Hypothymis azurea
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The black-naped monarch (Hypothymis azurea) is a passerine bird belonging to the family of monarch flycatchers found in southern and south-eastern Asia. They are sexually dimorphic, with the male having a distinctive black patch on the back of the head and a narrow black half collar ("necklace"), while the female is duller with olive brown wings and lacking the black markings on the head. They have a call that is similar to that of the Asian paradise flycatcher, and in tropical forest habitats, pairs may join mixed-species foraging flocks. Populations differ slightly in plumage colour and sizes.
The black-naped monarch was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Muscicapa azurea in his catalogue of the Planches... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kaohsiung | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 2 | Taichung | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 3 | Ho Chi Minh City | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 4 | Taipei | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 5 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Tainan | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 7 | Tamluk | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Bangkok | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 9 | Phnom Penh | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | |
| 10 | Mumbai | 🇮🇳 India |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black-naped Monarch sighting in Hong Kong on a given day, based on 111 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 77th most-seen of the 204 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–March and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-naped Monarch in Hong Kong on a given day, against under 5% in April–October and December–January, the lowest months. Those are among Hong Kong's driest months, with about 45 mm of rain a month against 280 mm in June.
Between 4 and 7 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-naped Monarch sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
17th of 37
Of the 37 cities where we can rate Black-naped Monarch sightings, Hong Kong ranks 17th at under 5%. The best odds are in Kaohsiung (Taiwan, about 40%), Taichung (Taiwan, about 20%) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-naped Monarch is recorded against all the birds logged in Hong Kong (111 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
