Indonesia Update 7: Pulau Biak
After more than 5,000 kilometers and hundreds of new birds, Ethan finally reached the most distant point of his itinerary, the island of Biak. He appreciated the relative flatness of the terrain and the birds seemed much friendlier and more cooperative than they had on the mainland which lifted his spirits but he was mostly excited to search for the Biak Myzomela. You see, while you may have thought that all the strange and spectacular birds Ethan and I have shared with you over the last few months would have been enough to have tempted Ethan to journey those thousands of kilometers, and perhaps they would have been eventually, in truth he has, like Captain Ahab, been possessed with a secret purpose this whole time which can only now be revealed. One morning, back in March, Ethan was clicking through random Ebird frequency lists, as he is want to do when he is bored, when he stumbled upon the Biak Myzomela and noticed something interesting. Despite it having decent frequency numbers at a few (relatively) well birded hotspots, it had apparently never been photographed, at least by someone with the decency to add it to the McCauley Library, and its Ebird profile was missing a picture. Excited by the opportunity to right this wrong in the world, Ethan quickly planned a route through the Indonesian archipelago to ostensibly work on bolstering his Asian and Australasian numbers but that would conveniently deposit him at the Myzomela’s home. But Biak is home to many other birds too and perhaps Ethan is not as monomaniacal as he would like to think he is, so without further ado, here are his best birds from Biak.
Ethan was happy to get a few good views of the Geelvink Fruit-Dove, a Cenderawasih Bay island endemic.
The doves continued to cooperate for Ethan. He got to cross the Claret-Breasted Fruit-Dove off of his revenge list and managed to get a photo of the Geelvink Imperial-Pigeon before it could be hunted down by one of the numerous locals with airsoft guns patrolling the island in search of these guys and Megapodes.
Ethan wasn’t able to access a hide for the Biak Hooded Pita but he got one the old-fashioned way, wandering around until he stumbled across one.
Ethan continued to increase his Monarch Flycatcher numbers with the endemic Biak Monarch, a pretty typical looking guy, and the more spectacular Golden Monarch although his best picture was of the female.
The Biak Triller proved just as susceptible to Ethan’s speaker as the last one on Halmahera had been but it didn’t have any rufous on it so Ethan was less excited this time.
Ethan made short work of most of the birds on his target list including this Biak Gerygone. In fact he saw one of these guys a grand total of seven times which sounds good but was actually sort of annoying since one of his main targets during most of those sighting was the Leaf Warbler which the Gerygone resembles from a distance, especially when backlit in the canopy of a tall tree, causing several false alarms. Ethan ultimately missed the Leaf Warbler which according to Ebird displayed “unspecified but “very different” behavior” but it is just a Leaf Warbler so Ethan didn’t seem to care too much.
Here are a couple of rather hyperactive birds that decided to sit still for a few moments so Ethan could photograph them. On the left is the endemic Biak White-Eye and on the right are a family of Emperor Fairywrens.
The Amboyna Cuckoo-Dove looks like a pretty typical and boring Cuckoo-Dove but the combination of its cool eye and neck patch make it okay in Ethan’s book.
The Biak Paradise-Kingfisher was the bird that first made Ethan aware of Biak’s existance when he saw the bird depicted on a stamp a few years ago and he ended up liking them more than the Common Paradise-Kingfisher although they were a bit less rowdy. Ethan wasn’t expecting the Hooded Butcherbird at all since its location was suppressed in the sources he was using to do his research and it slipped through his methods of double-checking for these sorts of things. After his arrival, he was quickly alerted to its presence by its eerie, haunting song which is presumably the reason it needed to be hidden in the first place.
The Geelvink Pygmy-Parrot was Ethan’s third of the genus and his favorite one yet. They really are the parrots that he thought the Hanging-Parrots would be.
If you know anything about Ethan you know that he loves his Scops-Owls and he thought the Biak Scops-Owl was even cooler than normal so he was happy when it cooperated.
Ethan did not have the the Myzomela’s vocalizations at his disposal as it has never, to his knowledge, been recorded so he knew his best chance would be to find it at it’s food source and spent as much time as he could justify around flowering plants and trees. Before long, his approach paid off and he managed to get a photograph. It is not perfect but for a tiny bird in big tree it turned out about as well as it could have and it is now the species picture on Ebird, at least until someone goes out and takes a better one.
With his primary objective complete and the time on his visa growing shorter, Ethan will now begin his long anabasis back to Jakarta and its myriad of modern conveniences and international restaurants. Still, he will not be able to resist one final stop where he will try to put the finishing touches on his Indonesia list, at least for now.
Greetings from Goolwa, Australia and thank you very much for your continuing photos. Of the recent one I loved the Pygmy parrot and the Wren. Safe travels and stay well. Best wishes from your Cricketing friends, Christine and Noel