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The Birds of the Mariana Islands

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The Birds of the Mariana Islands ß ß that time have been the basis for con- America's unknown avifauna. siderable concern (Vincent, 1967) and indeed appear to be the basis for the the birds of inclusion of several Mariana birds in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (1976) list of the Mariana Islands Endangered Species.These brief war- time observationswere important, but no significant investigationshave been conductedin the ensuingthirty yearsto "Probably no otherAmerican birds determine the extent to which the are aspoorly known as these." endemic avifauna of these islands may haverecovered. Importantly, no assess- mentshave been made of the impactof H. Douglas Pratt, Phillip L. Bruner the military's aerial planting of the exoticscrubby tree known as tangan- and Delwyn G. Berrett tangan, Leucaenaglauca, to promote revegetationafter the war. This 'treeis known as "koa haole" in Hawaii. restricted both in their time for bird ß ß announcesthe signthat greets observation and in their movements on v•sitors to Guam. Few Americans realize the islands. Their studies were made in authorsURING THEvisitedSUMMER the islandsOF1076the of that the nation's westernmost territories 1945 and 1946 when most of the Mari- Saipan,Tinian, Rota, and Guam, and m he across the International Date Line in anaswere just beginningto recoverfrom 1978 Bruner and Pratt returned to Sai- the far westernPacific. Guam, the larg- the ravagesof war (Baker, 1946).Never- pan and Guam. We havespent a total of est and southernmost of the Mariana theless, population estimates made at 38 man/dayson Saipan,four on Tinian, Islands,has been a United Statesposses- s•on since Spain surrendered her sov- & Agrihan ereigntyover the island at the end of the Sparash-AmericanWar. The rest of the archipelagohas seena successionof for- • Pagan e•gn governments-- Spain, Germany, Japan, and the United States. After • Alamagan World War II, these islandsalong with the Carolines and MarshalIs to the south ßGuguan and east, became the U.S. Trust Ter- ritory of the Pacific Islands under the ß Sarigan auspicesof the United Nations. This w Anatahan pohtical arrangement is scheduledto end m 1981. In a recent plebiscite, the ß Farallon de c•hzens of the Northern Marianas voted Medinilla overwhelminglyto becomepermanently affihated with the U.S. as a common- wealth. Thus a look at the birds of these •slandsand thoseof Guam seemsappro- .•SAIPAN priate. Probably no other American b•rdsare aspoorly known as these. Aguijan.•TINIAN The Marianas form a north-south chainlying aboutmidway between Japan •ROTA and New Guinea. Virtually all inhab- ttants live on the four largest islandsof Guam, Saipan, Tinian, and Rota (Fig. 1) L•ttle hasbeen publishedon the birds of these islands since Gleize (1945), Cocos Downs (1946), Stophlet (1946), Stott (1947), Marshall (1949), and Baker 5O O lOO (1947, 1948, 1951) discussedtheir obser- I .... I I yahohs made near the end of the war. All Miles these writers had been involved with mil- itary activitiesand thus most had been Mariana Islands Volume33, Number 3 227 six on Rota, and 27 on Guam. In 1975, Murray D. Bruce of Australia visited thesesame islandsbetween April 10 and 18 to observe birds. He has made his field notes available to us, and some of his observationsare incorporatedinto this report. The sameyear, EugeneKrid- let of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service with Robert P. Owen, Chief Conserva- tionist of the Trust Territory, visited Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. They, too, haveshared their findingswith us. Yaipan S AIPANISTHE LARGFST and most pop- ulous of the Northern Marianas. Stott (1947) described the topography and vegetation of the island. Since his account,tangan-tangan has becomethe dominant tree over most of Saipan. The island's substrate is of uplifted coralline SuicideCliff and Memorial Marpi, Saipan. Photo /H. D. Pratt. limestone (Gressitt. 1954). Several towns and villagesare scatteredover the island. TinJan Rota but large areas of undeveloped land occurthroughout. The beautifully scenic USTSOUTH OF SAIPANfies TinJan, a R OTAWAS THE LEASTwar-damaged and historically important district of broad and relativelyflat island only of the largerMariana Islands Marpi in the north is virtually uninhab- slightlysmaller than its neighbor.Tinian (Baker, 1946). The native forests are ited. That part of the island was under supporteda large Japanesepopulation much more extensive there than on Sai- military control for many years.but was beforeand duringthe war, and extensive pan. TinJan,or Guam. Tangan-tanganis opened to the public after unexploded clearingof foreststook place. Now the presentbut much lessprevalent than on ordnance and other dangerous debris ruins and airstripsare overgrownwith the other islands.On the plateau in the from the war had been removed. Dom- tangan-tangan.Marshall (1949)described interior of the island, in an area called inating the area is the infamous Suicide the habitats that existed on TinJan in Sabana, extensiveclearing for agricul- Cliff where many Japanesesoldiers and 1945.The Japaneseroad system is still in ture has reduced the native forest to scat- civilians perished rather than face an use today, making most of the island tered remnants. The lowlands are also unknown and possiblydishonorable fate accessibleto visitors. TinJan's approx- cultivated to some extent. but substan- at the hands of the Americans. Human imately 800 residentslive in the commu- tial tracts of forest remain in areas bones, grim reminders of a time many nity of San Josenear its southernend. unsuitablefor farming. About 1500 per- would rather forget. are still being Future plans (Trumbull, 1973) call for sonslive in the town of Songsongsit- recovered from the forests below the cliff the construction of a vast military base uated on a peninsulaat the southwestern (Kiener. 1978). But although the cliffs that will occupymost of the island. tip of the island. are reminiscent of death, the forests are alive with birds. All of Saipan's known indigenousspecies can •be found here. including the recently rediscovered Micronesian Megapode. Megapodius !aperouse (Pratt and Brunet, 1978). On Marpi's easternshore a rocky half-moon bay surroundsBird Island where Brown Boobies. Sula !eucogaster. and Brown Noddies.Anous stolidus, nest. Nearby. an undersea cave fills a pool known as the Blue Grotto where waters swell and recede with the waves and shimmer with green, indigo. and magenta. The shore- line of Marpi exhibits both sheer cliffs and placid beaches.Such scenicvariety in a small area is remarkable and prob- ably unequalledelsewhere in the Marl- anas. Marpi is at present unprotected and the inevitable plans for so-called developmentare under way (Pangelinan and Kapileo, 1971). Tinian with view of Saipan in distance.Photo/H. D. Pratt. 228 AmericanBirds, May 1979 remnants of this originally luxuriant 1978, the situation had deteriorated fur- native forest remain on terraces below ther with nativepasserines missing from the high cliffs that surround the north- many placeswhere we had found good ern end of the island. These areas are numbers two years earlier. Tangan- almost all within the boundaries of tangan has become ubiquitous on Andersen Air Force Base and off-limits Guam, and forms dense thickets. to the public. Pratt was fortunate in Significantly,tangan-tangan thickets being allowed to visit one such area at harbored good populations of native Ritidian Point when it was opened for songbirds as well as kingfishers and hunting of Philippine Turtle Doves, dovesin 1976. Two years later. however. Streptopelia bitorquata, on July 30, we noted striking declines in the three 1978. smallest native birds (a broad-billed The southern two-thirds of the island flycatcher, a fantail. and a white-eye). is of volcanicorigin (Key, 1968) but is This alarminglyrapid disappearanceof ecologicallyso ravagedthat its original native birds is reminiscent of the extinc- condition can only be surmised. South- tions of Hawaiian birds in the 1890s ern Guam is an ornithological waste- (reviewedby Warner. 1968 and Atkin- land. In severalvisits to that part of the son, 1977). Even at dawn on Guam, island in 1976 and 1978, we have seen whenforests should ring with the songs only one native passefine,a lone Micro- of birds as they do in the Northern Mari- nesian Starling, Aplonis opaca. Bruce anas, only the calls of introduced Black BanzaiCliff, Marpi District,Saipan. Photo/ found no native songbirdsin this area in Drongos, Dicrurus macrocercus, and H. D. Pratt. 1975. But our investigationsof the lime- Philippine Turtle Doves, with an occa- Guam stone forests of northern Guam in 1976 sional contribution from a native crow, revealedgood populations of mostnative kingfisher, or starling, can be heard UAMSTANDS 1NSTRIKING CONTRAST birds. Our visit followed closelybehind above the din of human activities. to the Northern Marianas in vir- typhoonPamela, which struck the island tually everyrespect. What natural beauty in May and causedsevere damage. Storm HATIS HAPPENINGto Guam's the island may oncehave had has largely damagewas obviousin the forests,which birds? Possible causes for their disappearedbeneath the heavyhand of had lost most of their canopy of Panda- decline could include excessspraying of so-called progress. Densely populated nus, but the distribution of birds did not pesticides.habitat destruction. preda- (ca. 100,000), Guam has had its soul sold seemto be correlatedwith suchdamage. tion by introducedsnakes or drongos,or even such exotic f•ctors as excessive atomic or microwave radiation. Habita! destruction is often cited as a cause for declineof nativebird specieseverywhere. but on Guam birds are obviouslydisap- pearing from seemingly undisturbed habitats such as the forest at Dos Amantes Point that has lost its passer- ines since 1975. Furthermore.many of the same species are abundant in degraded habitats on Saipan. Tinian, and Rota. Clearly careful investigations should be undertaken immediately to examine all of the possible causes. Delaysmay renderany potentialremedy powerless in preventing many extinc- tions. Fortunately the cliff terraces of northern Guam, which appear to be the last stronghold of the island's native passevines. are considered a wildlife sanctuaryby the military.
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