AUSTRALIAN 218 BIRD WATCHER AUSTRALIAN BIRD WATCHER 1994, IS, 218-224 The Status and Distribution of the Trumpet Manucode Manucodia keraudrenii (Paradisaeidae) in Australia by CLIFFORD B. FRITH, 'Prionodura', P.O. Box 581, Malanda, Queensland 4885 Summary Early and recent Australian records of the Trumpet Manucode Manucodia keraudrenii south of Coen, on Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia, are reviewed and their validity assessed. No evidence was found that the species is migratory between Papua New Guinea and Australia or that southward vagrant movements occur within Australia, notwithstanding several suggestions to the contrary. The species should be presently treated as a sedentary one, in Australia confined to Cape York Peninsula and several adjacent islands north of Rocky River, Mcllwraith Range, and on Boigu and Saibai Islands adjacent to the Papua New Guinea coast, within Australian territory. Introduction The Trumpet Manucode Manucodia keraudrenii is a large (28 em), crow-like, glossy metallic blue-black bird of paradise which is sexually monomorphic and breeds monogamously. It occurs widely throughout the mountains of mainland New Guinea between 200 and 2000 metres above sea level (Beehler eta!. 1986) , in some lowland areas, on some northernmost islands of the Torres Strait adjacent to Papua New Guinea and on the Aru Islands (Coates 1990). In Australia the species is considered by most authorities to be confined to northern Cape York Peninsula, north of Coen, including adjacent Albany and Mai Islands, and on Boigu and Saibai Islands adjacent to the Papua New Guinea coast (Gilliard 1969, Cooper & Forshaw 1fJ77, Pizzey 1980, Storr 1984, Blakers et a!. 1984, Schodde & Tidemann 1988, Wieneke 1992). Some early ornithological works recorded the odd individual Trumpet Manucode well south of its now widely accepted Australian range of northern Cape York Peninsula, north of Coen, but these have long been considered erroneous and have often been ignored. During the last decade, however, several reports of the Trumpet Manucode well south of Coen have again appeared in the literature and some of their authors have, regrettably, cited earlier reports as if they were confirmed records. This contribution seeks to review all Australian records of the Trumpet Manucode south of Coen in order to assess the validity of each and to define the authenticated status and distribution of the species in Australia. Supposed trans-Torres Strait migration In preparing this review the unfolding of the 'manucode migration myth' made it necessary to seek the origin of this in order to understand how it became part of subsequent authors', and observers', thinking. The first reference to trans-Torres Strait migration found is that of John Gould (1855) who wrote of New Guinea Trumpet Manucodes: 'It would be interesting to know if a migration of such forms as the present annually takes place between the two countries. With many other birds having greater wing-power, such a migration would be performed with ease, and doubtless such a change of locality occurs with many of them', and 'There are doubtless many fine birds in the mountain districts of that country [New Guinea] which never quit their own forests, while others, of a more wandering disposition, will from time to time be captured on the Cape York Peninsula and other northern promontories of Australia'. To this sentence Gould subsequently (1865) added the words 'and this is probably one of them.' It would seem that Gould was under the impression that the species was so sparse on Cape York Peninsula that those birds present must have represented a population of vagrants, not residents. VOL. 15 (5) MARCH 1994 Status & Distribution of Trumpet Manucode in Australia 219 North (1901) corrected this impression by quoting Robert Jardine, resident of Somerset, Cape York Peninsula, who wrote of the Trumpet Manucode: 'Gould's Manucode is generally found in the margins of scrubs, and is resident here throughout the year.' Jardine went on to describe the bird as 'very restless, and extremely local in habits'. Macgillivray (1914), however, presented field observations by his collector W. M'Lennan who claimed that Trumpet Manucodes of Cape York Peninsula seemed 'to arrive early in August, and take their departure at the end of March, or early in April, when they gather together in flocks.' This observation has not been subsequently cited and it is therefore imagined that other ornithologists suspect, as does this author, that it in fact refers to the Metallic Starling Aplonis metallica as the reference to flocking would strongly imply. Large loose flocks of Spangled Drongos Dicrurus hottentottus do also cross Torres Strait, however (S. Garnett in !itt.). Cayley (1931), in his widely and long-used (still in print) book, wrote that 'The species is believed to be partially migratory; it may move between Cape York Peninsula and New Guinea.' Unfortunately these, apparently unfounded, suggestions that the Trumpet Manucode is a regular, if partial, migrant between New Guinea and Australia and records indicative of migration or vagrancy within the Australian population, have been alluded to by some later authors. Bell (1967, 1982) suggested that some Trumpet Manucodes of the New Guinea subspecies M. k. jamesii in the Fly River estuary area migrate to Australia to breed whilst the M. k. purpureo-violaceus population in the Port Moresby area is resident and non-migratory, but presented no evidence. Forshaw (in Cooper & Forshaw 1977) stated that the species is 'generally considered to be a partial migrant between Cape York Peninsula and southern New Guinea'. It is possible Bell was led to this conclusion by the erroneous but frequently quoted records of Manucodes south of Coen by Banfield (1908), Cayley (1931) and others (see below). Stokes (1983) documented an August 1975 record of a Trumpet Manucode on Booby Island (10 °36 'S, 141°55 'E) during a 1975/1976 survey of bird casualities on that island by resident lighthouse keepers. Draffan (in !itt. to Stokes)- suspected that this was a misidentification of either a Metallic Starling or Spangled Drongo. A specimen of the bird in question was in fact preserved (Queensland Museum No. 016350) and it is a Metallic Starling (Ingram et a!. 1986). In a review of the birds of Torres Strait, Draffan eta!. (1983) point out that Trumpet Manucodes have been reported on Albany and Mai islands (M. k. gouldi) immediately off Cape York, and on the Australian Boigu and Saibai Islands (M. k. jamesii) adjacent to Papua New Guinea, but that they seriously doubted migration between the two large land masses via the entire Torres Strait. In his fine and thorough review of the birds of Papua New Guinea, Coates (1990) makes no mention of migration or any other kinds of movements by any Trumpet Manucode population. Garnett (1991) cited the M'Lennan report of supposed Manucode flocks (Macgillivray 1914) and mistakenly attributed to W.T. Cooper an observation of 'flocks ofmanucodes' at Iron Range in September, which possibly caused him to state that the Trumpet Manucode is the sedentary species most likely to cross the Torres Strait. Garnett subsequently pointed out, however, that 'the complete absence of all birds of paradise from New Britain appears to indicate that the Paradisaeidae are one of the families with an aversion to crossing any but the shortest stretches of water'. The Cape York Peninsula Manucode population constitutes an endemic Australian subspecies M. k. gouldi, quite distinct from the New Guinea subspecies (Gilliard 1969, AUSTRALIAN 220 FRITH BIRD WATCHER > Cooper & Forshaw lfJ77, Storr 1984). No individual of a New Guinea subspecies has been collected in Australia, south of Boigu and Saibai Islands. If, even infrequent, trans-Torres Strait migration or vagrancy by M. k. jamesii and/or M. k. purpureo­ violaceus were occurring and involving these New Guinea birds breeding in Australia where and when M. k. gouldii is, it would be difficult to understand the maintenance of distinct subspecies either side of the Torres Strait. The early records south of Coen In his famous book The Confessions of a Beachcomber, E. J. Banfield (1908) recorded the Trumpet Manucode as a regular spring visitor to Dunk Island (17 °57 'S, 146°09'E), off Mission Beach. Banfield's record has long been ignored by ornithologists, it having been widely accepted that Banfield misidentified adult male Common Koels Eudynamis scolopacea for Manucodes (Porter 1983a: 74, b: 126). Jackson (1909: 249) reported a Manucode at 'Tinaroo scrubs' (Atherton Tableland) on 31 October 1908, and his diaries apparently contain reference to a second sighting in that area (Chisholm 1958:106). The present author agrees with Chisholm that, given Jackson's long-established status as a professional collector and his sure knowledge that such a sighting represented a truly remarkable and novel event, his casual mention of it without further remark, let alone his failure to document an attempt to collect a specimen, is inexplicable. I can comment no further, but would note that considerable correspondence by renowned entomologist Francis Dodd of Kuranda, now in the archives of the Queensland Museum, repeatedly expresses the view that much of Jackson's field data were inaccurate and unreliable. White (1913 : 177) quoted E. D. Frizelle, an egg collector he employed, as seeing 'only one Manucode (Phonygama gouldi, Gray) [in September] all the time [May to September] but often hear[ing] them. They are shy birds' at Clump Point (17 °5l'S, 146 006 'E) at the northern end of Rockingham Bay. That Frizelle recorded that he 'often hear[d) them' and that 'They are shy' is clearly indicative of the fact that he wrote of a number of birds that did much calling. As it would be unlikely that several vagrant Trumpet Manucodes would simultaneously arrive, and call much, at a single location as far south as Clump Point, it would seem that Frizelle misidentified another species for manucodes.