Rarotonga monarch
species of bird
The Rarotonga monarch (Pomarea dimidiata), also known as the Rarotonga flycatcher or kākerōri, is a species of bird in the monarch flycatcher family Monarchidae. It is endemic to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, and has been introduced to Atiu, also in the Cook Islands.
Taxonomy and systematics
The Rarotonga monarch was originally described in the genus Monarcha. Alternate names include Cook Island flycatcher, Cook Islands monarch, kakerori, and Rarotonga monarch-flycatcher.
Description
The Rarotonga monarch is an insectivorous passerine which is 10 cm tall, with an adult mass of 20 grams (0.7 oz) for female birds, and 25 grams (0.9 oz) for large male birds. Hunting mainly consists of foraging for insects within foliage, and occasionally taking insects during flight.
The Rarotonga monarch is unusual as its plumage and beak undergoes a sequential colour change as the bird matures. The initial plumage of orange changes to orange-grey mixed, then finally grey when maturity is reached, after four years. Initially, the grey and orange birds were attributed to different species. Later, it was thought that grey plumage birds were male, while the orange birds were females or juveniles of the same species, but this was corrected to being age-based plumage in 1983.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Rarotonga monarch” as species of bird. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of bird. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
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 Oct 4, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2224937. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1983.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rarotonga 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.