AUSTRALIAN 252 BIRD WATCHER Notes on the Celebes Bee-eater Meropogon forsteni By JAROSLAV KLAPSTE, 6/15 Southey Street, Elwood, Vic. 3184 Summary The Celebes Bee-eater endemic to Sulawesi (Celebes) is a very little known species rarely seen by ornithologists. Presented here is a field observation in December 1981 in the southern part of Central Sulawesi. The Bee-eater was found on a steep slope in a mountainous area, fre­ quenting the middle storey on the edge of the forest, often perched low near the ground and never on exposed perches. The stance was very erect, flight was rapid but for short distances only, with fast wing-beats without gliding. Insects, mostly bees, were caught only in the air by short flights. It does not hawk for insects as do the savanna-dwelling Bee-eaters of the genus Merops. It was unusually silent, only calling once at the start of the observations. The nest was in a chamber at the end of a long horizontal tunnel in a vertical bank. It contained one young. Both parents entered the nest. Introduction The marginal areas of zoogeographical regions are always of special interest to everybody interested in wildlife. This is even more so in the case of the avifauna of Sulawesi (Celebes), which is remarkable for the great number of endemic species and endemic genera. The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is the largest island in the group of islands known as Wallacea, east of the so-called Wallace's Line separating the Oriental Region from Australasia. One of Sulawesi's unique birds - the Celebes Bee-eater Meropogon forsteni has been the subject of special interest to ornithologists from the time of its discovery. However for several reasons it has remained one of the least known of all the Bee­ eaters. Fry (1972, p.76) says that it is very rare in museum collections and it has rarely been seen by ornithologists. Meyer and Wiglesworth (1898) write: 'This beautiful Bee-eater is one of the chief treasures of the Celebesian ornis'. The genus Meropogon contains only this single forest species, endemic to Sulawesi. The adult birds have the forehead, crown, cheek, chin, throat and chest hyacinth-blue with the gorget feathers much elongated, broadened and pendant and able to be fluffed out at times. The remaining parts of the head and neck are dull maroon, with the flanks and belly dusky. The upper parts, including the wings, are parrot-green. The two elongated central tail feathers are green with a bluish tip. The other tail feathers are rufous-chestnut on the inner web and green on the outer web. Identification in the field is easy and confusion with other birds is not possible as there is no similar bird in Sulawesi. The bill is broader at the base and generally heavier than is shown in illustrations in Fry VOL. 9 (8) DECEMBER 1982 Celebes Bee-eater 253 (1969, 1972). Peters (1945) in his check-list put Meropogon after Nycty­ ornis (elsewhere sometimes spelled Nyctiornis) . Many people interested in birds will know this species from the illustra­ tion in Harrison (1978, p.l51) - but the best impressions can be obtained from the beautiful life-size paintings by John Gould (1850-83, Vol. 1, Plate 39), and by J. G. Keulemans (in Dresser 1884-86, Plate 4) - now extremely rare books but available for consultation in rare book sections in some large public libraries. -0-- V. - Heads of Bee-eaters of three different genera showing comparative size and shape. Left: Red-bearded Bee-eater Nyctyornis amictus (Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo). Centre: Celebes Bee-eater M eropogon forsteni (Endemic Sulawesi, Indonesia). Right: Rainbow Bee-eater Merops ornatus (Breeding known only in Australia. Winters throughout the islands north of A ustralia.) Plate 53 D rawing by Tomas Horny Historical Notes Before Dr A. B. Meyer made his first journey to Sulawesi in 1870-71 only the type specimen M . forsteni was known. A male type specimen was obtained by the Dutch naturalist Eltio A. Forsten in 1841 near Tondano, Minahassa at an elevation of about 600 m. Forsten died on the island of Amboina, Southern Moluccas, two years later. Charles Lucien Bonaparte named the new Bee-eater after Forsten in 1850. For many years this single specimen remained the only individual that had reached Europe. Several collectors - including A. R . Wallace and K. B. H. von Rosenberg - made a concerted effort to re-discover this fine Bee-eater but failed to find it. Finally Meyer (1879) was successful. He made about a hundred colour sketches and distributed them among the natives in Sulawesi and sent them away into the mountains putting a high reward on a skin. He obtained the first specimen at the end of May 1871 from near Rurukan, not far from the type locality. Later he found that Meropogon inhabits only the inaccessible mountainous districts and is very local in distribution. He collected several specimens. Even in later times this Bee-eater was rarely found among the bird­ skins sent to Europe from Sulawesi and it was very highly prized among the wealthy collectors and museum ornithologists. The last ornithologist collecting birds in Sulawesi on a large scale was Gerd Heinrich from Germany. He stayed there for almost 2 years between 1930-1932 and collected about 5 thousand bird skins. From the beginning Heinrich especially concentrated on finding the Celebes Bee­ eater in the localities where the bird had been found previously. Around AUSTRALIAN 254 KLAPSTE BIRD WATCHER Masarang Crater he searched for this rare bird for a week without success. In the Mahawk Massife Heinrich, with native hunters, searched for the Bee-eater with the greatest zeal (in his own words) for 4 weeks and did not find it. Finally in February 1931 he found 2 pairs near Rurukan. One morning in the Mengkoka Range of the South-east Peninsula in fog Heinrich shot a bird which he thought was the Celebes Mountain Drongo Dicrurus montanus. However he was greatly surprised to find that the bird was a Celebes Bee-eater! He found this bird again east of Kali Wawo on the slope of Tanke Salokko. (Stresemann & Heinrich 1940). Kuroda (1954) mentioned one male secured near Mongondo in June 1938 which is now in the Yamashina Museum of Birds, Tokyo, Japan. Very little information has been recorded about the Celebes Bee-eater from early field-collectors and virtually nothing since the time of the collection era. Personal Observations Finding the Celebes Bee-eater After reading the interesting wntmgs of the early naturalists and explorers it was my great wish to see the Celebes Bee-eater on its native island. I was lucky and my wish came true when I visited Sulawesi with Tomas Horny and Peter Klapste between 28 November and 25 December 1981. The bird watching in the mountains early in the morning on 3 December 1981 was excellent - we had seen many interesting birds including the beautiful Enodes Starling Enodes erythrophrys. At 0730 hours, local time, about 2 hours after sunrise, we found the Celebes Bee-eater. It was between Rantepao and Palopo in a high forested mountainous area with many trees covered by moss, on a steep slope at an elevation of about 1200 m. I will never forget the moment when in the light of the early morning sun I focused my binoculars on the bright blue gorget of the Celebes Bee-eater. I trembled with excite­ ment when I recognized the bird. We were delighted to be able to observe the Celebes Bee-eater in very good light and we started to make some notes on its behaviour. We noticed that after the Bee-eater had flown to catch an insect it always returned to the original area, using the same branches of only 3 or 4 trees for perching. However, shortly afterwards dense fog approached the area rapidly and made good observation difficult. When the visibility was less than 10 m we decided to move to a lower altitude for general bird watching and return later in the afternoon or next morning to continue our observation. At lower elevations birds were as plentiful as they were higher up. We saw several endemic species there, including the White-backed Woodswallow Artamus monachus, the Nehrkorn's Flowerpecker Dicaeum nehrkorni and the Celebes Crowned Myna Basilornis celebensis. Later on the same afternoon, and again the next day, 4 December 1981, we returned to the area where we first saw the Celebes Bee-eater and on both occasions we found it easily and were able to make more observations. VOL. 9 (8) DECEMBER 1982 Celebes Bee-eater 255 Postures of the Celebes Bee-eater on perches. Plate 54 Ora wn from field sketches and photographs by Tomas H orny The most significant characteristic of the Celebes Bee-eater was its tail movement - pendulum-like from a perfectly vertical position, for about 20 mm in each direction. Without exception this tail movement was continuous when the bird perched, with a frequency of about 70 oscillations per minute. The tail movement was very conspicuous, once the bird was in view. The perching stance of the Celebes Bee-eater is very upright, almost vertical - the posture of the bird has been depicted incorrectly by the bird illustrators. On the occasions that we watched, the bird always sat very compactly, on several occasions the feathers covering and hiding the legs and feet. Although the Celebes Bee-eater is a colourful bird it was inconspicuous in the speckled shadow­ and-light pattern made by the strong sunlight in the trees. Thus it is not an easy bird to see among foliage when at rest.