Monarcha melanopsis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The black-faced monarch (Monarcha melanopsis) is a passerine songbird in the family Monarchidae found along the eastern seaboard of Australia, and also New Guinea (where most birds migrate to during the austral winter; May to August).
The black-faced monarch was originally described as Muscicapa melanopsis by Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1818 from a specimen collected in New South Wales. The species is now placed in the genus Monarcha that was introduced by the naturalists Nicholas Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827. The specific name is from the Ancient Greek words melas "black" and ops "face". English naturalist William Swainson described it in 1823 as Muscipeta carinata, or "keel-billed flycatcher", unaware of Vieillot's earlier description. In his 1848 work The Birds of Australia, John Gould called it Monarcha carinata "Carinated flycatcher".
Australian amateur ornithologist Gregory Mathews described a paler specimen from Cape York as a distinct subspecies pallidus, though this was not recognised subsequently. "Black-faced monarch" has been designated as the official common name for the species by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC). Alternate... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lamington National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Royal National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Springbrook National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 4 | Blue Mountains National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Booderee National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 7 | Noosa National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black-faced Monarch sighting in Daintree National Park on a given day, based on 85 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 101st most-seen of the 208 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and September–October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-faced Monarch in Daintree National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May–August and November–March, the lowest months. Those are among Daintree National Park's driest months, with about 90 mm of rain a month against 380 mm in January.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-faced Monarch sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Black-faced Monarch sightings, Daintree National Park ranks 6th at under 5%. The best odds are in Lamington National Park (Australia, about 30%), Royal National Park (Australia, about 20%) and Springbrook National Park (Australia, about 10%).
Same family: Monarchidae
The closest relatives of the Black-faced Monarch that you can see in Daintree National Park (family Monarchidae, Monarch Flycatchers) are Shining Flycatcher (about 60%), Australian Spectacled Monarch (about 40%) and Leaden Flycatcher (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-faced Monarch is recorded against all the birds logged in Daintree National Park (85 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
