Monarch Flycatcher – song bird

Monarch Flycatcher – song bird  

Monarch Flycatcher are small insectivorous songbirds with long tails. They inhabit forest or woodland across sub-Saharan Africa, south-east Asia, Australia  and a number of Pacific islands. Monarch Flycatcher are mostly slim birds and posses board bills. The monarch flycatchers have a mostly Old World distribution. 

The majority of the family is found in forest and woodland habitats.  The monarch flycatchers are generally monogamous, with the pair bonds from just a single season to life. The nest is an open cup on a branch, fork or twig. In some species the nests can be highly conspicuous.

Black-faced Monarch flycatcher – has a distinctive black face that does not extend across the eyes, gray upper parts wings and upper breast, contrasting with a rufous ( red-orange) belly. The dark eye has a thin black eye ring and a lighter area of pale gray around it. Young birds are similar but lack the black face, have a black bill and tend to have a brownish body and wings. Birds live in forest and woodland-dwelling group of small insect-eating birds. The Black faced 

Monarch is found in rain-forests, eucalypt woodlands, coastal scrub and damp gullies. It may be found in more open woodland when migrating. The Black-faced Monarch forages for forages for insects among foliage, or catches flying insects on the wing. Female builds the nest, but both sexes incubate the eggs and feed the young. Flycatchers are songbirds that, as their name implies, feed mostly on flies and other insects that are caught on the wing. 

Flycatcher more denotes ecological niche than natural relationship. Monarch Flycatchers or Monarchidae , are a diverse group of birds of around 140 species that include boatbills, shrike bills, paradise flycatchers, and magpie-larks. Most are forest birds with a broad based bill and a slender shape.