|
birding-aus
The "problem" of mystery birds
certainly raised its ugly head during the 1970's on Guadalcanal. Over a
period of several months, a group of parrots flew over the track on top of one
of the ridges just south of Honiara. This happened just on dark every day
that I went looking. They occasionally stopped briefly in trees lining the
track before continuing on their way.
The "problem" was compounded by the
lack of Field Guides, etc. Mayr's "Birds of the Southwest
Pacific" was the only guide available and PNG Guides were also relatively
rare at that time. I had access to articles by Diamond, Galbraith,
Bradley, etc but these were also of little use.
After all this time, and referring to later
guides from PNG, these birds still are listed as "unidentified".
There may still be birds left to discover in that area.
Terry Pacey
Toowoomba
Qld
| 