New Britain Flyrobin (Monachella coultasi) | Details

New Britain Flyrobin Monachella coultasi

Current view: Data table and detailed info

Taxonomy

Taxonomic note

Monachella muelleriana and M. coultasi (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) were previously lumped as M. muelleriana following Sibley & Monroe (1990, 1993).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN Red List criteria met and history

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2022	Near Threatened	D1
2016	Near Threatened	D1
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Species attributes

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	low
Land-mass type		Average mass	24 g

Range

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	25,100 km²
Severely fragmented?	no	-

Population

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	1000-1499 mature individuals	-	estimated	2016
Population trend	stable	-	suspected	-
Generation length	3.17 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	1	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	100%	-	-	-

Population justification: This species has an identical ecology to, and was formerly considered conspecific with, M. muelleriana, which has been observed at densities of one pair per 200 m of river on New Guinea (Boles et al. 2020); on New Britain, while the extent of occurrence of the split species is large it appears to have a tiny occupied range that is arranged linearly with the entire length of suitable sections of rivers apparently below 100 km. Applying a density of 2 mature individuals per 200 m of river to the available section of river yields a population estimate of 1,000 mature individuals. Given the tremendous uncertainty with this estimate due to the difficulty in accessing and surveying other nearby rivers where it may be present, the population is therefore estimated at 1,000-1,499 mature individuals.

Trend justification: The population is suspected to be stable in the absence of evidence for any declines or substantial threats.

Country/territory distribution

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Papua New Guinea	extant	native	yes

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitats & altitude

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	suitable	resident
Rocky areas (eg. inland cliffs, mountain peaks)		suitable	resident
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls)	major	resident
Altitude	300 - 750 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Species factsheet: New Britain Flyrobin Monachella coultasi. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/new-britain-flyrobin-monachella-coultasi on 06/01/2025.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2025) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 06/01/2025.