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 Horton Plains National Park on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 68th most-seen of the 102 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.
June–July, October and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-naped Monarch in Horton Plains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–May, August–September and November, the lowest months.
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.
36th of 41
Of the 41 parks where we can rate Black-naped Monarch sightings, Horton Plains National Park ranks 36th at under 5%. The best odds are in Kaeng Krachan National Park (Thailand, about 60%), Khao Luang National Park (Thailand, about 50%) and Kanha National Park (India, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Black-naped Monarch that you can see in Horton Plains National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Sri Lanka White-eye (about 90%), Pied Bushchat (about 90%) and Yellow-eared Bulbul (about 90%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-naped Monarch is recorded against all the birds logged in Horton Plains National Park (17 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.
