The Iphis monarch (''Pomarea iphis''), or Ua Huka flycatcher, is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the family Monarchidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to French Polynesia. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are subtropical or

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

dry

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, and

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

Taxonomy and systematics

In 2012, a former subspecies (''Pomarea iphis fluxa'') was re-classified as the

Eiao monarch The Eiao monarch (''Pomarea fluxa'') is an extinct species of bird in the family Monarchidae. The species is sometimes considered to have been conspecific with the Iphis monarch. It was endemic to French Polynesia. Its natural habitats were subt ...

Distribution and population

The Iphis monarch is endemic to the

Marquesas Islands The Marquesas Islands (; french: Îles Marquises or ' or '; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' ( South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in ...

in French Polynesia and is restricted to the island of

Ua Huka Ua Huka is one of the Marquesas Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It is situated in the northern group of the archipelago, approximately to the east of Nuku Hiva, at . Name Ua Huka is sometime ...

. In 1998 an

ornithological Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

study estimated that approximately 500 to 1,200 pairs lived on Ua Huka. This corresponds to about 2-5 pairs per hectare.

Ecology

Nesting pairs of birds were found from anywhere between 30 and 650 meters in elevation on Ua Huka. This bird prefers mid-elevation moist forest and lowland dry forest on the eastern coast of Ua Huka where it forages in dense brush for

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s. The Iphis monarch hunts for insects by gleaning insects from branches. This bird also has been known to hunt at night for insects.

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet.
Iphis monarch Birds of the Marquesas Islands Iphis monarch Iphis monarch Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Endemic birds of French Polynesia {{Monarchidae-stub