Blue-crested Flycatcher

Taxobox
name = Blue-crested Flycatcher

---

status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
familia = Monarchidae
genus = "Myiagra"
species = "M. azureocapilla"
binomial = "Myiagra azureocapilla"
binomial_authority = Layard, 1875
synonyms =

The Blue-crested Flycatcher ("Myiagra azureocapilla") is a species of bird in the monarch flycatcher family Monarchidae. It is endemic to Fiji, where it is found on the islands of Viti Levu, Vanua Levu and Taveuni.

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montanes.

Taxonomy

The Blue crested Flycatcher was first described in 1875 by ornithologist Edgar Leopold Layard, Administrator of the Government of the Colony of Fiji at the time. [cite journal |author=Layard EL |year=1875 |month=October |title=Description of a new Flycatcher belonging to the Genus Myiagra, and Notes a some other Fijian Birds |journal=Ibis |volume= 17|issue=4|pages=434-36 |doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1875.tb05993.x ] Its specific epithet is derived from the Latin "azureus" 'blue', and "capillus" 'of the head'. [cite book|author = Simpson DP| title = Cassell's Latin Dictionary | publisher = Cassell Ltd.| date = 1979|edition = 5|location = London|pages = 883| isbn=0-304-52257-0] It is also commonly known as the Blue-crested Broadbill, or the Azure-crested Flycatcher.

It is a member of a group of birds termed monarch flycatchers. This group is considered either as a subfamily Monarchinae, together with the fantails as part of the drongo family Dicruridae,cite book |title=The Taxonomy and Species of Birds of Australia and its Territories|author=Christidis L, Boles WE |year=1994 |publisher=RAOU|location=Melbourne |isbn=] or as a family Monarchidae in its own right.cite book |title=Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds|author=Christidis L, Boles WE |year=2008 |publisher=CSIRO Publishing |location=Canberra |isbn=9780643065116 |pages=p. 174] They are not closely related to either their namesakes, the Old World flycatchers of the family Muscicapidae; early molecular research in the late 1980s and early 1990s revealed the monarchs belong to a large group of mainly Australasian birds known as the Corvida parvorder comprising many tropical and Australian passerines. [Sibley, Charles Gald & Ahlquist, Jon Edward (1990): "Phylogeny and classification of birds". Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.] More recently, the grouping has been refined somewhat as the monarchs have been classified in a 'Core corvine' group with the crows and ravens, shrikes, birds of paradise, fantails, drongos and mudnest builders. [cite book |author=Cracraft J, Barker FK, Braun M, Harshman J, Dyke GJ, Feinstein J, Stanley S, Cibois A, Schikler P, Beresford P, García-Moreno J, Sorenson MD, Yuri T, Mindell DP |editor=Cracraft J, Donoghue MJ |title=Assembling the tree of life |year=2004|publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |location=New York|isbn=0195172345 |pages=468-89 |chapter=Phylogenetic relationships among modern birds (Neornithes):toward an avian tree of life] There are three subspecies of Blue-crested Flycatcher. The nominate race "Myiagra azureocapilla azureocapilla" breeds in Taveuni, "M. a. castaneigularis" in Vanua Levu (except the Natewa Peninsula) and "M. a. whitneyi" in Viti Levu.

Description

Measuring 14 cm (5.5 in) in length, the Blue-crested Flycatcher is sexually dimorphic. The male has light blue crown with slate-blue upperparts, and white underparts. The female in brown above with greyish tinged cheeks and bluish tinged crown.cite book |title=A Field Guide to Fiji Birds |last=Mercer |first=Robin|year=1967 |publisher=Government Press |location=Suva|pages=p. 21] Unusually for the genus "Myiagra" the bill is bright orange instead of black.

References

* BirdLife International 2004. [http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/51418/all Myiagra azureocapilla] . [http://www.iucnredlist.org 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. ] Downloaded on 26 July 2007.