Pied monarch
species of bird
The pied monarch (Arses kaupi) is a species of bird in the monarch-flycatcher family, Monarchidae. It is endemic to coastal Queensland in Australia.
Taxonomy and systematics
The pied monarch was described by John Gould in 1851, who deliberated on placing it in a genus by itself on account of its feet and eye ring. The nest and eggs were undescribed until collected by Robert Hislop on 3 December 1894 near Bloomfield River.
The pied monarch is closely related to and forms a superspecies with the two other species of monarch flycatcher in the genus Arses. Two subspecies are recognised, however they two intergrade where their ranges meet at Mossman, and they could be treated as a monotypic species. The monarch flycatchers are classified either as a subfamily Monarchinae, together with the fantails as part of the drongo family Dicruridae, or as a family Monarchidae in its own right. 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. 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.
Alternate names include the Australian pied flycatcher, Australian pied monarch, banded monarch, pied monarch-flycatcher, black-breasted flycatcher, Kaup's flycatcher and pied flycatcher.
“Pied monarch” enters the record as species of bird. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pied, monarch and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q777968. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1851 and 1894.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pied monarch” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.