10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2011

How many species there were is probably lost to history, but there were certainly many hundreds. Sadly, as I’ve explained before , most of these species became extinct as humans arrived on the islands, and with it one of the most astonishing radiations of birds imaginable. But here’s the thing. It didn’t used to be.

Tonga 164

Tonga New Zealand Samoa Fiji 164

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

One of these clades holds a diversity of Old World species in several distinct groups, including an Australasian clade, the green-pigeons, the emerald- and wood-doves, the imperial-pigeons and fruit-doves (favorites of mine), and the subjects of our investigation today, the 15 known members of the Raphini. ” Beehler et al.’s

Solomon Islands 267

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius 2006 267

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2011

Although the only pine forests found in New Zealand are recent plantations of Northern Hemisphere Pinus species like the Monterey pine, the country does have native conifers. Some of these are found throughout the country, but the most impressive species is found in the north of the island, around the Coromandel and in Northland.

New Zealand 163

New Zealand Fiji Protection Rats 163

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

I’ve subsequently managed to dive in some spectacular destinations, including Turneffe Atoll in Belize, the Great Astrolabe Reef in Fiji, the kelp forests of Monterey and the wreck of the President Coolidge in Vanuatu. In fact no less a figure than Jacques Cousteau rated it in his top ten, and he was no slouch when it came to diving!

New Zealand 176

New Zealand Belize Vanuatu Fiji 176

10,000 Birds

JUNE 12, 2013

It is, instead, a member of the Petroicidae, the Australasian robins, a family mostly found in New Guinea and Australia but also reaching here in New Zealand and as far across the Pacific as Fiji. Until I started researching this post I didn’t know an interesting fact about the range of this species.

Guinea 154

Guinea Fiji Australia New Zealand 154

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2011

In addition to this tight clustering of related parakeets, the genus also had two species in the far-flung Society Islands (now in French Polynesia). These species, recorded by early European explorers, are now sadly extinct, but the disjunct distribution is something of a mystery. of the Yellow-crowned Parakeet.

New Zealand 144

New Zealand Fiji Parrots Tonga 144

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

Enter the Silktail , an odd little bird found only on two islands, Taveuni and Vanua Levu, in Fiji. The Silktail, ( Lamprolia victoriae ) by Tom Tarrant (CC) A 2008 paper on the phylogeny of the species and several others came to a surprising conclusion, that the species was actually related to the fantails.

Horses 164

Horses France Fiji North America 164

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

Not that I don’t enjoy seeing new species myself, it’s just that they are an easy target and I am nothing if not lazy and mean spirited. This particular Common Wombat ( Vombatus ursinus ), family Vombatidae, was the first I ever saw of the species and family.

Family 162

Family Wombats Uganda Fiji 162

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2014

There were two species there, even, of a type I had never heard of. 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. You’ll find pardalotes over most of Australia, but only four species in all.

Australia 170

Australia Fiji Hunters Thailand 170

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2012

It’s a species that I was able to see and photograph while visiting Australia last Christmas, or at least it would have been, had it ever existed. It is one of the many species that went extinct in New Zealand, only for once it didn’t. And, sometimes, New Zealand.

New Zealand 175

New Zealand Pelicans Solomon Islands Palau 175

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2015

All the way back in 2011 I wrote about the confusing taxanomic enigma that is the Collared Kingfisher , a species that ranges from the Red Sea to Tonga in a bewildering variety of forms. I’m happy to report that an analysis of the species and some relatives has found that, as suspected, it isn’t a single species.

United Arab Emirates 171

United Arab Emirates Micronesia Tonga Vanuatu 171

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 158

Tonga Fiji New Zealand Parrots 158

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2011

The world of birding is filled with challenging groups well known to all, birds like gulls , Empidonax flycatchers or cisticolas that require attention to the tiniest details in order to assign an individual to a specific species (if it can be done at all). Above we have an example of the species. Subspecies humii , Thailand.

Samoa 164

Samoa Vanuatu United Arab Emirates Tonga 164