Black-naped Monarch

The black-naped monarch is a small flycatcher; the adult male is about 16cm long and mainly pale azure blue apart from a whitish lower belly. He has a distinctive black patch on the back of the head and a narrow black half-collar, while the female is duller with olive-brown wings and no black on the head. The call is a sharp, abrupt 'skrip' (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds across tropical southern Asia from Iran and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia and the Philippines, with the main breeding season in India from May to July. It is insectivorous, often hunting by flycatching, and pairs may join mixed-species flocks in tropical forest. Two or three eggs are laid in a cup nest in a tree fork decorated with spider-egg cases, incubated by both parents and hatching in about 12 days.