Black Paradise Flycatcher

The black paradise flycatcher is an 18–20 cm monarch flycatcher, excluding the adult male's tail streamers, which may extend another 23 cm or more. Males have an all-black head and breast, glossy purple-black mantle and white belly. Females are shorter-tailed and duller, with brownish upperparts and upper breast and a whiter belly. The curved breast-to-belly boundary forms an inverted U, helping separate females from similar Blyth's paradise flycatchers (Birds of Singapore).

It breeds in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the northern Philippines, migrating through or wintering in southern China and Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. Broadleaved evergreen forest, secondary growth, mangroves, parks and gardens all provide habitat during its annual cycle. Birds usually forage high in the canopy, watching from a branch before sallying after insects or snatching flushed prey. Males and females build a small bowl-shaped nest during the breeding season (Birds of Singapore; Mizuta 1998; Wikipedia, general species account).