10,000 Birds

AUGUST 27, 2014

I’ve written before about how the Collared Kingfisher is a million splits waiting to happen (not happened yet), and the golden whistlers of the Pacific have been split now (giving me on from Fiji, one in Australia and one in Vanuatu), but I hadn’t really expected the Wattled Honeyeater to be a split. Photo from ‘Eua, Tonga.

Tonga 176

Tonga Fiji Samoa Vanuatu 176

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2011

It should actually be the New Zealand kauri, as the genus is found from Borneo to Fiji and down to New Zealand. The impressive size of these trees wasn’t much protection when European settlers arrived, indeed they were actively sought out for the excellent quality (and quantity) of wood they provided.

New Zealand 164

New Zealand Fiji Protection Rats 164

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2014

Insofar as they relate to other bird families, they are perhaps closest to the thornbills, another family that is mostly Australian but reaches as far as Thailand and Fiji. Lerps are the carbohydrate rich protective shells exuded by tiny bugs (hermipteras) that suck sugars out of the leaves of eucalypts.

Australia 172

Australia Fiji Hunters Thailand 172

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2011

A combination of extinctions and proximity to Fiji means that a trip to that island group would net you pretty much all the same birds plus a whole raft of others. According to the guides it is a forest bird in Fiji (and an elusive one, I never saw one in my week there in 2005) but in Tonga I saw it in the towns and country gardens.

Tonga 165

Tonga Fiji New Zealand Parrots 165