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

Justification of Red List category
Although common within its relatively small range, this species is thought to exist in a single small subpopulation. Despite forest loss within its range, it is unknown whether the species is experiencing a continuing decline given its suspected tolerance of secondary vegetation. It is therefore classified as Near Threatened. 

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.

This species is endemic to Mussau Island (400 km²) in the St Matthias group of Papua New Guinea where it is currently considered common; however, it is likely to have a small overall population (Eastwood 1996, G. Dutson pers. obs. 1997).

It is a common forest species which appears to tolerate degraded habitats including secondary regrowth (Eastwood 1996, G. Dutson pers. obs. 1997, Dutson 2011).

Most of Mussau has been or is scheduled to be logged. This may threaten the species if it proves to be poorly tolerant of highly degraded habitat.

Conservation Actions Underway

None is known.

Conservation Actions Proposed

Conduct research to determine the population size. Regularly monitor the population at certain sites. Study its tolerance of degraded forest. Protect significant areas of remaining primary forest from logging.

Text account compilers
Dutson, G., Derhé, M., Mahood, S., O'Brien, A., Smith, D.

Contributors
Dutson, G.

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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.