6 Nov 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 11 - The Final Visit To The Wetar Hills

We had a slightly later start as we had seen the Wetar Nightbirds on the first day: but it was still a dawn landing back in the village on Wetar. It was another slow drive in the knackered lorry & we returned to the site we had been Birding at on the previous evening. After another unsuccessful search for Olive-shouldered Lorikeet there, we tried another roadside stop in drier forest compared to the previous morning. The main highlight of the morning was my first Timor Imperial Pigeon. This species is hard to see in Timor without going to a montane location that we didn't visit in 1991. They are easier to see in East Timor, which wasn't possible to visit at the time.

Bonelli's Eagle: This is the renschi subspecies which is endemic to the Lesser Sundas

Black-backed Fruit-dove: This is the nominate cinctus subspecies which occurs on Timor, Wetar & Romang Islands

Pink-headed Imperial Pigeon: This monotypic species is found on islands in the Java Sea & Flores Sea, as well as, some of the smaller & larger islands in the Lesser Sundas

Red-cheeked Parrot: This is the nominate geoffroyi subspecies which occurs on Timor, Wetar & Samau. This is a widespread species which occurs from the Lesser Sundas to the Moluccas, Tanimbar & Kai Islands, New Guinea, & North Australia

Marigold Lorikeet: This is the flavotectus subspecies which occurs on Wetar. Two other subspecies occur on Timor & Sumba, making this Marigold Lorikeet a Lesser Sundas endemic. Marigold Lorikeet is one of six species that were split from Rainbow Lorikeet a few years ago

Helmeted Friarbird: According to Clements & IOC, this is the buceroides subspecies which occurs in Timor, Wetar, Semau, Sawu & Rote. There is another subspecies in the larger Lesser Sunda Islands, as well as, other subspecies in New Guinea & Northern Australia. The Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago have proposed splitting the two Lesser Sundas subspecies as Tenggara Friarbird from the subspecies in New Guinea & Northern Australia, on the basis of morphological & vocal differences, as well as, a fairly deep genetic divergence

Fawn-breasted Whistler: This is a monotypic species that is restricted to Timor, Semau, Jaco & Wetar

Wetar Figbird: Female. This is a Wetar endemic

Long-tailed Shrike: This is the bentet subspecies which occurs in Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and Lesser Sundas. Other subspecies occur in Iran, the Indian Subcontinent, East & South China, Taiwan, Burma, Thailand, the Philippines & New Guinea

Long-tailed Shrike

Indonesian Butterfly sp.

Indonesian Butterfly sp.: This would look good if it wasn't so knackered

Cicada sp.: This Cicada joined on the back of the lorry

More roadside Birding on the way back to the village

It was now late morning & time to return to the Lady Denok for lunch. Two distant Jungle Crows were waiting on the beach.

Village Houses

Getting On & Off The Lorry

Jungle Crow: This is the nominate macrorhynchos subspecies which occurs in Southern Indochina, the Malay-Thai Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Bali & the Lesser Sundas. Other subspecies occur in North East Asia, China, Japan, the Indian subcontinent, Burma & the Philippines

5 Nov 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 10 - A Plethora Of Pigeons On The First Day On Wetar

The crew had motored overnight so that we were off the island of Wetar: our base for the next three days. Wetar has a good selection of species that overlaps with the neighbouring & larger island of Timor, to its South. This includes the Indonesian West of the island and East Timor at the Eastern end.

We woke early for another well before dawn breakfast on the Lady Denok. One of the great things is the Lady Denok team were good at providing a substantial breakfast regardless of the start time. It helped given how early it was. After eating, we were quickly in the boats & heading to the shore. An open backed lorry arrived just after us in the village. We jumped in the back & were soon on our way up into the hills. It proved to be a slow journey as the lorry ended up going down into first gear on every hill: as the engine was knackered. It was the first of three slow drives across the island, as every lunchtime we returned back to the boat.

The first highlights were a couple of Timor Nightjars a few miles out of town on the road. One was giving its tok-tok-tok call, which didn't too dissimilar to what I remember of Large-tailed Nightjar. Perhaps it's call is more subtly distinctive as the Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago field guide states that while it was previously considered as conspecific with Large-tailed Nightjar, it has been proposed as a new species with a range of Timor & Wetar based up its distinct vocalisations. Perhaps not suprising as Mees's Nightjar, which occurs on Flores, Alor, Pantar & Sumba, was split from Large-tailed Nightjar about a decade ago by Clements & IOC. I think this is a case of the paper being written to formally propose the reasons for Timor Nightjar to be split.

Birding From The Lorry: This shows the high hills on the island

Graham Tebb

Roadside Birding

After watching the Timor Nightjars on the road, we carried on slowly trundling up the hill. It quickly started to get lighter & the light was reasonable by the time we have reached our destination about halfway across the island. This was the first session of roadside Birding. Quite often roadside Birding isn't great as you end up having to keep moving to the edge of the road as traffic passes. But when that is only a couple of times an hour, it's wasn't that bad on this occasion. This morning was a good morning for seeing Pigeons & Doves.

Timor Zebra Dove: This is also known as Barred Dove

Little Cuckoo Dove: This is the orientalis subspecies which occurs on Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo, Flores, Sumba, Pantar, Timor & Wetar. This is the most South Eastern subspecies. Other subspecies occur in Burma, Thailand, Yunnan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra, Java & Bali

Dusky Cuckoo Dove: This is also known as Timor Cuckoo Dove, but I will stick with the name that was used in 1991. This is a monotypic species which occurs on Timor, Wetar Alor, Romang, Kisar, Leti, Moa & Sermata Islands

Black Cuckoo Dove: This species in restricted to Timor, Wetar & Rota. I was glad to see this species well, as my only sighting of this distinctive species back in 1991, was an individual that flew past us

Black-backed Fruit-dove: Another island & another subspecies. This is the nominate cinctus subspecies which occurs on Timor, Wetar & Romang Islands

Pink-headed Imperial Pigeon: This is a small island specialist which is found on islands in the Java Sea & Flores Sea, as well as, some of the smaller & larger islands in the Lesser Sundas

Pink-headed Imperial Pigeon

Pink-headed Imperial Pigeon

Pink-headed Imperial Pigeon

In one of the roadside stops, I picked up two distant Eagles that were over a couple of miles away flying over the distant cliffs. Fortunately, they took pity on our inabilities to identify them at that range & glided over towards the cliffs on our side of the valley. They didn't pass that close, but they were close enough to allow us to confirm they were Bonelli's Eagles.

Bonelli's Eagle: This is the renschi subspecies which is endemic to the Lesser Sundas. The other subspecies occurs from Southern Europe to India, Southern China & Indochina

I will cover the other species seen on Wetar on the first day in the next Blog Post.