Kiribati Birds (1 Viewer)

[Joe H]

I’ve recently found the time to get back into bird watching and one of the (pleasant) tasks I’ve given myself is to sort through old computer image files and checklists to clean up my life list. I also want to share some pictures of birds that might not be all that commonly seen or easily reached. I’m hoping to provide something back to this web site as I have gained a lot of value from the wealth of information generously shared here.

For about five years (2009 -2014) I travelled for work to a handful of South Pacific Island locations, one of which was Tarawa Atoll. Well-known from its brutal WW2 era battle about 80years ago; it’s now part of the Republic of Kiribati, which encompasses the Line, Phoenix and Gilbert Island groups.

One picture I wanted to highlight contains the Pied Morph of the Pacific Reef Heron. According to “A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific,” (Princeton University Press, by Pratt, Bruner and Berrett) the Pied Morph is rare compared to the Dark and White Morphs. I have a picture below which shows a couple of White Morph birds along with a Pied Morph. I was surprised to see very few pictures of the Pied Morph on the internet so I thought I’d post the picture here. If I recall correctly, the White was by far the most common morph seen on Tarawa, followed by the Dark and Pied morphs. While least often seen, I would not say the Pied morph was rare on Tarawa when I was visiting there. I probably saw it daily, but only one or two. The Whites were pretty much seen anywhere. I’ll also post a close-up of the Pied bird, a rather poor picture of a dark morph bird, and the field guide details regarding the Pied Morph. I’ve seen the Reef Heron all over the Pacific, but Tarawa was probably the only place I regularly saw all three morphs.

Thanks for reading! In my next post I’ll describe a charming mating ritual involving these birds.

 

[Joe H]

The pictures attached below were observed through a spotting scope near the Tarawa Atoll airport. I noticed two Pacific Reef Herons on the sandy banks of tidal inlet near shore. At first they were milling around separately and then they started walking back and forth next to each other. It was at this point I started taking some pictures through the scope. While I watched, they kept marching back and forth together and then they stopped and entwined their necks. They remained that way for maybe 10 seconds, then resumed walking around together. Even though I was a considerable distance away, I felt like I was intruding on a very private moment. I assume it was some sort of pairing-up or mating ritual. It was a memorable birding moment and I’m glad I was able to take a couple of pictures. I’ve seen on-line where swans will intertwine their necks but I’ve never seen it in person except this one time on Tarawa. Next I’ll discuss some of the mechanics of visiting this remote destination.

 

[Joe H]

My work trips to Tarawa took place from 2009 to 2012. I typically flew from Brisbane to Nadi (pronounced Nahn-dee) Airport on Fiji first. There were only two flights per week to Tarawa and they departed in the morning so one had to plan to spend a night in Nadi. The first picture below was taken after deplaning at Bonriki Airport on Tarawa. You’ll notice the foggy lens from walking out of a dry, air-conditioned plane into equatorial muggy heat. A fun flying fact: The airport in Tarawa is unfenced and the runway is often used by the local residents. On all my flights there, the jet made a low pass first before landing to warn everyone to get off the runway.

There was no potable water on the island so bottled water is a must to avoid illness, even for brushing teeth and to rinse after a shower. I tended to eat at the two modern style hotels when I was there and found the food excellent, but I avoided salads and uncooked fruit. I ate canned fruit instead which seemed the prudent thing to do. A U.S. military nurse did comment that I was one of the few people to spend time on Tarawa and not get ill.

The people I worked with and the locals were uniformly friendly and fun to hang around with. The kids especially enjoyed hamming it up for photographs. Below are some non-birding pictures I took over multiple trips.

1-Fiji Air Jet; 2-maneabas, these are the traditional heart of any i-Kiribati community, used for meetings, community events, or just hanging around. Modern versions with tin roofs have replaced thatched versions but the shape and use is the same; 3-smiling Kiribati kids; 4- a traditional house on the water; 5-one can’t forget the impact of WW2.

Next, back to the birds.

 

[Joe H]

The next birds I’d like to highlight are the Common and Little Fairy Terns (Gygis alba and microrhyncha, respectively). Also known as the White Tern and Te Matawa in i-Kiribati. Below are pictures of the relevant part of my old “Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific,” (Princeton University Press, by Pratt, Bruner and Berrett); a picture of what I’ve been assuming is a Gygis alba, and a picture of a pair of what I’ve been assuming were Gygis microrhyncha. Both pictures were taken on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, part of the Republic of Kiribati. And since I haven’t done it yet, Kiribati is pronounced “Kir-ih-bahs” in i-Kiribati, as the “ti” combination is used as a “s.”

I’ll dig a bit into some of the ongoing complications in identifying this bird group in my next installment.

 

[Joe H]

In the post #4 above, I identified what my field guide described as two species of Fairy Terns. The field guide did say the microrhyncha was only unconfirmed in the Gilbert Islands (Tarawa is in the Gilberts) but I felt my observations and photo was good enough to list it. When I checked on Birdforum I was surprised to see only one species of Fairy Tern (now more commonly called the White Tern) with four subspecies: Gygis alba alba, Gygis alba candida, Gygis alba microrhyncha and Gygis alba leucopes. The “Opus” page has three pictures all identified as Gygis alba candida.

So this got me doing a bit more research. Thanks to Birdforum member DMW, I learned there was a PDF printable pocket guide to the birds of Kiribati. It can be found at:

Birds of Kiribati : a pocket guide to the birds of Kiribati | Pacific Environment

Picture 1 below shows only one entry for the White Tern (Gygis alba). Picture 2 is a Kiribati stamp with Gygis alba, but picture 3 shows a Fairy Tern with Gygis alba candida. Lastly, picture 4 shows an illustration from the British Ornithology Club’s 2020 newsletter (Vol 140, no 2) which shows three species (Gygis alba, Gygis candida, Gygis microrhyncha) and no subspecies.

So is it two species, three species or one species with four subspecies? The takeaway for me, after doing a bit of research into what (ten years ago) was a cut and dried decision, is that it’s a bit more complicated. I’ll keep both of the birds I observed on Tarawa listed as separate species for now, but it would be nice to have it right. Of course, there may be more than one version of “right” currently out there.

 

[foresttwitcher]

I don't know if this will clear anything up for you but I have checked a couple of reference books.

Collins 'Birds of the World' uses IOC taxonomy and just has White Tern (Gygis alba) as a single species covering all 'forms'.

Lynx 'All the Birds of the World' uses the HBW list and shows Common White Tern (G. alba) with 3 sub-species & Little White Tern (G. microrhyncha) as a monotypic species occurring in the Marquesas, Phoenix & Line Islands in the South Central Pacific.

This latter book also shows the other two main taxonomies (Clements and Howard & Moore) as agreeing that G. alba is a full species but they differ on the treatment of G. microrhyncha as to whether it is a member of a sub-species group with alba or a sub-species of alba.

Confused?!

 

[Joe H]

Thanks Foresttwitcher, it is a bit confusing. I just did a quick check and found there are at least four “definitive” sources of bird classifications:

Clements/eBird

BirdLife International/Handbook of the Birds of the World (BirdLife/HBW)

International Ornithological Committee / Union (IOC)

Howard & Moore

I even found a study which documents differences between the four. I’m not that worried about it as my life list will never be of interest to anyone but myself, but it is a new-to-me aspect of this hobby I hadn’t been aware of before. Thanks again for your input.

 

[Joe H]

The local pigeon is a species that should be an easy ID, but my field guide has the wrong species listed. The photos below are of an adult (with bill knob) and juvenile Pacific Imperial Pigeon (Ducala pacifica). The Field Guide to Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific does not list this bird as being in the Gilbert Islands, instead it has the Micronesian Imperial Pigeon (Ducala ociana) as a resident species. The Kiribati pocket bird guide does have the Pacific Imperial Pigeon listed as common on South Tarawa. These birds were fairly common and I never saw one on Tarawa with the orangey color extend beyond the vent area.

 

[Joe H]

I’ve noticed that on posts with more than three photos, the images get reversed in order after a few days. I’ll try to limit images to three or less to prevent this, which is convenient because for this next post, most of the shore birds I saw happened to be captured in one shot.

Shore birds or waders were present but numbers were not huge nor was there a lot of diversity. The picture below shows a mixed group including Wandering and/or Grey-tailed Tattlers*, Ruddy Turnstones and Pacific Golden Plovers. These four were the only shore birds I saw during my visits. They were regularly seen in small numbers. The various bird guides list other shore bird species of course, but they weren’t seen by me during any trips. One notable species is the Bristle-thighed Curlew. The pocket guide lists it as indigenous and my field guide lists it as a winter resident. I never saw one, or a Whimbrel during any of my visits, but it is one of those target birds that every Alaskan hopes for.

*Just a quick footnote about the Tattlers – I only saw them in non-breeding plumage on Tarawa. Since I have both on my life list, I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to differentiate between the two.

 

[Joe H]

On to sea birds. I’ll make a short comment on pelagic birds: I didn’t list any. While I did have a spotting scope, it only has a 15-45 power eyepiece. Since all of my trips were work related, I didn’t spend a lot of time scoping the horizon to spot or ID a distant petrel or shearwater.

I did see regularly see terns and noddies, and since they were usually not too far from shore, I did get some photographs of them.

Based on my observations, the Great Crested Tern (Sterna bergii) followed by the Black-naped Tern (Sterna sumatrana) were the two most common terns seen. Brown and Black Noddies were also seen regularly.

 

[Joe H]

Introduced Species (myna and rock dove) were both present when I visited and I note the Kiribati pocket guide still has them listed. I’ll post a picture of each below. When I visited, the port facility had traps intended to catch the Mynas. The birds almost certainly arrived as stow-aways on ships visiting Betio Port on Tarawa. Since the birds were restricted to the port area, the trapping program was put in place. Apparently it has not worked yet.

 

[Joe H]

In summation, it might not be particularly useful to write up a trip report ten years after the fact but now is when I have the time, and perhaps a bird watcher traveling to Tarawa in the future will find something helpful here. It’s certainly been a learning experience to find the field guide I relied on years ago might not have been as reliable as I had assumed. It’s also interesting to know there are so many schools of thought regarding species splits. Since I was lucky enough to have saved image files of some of the birds it was a great opportunity for me to organize the information a bit. It was also nice to recall the warm days on the equator as everything up here in Alaska is blanketed with a thick coat of snow as I type this. Thanks again for reading.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Love that last photo.

 

[pbjosh]

Really cool post to see... I hope to visit Kiritimati at some point, the remote parts of the Pacific are so alluring and intriguing

 

[Joe H]

There are some really "out-there" books that are fun (but not particularly insightful) about the area today, though they did add a layer of appreciation about the place to me. I don't remember the titles except one, because it was so outlandish, which I assume was the author's intent: Sex Lives of Cannibals. It was wildly unpopular in Kiribati as they have no culture of cannibalism. Fiji embraces their historical association with the practice; you can buy ornately carved wooden tools in tourist shops in Fiji based on the ceremonial items used so long ago. There was another book I found that posited that islands in the Gilbert Island Group were used by aliens to erect stone structures that were some sort of communication link to Stonehenge. Of course, there are first-hand accounts of Colonial involvement in the area, Amelia Eirhart seekers, and WW2 historical works as well. It is a fascinating area to visit and surprisingly well covered in literature.

Edit: I found some of the book titles that would be worth a read if one is interested in visiting Tarawa Atoll. A Pattern of Islands (covers the early 1900s), and Ghost Stories And Other Island Tales: A colonial officer in the Gilbert Islands (covers the 1950s). Of course, neither are useful to trip planning – there are great internet blogs for that. It’s interesting to read about the place prior to modern times. Betio islet, the location of the famous WW2 battle had only about 400 people before the Japanese military started building an airfield there. Now over 17,000 people live on that tiny islet. It’s hard to imagine that sort of change in such a short time. Truly a unique and fascinating place.

 

[henry Higgins]

I’ve recently found the time to get back into bird watching and one of the (pleasant) tasks I’ve given myself is to sort through old computer image files and checklists to clean up my life list. I also want to share some pictures of birds that might not be all that commonly seen or easily reached. I’m hoping to provide something back to this web site as I have gained a lot of value from the wealth of information generously shared here.

For about five years (2009 -2014) I travelled for work to a handful of South Pacific Island locations, one of which was Tarawa Atoll. Well-known from its brutal WW2 era battle about 80years ago; it’s now part of the Republic of Kiribati, which encompasses the Line, Phoenix and Gilbert Island groups.

One picture I wanted to highlight contains the Pied Morph of the Pacific Reef Heron. According to “A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific,” (Princeton University Press, by Pratt, Bruner and Berrett) the Pied Morph is rare compared to the Dark and White Morphs. I have a picture below which shows a couple of White Morph birds along with a Pied Morph. I was surprised to see very few pictures of the Pied Morph on the internet so I thought I’d post the picture here. If I recall correctly, the White was by far the most common morph seen on Tarawa, followed by the Dark and Pied morphs. While least often seen, I would not say the Pied morph was rare on Tarawa when I was visiting there. I probably saw it daily, but only one or two. The Whites were pretty much seen anywhere. I’ll also post a close-up of the Pied bird, a rather poor picture of a dark morph bird, and the field guide details regarding the Pied Morph. I’ve seen the Reef Heron all over the Pacific, but Tarawa was probably the only place I regularly saw all three morphs.

Thanks for reading! In my next post I’ll describe a charming mating ritual involving these birds.

Hi Joe and thanks. I have been coming to Tarawa for work irregularly since 2013 and I am back here now. I haven't seen the Pied Morph here in Tarawa but I do see it Tonga regularly, as recently as 4 weeks ago. See attached.View attachment 1499545

 

[Joe H]

Wow! Internet service must have improved considerably since I was using the internet cafe in the Otintaai Hotel (Bikenibeu). I would have never tried to upload pictures or the system would have locked up forever. That's a great shot of the pied morph, Henry; I'm surprised you haven't seen any on Tarawa. The white morph was certainly the most common when I was there, but the dark and pied were regularly around. Enjoy your trip! I'll attach another picture from there, this one taken at noon on Betio. Being so close to the equator, I love that the sun was right overhead at mid-day.