WEST NEW BRITAIN

SEPTEMBER 7–14, 2019

Superb Fruit-Dove

LEADER: DION HOBCROFT LIST COMPILED BY: DION HOBCROFT

VICTOR EMANUEL NATURE TOURS, INC. 2525 WALLINGWOOD DRIVE, SUITE 1003 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78746 WWW.VENTBIRD.COM

WEST NEW BRITAIN SEPTEMBER 7–14, 2019

By Dion Hobcroft

Who is a pretty girl: two male Eclectus Parrots vie for the attention of the red female. This parrot has an unusual reproductive biology where females stay at the nest hollow and mate with several males.

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 2 West New Britain, 2019 Planes took off and landed on time, customs and immigration was pretty speedy, and we were soon checked into our lovely rooms at the Airways Hotel. Everything went to plan, so we were well set up to spend the afternoon at Pacific Adventist University, a pleasant campus with several freshwater ponds and patches of scrubby secondary growth dominated by large Rain Trees that are native to central America. It is a great location to start a trip, as the open terrain and good numbers of water birds make birding easy, and there are quite a number of species that we typically only encounter at this location. These we found with little effort including a fine Orange-fronted Fruit-Dove, several Plumed Whistling- Ducks, excellent Radjah Shelducks, a nesting Comb-crested Jacana, nesting Papuan Frogmouth, and great views of Black-backed Butcherbird and the dapper little Gray-headed Munia. A highlight was studying the elaborate bower of the Fawn-breasted Bowerbird. Other species seen well included Wandering Whistling- Duck, Common Kingfisher, Bar-shouldered Dove, Whistling Kite, Metallic Starling, and Australasian Figbird. There were another 40 species!

The strikingly patterned Black-backed Butcherbird has a powerful fluting song.

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 3 West New Britain, 2019 The next morning our flight allowed for a bit of a lie-in, and again it was all on time. After a short stop at Lae (where Blue-tailed Bee-eater was seen from the plane) we were on our way to West New Britain. We transferred to the lovely Walindi Resort, where we were well looked after, and we just eased our way in the gardens to see our first birds. A Red-banded Flowerpecker feeding at eye level had us off to a good start, and the impressive Red-knobbed Imperial-Pigeon, both Black and Olive-backed sunbirds, the incredible racket made by feeding Eclectus Parrots, a vocal perched Variable Goshawk, New Britain Friarbird, a fly-over Lesser Frigatebird, and a huge flock of Black Noddies were amongst the highlights.

Flocks of Black Noddies are a feature of Kimbe Bay in September.

Our first full day of birding had arrived, and it started, as is typical close to the equator, in the early hours. As we traveled through oil palm plantations, we stopped to have good looks at both Stephan’s Dove and Black Bittern—two species that seem to have found a niche in these vast monocultures. Arriving in the forest proper at Garu, we were strolling down the road, hoovering up a good cross-section of Melanesian endemics or Australasian specials. Purple-bellied Lory, Blue-eyed Cockatoo, Melanesian Scrubfowl, Melanesian Kingfisher, Knob- billed Fruit-Dove, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Pied Coucal, the often well-hidden Violaceous Coucal, and Long-tailed Myna were all scoped. These preceded what

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 4 West New Britain, 2019 would be one of the highlights of the trip, when we lucked onto the elusive, flightless Pink-legged Rail crossing the road. A second bird followed a few minutes later, and it did not race across but walked at a gentle pace, allowing a very close and unobscured view of this sought after regional specialty.

Russ Metter took this photo of a flightless Pink-legged Rail walking across the road at Garu.

We kicked another goal finding a pair of White-mantled Kingfishers after a patient wait. Our good run continued with a fly-over Black Imperial-Pigeon, a glimpse of an Eastern Bronze Ground-Dove, feeding Black-bellied and Ashy myzomelas, and a great Black-tailed Monarch. We heard both Black-backed Paradise-Kingfisher and Finsch’s Imperial-Pigeon, and despite being very close to the former, we were unlucky not to make the breakthrough.

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 5 West New Britain, 2019

A male Superb Fruit-Dove on the Gabuna Volcano trail: one of the most spectacular of all fruit-doves.

In an area of geothermally heated hot springs, a local man showed us the eggs of Melanesian Scrubfowl he had unearthed and then cooked in the river. The afternoon proved to be a bit quieter, although I was on a mission to see the Nicobar Pigeon perched in the scope and in good light. It took a while, but in a small stand of oil palms adjacent to the Kulu River (all the others had been knocked down and replanted as far as the eye could see) they came in to roost, and the views were superb. They have now become easier to see here than on the small islands that used to be their stronghold. After dinner we went spotlighting, searching for the elusive Golden Masked-Owl. It proved elusive, but we did enjoy syncopated firefly displays, two species of Bare-backed Fruit-bats, several heart-starting Rufous Night-Herons, and a Large-tailed Nightjar. We would have to try again in a couple of night’s time.

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 6 West New Britain, 2019

In the tropical forests it is all about finding gaps in the foliage to get the window on the birds. This is a Pacific Baza—a hawk that specializes on stick insects and tree frogs.

On the previous year’s tour we had scouted up a trail to the Gabuna volcano, making it up to an altitude of 450 meters. This year everyone decided they were up for it, and again it proved to be a thoroughly good move. The incredible numbers of parrots feeding on the forest edge had to be seen to be believed, as a good number of flowering trees attracted feeding flocks of Coconut, Red-flanked, and a couple of the typically elusive Red-chinned lorikeets; numbers of noisy Purple-bellied Lories; Blue-eyed Cockatoos; and incredible numbers of Eclectus Parrots. A Pied Cuckoo-Dove chose a very good moment to fly right over the group, and Yellow Imperial-Pigeon finally showed well. In the rainforest interior we had great views of Pacific Baza and Superb Fruit-Dove. The butterflies, fungi, flowers, and nature of the forest here is unlogged primary jungle—an increasingly rare habitat to access. After lunch some people returned to the lodge to relax (it is

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 7 West New Britain, 2019 a wonderful place to do this), and some re-enacted Lewis and Clark and proceeded on. It has never been well-documented what is in the upper hill forest here, and at 500 meters sea-level, tree ferns made an appearance with the odd patch of scrambling bamboo. We found Song Parrot, White-breasted Fruit-Dove, Velvet Flycatcher, several Black-tailed Monarchs, and a new bird for the district in a fine pair of Bismarck Whistlers. At 650 meters above sea-level we returned downhill.

For the fourth year in a row we scored the mythical Golden Masked-Owl, but it took a couple of attempts at night and a pretty ordinary photo as proof of life.

Our final full day started with a boat trip to the small islands of Restoff and Malo Malo in Kimbe Bay. It is a feature of Melanesian biogeography that there are a suite of small island bird specialists that shun the larger islands. These satellite island specialists are the so called “supertramps,” and these were our primary focus. The weather had been dominated by strong southeast gales, and the seas were well worked up by days of constant wind. We avoided the open ocean—it was a no-brainer. We were lucky to find a Beach Kingfisher almost straight away in flight, commuting between the islands. Island Imperial-Pigeons are still refreshingly abundant, as is the colorful Sclater’s Myzomela. Mangrove Golden Whistlers showed superbly well repeatedly, as if they were feeding chicks and not

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 8 West New Britain, 2019 in their usual quiet and inconspicuous mode. Mackinlay’s Cuckoo-Doves were also witnessed in courtship behavior, flying over the ocean, perching openly and calling well. Other interesting species included White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Osprey, Rainbow Bee-eater, Lesser Frigatebird, and Black-naped Tern, while we had amazing views of a Laticauda sea snake hunting sand eels on a tidal sand flat and a great view of a large Finsch’s Monitor running along the shoreline at full speed. With the gales building and making birding difficult, we went snorkeling for an hour in the sheltered side of the island, where the highlight was a huge Hump- headed Maori Wrasse nearly a meter in length.

After the usual siesta we were back to business for the afternoon session. It proved to be outstanding, as first we twitched the New Britain Boobook that has been reliably staked out on and off over six years. It is a stunning little owl. Next we ventured to a nearby cattle ranch where the tall grassland is home to numerous Australian Reed-Warblers and the dapper little Buff-bellied Munia. Migration was in full swing, and a paddock held a bunch of shorebirds including numerous Pacific Golden Plovers, a couple of Gray-tailed Tattlers, a Red-necked Stint, a Lesser Sand-Plover (something of a rarity in New Britain), and a Swinhoe’s Snipe. The long-staying vagrant Australian Hobby made a dashing appearance on dusk, and White-browed Crakes popped up briefly. After dinner we gave it a final rev for the Golden Masked-Owl. When it looked like all was lost, bang, up it popped, and our persistence was paid off with a long, superb view of this global rarity. We had done well in New Britain recording 101 species on the island and quite a lot more (137 sp.) once our afternoon in Port Moresby was factored in. We had another lie-in the next morning before arriving back in Port Moresby at lunchtime, ready to start the main tour.

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 9 West New Britain, 2019

The Island Imperial-Pigeon is one of a suite of species that occur only on small islands and shun larger land masses. Although abundant on Restoff Island they have never been seen at nearby Walindi.

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 10 West New Britain, 2019 BIRDS

Spotted Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna guttata)

Plumed Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna eytoni) Port Moresby

Wandering Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna arcuata) Port Moresby

Radjah Shelduck (Tadorna radjah) Port Moresby

Pacific Black Duck (Anas superciliosa)

Grey Teal (Anas gibberifrons) Port Moresby

Melanesian Scrubfowl (Megapodius eremita)

King (Blue-breasted) Quail (Coturnix chinensis) Heard only

Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) Introduced

Amboyna Cuckoo-Dove (Macropygia amboinensis)

Mackinlay’s Cuckoo-Dove (Macropygia mackinlayi)

Pied Cuckoo-Dove (Reinwardtoena browni)

Stephan’s Dove (Chalcophaps stephani)

Eastern Bronze Ground-Dove (Alopecoenas [jobiensis] johannae)

Peaceful Dove (Geopelia placida) Port Moresby

Bar-shouldered Dove (Geopelia humeralis) Port Moresby

Nicobar Pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica)

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 11 West New Britain, 2019 Orange-fronted Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus aurantiifrons) Port Moresby

Knob-billed Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus insolitus)

Superb Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus superbus)

Island (White-bibbed) Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus rivoli)

Red-knobbed Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula rubricera)

Finsch’s Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula finschii) Heard only

Island Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula pistrinaria)

Black Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula melanochroa)

Torresian Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula spilorrhoa) Port Moresby

Yellow Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula subflavescens)

Pied Coucal (Centropus ateralbus)

Violaceous Coucal (Centropus violaceus)

Pheasant Coucal (Centropus phasianinus) Port Moresby

Pacific Koel (Eudynamys orientalis) Heard only

Channel-billed Cuckoo (Scythrops novaehollandiae)

Brush Cuckoo (Cacomantis variolosus)

Papuan Frogmouth (Podargus papuensis) Port Moresby

Large-tailed Nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus)

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 12 West New Britain, 2019 White-rumped Swiftlet (Aerodramus spodiopygius)

Uniform Swiftlet (Aerodramus vanikorensis)

Moustached Treeswift (Hemiprocne mystacea)

New Britain [Pink-legged] Rail (Gallirallus insignis)

Dusky Moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa) Port Moresby

Australasian Swamphen (Porphyrio melanotus) Port Moresby

White-browed Crake (Amaurornis cinerea)

Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva)

Masked Lapwing (Vanellus miles) Port Moresby

Lesser Sand-Plover (Charadrius mongolus)

Greater Sand-Plover (Charadrius leschenaultii)

Comb-crested Jacana (Irediparra gallinacea) Port Moresby

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)

Swinhoe’s Snipe (Gallinago megala)

Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)

Red-necked Stint (Calidris ruficollis)

Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 13 West New Britain, 2019 Gray-tailed Tattler (Tringa flavipes)

Black Noddy (Anous minutus)

Black-naped Tern (Sterna sumatrana)

Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)

Great Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii)

Lesser Frigatebird (Fregata ariel)

Little Black Cormorant (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) Port Moresby

Black Bittern (Ixobrychus flavicollis)

Great Egret (Ardea alba)

Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia) Port Moresby

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) Port Moresby

Pacific Reef-Heron (Egretta sacra)

Pied Heron (Egretta picata) Port Moresby

Eastern Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis coromandus) Port Moresby

Rufous Night-Heron (Nycticorax caledonicus)

Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca) Port Moresby

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 14 West New Britain, 2019 Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

Pacific Baza (Aviceda subcristata)

Variable Goshawk (Accipiter hiogaster)

Black Kite (Milvus migrans) Port Moresby

Whistling Kite (Haliastur sphenurus) Port Moresby

Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus)

White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster)

Golden Masked-Owl (Tyto aurantia)

New Britain Boobook (Ninox odiosa)

Blyth’s Hornbill (Aceros plicatus)

Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis hispidoides)

New Britain Dwarf-Kingfisher (Ceyx sacerdotis) Poor views

White-mantled Kingfisher (Todiramphus albonotatus)

Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus)

Beach Kingfisher (Todiramphus saurophagus)

Melanesian Kingfisher (Todiramphus tristrami)

Black-backed Paradise-Kingfisher (Tanysiptera [sylvia] nigriceps) Heard only

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 15 West New Britain, 2019

Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus)

Australian Hobby (Falco longipennis)

Blue-eyed Cockatoo (Cacatua opthalmica)

Buff-faced Pygmy-Parrot (Micropsitta pusio) Heard only

Eclectus Parrot (Lorius roratus solomonensis)

Red-cheeked Parrot (Geoffroyus geoffroyi) Port Moresby

Singing (Song) Parrot (Geoffroyus heteroclitus)

Red-chinned Lorikeet (Charmosyna rubrigularis)

Red-flanked Lorikeet (Charmosyna placentis)

Purple-bellied Lory (Lorius hypoinchrous)

Coconut (Rainbow) Lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus massena)

Fawn-breasted Bowerbird (Chlamydera cerviniventris) Port Moresby

Yellow-tinted Honeyeater (Ptilotula flavescens) Port Moresby

Rufous-banded Honeyeater (Conopophila albogularis) Port Moresby

Ashy Myzomela (Myzomela cineracea)

Sclater’s Myzomela (Myzomela sclateri)

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 16 West New Britain, 2019 Black-bellied Myzomela (Myzomela erythromelas)

Helmeted Friarbird (Philemon buceroides) Port Moresby

New Britain Friarbird (Philemon cockerelli)

White-breasted Woodswallow (Artamus leucorhynchus) Port Moresby

Black-backed Butcherbird (Cracticus mentalis) Port Moresby

White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike (Coracina papuensis)

Varied Triller (Lalage leucomela)

Common [Melanesian] Cicadabird (Edolisoma tenuirostre heinrothi)

Bismarck Whistler (Pachycephala citreogaster)

Mangrove Golden Whistler (Pachycephala melanura)

Australasian Figbird (Sphecotheres vieilloti) Port Moresby

Spangled Drongo (Dicrurus bracteatus)

Northern Fantail (Rhipidura rufiventris)

Willie-wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys)

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 17 West New Britain, 2019 Island Monarch (Monarcha cinerascens) Heard only

Black-tailed Monarch (Symposiachrus verticalis)

Shining Flycatcher (Myiagra alecto)

Velvet (Lesser Shining) Flycatcher (Myiagra hebetior)

Torresian Crow (Corvus orru) Port Moresby

Bismarck Crow (Corvus insularis)

Pacific Swallow (Hirundo tahitica)

Australian Reed-Warbler (Acrocephalus australis)

Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica)

Singing Starling (Aplonis cantoroides)

Yellow-faced Myna (Mino dumontii) Port Moresby

Long-tailed Myna (Mino krefftii)

Red-banded (Bismarck) Flowerpecker (Dicaeum eximium)

Black Sunbird (Leptocoma sericea)

Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis)

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 18 West New Britain, 2019 Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) Introduced

Bismarck (Buff-bellied) Munia (Lonchura melaena)

Gray-headed Munia (Lonchura caniceps) Port Moresby

MAMMALS: WEST NEW BRITAIN

Great Flying-fox (Pteropus neohibernicus)

Bismarck Bare-backed Fruit-bat (Dobsonia praedatrix)

Andersen’s Bare-backed Fruit-bat (Dobsonia anderseni)

Island Tube-nosed Bat (Nyctimene major) Heard only

REPTILES: WEST NEW BRITAIN

Emerald Tree Skink (Lamprolepis smaradigna)

Blue-tailed Skink (Emoia caeruleocauda)

Finsch’s Monitor (Varanus finschii)

Sea Krait (Laticauda frontalis)

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 19 West New Britain, 2019