Monasa

Monasa is a genus of puffbirds in the Bucconidae family.

Monasa
Black-fronted nunbird (Monasa nigrifrons)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Bucconidae
Genus:	Monasa Vieillot, 1816
Type species
Cuculus ater[1] Boddaert, 1783
Species
See text

The genus was described by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with the black nunbird (Monasa atra) as the type species.^[2][3] The generic name is from the Ancient Greek monas meaning "solitary".^[4]

The genus contains four species:^[5]

Genus Monasa – Vieillot, 1816 – four species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Black nunbird	Monasa atra (Boddaert, 1783)	North-central South America in the Guianas of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana including the Guiana Shield; also eastern and southeastern Venezuela in the eastern Orinoco River Basin, and the Amazon Basin of northeast Brazil in the north-central and northeast	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Yellow-billed nunbird	Monasa flavirostris Strickland, 1850	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
White-fronted nunbird	Monasa morphoeus (Hahn & Küster, 1823) Seven subspecies M. m. grandior PL Sclater & Salvin, 1868 M. m. fidelis Nelson, 1912 M. m. pallescens Cassin, 1860 M. m. sclateri Ridgway, 1912 M. m. peruana PL Sclater, 1856 M. m. rikeri Ridgway, 1912 M. m. morphoeus (Hahn & Küster, 1823)	Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela; in southern Central America in Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Black-fronted nunbird	Monasa nigrifrons (Spix, 1824) Two subspecies M. n. nigrifrons M. n. canescens	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC

References

1. "Picidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
2. Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1816). Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 27.
3. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1948). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 6. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 21.
4. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 259. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Jacamars, puffbirds, toucans, barbets, honeyguides". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 24 July 2019.