Common. Sedentary in the north-east, otherwise migrates southward in summer.
Habitat
Mainly rainforests, also often in wet sclerophyll forests or open sclerophyll forests near rainforests, usually in gllies in mountains or coastal hills.
Nest
Cup-shaped, neat, composed of green moss and lined with fine rootlets, usually in an upright fork of a branch between 1 and 10 m above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2, sometimes 3; smooth, matt, white to pale pink dotted with shades of red and red-brown and underlying purple-grey, uniformly distributed or in a zone at the larger end; oval; about 24 x 17 mm. Incubation: about 13 - 15 days; by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Appear to fledge from 7 - 21 days. Fed by both sexes.
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Forms a superspecies with Black-winged Monarch (Monarcha frater), Bougainville Monarch (Monarcha erythrostictus), Chestnut-bellied Monarch (Monarcha castaneiventris) and White-capped Monarch (Monarcha richardsii). Has been considered conspecific with Black-winged Monarch (Monarcha frater). Birds from far north of breeding range (Cape York region south to Caldwell, in northern Queensland) have been separated as subspecies pallidus, but considered indistinguishable from birds elsewhere in range.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
(25Kb) © ? (
BirdLife International Species Factsheet