mundus
Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone mutata
The four photos above courtesy of ©Dubi Shapiro

The paradise flycatchers of the genus Terpsiphone have the widest distribution of any of the monarchs, ranging across almost all of sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, the Mascarenes and Seychelles, South, East and Southeastern Asia as far as Korea, Afghanistan, the Philippines and the Lesser Sundas. The other paradise flycatcher genus, Trochocercus, is restricted to Africa.

Black-throated Shrikebill Clytorhynchus nigrogularis	Slaty Monarch Mayrornis lessoni
The two photos above courtesy of ©Nick Ludovic Green Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

The other exclusively Asian genus is the Hypothymis monarchs. The remaining genera are predominantly found in the Austro-Papuan and Oceania regions. A few monotypic genera are restricted to Pacific islands; these include the Chuuk Monarch (Metabolus) in the Micronesian island of Chuuk, the Hawaiian Elepaio (Chasiempis) and the Buff-bellied Monarch (Neolalage), which is restricted to the islands of Vanuatu. Other Pacific genera are the shrikebills (Clytorhynchus) and the Mayrornis monarchs, both of which are found in Melanesia and west Polynesia, and the Pomarea monarchs which are exclusively Polynesian in origin.

Fiji Shrikebill Clytorhynchus vitiensis – ©Nick Ludovic Green Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

Buff-bellied Monarch Neolalage banksiana – ©Nick Ludovic Green Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

The majority of the family is found in forest and woodland habitats. Species that live in more open woodlands tend to live in the higher levels of the trees but, in denser forest, they live in the middle and lower levels. Other habitats used by the monarchs include savannah and mangroves, and the terrestrial magpie-lark occurs in most Australian habitats except the driest deserts.

Rennell Shrikebill Clytorhynchus hamlini – ©Nick Ludovic Green Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

White-capped Monarch Monarcha richardsii – ©Nick Ludovic Green Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

While the majority of monarchs are resident, a few species are partially migratory and one, the Satin Flycatcher, is fully migratory, although the Japanese Paradise Flycatcher is almost entirely migratory. The African Paradise Flycatcher makes a series of poorly understood intra-African migratory movements.

Southern Shrikebill Clytorhynchus pachycephaloides – ©Dubi Shapiro

The monarchs are generally monogamous, with the pair bonds ranging from just a single season (as in the African Paradise Flycatcher) to life (the Elepaio). Only three species are known to engage in cooperative breeding; but many species are as yet unstudied.

Black-naped Monarch Hypothymis azurea – ©Dubi Shapiro

They are generally territorial, defending territories that are around 2 hectares in size, but a few species may cluster their nesting sites closely together. Nesting sites may also be chosen close to aggressive species, for example Leaden Flycatchers nests may be located near the nests of the aggressive Noisy Friarbird. The nests are in turn often aggressively defended by monarch species. In all species the nest is an open cup on a branch, fork or twig. In some species the nests can be highly conspicuous. Many species decorate their cup-shaped nests with lichen. It is usual for both genders to be involved in all aspects of parental care.