Trip Report: Taveuni (Fiji), November 28 - December 8, 1998

I stayed at the Garden Island Resort for what was primarily a scuba trip, but got a couple of days of birding in. From the balcony of the resort we had Vanikoro Flycatchers and Silvereyes feeding fledglings at eye level, clearly visible without binoculars. As far as I was concerned, that paid for the trip. Even the non-birders were taking photos.

My list (nomenclature per Pratt et. al., reference below) from the resort grounds included:

• Lesser Frigatebird (Fregata ariel)
• Pacific Reef-Heron (Egretta sacra)
• Great Crested Tern (Sterna bergii)
• Black-naped Tern (Sterna sumatrana)
• Collared Lory (Phigys solitarius)
• White-rumped Swiftlet (Aerodramus spodiopygius)
• Sacred Kingfisher (Halcyon sacra)
• Polynesian Triller (Lalage maculosa)
• Vanikoro Flycatcher (Myiagra vanikorensis)
• Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis)
• Orange-breasted Honeyeater (Myzomela jugularis)
• Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis)

Also several probable Pacific Swallows (Hirundo tahitica) I never got a good enough look at to call, and a lot of frustratingly elusive birds glimpsed when I was between the hotel and the dive shop, with my binoculars locked in their drybox. So it goes.

A tour of Taveuni Estates added the following birds to the list:

• Fiji Goshawk (Accipiter rufitorques)
• Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus)
• Banded Rail (Rallus philippensis)
• Peale's Pigeon (Ducula latrans)
• Red Shining-Parrot (Prosopeia tabuensis)
• Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen)
• Slaty Flycatcher (Mayrornis lessoni)

A walk down the street from the Garden Island turned up a Wandering Tattler (Heteroscelus incanus) standing on a rock off a sandy beach about 1/2 mile west of the resort.

I dearly wanted to go to the top of Des Veaux Peak for the dawn chorus. Several sources had led me to believe that the resort management could arrange to have me driven up there, and dropped off to walk down. The resort is under new management, which is geared primarily for scuba divers. The new managers are very friendly and accommodating, but they didn't quite get the concept of being at the TOP of the mountain at first light, and the earliest I got there was about an hour later. Since I don't know any of the calls anyway, this was ok because there were a lot of loud, invisible birds up there and I still have no idea what most of them were.

The top of the mountain was shrouded in mist (ok, rain), and I was extremely glad I brought my umbrella, which let me keep birding. There was no view from the top, but the Tagamoucia flowers were in bloom, as were a number of orchids.

Des Veaux Peak is the highest spot on the island. It rises to approximately 4,000 feet, and it has a road to the top because that's where the island's communications tower is located. The road was relatively well maintained when I was there, but it is very steep and required 4WD. Apparently the top part of the peak (beyond the gate, which is about 2/3 of the way up) is some kind of protected area, and we were scowled at by a truckload of phone company workers as we passed them on our way back down. There has been a lot of recent tree-cutting for agricultural fields on the lower half of the mountain. As long as they don't cut above the gate, this makes for decent birding because of the variety of habitats available along the road.

The trip up Des Veaux Peak netted the following addition to the list:

• Giant Forest Honeyeater (Gymnomyza viridis)

In addition to the honeyeater, I am 90% sure I saw the following:

• Silktail (Lamprolia victoriae). Silhouette only, black bird with extremely short tail, sitting in dense understory about 5 feet off the ground. In profile, the bill looked like a thick warbler bill, the head was rounded, and the wings did not quite extend all the way to the tail. Size was hard to judge, but it was a rather small bird. Did not see it fly, so I could not tell if it had a white rump.
• Streaked Fantail (Rhipidura personata) Partial look by me, not enough to id, but good description from my friend who saw a similar bird in the same spot a few seconds before I got there. Assuming she saw the same bird I did, and based on her detailed description, there was probably a streaked fantail present, but I didn't actually see the whole bird.
• Island Thrush (Turdus poliocephalus). Numerous glimpses of American Robin shaped bird, all dark, with yellow bill. Always flying away into dense understory. Never got good look. Island thrushes on Taveuni are supposed to have a dark body with a slightly lighter, grey or brown head, which I never really saw. Presumed it was a thrush, anyway. Didn't hear it vocalize.

On the way back down the mountain, around 10 a.m., we saw a fruit bat flying around (!). It looked like a large hawk in the distance, except it was flapping strangely. When it banked it showed a perfect Batman silhouette. It was flying over the open agricultural area on the lower slopes of the mountain, and we watched it for several minutes until it flew out of sight. Since I'd never seen a free-flying fruit bat (although I'd heard a few in the trees outside the resort at night), I was as excited about the bat as I was about the birds and the diving.

From the dive boat, which took us to the reefs off Vanua Levu to the north, I could see several feeding flocks of birds. The dive boats are fast and I was usually dripping wet, so I left my binoculars in the drybox and never got a good look at most of the birds. One bird I did get a fairly good look at was a black, tern shaped bird with a considerable amount of white on the forehead, extending to the crown. Due to its location in the relatively narrow strait between Taveuni and Vanua Levu and the fact that there were several of these birds in the flock, I am assuming this was a Black Noddy (Anous minutus).

Coming back from dinner at Matei one night there was a Common Barn Owl (Tyto alba) in the road.

A trip to Lavena on the southeast side of the island added:

• Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis)
• Jungle Myna (Acridotheres fuscus)

All in all it was a great trip. Other birds seen in Fiji, but not on Taveuni, were Many-colored Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus perousii) on Matangi Island on the grounds of the Matangi Island Resort, and Red-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer) on Viti Levu in Nadi.

The field guide I used the most was The Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific by Pratt, Bruner, and Berrett. This is an extremely useful guide which includes several island-specific checklists for each country. It was temporarily out of print, but appears to be available again. I got my copy at the Tucson Audubon Nature Shop.

Birds of the Fiji Bush by Clunie and Morse appears to be out of print. I borrowed a copy for a few days, but could not find one to buy anywhere.

Birds of Fiji in Color, by Belcher with ornithological notes by Sibson, was available in several stores in Nadi.

Thank you to everyone who responded to my RFI a couple of months ago. You were all a great help in planning my trip.

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