Tag Archives: Pomarea mendozae ssp. mira Murphy & Mathews

Monarcha mira (Murphy & Mathews)

Ua Pou Monarch (Monarcha mira)

The Ua Pou Monarch was described in 1928, originally as a subspecies of the Marquesan Monarch (Monarcha mendozae (Hartlaub)); it was endemic to the island of Ua Pou in the Marquesas.

The species was originally found all over the island, but in the 1970s its population was restricted to the higher elevations and its numbers were estimated to be about 150 to 200 pairs; these number soon dropped and finally, the last birds, two immature individuals, were seen in 1985 in the Hakahetau Valley near the north-western coast of the island.

The bird were locally known as pati’oti’o; the males were completely glossy black while the females were black with a white area covering the proximal two-thirds of the wings and a white tail. [1][2][3]

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References:

[1] Robert Cushman Murphy; Gregory M. Mathews: Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition. V. American Museum Novitates 337: 1-18. 1928
[2] D. T. Holyoak; Jean-Claude Thibault: Contribution à l’étude des oiseaux de Polynésie orientale. Mémoires du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle 127(1): 1-209. 1984
[3] Jean-Claude Thibault; Jean-Yves Meyer: Contemporary extinctions and population declines of the monarchs (Pomarea spp.) in French Polynesia, South Pacific. Oryx 35(1): 73-80. 2001

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edited: 08.05.2022