At present I cannot afford time or money to go to Christmas and Cocos
Islands to see this season's wonderful collection of rare blow-ins. I
must say I would like to.
But there is more to rare birds on these islands than just a
twitchers' holiday. They illustrate how continental land birds can and
do arrive on distant islands, and then maybe begin the process of
adapting and evolving to their new habitats. For instance, the
Buff-banded Rails on Heron Island are almost completely flightless -
presumably adaptation to absence of predators, as well as the advantage
of not being blown out to sea in the next big cyclone.
And whether we personally approve of twitching or not, most twitchers
have excellent ID skills. So the blow-ins are noticed and recorded.
I do not believe that the Christmas/Cocos birds should appear with
the regular Australian birds in a Field Guide, but should rather be in
an appendix - this was the practice for Hawaii in an ancient Peterson
guide to Birds of north America. Likewise a secondary list for the very
occasional vagrants and 'oncers'.
Anthea Fleming
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