Fatu Hiva monarch

Fatu Hiva monarch
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Monarchidae
Genus: Pomarea
Species: P. whitneyi
Binomial name
Pomarea whitneyi
Murphy & Mathews, 1928

The Fatu Hiva monarch (Pomarea whitneyi) is a large flycatcher. It is endemic to Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia.

It is critically endangered, because there has been a decline in excess of 90% over 21 years (three generations). The population is now thought to be as small as 50 birds, which equates to just 33 mature individuals. This decline is primarily attributed to the introduction of black rats, which were first observed in February 2000 and strongly correlates with the decline and near extinction of the Fatu Hiva monarch. Recent predator control has happened on Fatu Hiva, though it reduced the rate of territory loss from 60% in 2007–2009 to 30% in 2009–2011

The binomial name commemorates the US philanthropist Harry Payne Whitney.

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