''Pomarea'' is a genus 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 lightweigh ...

s in the monarch flycatcher family

Monarchidae The monarchs (family Monarchidae) comprise a family of over 100 passerine birds which includes shrikebills, paradise flycatchers, and magpie-larks. Monarchids are small insectivorous songbirds with long tails. They inhabit forest or woodland a ...

. The genus is restricted to the islands of

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

. The monarchs of this genus are around 15–19 cm long and most have

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

plumage.

Taxonomy and systematics

Extant species

The genus ''Pomarea'' contains six extant species, including one possible extinct: *

Rarotonga monarch The Rarotonga monarch (''Pomarea dimidiata''), also known as the Rarotonga flycatcher or ''kakerori'', is a species of bird in the monarch flycatcher family Monarchidae. It is endemic to the Cook Islands. Taxonomy and systematics The Rarotonga m ...

(''Pomarea dimidiata'') *

Tahiti monarch The Tahiti monarch (''Pomarea nigra''), or Tahiti flycatcher, is a rare species of bird in the monarch flycatcher family. It is endemic to Tahiti in French Polynesia. There are between 25 and 100 individuals remaining with an increasing popula ...

(''Pomarea nigra'') *

Marquesan monarch The Marquesan monarch (''Pomarea mendozae'') is a species of bird in the family Monarchidae. It is endemic to French Polynesia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, and subtr ...

(''Pomarea mendozae'') *

Ua Pou monarch The Ua Pou monarch (''Pomarea mira'') is a species of bird in the family Monarchidae, endemic to the French Polynesian island of Ua Pou. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moist monta ...

(''Pomarea mira'') (Possibly extinct) *

Iphis monarch The Iphis monarch (''Pomarea iphis''), or Ua Huka flycatcher, is a species of bird in the family Monarchidae. It is endemic to French Polynesia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowl ...

(''Pomarea iphis'') *

Fatu Hiva monarch The Fatu Hiva monarch (''Pomarea whitneyi'') is a large flycatcher in the family Monarchidae. It is endemic to Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. It lives in the native dense forest at elevations up to 2300 feet. Adults are ...

(''Pomarea whitneyi'')

Extinct species

* †

Maupiti monarch The Maupiti monarch (''Pomarea maupitiensis'') was a species of bird in the family Monarchidae. It was endemic to the island of Maupiti in the Society Islands ( French Polynesia). The Maupiti monarch became extinct shortly after the type specime ...

(''Pomarea maupitiensis'') * †

Nuku Hiva monarch The Nuku Hiva monarch (''Pomarea nukuhivae''), or Nukuhiva flycatcher, was a species of bird in the family Monarchidae. It was endemic to French Polynesia. Its natural habitats were subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or ...

(''Pomarea nukuhivae'') * †

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 ...

(''Pomarea fluxa'')

Former species

Formerly, some authorities also considered the following species (or subspecies) as species within the genus ''Pomarea'': * Bougainville monarch (as ''Pomarea erythrosticta'') * Chestnut-bellied monarch (ugiensis) (as ''Pomarea ugiensis'')

Status

The genus is highly threatened, with three of the six remaining species listed as critically endangered, one

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

and two vulnerable. Three species have already become

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

. The principal threat to all these species is predation by the introduced

black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...

References

Bird genera Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Monarchidae-stub