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.