29 Oct 2022

29 Oct 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 3 - A Few More Tanimbar Species

After lunch we returned for another afternoon & early evening session along the Eastern Road of the island. We stayed out after dark looking for Lesser Masked Owl, but as mentioned in an earlier Blog Post as a result of the group splitting up, only three of the group had views that evening. Tony & I had seen one fly across the road as we were driving back to the hotel on the previous evening, but that was far from ideal views.
Timor Zebra Dove: This is more commonly known as Barred Dove. I've kept to the name I originally knew it as during my first visit to Indonesia, as I generally get confused with the names for this group of similar-looking small Doves
Timor Zebra Doves occur on the Lesser Sunda & Tanimbar Islands, with an introduced population on Bali. The similar-looking Zebra Dove occurs on Sumatra, Java & Bali with introduced populations on Borneo, Sulawesi, Seram and a number of other countries around the world.
Zebra Dove: Zebra Doves have pale blue, not pale yellow, orbital skin. Tahiti (3 Nov 14)
There is a very distinctive subspecies of Little Bronze-cuckoo on the Tanimbar Islands: called Pied Bronze-cuckoo. The Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago propose it should be split based on the distinct vocal & morphological differences, but so far Clements and IOC have not adopted this proposed split.
Little Bronze-cuckoo: This is the distinctive crassirostris subspecies knows as Pied Bronze-cuckoo, which occurs on the Tanimbar & Kai Islands
Little Bronze-cuckoo: This is the distinctive crassirostris subspecies knows as Pied Bronze-cuckoo
Little Bronze-cuckoo: This is what Little Bronze-cuckoos normally look like. East Babar (31 Oct 22)
Banda Myzomela: This is the annabellae subspecies which occurs on the Tanimbar & Babar Islands
Banda Myzomela: The taxonomy of the Indonesia Myzomelas is likely to continue changing over the near future. Currently, Clements and IOC consider this as Banda Myzomela, which occurs on the Tanimbar & Babar islands with a second subspecies on the Moluccan Banda Islands. The Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago have proposed these two subspecies are split on the basis of strong vocal and some plumage differences. The authors have proposed this species should be called Tanimbar Myzomela
Banda Myzomela
Tanimbar Flyrobin
Tanimbar Flyrobin