Birding the Kai Islands of Indonesia

Great Kai White-eye

 The next chapter in our just concluded trip to the southern Moluccas and the Tanimbar islands of Indonesia. After visiting Yandema Island in the Tanimbars and Buru Island, we flew to Tual on the island of Kai Kecil in the Kai group of islands in far eastern Indonesia. Our accommodation here was the pleasant Suita Indah Hotel. We saw Kai Coucal on the drive from the airport and in beachside scrub at nearby Ohoililir, we tracked down another Kai endemic, the White-tailed Monarch.

Black-eared Friarbird

The following day we boarded our chartered ferry early in the morning to visit Kai Besar Island, where our efforts were concentrated in the scrub around the Bukit Indah Mission.

Landing on Kai  Besar

 We found Kai Leaf-Warbler easily enough after a short hike up the trail along with plenty of Great Kai White-eyes, a species that is endemic to this islana. Also added to the list was Yellow-capped Pygmy-Parrot. In the afternoon we returned to Kai Kecil and found Island Whistler at Ohoililir.

Island Monarch

 Our third day was spent on the recently completed road to the airport, where there are numerous trails leading into nice stands of rainforest and small areas of cultivation. The birding here was excellent and this area appears certain to replace Ohoililir as the main birding destination for the Kai Islands. We found plenty of Little Kai White-eyes - a species endemic to Kai Kecil - along with Pied (Little) Bronze-Cuckoo (supposedly rare in the Kai islands but we ended up seeing quite a few) and Red-bellied Pitta.

Island Whistler

We were back at the airport on our final morning, seeing Kai Cicadabird and an unusually large flock of 18 migrating Channel-billed Cuckoos. Among other birds were distinctive Kai endemic subspecies of Australasian Figbird, Northern Fantail, Variable Goshawk and Arafura Fantail.

Kai Coucal

Australasian Figbird - Kai race

Little Kai White-eye

Northern Fantail - Kai race

Pied Bronze-Cuckoo

Variable Goshawk - juvenile, Kai race

Wallace's Fruit-Dove

 We found large numbers of Wallace's Fruit-Doves in the Kai islands and quite a few White-breasted Fruit-Doves.

White-breasted Fruit-Dove

Birding Indonesia's Yandema Island in the Tanimbars, Lesser Sundas

Arafura Fantail  

After our highly successful visit to Buru Island in Indonesia's southern Moluccas, we flew to the Tanimbars in the far east of the country, where for three days we were based in the town of Saumlaki on the island of Yamdena. While Buru is in the Moluccas, the Tanimbars are at the eastern extremity of the Lesser Sundas. We birded remnant patches of primary and secondary forest not too far from town, on sometimes wet and muddy walking trails.

Cinnamon-tailed Fantail

We succeeded in seeing all the Tanimbar endemics and specialties except for the scrubfowl, which is extremely difficult these days; we didn't try for it. Cinnamon-tailed Fantail was one of the more common endemics and local races of species such as Arafura Fantail were good to add to the list.

Five-coloured Munia

It was nice to catch up with species some of us had seen in the Lesser Sundas during our 2012 trip, like Five-coloured Munia and Tricoloured Parrotfinch.

Golden-bellied Flycatcher

Dusky Cuckoo-Dove

Tanimbar Oriole

Tanimbar specialties seen included Tanimbar Corella, Tanimbar Triller, Rufous-sided Gerygone, Tanimbar Flycatcher, Golden-bellied Flycatcher, Wallacean Whistler, Loetoe Monarch, Tanimbar Friarbird, Scaly-breasted Honeyeater, Tanimbar Oriole, Tanimbar Starling, Black-bibbed Monarch and Tanimbar Bush-Warbler. Tanimbar Boobook was seen very well on two occasions. It took a bit of time to track down some of the skulkier specialties such as Long-tailed Fantail, Slaty-backed thrush and Fawn-breasted Thrush.

Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove

Some races of more widespread species are so distinctive that they are likely to be elevated to species status. These include Dusky Cuckoo-Dove, Greater Wallacean Drongo and Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove.

Tanimbar Starling

Yellow-eyed Imperial-Pigeon

Greater Wallacean Drongo

Scaly-breasted Honeyeater

The group in transit from Saumlaki

Tanimbar Corella

Birding Indonesia's Buru Island

Buru Golden-Bulbul

Our group of seven Australians and Americans has concluded a great week of birding on Buru Island in the southern Moluccas of Indonesia. We saw 18 of a possible 20 (or 21, depending on what taxonomy you follow) species of bird that are endemic to Buru. (We were not within the range of the only two we missed.) The endemics we saw included the extremely rare Black-lored Parrot (see here). We were fortunate to see two other particularly difficult endemics. A Buru Thrush was on the road as light was breaking early one morning. A group of 5-6 Buru Honeyeaters were feeding over a small area of flowering shrubs; one of our group was able to record its little-known call. Buru Golden-Bulbul was one of the more widespread and common endemics.

Buru Jungle-Flycatcher

Our efforts were concentrated in the highlands, mostly between 900 and 1350 metres, along the Wamlana logging road and the recently completed logging road to Danau Rana. The Danau Rana road was particularly good. It was along here that nice endemics seen included Buru Jungle-Flycatcher and Buru Cuckoo-shrike, neither of which resemble the field guide illustrations much.

Buru Raquet-tail

The delightful Buru Raquet-tail, another endemic, was one of the most common birds we encountered. Other endemics we saw were Buru Oriole, Buru Friarbird, Buru Drongo, Buru Flowerpecker, Buru Mountain-Pigeon, Buru Leaf-Warbler, Tawny-backed Fantail, Buru Bush-Warbler, Black-tipped Monarch and Buru Green-Pigeon. The latter two species were in lowland rainforest patches near the villages of Barra and Eruba. Another highlight of the trip was seeing a Lesser Masked Owl along a rainforest track near Eruba; we were impressed at how small it was.

Drab Whistler - Buru race

Apart from endemic species there are quite a few subspecies endemic to the island, including Drab Whistler and Northern Fantail. Others, such as Pale Cicadabird, are endemic to Buru along with other Moluccan islands.

Northern Fantail - Buru race

Pale Cicadabird

Black-faced Munia

Widespread species included Black-faced Munia, Slender-billed Cuckoo-shrike and Brown Goshawk, although the endemic race of the latter, pictured here, appears to be quite distinctive.

Brown Goshawk - Buru race

Buru Drongo

Slender-billed Cuckoo-shrike

Spectacled Imperial-Pigeon

The impressive Spectacled Imperial-Pigeon was widespread. Other interesting birds included Black Eagle and a host of parrots including Red-cheeked, Eclectus, Moluccan King and Great-billed.

Moluccan King-Parrot

Tawny-backed Fantail

Black Eagle

Red-cheeked Parrot

The group at bird call at our accommodation, the comfortable Waspait Resort Buru.

And birding along the trail. Our trip to the southern Moluccas and far eastern Lesser Sundas began on Ambon Island.

Rare Black-lored Parrot Seen on Buru Island, Indonesia

Black-lored Parrot

The Black-lored Parrot, endemic to Buru Island in the southern Moluccas of Indonesia, can fairly be described as one of the most difficult birds to see in the wild. So our group was thrilled to find a Black-lored Parrot on the second day of our visit to Buru.

Black-lored Parrot

 We were birding at an altitude of about 1050 metres on the fairly new logging track leading to Danau Rana, which runs off the Wamlana logging road, well-known to birders visiting Buru. A large green parrot flew across the road in front of us and landed perhaps 30 metres away in the sub-canopy. It sat there for several minutes, affording superb views, as can be seen from these images.

Black-lored Parrot

Interestingly, the bird was seen in the heat of a sunny day at about 1pm. This parrot is so rarely seen that until recently, it was thought to be nocturnal. A Black-lored Parrot was seen by Craig Robson's Birdquest tour in 2012 late in the morning, further suggesting that this species is not nocturnal. However, several parrots were seen by James Eaton post-dusk, also in 2012, and a flock was reportedly heard calling after dark last August. These images and those of Craig are believed to be the only ones taken of Black-lored Parrot in the wild.

Black-lored Parrot

The parrot was the icing on the cake of a very successful visit to Buru - see here - and elsewhere on the trip when we visited Seram, seeing Blue-eared Lory among other things, as well as the Tanimbars and Kai Islands.

This is the spot where the parrot was seen on the Danau Rana road.

The road is a little tough going in places. Certainly a high clearance 4x4 is need to get up there.

Ambon - First Stop on Southern Moluccas Trip

Our three-week trip to the southern Moluccas and far eastern Lesser Sundas kicked off today with a morning in the field on the Indonesian island of Ambon. Our group proved popular with the locals as we checked out the scrub patches along Tulahu Road.

Lazuli Kingfisher

 The highlight of the morning was a pair of fine Lazuli Kingfishers. This species is endemic to Ambon and neighbouring Seram and can be difficult to find, so it was nice to have it under our belts so early in the trip.

Lazuli Kingfisher - female left, male right

 We also managed excellent views of Ambon White-eye, the only bird endemic to Ambon. We saw individual white-eyes in two spots along the road through secondary forest.

Slaty Flycatcher

Slaty Flycatcher, a Moluccan endemic, was common. Other species included Moluccan and Metallic Starlings, Superb and Claret-breasted Fruit-Doves, Seram (Spanged) Drongo, Black-breasted (Olive-backed) and Black Sunbirds, Ashy Flowerpecker (endemic to Ambon and Seram),  Red-cheeked Parrot, Seram Swiftlet, Uniform and Glossy Swiftlets, Collared Kingfisher, Seram Golden Bulbul (endemic to Ambon and Seram), Grey-streaked Flycatcher, Arctic Warbler and Spectacled Monarch.

Metallic Starling