29 Oct 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 3 - More Forest Trail Birding On Tanimbar

In the morning, we returned to forest area we had been Birding along on the previous morning. Initially, we hung around outside the forest edge looking for Pigeons, Parrots & other forest edge species. Finally, we carried along the track into the forest as the light improved: it would have been fairly dark in the forest in the first hour of light.

Tanimbar Cuckoo Dove

Elegant Imperial Pigeon

Tanimbar Cockatoo: It was good to finally see some wild, endemic Tanimbar Cockatoos given I had previous seen a few feral individuals in Singapore. We saw them daily on Tanimbar, but this was the first one that was close enough to photograph

Little Bronze-cuckoo: This is the distinctive crassirostris subspecies knows as Pied Bronze-cuckoo, which occurs on the Tanimbar & Kai Islands. It has been proposed as a potential split from the Little Bronze-cuckoo complex, but so far this proposal hasn't been accepted by Clements and IOC

Collared Kingfisher: This is the nominate chloris subspecies which occurs in Wallacea and NW West Papua. It is a widespread species which occurs from India, through South East Asia, Philippines, Borneo, Indonesia, New Guinea & Micronesia

Dollarbird: This is the connectens subspecies which occurs in Southern Sulawesi, the Tanimbar Islands and the Lesser Sundas. This widespread species occur in the Indian Subcontinent, the Himalayas across to China, Manchuria & Korea, South East Asia, Philippines, Borneo, Indonesia, New Guinea, Bismark Archipelago & Australia

Broad-billed Monarch: This is the fulviventris subspecies which occurs on the Tanimbar Islands. Other subspecies occur in the Lesser Sundas, New Guinea and Northern Australia

Tanimbar Starling: Adult & Juvenile of this endemic Starling

Tanimbar Starling: Adult

Tanimbar Starling: Juvenile

Scaly-breasted Munia: This is the blasii subspecies which occurs on the Tanimbar Islands and Eastern Lesser Sundas

We spent a fair bit of the morning looking for & finally seeing a Banda Sea Pitta close to the territorial borders of two pairs. Eventually, Wilbur picked up where one was singing from. The views were better than this photo suggests and it proved very difficult to get the camera to autofocus on it, thanks to leaves in the foreground.

Banda Sea Pitta: This recently split species occurs on the Tanimbar, Babar, Damar & Kai Islands and a few other neighbouring Banda Sea islands

Lizard sp.

Longhorn Beetle sp.

Longhorn Beetle sp.

We saw a few of this stunning shuttlecock-sized Fungi

Having seen the Banda Sea Pitta which was the main target species for the morning, Wilbur decided we would head back to the airport lake for an hour before we returned to the hotel for lunch.

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