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First Records of the Common Chaffinch Fringilla Coelebs and European Greenfinch Carduelis Chloris from Lord Howe Island

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First Records of the Common Chaffinch Fringilla Coelebs and European Greenfinch Carduelis Chloris from Lord Howe Island 83 AUSTRALIAN FIELD ORNITHOLOGY 2004, 2I , 83- 85 First Records of the Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs and European Greenfinch Carduelis chloris from Lord Howe Island GLENN FRASER 34 George Street, Horsham, Victoria 3400 Summary Details are given of the first records of two species of finch from Lord Howe Island: the Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs and the European Greenfinch Carduelis chloris. These records, from the early 1980s, have been quoted in several papers without the details hav ing been published. My Common Chaffinch records are the first for the species in Australian territory. Details of my records and of other published records of other European finch es on Lord Howe Island are listed, and speculation is made on the origin of these finches. Introduction This paper gives details of the first records of the Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs and the European Greenfinch Carduelis chloris for Lord Howe Island. The Common Chaffinch records are the first for any Australian territory and although often quoted (e.g. Boles 1988, Hutton 1991, Christidis & Boles 1994), the details have not yet been published. Other finches, the European Goldfinch C. carduelis and Common Redpoll C. fiammea, both rarely reported from Lord Howe Island, were also recorded at about the same time. Lord Howe Island (31 °32'S, 159°06'E) lies c. 800 km north-east of Sydney, N.S.W. It is 600 km from the nearest landfall in New South Wales, and 1200 km from New Zealand. Lord Howe Island is small (only 11 km long x 2.8 km wide) and dominated by two mountains, Mount Lidgbird and Mount Gower, the latter rising to 866 m above sea level. The Island is covered by subtropical rainforest, and has c. 265 ha of cleared land used mainly for cattle grazing and dominated by Kikuyu Pennisetum clandestinum. Along the margins of the airstrip, grasses and other seed-producing plants, such as Dandelion Taraxacum officinale, occur, but as this area is regularly mown many do not form mature seeds. I was resident on Lord Howe Island for four years in the early 1980s as an aviculturist with the Lord Howe Woodhen Project. As a result, I experienced the Island in all seasons, including the winter months. Observations I observed a Common Chaffinch in a plantation of mixed Bunya Araucaria bidwillii, HoopA. cunninghamii and Norfolk Island A. heterophylla Pines in Stevens Reserve, near the centre of the Island. I suspect that I saw the same male Chaffinch singing in Stevens Reserve in the three consecutive years from 1980 to 1982 (Table 1). At 0630 h on 21 September 1980 I was surprised to hear the song of a Chaffinch. Having previously spent more than 20 years in New Zealand, I was familiar with this species and all other finches introduced to New Zealand. I played a tape-recording of a Chaffinch song which attracted the bird. However, it was reluctant to come any lower than about 2.5 m from the ground. It was the size of a House Sparrow Passerdomesticus. lt had a small, grey 'finch' bill; a pinkish face and underparts; grey crown and nape; brown back; olive rump and uppertail- AUSTRALIAN 84 FRASER FIELD ORNITHOLOGY Table 1: Records of European finches on Lord Howe Island to 1983. The source of each record is given under 'observer'. Species Number of birds Date Observer Co mmon Chaffinch 1 Sept.- Dec. 1980 GF Fringilla coelebs 1 1 September 1981 GF 1 Oct.-Dec. 1982 GF 1 Winter 1983 Norman Fenton European Greenfinch 4 20 May 1980 GF Carduelis chloris 1 5 June 1983 GF 18 June-4 July 1983 GF European Goldfinch 3 9 May 1970 Dean Retmock Carduelis carduelis 4- 5 June-July 1982 GF 5 16 June 1983 GF 5 26 July 1983 GF 10 27 July 1983 GF Common Redpoll 2 females (collected) 26 August 1913 Hindwood ~1940~ Carduelis flammea 13 (collected) 28 August 1913 Hindwood 1940 2 females + 3 males 9 June 1983 Ingram & Roberts (1983) Yellowhamm er 1 18 August 1949 Hindwood & Emberiza cit1inella Cunningham (1950) coverts; conspicuous white bars on its grey wings; and its tail was grey with white outer tail-feathers. All of these are distinctive features of the Chaffinch. The Chaffinch was heard most mornings and some afternoons in the same locality for almost three months. It was not recorded thereafter until the following year, on 1 September 1981, when it was again first noted by its song. No further sightings occurred until6 October 1982, after which I observed this bird regularly until mid December 1982. Adult male Chaffinches have since been recorded on Norfolk Island and Macquarie Island (Clarke & Stephenson 2002, Birds Australia Records Appraisal Committee case 378). Norman Fenton, a resident then living at the southern end of Lord Howe Island, reported a Chaffinch feeding with Emerald Doves Chalcophaps indica at his home during the winter of 1983. This may have been the same individual that I had recorded in 1980-1982. I observed European Greenfinches on a few occasions during my period of residence on the Island (see Table 1). They were seen on the verges of the airstrip where they fed on seeds and grasses. If disturbed, they flew directly into nearby trees. European Goldfinches, like European Greenfinches, were always observed feeding on the verges of the airstrip (see Table 1). However, if disturbed, the Goldfinches generally flew a few hundred metres ahead and settled back down on the grass. A small flock of four or five Goldfinches was noted during winter 1982 on the verges of the airstrip (Bill Retmock pers. comm.). This species was first recorded for Lord Howe Island by Dean Retmock on 9 May 1970 and there have been several sightings since 1983, all from the months March to September (McAllan et al. 2004). On 9 June 1983 five Common Redpolls were seen on Rabbit Island (Ingram & Roberts 1983). The only other records of the Common Redpoll for Lord Howe VOL. 21 (2) JUNE 2004 European Finches on Lord Howe Island 85 Island involve the collection of 15 birds (two birds on 26 August 1913 and a further 13 birds two days later) by Roy Bell for Gregory Mathews (Hindwood 1940). A Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella was seen on Lord Howe Island by John Cunningham on 18 August 1949 (Hindwood & Cunningham 1950). No description was given with this account, but further corroboration has since come to light (McA!lan et al. 2004). Discussion European finches were released in New Zealand and Australia during the 1850s and 1860s (Long 1981). Six species are now established in New Zealand and two (European Greenfinch and European Goldfinch) in mainland Australia. Williams (1953) concluded that most of the finches dispersing to the islands in the Tasman Sea and New Zealand region were wind-assisted birds originating from New Zealand. In the south Tasman Sea, slow-moving anticyclones produce strong south­ easterly winds from late summer to early winter over the area from New Zealand to Lord Howe Island (1. Hutton pers. comm.). Such winds would favour the dispersal of birds from New Zealand. There is no doubt that the arrivals from New Zealand to Lord Howe Island include the Common Chaffinch, Common Redpoll and Yellowhammer, as none of these species has a wild population in Australia. Given that the European Goldfinch and European Greenfinch have been recorded on Lord Howe Island only in cooler months, it is likely that they also have a New Zealand origin. The possibility of these species permanently establishing themselves on the Island seems remote as presently there are insufficient seeding plants available to supply a continuous food resource. Acknowledgements Meteorological information was kindly supplied by Ian Hutton, who was in charge of the Lord Howe Island Meteorological Office during th e early 1980s. John H. de S. Disney, Ian McAllan, Walter Boles and Rohan Clarke commented on drafts of this note. References Boles, W.E. (1988), 'Comments on the subspecies of Australian native and introduced finches', Emu 88, 20-24. Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. (1994), The Taxonomy and Species of Birds of Australia and its Territories, RAOU Monograph 2, Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, Melbourne. Clarke, R.H. & Stephenson, B.M. (2002), 'A record of the Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs on Phillip Island (Norfolk Isl and Group), Australia', Australian Bird Watcher 19, 225-229. Hindwood, K.A. (1940), 'The birds of Lord Howe Island', Emu 40, 1-86. Hindwood, K.A. & Cunningham, J.M. (1950), 'Notes on the birds of Lord Howe Island', Emu 50, 23-35. Hutton, I. (1991), Birds of Lord Howe Island, Past and Present , Author, Coffs Harbour, N.S.W. Ingram, G.J. & Roberts, G.J. (1983), 'Redpolls Carduelis fiammea on the Lord Howe Island Group', Sunbird 13, 70-71. Long, J.L. (1981), Introduced Birds of the World , Reed, Sydney. McAllan, I.A.W., Curtis, B.R. , Hutton, I. & Cooper, R.M. (2004), 'The birds of the Lord Howe Island Group: A review of records', Australian Field Ornithology 21(3), supplement. Williams, G.R. (1953), 'The dispersal from New Zealand and Australia of some introduced European passerines', Ibis 95, 676-692. Received 24 November 2003 • .
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