30 Oct 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 4 - The Tanimbar Cockatoo Goffin Lab

It was our final morning on Tanimbar and it was an early start to have a final look for a Lesser Masked Owl. I think we all expected it to be unsuccessful, but we had to give it a final attempt anyway. We were proven right as the dawn broke.

Sunrise over the forest edge: Bang goes the last chance of good views of the Tanimbar subspecies of Lesser Masked Owl. Fortunately, I had at least seen a flypast sighting from the car & I went on to see excellent views of the Seram subspecies on the following Moluccan trip

Sunrise over the forest edge

After a dawn roadside breakfast, we drove onto the nearby Tanimbar Cockatoo centre or Goffin Lab. This is run by an Austrian university team who are studying the Tanimbar Cockatoos, as well as, carrying out a lot of public engagement. The team have been studying the Tanimbar Cockatoos on a neighbouring forest reserve, as well on the farmland adjacent to the centre and reserve. They are also carrying wider studies into the Tanimbar Cockatoo populations on the Tanimbar Islands. An important part of their work is public engagement to spread the word across the islands that the Tanimbar Cockatoos are endemic to the islands, need better protection & working to ensure the trade in wild caught Cockatoos is being stopped. A key part of the work involves a lot of visits to schools to help get this message across to the next generation. It was good to hear about their important work.

The Tanimbar Goffin Lab

Mark O'Hara (on the left) from the Tanimbar Goffin Lab telling us about their work: Steve Kornfeld, Tony Palliser, Peter Marsh, Richard Carden, Arthur Geilvoet & Robin Marsh (left to right)

We had a short walk onto the neighbouring farm as it provided a good viewing position to look for flying over Tanimbar Cockatoos, Pigeons & Starlings. The main target for the morning was the Tanimbar subspecies of Metallic Starling which IOC have now split as Violet-hooded Starling. This will be another armchair Tick when I upgrade my database from Clements to IOC. We saw a number flying over, but I failed to get any photos.

Tanimbar Cockatoo

Tanimbar Cockatoo

Tanimbar Triller

Since I've written the original Blog Post, I've been in touch with Mark O'Hara and he has kindly sent me this photo of the Tanimbar subspecies of Metallic Starling, which he took on the morning of our visit.

Metallic Starling: This photo was taken by Mark O'Hara of the Tanimbar Goffin Lab & the copyright remains with Mark. IOC have now split this as Violet-hooded Starling. I still need to upgrade to IOC taxonomy before I can Tick it: as Clements still regards it as a subspecies of Metallic Starling

By mid-morning, we were heading back to the hotel to complete our packing.

I never found out the significance of this Giant Chicken statue

Another statue on the edge of Saumlaki

This is probably the only dual carriageway on the island in what looked to be the main administration part of Saumlaki

A more typical road scene in the town

A typical small Indonesian shop selling lots of low price, but essential, goods

There was time for a quick final look at the bay from the hotel which added a Great-billed Heron to my trip list.

Great-billed Heron: This is the nominate sumatrana subspecies which occurs in coastal regions of South East Asia, Philippines, Indonesia & New Guinea. Another subspecies occurs in tropical Australia

Great-billed Heron

Locals emptying the fish nets at low tide

The bags were loaded into the vehicles & we were off to the dock to board the Lady Denok: our luxury home for the next two weeks.

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.