by Ron Hoff, Clinton, Tennessee  USA

Please note that all bird photos are clickable for big images

This part of the world holds some very rare endemics and that was our goal on this trip. Our trip was offered and run by Susan Myers’ company, Birding Worldwide (www.birdingworldwide.com.au). Our guide for the trip was Phil Hansbro (philip.hansbro@newcastle.edu.au), a microbiology professor at Newcastle University in New South Wales, Australia. This was our second trip with Phil and again he has proven to be one of the best guides we’ve ever had. He’s an expert on seabirds, has a superb sense of humor, and is just a great guy. We highly recommend him.

The trip started and ended in Papeete, Tahiti. We spent 3 days birding Tahiti itself. From there we flew southeast to an Island called Mangareva. It’s the main island in the Gambier Is. group. There we joined up with our chartered ship out of New Zealand called the “Braveheart”. She was a fine ship, 130 feet in length, and operated by a crew of 4.

Braveheart	Tahiti Kingfisher	Stephen’s Lorikeet

The crew was outstanding. The ship is owned by a man named Nigel Jolly (Stony Creek Shipping Co. – njolly@ihug.co.nz). Most of us had staterooms that were smallish but pretty comfortable. The ship was in excellent condition and everything was spic and span clean. There were 2 zodiacs on board for transporting us to and from the islands were going to be visiting. This was important as there were few nice sandy beaches on these islands. Mostly it was crumbly, sharp coral and you needed to be careful. The guide and crew did an excellent job of making sure nobody fell or was injured.  Most of our birding was spent on the rear deck, where there was a cover over our heads. We spent the next 2 weeks cruising the seas in this remote part of the world, going first to Pitcairn Island (where the mutiny on the Bounty occurred), then to Henderson and Oeno, both also part of the Pitcairn group. From there we sailed northwest back past Mangareva to the very southern Tuamotu Islands. Our first island visited there was Tenararo. Leaving there, we went to Morane. After Morane, we sailed back to Mangareva. We overnighted in the harbor and caught our flight the next day back to Papeete, Tahiti. My wife and I then left the trip and went home, but the rest of the group went to the Marquesas Islands and managed to track down most of the endemics there.

I’ll go through the daily itinerary listing the new species we saw and making comments. At the end of this report I will do a checklist of all the species seen on this trip.

Oeno Atol	Christmas Shearwater	Humpback Whale

Daily Itinerary

Sept. 22 – My wife and I flew to Los Angeles, California where we spent the night.

Sept. 23 – We flew to Papeete, Tahiti, arriving around late afternoon. After collecting our bags we got a taxi and had it take us to our hotel, The Royal Tahitien. The cab fare was about $30. Our hotel was the same one our group was using and was also the cheapest one we found when we searched for a hotel on the internet. This being a French possession and it being very remote, nothing here is cheap. Our hotel was $170/night. The next cheapest hotel we found on the internet was about $240/night. The hotel was about 40 years old and it had a well established grounds around it with loads of gorgeous plants and flowers. It’s also right on the ocean. There are lots of introduced bird species on Tahiti and we found nearly all of them on the grounds. These were Zebra Dove, Common Myna, Red-vented Bulbul, Silver-eye, Common Waxbill, Red-browed Firetail, Chestnut-breasted Munia, and Crimson-backed Tanager. Night at Royal Tahitien.

Sept. 24 – Our morning breakfast was right on the water’s edge, so during breakfast we saw White-tailed Tropicbird, Red-footed Booby, Pacific Reef-Heron, and Great Crested and White Terns. We had 2 vehicles rented so after breakfast we drove east to the Papenoo Valley. This is a steep sided valley in the middle of the island where there is still a decent amount of forest left. On the way in we spotted 4 Pacific Black Ducks and a few Pacific Swallows. Once we got several miles up into the valley we found our first Tahiti endemic, the Tahiti Reed-Warbler. We saw both light and dark morphs of this species. This was followed closely by the second endemic, the Tahiti Kingfisher.

We got great looks at both of these species and both seemed reasonably common, but the third endemic, the Gray-green Fruit-Dove prooved to be more difficult to see well. Mostly we only got flyby looks, but these were pretty nice as this is your typical fruit-dove; green and pretty. We eventually came to a resort hotel called Maroto, on a cliff overlooking a valley. We had lunch there and spent some time watching over the forest for more fruit-doves. The day started off cool, but warmed up nicely later on. There are supposed to be a very few Polynesian Imperial-Pigeons on Tahiti, but they are in the highest parts of the island and we never saw any. Night at the Royal Tahitien.

Sept. 25 – A couple more participants came in last night so we repeated the trip to the Papenoo Valley in the morning, seeing the same things we had yesterday, with the exception of adding a Swamp Harrier. After lunch, the group split up, with some staying in the valley and others opting to try another location to try to get high enough (1000m) for a very slim chance of spotting a Chattering Kingfisher or Polynesian Imperial-Pigeon. Our driver, Karl, did a great job getting us to that elevation. We went back into Papeete and took some road that led into the highlands.  I’m not sure where the road was, but it went past what looked like the local land-fill. Once up at this elevation, the forest looked pretty good, but despite looking hard we never saw any imperial-pigeons or the kingfisher. We did manage to get brief sightings of 3-4 Polynesian (or Tahiti) Swiftlets, another endemic. The only other new bird was a very brief sighting by me of a Spotless Crake. We searched for it for a while but only managed hearing a couple more. We got caught in a rain shower coming back to the vehicle, but it didn’t last long. Night at the Royal Tahitien.

Sept. 26 – Today Phil had arranged for us to join a government researcher named Anne to go to the Papehue Valley to look for the rare Tahitien Monarch and more Tahitien Swiftlets. As I understood it, you have to have permission to go to the Papehue Valley, but that permission is apparently not hard to get. Anne was a delightful 30ish lady. She told us a lot about the bird research she has been doing in Polynesia and Tahiti in particular. She led us up a rough trail beside a mountain stream to where she and others have been monitoring the monarch. We hiked slowly for about 45 minutes before getting into the first monarch territory.  It then only took a short while before we saw our first Tahitien Monarch, a solid black flycatcher.We eventually saw 3 of them. Anne then took us into a very narrow side canyon with near vertical rock walls. It was an enchanting place and inside we saw a small colony of Tahitien Swiftlets along with their nests.There must have been over 100 of them. Having accomplished our goal for the day, we went back to the hotel in the early afternoon for some relaxing and sunbathing. Night at The Royal Tahitien.

Sept. 27 -  We were scheduled to fly out of Tahiti to Mangareva at 5:50 a.m., so not wanting to be caught up in long lines or not having enough time to deal with unforseen problems, we left the hotel about 4 a.m. That put us nearly first in line at the airport and this worked well. Our flight to Mangareva was about 3 ½ hours, but we stopped briefly at a small airport on the island of Hao. It was here that an airport employee kept asking everybody who owned a certain black bag. Eventually we found out that the bag belonged to our ship captain who was flying with us to Mangareva. It turns out he had a plastic bottle of fish oil in his bag that had leaked some. He was bringing it with him to use for chumming seabirds on our trip. Needless to say that even after several attempts to clean out his bag, the captain had to give up and throw it away. Yuck! We landed at Mangareva about mid-day. The airport is on a thin strip of land across a bay from the island of Mangareva. We collected our luggage and then took the ferry boat to the harbor proper. Here we were met by the crew of the Braveheart, who transported our bags to the ship. Somebody from the ship took all our passports to some office to be checked out of Polynesia, as we were heading for the Pitcairn group, which is administered by England. We finally got underway in the late afternoon, but only had to steam to the southern edge of this island group or about 20 miles.

Our crew was the captain, Rob, his first mate Matt Jolly (son of the owner and captain for the last 2 years), a great young guy named Broughton, who was a second first mate and the cook, and finally a 4^th person named Johnnie, a guy hired as a general helper and local knowledge expert who lived on his own island (from his mother’s grandmother’s family). His island is called Kamaka and it is the southernmost of this island group and where we were now at. Another small island near his (I think it’s called Motu Teiku) is known to have Christmas Shearwaters and Polynesian Storm-Petrels nesting on it. We eventually saw about 100 of the shearwaters and a few Polynesian Storm-Petrels. Also seen were loads of Black Noddies, some Brown Noddies a few Blue Noddies, and both Great and Lesser Frigatebirds. A few members of the group saw a Phoenix Petrel and a 3 Herald Petrels. It got too dark to bird so we went down below and had supper and then the captain set sail for Pitcairn. 30 minutes after supper someone yelled to come up to the top deck. Johnnie had found a Polynesian Storm-Petrel that was attracted to the ship’s lights. It was stunning to see this beauty up close, when most of the time all you get is a wobbly look from a heaving ship. A definite highlight of the trip!

Sept. 28 – This was our first full day at sea. There weren’t many birds, but we managed to spot a few. Showers plagued us all day and the temperature was coolish, in the 60’s F. Some of the species found were our first Murphy’s Petrels. This was to become the “default” petrel. They were very common throughout most of the trip. A few people in the group saw 3-4 Herald Petrels and someone got onto our first Henderson Petrel. We ticked one each of Audubon’s Shearwater, Flesh-footed Shearwater, Polynesian and White-faced Storm-Petrels, and someone got a Red-tailed Tropicbird.

Sept. 29 – We arrived at Pitcairn around 9 a.m. and our crew transferred us to the island on the zodiacs. We were met by several happy Pitcairners. They don’t get many visitors in this part of the ocean so everybody was glad to see us. I didn’t realize it at the time but we were then standing about 100 meters from where the mutineers sank the Bounty. We spent most of the morning walking around parts of the island. A few adventurous souls hiked up to the highest point and some went to Christian’s cave. My wife and I mostly stayed around the main part of the village and the town square. All of us had easily ticked the only endemic on Pitcairn, the Pitcairn Reed-Warbler, on the way up a long hill to get to the main square. Other birds on and around the island were Red-tailed Tropicbirds, White Terns, and a couple of Wandering Tattlers.

We managed to get the postmaster to show up and some of us bought postcards and mailed them home. They also had some baseball hats and shirts to sell. We all bought something, as the local people don’t have much they can make money from on the island. We said our goodbyes and then set sail for Henderson Island. Out at sea we had a  Wandering Albatross, Black, Brown, and finally Gray Noddies, 1 Cape Petrel, a good look at a Phoenix Petrel, 100+ Murphy’s, a few in the group saw 3 Christmas Shearwaters, Masked and Red-footed Boobies, Great and Lesser Frigatebirds. The guys of our crew usually kept a fishing line out the back of the boat as we were sailing. It paid off as they caught a 40 pound Wahoo. We had fresh fish for supper!

Sept. 30 – While sailing to Henderson we found a Buller’s Albatross, another Phoenix Petrel, loads of Murphy’s, 2 Kermadec Petrels, 5 Heralds, a lone White-chinned Petrel and finally 100+ Henderson Petrels. A couple of people saw a couple of White-faced Storm-Petrels. There were lots of Boobies around as well. Henderson Island has 4 endemics and they were our primary target. The zodiacs got us into shore OK, but we had to wade through the incoming waves to actually get ashore. Once ashore we meandered up and down the beach trying to find a way to get up into the interior of the island. The island is flat but its plateau is also about 60 feet higher than the beach. While we were looking for access to the plateau, one of our group spotted our first endemic, Stephen’s Lorikeet. What a stunning lorikeet! Gorgeous red and green colors!

We only got about 5 minutes of this breathtaking beauty and then it disappeared for the day. We couldn’t find any easy way up into the island so we just starting bushwhacking our way up some sharp coral. We eventually made it up onto the plateau and within 20 minutes we were all looking at a very tame Henderson Island Crake. We were told that the crakes here were tame, but in my birding experience crake and tame rarely appear in the same sentence! This was a nice change. This one bird was the only crake we saw, but in fairness and because the vegetation was so thick, we didn’t really look for another one. We all got great looks at it. While this was happening we all got great looks at our 3^rd endemic, the Henderson Island Reed-Warbler. They were fairly common.

We were standing around hoping to find the last endemic, the Henderson Island Fruit-Dove. The tree canopy wasn’t very high, about 15-20 feet. The trees looked substantial, so I climbed up to near the top of one and had a decent look out over the canopy. The first things flying by were Bristle-thighed Curlews. A few of us got on them but it was not to worry. We had them on all of our last 4 islands. This was great, as I had missed this species due to a flooded road in Alaska a few years ago. As I was looking around, 2 fruit-doves flew in close by. They were very kind to us as they stayed around for about 10 minutes and eventually everybody got superb look at this lovely species. That was it for our endemics so we slowly made our way back down to the beach. We spent some more time wandering along the beach, but never saw another lorikeet or fruit-dove.

Oct. 1 – Today we birded a different beach on the northern end of Henderson. My wife and I stayed aboard ship, as we had seen the endemics and it was chilly and windy today. The others went ashore and enjoyed the morning. The only sighting were brief ones of a lone lorikeet and brief looks at another fruit-dove. The others all got back to the ship for lunch and then we set sail for Oeno Island about 1 p.m. We didn’t add anything new for the rest of the day, but we did have great looks at Henderson Petrels. They were common around the island, but very scarce elsewhere.

Oct. 2 – We were told that Oeno was a true atoll with a coral reef ring around a central lagoon. In this case though, there was an island in the middle of the lagoon about a mile long and a few hundred yards wide. What we were not prepared for was the sheer beauty of this island. It looked like an apparition or a postcard brought to life.

At the perimeter of the atoll there were 15-20 foot waves breaking on the reef. That alone was mesmerizing to watch. We knew there probably wouldn’t be any new birds on this island, but the breeding birds more than made up for that. Murphy’s Petrels were nesting here by the thousands. Along with the Murphy’s, Great Frigatebird, Red-footed and Masked Boobies, Red-tailed Tropicbirds, and White Terns were nesting, making walking around the island an adventure. You had to be very aware of where you were stepping. It was an amazing experience. It was very similar to the Galapagos Islands. The birds were relatively tame and we all respected their space and didn’t try to get too close. Some members of the group saw some Sooty Terns and a couple of people got the first 2 Gray-backed Terns for the trip. While walking along the interior lagoon we saw our first Black-tipped Reef Sharks cruising the shallows in the lagoon. To our delight, the crew brought lunch ashore. They brought a folding grill and we had a Bar-B-Q on the beach complete with cold drinks from the cooler! Life was looking pretty sweet at this point! Before we left the island, one of our group managed to spot a Long-tailed Koel. This species is a long-distance migrant from New Zealand, wintering in the scattered islands throughout the region.

Bristle-thighed Curlew	Kamaka

Oct. 3 – Today we stayed again on Oeno until lunchtime. Despite intensive searching nobody was able to locate the Koel from yesterday. We also saw about 30 Bristle-thighed Curlews. Yesterday a couple of our group found Christmas Shearwaters nesting on the island, so most of us went there to see them. We found them and they were fun to watch as they jostled for position to sit on the egg.

We left Oeno about 1 p.m. and started sailing towards the Actenon Group of islands. Specifically our destination was an island called Tenararo. It was an amazing sea voyage today as we ticked several species of seabirds. Recorded for the day were Northern Giant Petrel, Cape Petrel, Phoenix, Murphy’s, Kermadec, Herald, Great Winged, and Henderson Petrels.

Oct. 4 – We were at sea all day today. Our highlight was to be sailing across a seamount, where the ocean floor nearly comes to the surface. That brings food closer to the surface, thereby attracting birds and other things. On the way there we were rewarded as we spotted 4 Gray-backed Terns, our first Tahiti Petrels (10 for the day), and a Grey Petrel. At the seamount the captain slowed the ship and we lingered around the area for about an hour to see what might show up. Much to our delight we had a mother Humpback Whale and a small calf playing near the ship for about 15 minutes. The calf was having a great time breeching out of the water several times. 

Mama had finally had enough and with 4 slaps of her tail on the surface for us, they submerged, never to be seen again. What a thrilling experience! The rest of the day was just spent sailing towards Tenararo.

Oct. 5 – Today was to be our first attempt at finding the Tuamotu Sandpiper. We were told that they probably wouldn’t be on the beaches and tend to sit inside the canopy. Supposedly you almost had to step on them to flush them to get a decent chance for a good look. We didn’t know what we would find, so we were all a bit apprehensive about not missing this interesting wader. My wife and I were in the third boat to go ashore and by the time we actually got off the boat and up on the shore, there were 3-5 of them coming towards us to get a look at us! What a nice reception that was. As it turned out, we estimated that by the end of the day, we had probably seen about 200 of them. They really seemed to have an affinity for climbing about in the branches of trees and bushes. The picture below was taken from only about 4 feet away.

They were really neat little birds. Most of the time there were anywhere from 4-10 birds around us anytime we stopped to take a rest or look for other birds. Another species new here was the Atoll Fruit-Dove. Again, they were very inquisitive and tame.

Teneraro was very much like Oeno, in that there were many birds nesting on the island and again they were basically pretty tame. The third new bird here was a real rarity, the Polynesian Ground-Dove. The known world population of this species is only about 110 birds. This female was fairly tame and allowed us to follow her for a long time.

We saw about 6 females today but only 1 male was seen by a few in our group and only briefly. They are mostly black with some gray on the head and a white throat and bib. The crew had another Bar-B-Q on the beach for us. At this point we were getting pretty spoiled but it was a small price to pay for experiencing these uninhabited islands. It really felt like we were on some kind of a groundbreaking research expedition. We all knew how lucky we were and we all appreciated it very much.

Oct. 6 – We spent all day again on Teneraro. Despite searching intensely, we could not turn up a Long-tailed Koel. We mostly saw more of the same. There were loads of nesting boobies, tropicbirds, frigatebirds, terns, etc. The main highlight for my wife and I was that we finally were able to get a great look at a male Polynesian Ground-Dove. It was during a rain shower and the bird was pretty sloppy looking, what with it’s feathers all matted together from the rain, but it was still something we wanted to see. After about 2 p.m. the rain got more consistent and put a damper on things, but eventually the rain quit and it warmed back up a bit.

Oct. 7 – This was another day at sea. Now we were on our way to an island called Morane. The only new species we picked up was a Southern Giant Petrel. Everything else was the same as before. The seas were pretty rough today so it made for a rough voyage. When it was about lunchtime, the captain pulled the ship into the lee of a small atoll so we could have lunch and the waves weren’t as bad. Thanks captain! It made lunch much nicer. Another bonus was that while we were here, we got another brief look at a Humpback Whale. We thought for sure it would surface again, but it didn’t.

Oct. 8 – We arrived at Morane Island and spent all day ashore. This was another true atoll with a central lagoon. It was gorgeous and all the usual suspects were there, just like Tenararo. One bonus for me personally was that I finally managed to get a photo of the Bristle-thighed Curlew.

Our other bonus was that we finally managed to spot a Long-tailed Koel. It was a brief sighting, but we were able to see it pretty well. The weather today was cool and very windy, so it was a little more challenging than the other days, but the birding was just as good. In the afternoon, Broughton, our cook, got the zodiac so we could do a little snorkeling. It was superb, with crystal clear waters and lots of colorful fish and other creatures. One time I looked around and a 4-5 foot Black-tipped Reef Shark came cruising by me. I kept a close eye on it and it didn’t seem too interested in me, but all the same it was a bit unnerving to be in it’s habitat and have it come to within 10 feet of me.

Oct. 9 – We went back ashore on Morane and birded until lunchtime. The only thing we added was a really nice look at a lone Gray-backed Tern. Some of our group who had not yet seen the Long-tailed Koel managed to find one and a couple of our group did some fishing and the rest of us just wandered around the atoll marveling at the rugged beauty of this place. The abundance of breeding birds on these uninhabited islands was heartwarming to see in this day and age of environmental destruction. Maybe there is hope after all, at least where there are no people. After lunchtime, we set sail back to Mangareva. A White-faced Storm-Petrel and a Gray Petrel were the only unusual species we had on the voyage.  

Oct. 10 – We woke up and found ourselves back in the Mangareva area. We got in one of the zodiacs and motored around Motu Tekiu so some of us could try for some photos of some of the seabirds. There were lots of Christmas Shearwaters breeding on this small island. After an hour or so of this, we then went the 400-500 meters over to Kamaka, Johnnie’s island. Johnnie was a gracious host and we spent the morning wandering around his island as he guided us and told us more about the local history. It was fun and the view from his island answered any questions of why he has lived here for 25 years.

After we left Johnnie’s island, we went to Mangareva harbor for lunch, while one of the crew took our passports to Rikitea (the village on Mangareva), to get us officially checked back into French Polynesia. After lunch, we went ashore and spent the afternoon walking around the village and hunting for some black pearls to buy. We succeeded and left a fair amount of our money there, much to the delight of the locals venders. At supper aboard ship, the crew fixed nice steaks and served lots of wine as we partied hardy to celebrate an unbelievably successful trip.

Oct. 11 – Most of the morning was spent packing up all our gear and getting ready to take the harbor ferry back out to the airport for our flight back to Papeete. After packing up and breakfast, the crew transported us to the community dock and we sadly said goodbye to the crew, who was by now almost our own flesh and blood. At least that’s the way it seemed. They were nothing short of outstanding and a very great deal of fun. The flight back to Tahiti was nonstop and we arrived in the late afternoon. Then it was back to the hotel to re-re-pack and then relax.

Oct. 12 – My wife and I were going back home today, whereas the rest of the group were going onto an extension to the Marquesas Islands starting tomorrow. Today was a “free” day to do whatever anyone wanted. We chose to just hang around the hotel and eventually went downtown Papeete to shop a bit. Our guide Phil and a couple of the others went to Moorea, a small island nearby for the day and saw the Moorea races of both the Gray-green fruit-Dove and the Tahiti Kingfisher. That was good enough, but the best thing we were jealous of was they managed to find some Humpback Whales that were feeding and breeching. They were on a high overlook and watched them for an hour! So much for hanging around the hotel! Dollyann and I flew out at 10 p.m. to end what was one of our best trips ever. Even though our species list was only 64 species, with 26 lifers, it was such a unique experience that we won’t soon forget it.

Oct. 13-15 – The rest of the group went on to the Marquesas Island group and managed to find most of the endemics there, as I understand it.

SPECIES LIST

Tuamotu Sandpiper	Atoll Fruit-Dove	Polynesian Ground-Dove

The numbers after the species below are the dates I saw the birds. Other abbreviations will be: C = common or easy to find; G = someone besides me in the group saw it; Example: H6,7 = this species was heard only on October 6^th and seen on the 7^th; 5-9 = the species was seen every day from the 5^th through the 9^th.

Wandering Albatross-Diomedea exulans. 29

Buller's Albatross-Thalassarche bulleri. 30

Antarctic Giant Petrel-Macronectes giganteus. 7

Hall's Giant Petrel-Macronectes halli. 3

Cape Petrel-Daption capense. 29,1,3

Great-winged Petrel-Pterodroma macroptera. 3

Tahiti Petrel-Pterodroma rostrata. 4,G7

Phoenix Petrel-Pterodroma alba. G27,29-3,G9

Murphy's Petrel-Pterodroma ultima. 28-10 = common

Kermadec Petrel-Pterodroma neglecta. 30-4

Herald Petrel-Pterodroma arminjoniana. G27,G28,30-3,G8,G9,G10

Henderson Petrel-Pterodroma atrata. G28,30-4

Blue Petrel – Halobaena caerulea. Phil saw 1 being attacked by frigatebirds on the 8th

Gray Petrel-Procellaria cinerea. 4,9

White-chinned Petrel-Procellaria aequinoctialis. 30

Flesh-footed Shearwater-Puffinus carneipes. 28

Christmas Shearwater-Puffinus nativitatis. 27,G29,G2,3,10

Audubon's Shearwater-Puffinus lherminieri. G27,28,4,G10

White-faced Storm-Petrel-Pelagodroma marina. 28,G30,9

Polynesian Storm-Petrel-Nesofregetta fuliginosa. 27,28,G10

Red-tailed Tropicbird-Phaethon rubricauda. Common 28-9

White-tailed Tropicbird-Phaethon lepturus. 24-27,10,11

Masked Booby-Sula dactylatra. Common 29-10

Red-footed Booby-Sula sula. 24,G26,27,29-10

Brown Booby-Sula leucogaster. 27,G30,1,G3,G6,10

Great Frigatebird-Fregata minor. C

Lesser Frigatebird-Fregata ariel. G26,27,G29,1,G5,G6,G8,9

Pacific Reef-Heron-Egretta sacra. C

Pacific Black Duck-Anas superciliosa. 24,G26

Swamp Harrier-Circus approximans. 24-26

Spotless Crake-Porzana tabuensis. 25

Henderson Island Crake-Porzana atra. 30

Pacific Golden-Plover-Pluvialis fulva. 26,27,G3,G9,G10

Bristle-thighed Curlew-Numenius tahitiensis. 30-3,5,6,8,G9

Gray-tailed Tattler-Heterosceles brevipes. Phil saw one on the 10th

Wandering Tattler-Heterosceles incanus. C

Tuamotu Sandpiper-Prosobonia cancellata. Common on Tenararo and Morane

Great Crested Tern-Sterna bergii. 24-27,5-11

Gray-backed Tern-Sterna lunata. G2,4,G8,9

Sooty Tern-Sterna fuscata. G2,3,4,G6,7,9

Black Noddy-Anous minutus. 27,G29,G30,5-10

Brown Noddy-Anous stolidus. G26,27,29-10

Blue Noddy-Procelsterna cerulea. 27,10

Gray Noddy-Procelsterna albivitta. 29,30

White Tern-Gygis alba. Abundant

Rock Pigeon-Columba livia. C in Tahiti

Zebra Dove-Geopelia striata. C in tahiti

Polynesian Ground-Dove-Gallicolumba erythroptera. 5,6,8,9

Gray-green Fruit-Dove-Ptilinopus purpuratus. 24-26,12

Atoll Fruit-Dove-Ptilinopus coralensis. 5,6

Henderson Island Fruit-Dove-Ptilinopus insularis. 30,1

Stephen's Lorikeet-Vini stepheni. 30,1

Long-tailed Koel-Eudynamys taitensis. G2,8,G9,G10

Polynesian Swiftlet-Aerodramus leucophaeus. 25,26

Tahiti Kingfisher-Todirhamphus veneratus. Reasonably common on Tahiti

Pacific Swallow-Hirundo tahitica. 24-26

Red-vented Bulbul-Pycnonotus cafer. C in tahiti

Tahiti Reed-Warbler-Acrocephalus caffer. Fairly common on Tahiti

Pitcairn Reed-Warbler-Acrocephalus vaughani. Reasonably common on Pitcairn

Henderson Island Reed-Warbler-Acrocephalus taiti. Fairly common on Henderson Is.

Tahiti Monarch-Pomarea nigra. 26 – we saw 3

Silver-eye-Zosterops lateralis. C on Tahiti

Common Myna-Acridotheres tristis. C on Tahiti

Common Waxbill-Estrilda astrild. C on Tahiti

Red-browed Firetail-Neochmia temporalis. Fairly common on Tahiti

Chestnut-breasted Munia-Lonchura castaneothorax. C on Tahiti

Comments

I have strived to be as accurate as I can in this trip report. If there are any errors, they are mine alone. I can be reached at Ron Hoff, 282 hackworth Lane, Clinton, Tennessee  USA 37716. My current email is dollyron37716@yahoo.com.