Survey Of Maninita Island - PacificBirds.com

The Pink-billed Parrotfinch Erythrura kleinschmidti is a little known finch of the forests of the Fijian island of Viti Levu. A single-island endemic, the Parrotfinch is currently classified as Endangered.

It is a distinctive parrotfinch, considerably larger and heavier than the related Fiji Parrotfinch E.pealeii, generally olive green with a black face, a bluish crown and nape, a red rump and an enormous glossy pink bill.
The Pink-billed Parrotfinch has always been considered rare and has been very seldom seen by either professional ornithologists or keen birders. In the last decade it has been lost from one area near Suva – Fiji’s capital, where it was relatively regularly seen in former times, and there have been very few reported sightings anywhere else with only four confirmed sightings since 1990. The most recent, in forests close to Suva in June 2002, by Wildlife Conservation Society researchers David and Linda Olson.
Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens will fund surveys to clarify the conservation status of the Pink-billed Parrotfinch over a period of a year from August 2002. The surveys will be conducted by Dick Watling, and an important component of the surveys will be to provide initial field training for Alifereti Naikatini, who is currently working with the Institute of Applied Science at the University of the South Pacific and is registered for an M.Sc. on forest bird communities in Fiji. Alifereti's MSc is being sponsored by BirdLife International.
The lack of research information on the status of Fiji’s rare birds and the absence of local ornithological expertise fulfills four of the priority Actions identified in Fiji’s Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (1999), ensures that the research and surveys, together with capacity building, is fully supported by the Government. Specifically:
Action 60: to review the status of threatened species and prioritise species for conservation initiatives.
Action 61: to encourage conservation management-oriented research on threatened species to identify the causes of decline.
Action 63: to prepare threatened species management plans to include where appropriate linkages with the best international expertise.
Action 97: ……attachments and collaboration are encouraged to develop national expertise in biodiversity and bioresource research and management.

Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens is a small progressive zoo located near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK. Although small the zoo has a well-deserved reputation of excellence for its conservation-oriented approach (www.thrigbyhall.co.uk) . Thrigby Hall was one of the first collections of animals to be signed over, in entirety, to the Joint Management of Species Programme and cooperates in the international captive breeding programme of several highly threatened species including the Babirusa, Red Panda and Clouded and Snow Leopards. Thrigby Hall runs a small Conservation Fund and for several years prior to its interest in the Pink-billed Parrot-finch has supported Shelagh Rosenthal in her study of the Owston's Palm Civet in Vietnam.

Maninita, the southernmost island of the Vava’u group is an important seabird nesting site and a proposed national protected area as originally identified by the Government of Tonga’s Ministry of Lands, Survey and Natural Resources. Two surveys have been undertaken as a component of the Tonga NZODA Nature Tourism Programme, a preliminary survey was undertaken 29 May – 2 June 2001 and a baseline survey Nov 31-Dec 8 2001.

In June 2002, the rats were removed from the island.

The Baseline Survey Preliminary Report can be downloaded

Please click here to download.

The World Parrot Trust has funded a four month study on the Red-throated Lorikeet, an Endangered species. The survey was led by Dr Kirsty Swinnerton with Aleksandra Malkjovic and was conducted from November 2001 through April 2002.

No Lorikeets were seen during the survey which was a great disappointment to all involved, especially to Kirsty and Aleks whose patience, perseverence and hard work in very difficult conditions went unrewarded. Although no Lorikeets were seen much was learned and we are all very grateful to both Kirsty and Aleks, as well as the World Parrot Trust for funding the survey and we hope they can return to carry on the work at a different time of year.

The status of the Red-throated Lorikeet may now have to be reconsidered and re-classified as Critically Endangered.

Please click here to download the Preliminary Survey Report

By Peter Vaughan. Email: petervaughan@bigpond.com

In 2000 while staying on Mololo Lailai Island, I believe I saw a Fijian Grass Owl. The circumstances of the sighting are as follows:
On the 18th May, 2000 I was walking at about 6:30 in the evening, near the swampy area on the eastern end of Mololo Lailai. The moon was providing quite strong light, and the nearby lights of the resort allowed visibility
of birds in the air. I was walking along a dirt road when a bird roosting on the road flew up in front of me. As the bird flew above me at a height of about 5 metres I recognised it as a Grass Owl by its leading edge shape and the legs extending past the end of the tail by about 8 cms. The feet were clearly visible. The bird landing on the ground about 20 metres behind me and I ran back to where it was but it ran off into long grass and could not be flushed again.
The sighting was only for a matter of seconds. I have never sighted a Grass Owl in the wild before, but have searched for them. I attended the Owl conference in Australia (1998?) and I had lengthy discussions with people familiar with Grass Owls as they have been a species I have been interested in sighting.
I returned to Mololo Lailai to search for the Grass Owl in 2001. We used call backs and spotlighting. We observed a number of white owls, but suspect they were Barn Owls. One white owl was observed on the ground, but it was in short grass and may have been a Barn Owl that had captured prey. White owls were observed at least 50% of nights.
Questioning the locals produced the following results:
Two expatriates reported flushing white owls from the ground previously. The Fijian women would go crab hunting around December every year. They would only go in groups of three or more as they were terrified by "devils" in the long grass. On questioning these "devils" were described as white faces that came to the edge of the grass. They were normal size faces without bodies. When they shone their torches on them their eyes shone red.
If the "devils" were disturbed they moved rapidly off into the grass. I suspect the local women are seeing Grass Owls. When I asked them if they thought they could have been Grass Owls, and I showed them a picture of a Grass Owl, they burst out laughing and laughed for the next week. They now believe they have been seeing Grass Owls.
There has recently been a sighting of two white owls flushed from long grass during the daytime on Mololo Lailai (May 2002).