Pomarea is a genus of birds in the monarch flycatcher family Monarchidae. The genus is restricted to the islands of Polynesia. The monarchs of this genus are around 15–19 cm long and most have sexually dimorphic plumage.
Taxonomy
The genus Pomarea was introduced in 1854 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte with Muscicapa nigra Sparrman, the Tahiti monarch, as the type species.[2][3]
The genus contains nine species, of which three are extinct and one is possibly extinct:[4]
- Tahiti monarch, Pomarea nigra – highlands of Tahiti (Society Islands)
- † Maupiti monarch, Pomarea maupitiensis – formerly highlands of Maupiti Island (Society Islands); extinct
- Rarotonga monarch, Pomarea dimidiata – forest undergrowth of Rarotonga (southwestern Cook Islands)
- † Eiao monarch, Pomarea fluxa – formerly Eioa (northern Marquesas Islands); extinct
- † Nuku Hiva monarch, Pomarea nukuhivae – formerly Marquesas Islands (Nuku Hiva); extinct, last reported in the 1930s
- Iphis monarch, Pomarea iphis – Ua Huka (northern Marquesas Islands)
- Ua Pou monarch, Pomarea mira – Marquesas Islands (Ua Pou); critically endangered, if not extinct
- Marquesan monarch, Pomarea mendozae – central Marquesas Islands
- Fatu Hiva monarch, Pomarea whitneyi – Fatu Hiva (southern Marquesas Islands)
Former species
Formerly, some authorities also considered the following species (or subspecies) as species within the genus Pomarea:
- Bougainville monarch (as Pomarea erythrosticta)[5]
- Chestnut-bellied monarch (ugiensis) (as Pomarea ugiensis)[6]
Status
The genus is highly threatened, with three of the six remaining species listed as critically endangered, one endangered and two vulnerable. Three species have already become extinct. The principal threat to all these species is predation by the introduced black rat.
References
- ^ “Monarchidae”. aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
- ^ Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1854). “Notes sur les collections rapportées en 1853, par M. A. Delattre, de son voyage en Californie et dans le Nicaragua”. Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l’Académie des Sciences. 38: 1–11, 53–67, 258–266, 378–389, 533–541, 650–665 [650].
- ^ Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1986). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 11. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 463.
- ^ AviList Core Team (2025). “AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025”. doi:10.2173/avilist.v2025. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
- ^ “Monarcha erythrostictus – Avibase”. avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
- ^ “Monarcha ugiensis ugiensis – Avibase”. avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 2017-01-20.