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

28 Oct 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 2 - Open Country Tanimbar Birding

The first full day was another good day for seeing the birdlife on Tanimbar. It was initially spent along a roadside in the early morning. After the early morning roadside session, we did try another ex-logging track into a different piece of forest. The whole of the afternoon session was roadside Birding. While we saw a good selection of obvious open country species, many were seen perched up at a distance or in flight. As a result, I ended up taking fewer photographs due to the distances involved.

Crossing a clearing to the morning's forest patch

Some parts of the forest looked reasonable

Another tree lost to the local woodcutters

Tanimbar Monarch: As the name suggests this gorgeous Monarch is another Tanimbar endemic

Slaty-backed Thrush: I won't complain about views of another of these stunning endemic Thrushes

A large part of the time Birding on the logging track was dedicated to trying to see a Banda Sea Pitta. Elegant Pitta used to be one species which occurred on a number of Lesser Sunda and Banda Sea islands, as well as, occurring as a non-breeding visitor on some of the Southern Moluccan islands. It has recently been split into three species: Temminck's Elegant Pitta, Wallace's Elegant Pitta & Banda Sea Pitta, based upon pronounced plumage and vocal differences. I saw the first two species on my first visit to Indonesia in Sumba and Flores, respectively. The Latter species was still a Tick for me. Wilbur was trying hard to encourage one individual to show for the group, but it was stubbornly remaining in cover. Finally, it popped up onto an open branch & I had a clear view of it, but there wasn't enough time to raise the camera. Unfortunately, for the others it dropped down before any of them could reach my position a few metres away from the group. We had spent a lot on time looking for this one individual, with little satisfaction for most of the group. But this point, it was late morning and time to start heading back to the hotel for lunchhh.

Unknown Lizard

Another unknown Lizard

These orange berries were fairly common along the track

We headed back into the field in the early afternoon with another plan to stay out after dark for Owls. This time is was to be roadside Birding from a road on the East side of Yamdena.

Roadside Birding: The road was largely in degraded forest, but it provided views of better condition forest in a deep valley & on the distant hillside

Wallace's Fruit-dove

Elegant Imperial Pigeon: This is a small island specialist which occurs on small islands in the Kai and Tanimbar Islands, Banda Sea & Lesser Sundas

Blue-streaked Lory: This is a Tanimbar, Babar & Damar endemic which has also been introduced to the Kai Islands

White-breasted Woodswallow: This is the musschenbroeki subspecies which occurs on the Tanimbar and Babar Islands. It is a widespread species occurring from the Philippines, through Borneo, Indonesia, New Guinea, to Australia & New Caledonia

Cinnamon-tailed Fantail: This lovely Fantail is a Tanimbar & Babar endemic

Cinnamon-tailed Fantail: That's an impressive broad bill

Cinnamon-tailed Fantail

Tanimbar Flyrobin: This is another Tanimbar endemic

Mistletoebird: This is the fulgidum subspecies of the largely Australian Mistletoebird. The Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago has been proposed to split this & the Kai Island subspecies as Salvadori's Flowerpecker based upon plumage differences, but this split has not been adopted by Clements or IOC yet

We stayed out till well after dusk looking for the Tanimbar subspecies of Lesser Masked Owl. Frustratingly, we had no luck. On the drive back to the hotel, Tony & I saw a Lesser Masked Owl fly across the road from the lead vehicle's headlights. We stopped the vehicles only to find we were next to one of the many army camps on the island: not a place that was sensible to try any further searching. On the last evening, Tony & a couple of the others had good views of a Lesser Masked Owl close to where we had been looking on this evening. Unfortunately, the rest of the group were too late in reaching the location. This proved to be the only Tanimbar endemic that not all the group saw.