This is the fourth & final Blog Post detailing the Flying Fish we saw on the crossing from the Tanimbar Islands to Babar Island. The previous three Blog Posts covered the Seabirds, an Olive Ridley Turtle & Cetaceans that we saw.
Regular readers who read the Atlantic Odyssey Blog Posts will know that I also really enjoyed seeing & photographing the Flying Fish we saw in the warmer Atlantic waters. I was looking forward to the Banda Sea Cruise as I was expecting to see good numbers of Flying Fish at regular intervals: I was not disappointed. At this point, I have not been able to identify any of the Flying Fish that we saw, so I am using my own nicknames for the different species.
The commonest species of Flying Fish were the Small Clearwing Flying Fish. They were a gregarious small species of Flying Fish that clearly feed in large shoals as suddenly we could see a hundred or more erupt out of the water on either side of the boat. I noted about twelve hundred on this first crossing. They were the smallest Flying Fish maybe about six inches long, with a plain clear wing with a white trailing edge and no small fins on the body close to the tail. All these features were very similar to the Small Clearwing (Exocoetus sp.) that we saw in the tropical Atlantic on the Atlantic Odyssey and West African Pelagic. However, there are two common species in the tropical Atlantic, Exocoetus volitans and Exocoetus obtusirostris, and both of these Exocoetus species occur within the Banda Sea. Exocoetus volitans can be distinguished from Exocoetus obtusirostris by having a less blunt snout and by the origin of the anal fin being at a location behind the origin of the dorsal fin. That isn't possible to see in any of my photos.
The second species of Flying Fish were these Indonesian Large Flying Fish. They would erupt out of the water on their own or in small groups involves only a few individuals. They were noticeably larger than the Indonesian Clearwing Flying Fish and closer to twelve six inches long, with a plain darker wing with a white trailing edge and small fins on the body close to the tail. All these features were very similar to one of the larger Flying Fish, Four-winged Flying Fish (Hirundichthys affinis), that we saw in the tropical Atlantic from the Atlantic Odyssey. I photographed ten on this first crossing.
As I was sorting the photos out, I realised I had photographed more than one large species of large Flying Fish. This is the second species that I saw. I didn't notice this species when we were on the Lady Denok so they must have been a similar size to the Indonesian Large Flying Fish. It's difficult to confirm how many we saw, but I photographed three individuals. They were superficially similar to the Indonesian Large Flying Fish, but they had dark wing tips & dark spots near the trailing edge of the wing. Like The Indonesian Large Flying Fish they had small fins on the body close to the tail. I've nicknamed them Indonesian Spot-winged Flying Fish.
I've saved the best looking of the Flying Fish, to the end. I've nicknamed this as Indonesian Yellow-winged Flying Fish for obvious reasons. The photos confirmed I saw at least five of these lovely large Flying Fish which an obvious broad yellow forewing and plain dark grey rear wing and small dark and pale-edged fins close to the tail.
It will be back to land birding in the next Blog Post as we spent the late afternoon with some bonus Birding on the Eastern end of Babar.