Troublesome Birds - New Caledonia (1 Viewer)

[delia todd]

Pacific Fruit Pigeon - Avibase gives Ducula pacifica which is Pacific Imperial Pigeon which Opus says is extinct!


**A search for Whistling Eagle produces Haliastur sphenurus on Avibase which finds both Brahminy Kite and Whistling Kite in Opus - I'm presuming the one I want is Whistling Kite but thought I'd flag up the oddity before doing the re-direct.

D

 

[njlarsen]

I went ahead and edited the Brahminy Kite so that is no longer shows the incorrect scientific name.

I hope someone with local knowledge will look at the others.

Niels

 

[delia todd]

Thanks Neils

I've just gone through all the New Caledonia articles and put them all on the list, in the first post, along with the islands they're found on.

D

 

[Xenospiza]

I guess the writer read this: http://www.geocities.com/www_australia/report-new-caledonia-dec-1999.html – is it mentioned?

Notou - New Caledonian Imperial-Pigeon (Notu Pigeon is an alternative name)
Honeyeater - Mont Mou... too many species
Fantail - Streaked
White-eye - Green-backed
Banded Rail - Buff-banded Rail
Friarbird - New Caledonian
Frigatebird - Both Great and Lesser occur
Cuckoo-Shrike - Melanesian & New Caledonian occur
New Caledonian Flycatcher - alternative name for Melanesian Flycatcher
Noddy - Brown, Black, Blue-grey occur
Australian Bittern - (Avibase gives 2 Black-backed and Australasian. Presume it's the last?) Yes
Australian White-eyed Pochard - New Caledonia (Hardhead?) Yes
Brown Tern - probably meant Noddy?
White Tern - Gygis alba
Metallic (tern or dove - can't find either- New Caledonia (metallic comes between terns and doves LOL) - Columba vitiensis, alternative name for White-throated Dove
Pacific Fruit Pigeon - Avibase gives Ducula pacifica which is Pacific Imperial Pigeon which Opus says is extinct! It's not extinct
New Caledonian Rainbow Lorikeet. Rainbow Lorikeet? Likely
Golden Cuckoo - Shining Bronze-Cuckoo seems likely.
Long-tailed Cuckoo - usual New Zealand name for Long-tailed Koel
White-bellied Swiftlet - New Caledonia. Glossly Swiftlet - but I don't see N.C mentioned in distribution. Guess they forgot it!
Horned Lorikeet - Horned Parakeet, Eunymphicus cornutus
New Caledonia Grass Warbler - New Caledonia (Megalurulus mariei in Avibase not on Opus). M. mariei is right. Curious it's not there, no one ever lumps it, so must have been overseen.
Grey-backed White-eye - Probably Silvereye
Crow - New Caledonian Crow
Chestnut-breasted Manakin - Chestnut-breasted Munia (Mannikin is the Australian word for Munia, you'll see it again!)

 

[jthoppes]

New Caledonia Grass Warbler - New Caledonia (Megalurulus mariei in Avibase not on Opus). M. mariei is right. Curious it's not there, no one ever lumps it, so must have been overseen.

This is surely a reference to the bird listed in opus as New Caledonian Grassbird M. mariae.

 

[njlarsen]

Chestnut-breasted Manakin is Chestnut-breasted Munia I believe

notou = New Caledonian Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula goliath) according to this source http://www.notornis.org.nz/free_issues/Notornis_50-2003/Notornis_50_3_155.pdf

Regarding Frigatebird, both lesser and great should be in the area, which one was seen in a visit is difficult to know.

New Caledonian Friarbird Philemon diemenensis Endemic should be the only Friarbird according to Avibase

On the other hand there is a slew of honeyeaters there ... and two fantails: gray and streaked

three species of white-eye and a silvereye

Three Cuckoo-shrikes, however, New Caledonian Cuckoo-shrike is endemic and therefore notable ...

Edit: Melanesian Flycatcher Myiagra caledonica is the only one labeled as flycatcher, even though several other species has that behavior

For the bittern, Australasian is listed as extirpated/endangered, so probably not much chance of seeing that one. Black in not on the list for NC

White tern seems to be Common White Tern. On the other hand, noddy could be any of several (even though I always suspect brown noddy when noddy is written without qualifyer, as BN is the most common species in most places. On the other hand, Brown tern could also refer to this: really too much of a guessing game).

Australian White-eyed Pochard - New Caledonia (Hardhead?) - I agree

Banded Rail - Farino sounds like Buff-banded Rail (Gallirallus philippensis)

Metallic Pigeon Columba vitiensis is on the list

Ducula pacifica which is Pacific Imperial Pigeon: there must be a mixup in Opus, as the bird is listed with least concern by Birdlife International! http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=2718&m=0

New Caledonian Rainbow Lorikeet : I think this is the case of a local subspecies. Avibase has Rainbow lorikeet split much more than Opus, but even so, no New Caledonian RL. There was a New Caledonian Lorikeet according to Opus, but that one has not been seen for almost a century.

Golden Cuckoo: I wont start guessing which of the four species of Cuckoos. Avibase finds a Golden Cuckooshrike which does not overlap

Long-tailed Cuckoo: Long-tailed Koel Eudynamys taitensis

White-bellied Swiftlet - New Caledonia. Glossly Swiftlet - but I don't see N.C mentioned in distribution: included in the distribution in Avibase. This is still one of the weak spots in a lot of the Opus entries I have looked more carefully at.

Horned Lorikeet: there is a Horned Parakeet Eunymphicus cornutus Endemic according to Avibase

New Caledonian Grassbird Megalurulus mariae will probably take care of the grass warbler

Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis) is the only one among a number of hits that also appear in NC when I searched for Gray-backed white-eye

New Caledonian Crow Corvus moneduloides Endemic is supposedly the only crow

For the very ambigous species, it probably is best to PM the original contributor.

Cheers
Niels

 

[jthoppes]

Ducula pacifica which is Pacific Imperial Pigeon: there must be a mixup in Opus, as the bird is listed with least concern by Birdlife International! http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=2718&m=0

A quick google search reveals that the paragraph in this opus entry is in fact the abstract of G.M. Wragg and T.H. Worthy, "A new species of extinct imperial pigeon (Ducula : Columbidae) from Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group," Historical Biology 18:2 (2006). Therefore it should be removed from opus for copyright reasons and replaced with something relevant to the extant species.

 

[delia todd]

Golly! that took me ages:-O Thanks a lot everyone.

Pacific Fruit Pigeon - Avibase gives Ducula pacifica which is Pacific Imperial Pigeon which Opus says is extinct! It's not extinct

OK I've been googling:news:

The extinct species is Ducula columbidae and the text for that species has been copied into the article for Ducula pacifica - it was apparently a new discovery.

Should this text just be deleted, or put elsewhere for information?

D

 

[njlarsen]

I just checked, there is an entry for the Dodo, so an entry for another extinct bird is OK. However, I cannot from the abstract see either scientific or common name of the extinct species, so we might let it go for now? (Notice the colon ) between the two words: Ducula : Columbidae, and that Columbidae is capitalized).

I think we should wait with having an entry for the extint species until it appears in the appendix with extinct species in some checklist. That would fit with the policy of only accepting splits after they have been accepted by the authorities.

In the meantime, the abstract definitely does not belong in this entry. applying the normal template and starting to fill in details would be the next thing in line, I guess.

Cheers
Niels

 

[njlarsen]

I had overlooked that Xenospiza answered the same species with about the same results during the time it took me to find all the different info I included in my answer. I guess two is better than none, right?

Niels

 

[jthoppes]

However, I cannot from the abstract see either scientific or common name of the extinct species, so we might let it go for now?

A look at the full text of the article reveals the name proposed for the new species as D. harrisoni, although I agree that there is no need to multiply entries for prehistoric extinctions.

 

[njlarsen]

I deleted the abstract and made a start on an entry for the real Pacific Imperial Pigeon. I also changed the Pacific Fruit-dove reference to Imperial Pigeon in the New Caledonia entry. But looking at the checklist in the latter, there are a couple of species which probably should be move to "rarities", "hypotheticals" or something similar, as they have not been documented for a very long time.

Cheers
Niels
Niels