NYC Birds visits Bora Bora

Hello birders (or followers through pity),

Massive apologies for the lack of updates over the past few weeks, however hopefully this weeks installment will make up for the void.

So we (Wifey and I) spent the last 9 days in French Polynesia to be exact Bora Bora, not specifically a birding holiday obviously or the wife would kill me. However, I did manage to get some good pics and get a number of new ticks, particularly driven by the fact it was my first time birding in this region of the World.

French Polynesia has a limited number of species I think 122 residents of which 27 are endemic. If you then break that down to a single Atoll (island) in the many archipelagos that make up French Polynesia it gives a feel for what could be expected - a relatively small cross section of species.

At the outset what an amazing place, it literally takes a day or two to get used to the fact that the scenery is real, to be very cliche it looks like a 'screensaver'. I was quick to work out the environment and on my first morning I set out to the edge of the Atoll to see the Pacific Ocean break on the old Volcano barrier reef and watch the sunrise.

I can honestly say (as a relatively well traveled individual) that watching the sight of the sun rise whilst standing at edge of the Atoll was one of the most humbling things I have ever seen, the emotion it evoked was immense. I went to see this every morning possible whilst I was there. The photo does it no justice at all, but does offer the view from the Atoll where the Pacific hits the edge of the dormant Volcano and creates the lagoon.

Enough of the scenery let's get onto the birds.

I did a daily stint around the resort and probably only picked up 20 odd species in total most of which were new to me. One of my favourites was the Zebra Dove, an ever present bird and certainly on heat at this time of year with the males displaying for the females regularly across the resort, an excellent courting ritual just which I had filmed it.

Zebra Dove

Another common bird around the resort was the Chestnut-breasted Munia. These were numerous and would roost in a great numbers in a particular tree near the beach at the resort. Pre-sunrise (5.30am) I would see up to 75 of these birds roosting. I managed to get some good shots of this bird during the week.

Chestnut-breasted Munia

On Day 2 of the vacation we went to swim with the sharks and the Rays, this gave rise to the opportunity of some sea birds as we would leave the lagoon and head outside the reef into the Pacific. It was a great day and managed to pick up some good birds, although taking photos of sea birds in flight (as always) proved challenging, I managed to get one or two that would hold up for the Blog.

Brown Booby

The list included Red-footed and Brown Booby (for UK birders these are relatives of the Gannet), Great Frigatebird, Great Crested Tern and Spectacled Tern all of which were new for me with the exception of the Great Crested Tern which I have seen on numerous occasions in the Middle East. This was a good day all round in particular swimming with the Stingrays, lovely, placid and inquisitive creatures.

Great Crested Tern

Over the coming week my numerous trips around the resort, boat trips across to the central island and visits to the edge of the Atoll brought some great views of Wandering Tattler, Pacific Reef Heron and Silvereye, all of which I managed to photo to some degree.

Wandering Tattler

The Tattler is part of the Sandpiper family and behaves very much like one although is a large bird for this family. There was a pair that resided at the edge of the Atoll, during one of the rainstorms we actually had one land on the deck of our villa. I really enjoyed watching this bird as it was lively, I think by the end of the week this particular bird had got used to seeing me so was comfortable with me getting closer.

Wandering Tattler

Pacific Reef Heron

In stark contrast I spent nearly all week trying to get a good shot of the Pacific Reef Heron and as you can see below my best attempt is barely Blogworthy. This bird is similar to its Western counterpart, and as the photo shows it is in the black morph.

The highlight for me of the holiday was the Silvereye. A lovely looking little bird with plenty of colours ranging from green through rustic red. The photo really doesn't do the bird justice. There was a flock that would circle the trees around the resort lagoon on a daily basis and I managed to catch up with the flock on a couple of occasions. You can obviously see where the name of the bird comes from with a striking prominent white eye ring.

Silvereye

All in all a good week for birding. Some other sightings included Swamp Harrier which was a tick for me but was unable to get a decent  photo and Common Mynah on the runway at Papeete airport.

Next blog we will be back in NYC for the migration season.