• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note

Symposiachrus menckei (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) was previously listed as Monarcha menckei.

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.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2019	Near Threatened	C2a(ii)
2016	Near Threatened	C1
2012	Near Threatened	C1
2008	Near Threatened	C1
2004	Near Threatened
2000	Lower Risk/Near Threatened
1996	Data Deficient
1994	Data Deficient
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	320 km2	medium
Area of Occupancy (breeding/resident)	344 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	1120-11930 mature individuals	poor	suspected	2019
Population trend	unknown	poor	-	1998-2008
Generation length	4.3 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	1	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	100%	-	-	-

Population justification: The species’s population size has not been estimated and no survey data are available, but it has been described as ‘common in forest and fairly common in secondary regrowth habitats' (Dutson 2011). Based on the estimated area of forest with at least 50% canopy cover in the species’s mapped range in 2012 (168 km²), the recorded population densities of closely-related species with a similar ecology (Monarcha melanopsis: 20 individuals/km² in lowland rainforest in Papua New Guinea [Bell 1982]; Monarcha loricatus: 213 individuals/km² in primary/secondary forest in Buru, Indonesia [Marsden et al. 1997]), and assuming that 50% of suitable habitat is occupied, the species’s population size is estimated to fall within the range 1,680 – 17,890 individuals, which is roughly equivalent to 1,120 – 11,930 mature individuals.

Trend justification: There are no specific data on population trends. An analysis of deforestation from 2000-2012 indicated that forest was lost within the species’s range at a rate equivalent to 3.5% across three generations (12.9 years; Tracewski et al. 2016). It is not clear what impact this has had on the population trends, as the species appears to be tolerant of degraded habitat; as well as being found in forest, it can be found in regrowth areas along the sides of roads and large gardens (Clement 2019). More detailed information is required before any determination of rates or direction of change in population size can be made.

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

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	major	resident
Altitude		Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting - Unintentional effects: (subsistence/small scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Whole (>90%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: White-breasted Monarch Symposiachrus menckei. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/white-breasted-monarch-symposiachrus-menckei on 23/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 23/11/2024.