Meet The Black-Naped Monarch – The Bright Blue Flying Gem (12 Pics & Video)

Meet The Black-naped Monarch (Hypothymis azurea), also known as the Black-naped Blue Monarch, is a small passerine bird belonging to the family of monarch flycatchers found in southern and south-eastern Asia.

They have a call that is similar to that of the Asian paradise flycatcher, and in tropical forest habitats, pairs may join mixed-species foraging flocks. Populations differ slightly in plumage colour and sizes. The black-naped monarch was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.