We also just made a quick foray to Vanuatu, unfortunately coinciding
with cyclone Ului which made birding tough, but we did get a few nice
lowland things. We stayed on Espiritu Santo where we recommend Turtle
Bay Resort 20 km N of Luganville as being reasonably priced and fairly
close to the birding sites of Vatthe and Loru. Kenneth Iav of Santo
Island Tours helped greatly with transport facilitating access and
getting landowner permission, which Is essential throughout Melanesia.
Santo is a lovely relaxed and friendly place, with none of the
possible menace that can be found in other places in Melanesia, we
recommend it. You would get another swag of endemics in the mountains
including the Santo Thicketbird and Santo Mt. Starling, but it means
camping and is a tough trek it seems.
36 species
Vanuatu Scrubfowl heard at Loru
Red Jungle Fowl quite common and long-established here
Pac. Golden Plover 5 at Luganville airstrip
Buff-banded Rail common
Black-backed (Purple) Swamphen saw a couple near Loru
Tanna Fruit Dove 1 at Vatthe
Red-bellied Fruit Dove common but hard to see well
Pacific Imperial Pigeon fairly common
White-throated Pigeon seen once
Mackinlay's Cuckoo-Dove quite common, and much paler beneath than
Bismarck birds
Pacific Emerald Dove quite common
Swamp Harrier saw a few
Collared Kingfisher- the Vanuatu santoensis birds have rufous
supercilia, are quite small and sexually dimorphic with white
underparts on males and buffy on females, and an amazing blue colour
above; they also have quite different calls to Australian birds, and
occupy a far wider range of habitats. Apart from all this they are
just like Collared Kingfisher!......This complex badly needs a huge
taxonomic revision as there must be many cryptic (and not so cryptic
species!) lumped therein
Chestnut-bellied Kingfisher calling well at Loru but shy and hard to see
Rainbow Lorikeet quite common
Glossy Swiftlet common
Uniform Swiftlet fairly common
Shining Bronze Cuckoo 1
Fan-tailed Cuckoo 1 heard near Vatthe, anxiety/alarm calls only, not
singing
Golden Whistler another group in desperate need of revision, these
males (race intacta) look quite like male Aus birds but sing
differently, and the females are brown above, whitish below with
abroad browny breast band, quite distinctive.
Buff-bellied Monarch Fairly common where dense undergrowth remains, a
great bird with a very variable plumage, some being white on the
upperparts with no yellow (? males), others very yellow above (?
females) and yet others mixed.
Southern Shrikebill heard at Vatthe in the rain
Melanesian Flycatcher uncommon
Melanesian Cuckooshrike scarce, saw 2 near Loru and 1 at Vatthe
Polynesian Triller saw a couple near Vatthe
Island Thrush a brief view of one near Lonnoc Beach was the only one,
this is a dark race. Heard at Vatthe too.
Cardinal Myzomela common, with 2 juvs being fed in Luganville by a
female
Streaked Fantail common in forest
Grey Fantail fairly common
White-b Woodswallow few near Luganville
Pacific Swallow a few at Luganville
Silvereye common
Vanuatu White-eye quite common, thie race has no yellow forehead so
Yellow-fronted ( and many other Zosterops have Yellow in the name too)
is not a good common name
Black-headed Mannikin a few flocks around Loru
Common Myna sadly quite common
House Sparrow a few at Vila and Luganville
Flying fox sp. small camps at Loru, maybe Pteropus tongaensis?
Phil Gregory
www. cassowary-house. com.au
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
