Velvet flycatcher

The velvet flycatcher (Myiagra eichhorni) is a species of bird in the family Monarchidae. It is endemic to New Hanover, New Ireland & New Britain.

Velvet flycatcher
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Monarchidae
Genus:	Myiagra
Species:	M. eichhorni
Binomial name
Myiagra eichhorni (Hartert, 1924)

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Taxonomy

The velvet flycatcher was formally described in 1924 by the German ornithologist Ernst Hartert based on a specimen that had been collected on the island of New Hanover in the Bismarck Archipelago by the Australian farmer Albert Frederic Eichhorn (1882-1931). Hartert considered the specimen to represent a subspecies of the Mussau flycatcher which he placed in the genus Monarcha and coined the trinomial name Monarcha hebetior eichhorni.^[2][3][4] The velvet flycatcher is now one of around 20 species placed in the genus Myiagra that was introduced in 1827 by Nicholas Vigors and Thomas Horsfield.^[5]

Two subspecies are recognised:

• M. e. eichhorni (Hartert, EJO, 1924) – New Hanover (=New Hanover Island), New Ireland, New Britain and Watom (north of northeast New Britain) (east Bismarck Archipelago)
• M. e. cervinicolor (Salomonsen, 1964) – Dyaul Island (south of northwest New Ireland, northeast Bismarck Archipelago)

The subspecies M. e. cervinicolor has sometimes been considered as a separate species, the Dyaul flycatcher.^[5]