Monarchs and allies | Monarchidae

Monarchen | Monarcas

In this region the family is represented by the small, restless forest birds of the Hawaiian islands. They are never still: the tail is carried cocked over the back and spread like a fan, the wings are flicked, and the bird hops from twig to twig picking insects off leaves and bark or snatching them from the air in a short sally, helped by stiff bristles around the base of the bill. They are strikingly inquisitive and will come within a few metres to look a visitor over. The clear, whistled four-syllable call is heard all year and gave the bird its Hawaiian name; anyone choosing a trunk for a canoe watched whether the bird was pecking at it, for that meant the wood was riddled. The nest is a small, deep cup of fibre and moss, finished on the outside with lichen and bound together with spider silk, wedged into a fork; both parents build, incubate and feed, and a pair holds the same territory year after year. Mosquitoes carrying avian malaria now confine these birds largely to the higher forests.