This is the second post covering my trip to the South Moluccan islands of eastern Indonesia.
In the first post I explained that the Moluccas weren’t connected to mainland Asia in the Ice Ages whilst the Greater Sunda islands of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali were, nor were they connected to Australia like New Guinea and the Aru Islands were. As a result there has been limited mixing of Asia and Australian birds and what mixing there has been was within the area known as Wallacea, shown within the dotted line below. For a map of Indonesia’s coast line during the height of the Ice Age see part one of my account of the trip to the South Moluccas.
As I outlined in the previous post, the group of Indonesian islands that were not connected to either Asia or Australasia during the Ice Ages are known as Wallacea in honour of Alfred Russell Wallace, the co-discovered (with Charles Darwin) of evolution via natural selection, who was the first to speculate on the unusual mix of Australasian and Asia species in this region.
In the first post I described my travels around Ambon, Buru and Yamdena in the Tanimbar Islands. In this post I cover our time on Kai, Haruku, Seram and Boano. Note this is a map of the political jurisdictions of Maluku Utara and Maluka and so includes the Aru Islands which do not form part of the biogeographical area of Wallacea and the deep blue background represents a political area and not the depth of the ocean..
The conclusion of the last post saw the group flying back from the Tanimbar islands to the regional hub of Ambon, before flying on to Kai Kecil in the Kai island group, something I described as being like flying from London to Exeter via Aberdeen. On arrival we commenced birding along the road from the airport which bordered a variety of woodland habitats.
Birds seen varied from the widespread Sacred Kingfisher … (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
… to the island endemic ‘Kai Fantail’, currently considered a race of the widespread Northern Fantail but treated as a full species by Eaton et al in the Indonesian Field Guide. (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
The Golden-bellied or Kai Kecil White-eye is endemic to this single island … (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
… to the Kai Coucal, a cuckoo once considered a dark form of the Australasian Pheasant Coucal but now considered a full species endemic to the Kai island group.
Perhaps the best bird on Kai Kecil was the beautiful endemic White-tailed Monarch (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
Although Kai Kecil is the ‘capital’ of the Kai islands, neighbouring Kai Besar is larger although much less populated. On earlier trips groups had visited Kai Besar by small boat charter but due to the persistent strong winds we had to go by ferry instead.
The interior of the ferry was quite well appointed yet empty …
… but that was because the locals had all squeezed together on deck. The guy on the right is Caesar, our local agent and ‘Mr Fixit’, who ensured that this logistically complex trip ran smoothly.
Our visit to Kai Besar was to see the single island endemic Pearl-bellied White-eye which we saw without difficulty … (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
… however the James Eaton’s book ‘Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago’ treats the Kai Besar form of Island Leaf Warbler as a separate species so it made sense to try and see it if only for ‘insurance’. However it only occurs above 350m asl and as we only had a short amount of time before the return ferry, a tiring and rapid ascent up a narrow track was required.
Once there it was easily seen (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest). As the Aru Islands are part of the Papuan/Australasia region then Kai Besar is the easternmost island of Wallacea. If Wallacea is treated as part of the Oriental faunal region (which it usually is) then this island is it’s easternmost point at 133 degrees east. However its not the easternmost point of Asia as the easternmost tip of Russia, Big Diomede Island in the Bering Straits is 169 degrees west nearly 60 degrees further east.
We got back in good time for the ferry trip back to Kai Kecil (this is taken from the ferry near the dock at Kai Kecil, this is not the ferry itself!)
The next day it was a return flight to Ambon. Apart from the journey home this was out last island hopping flight, the remaining islands were visited by boat.
Once on Ambon we didn’t drive straight to the hotel, instead we crossed the big bridge across the estuary and headed to the north side of the island …
… and continued on to a small village on the north-east coast.
Here, in the late afternoon, we took a small charter boat to the nearby island of Haruku.
We disembarked at a small village where we soon became the centre of attention for the local kids.
We walked along the shore to an open sandy area …
… and as it got dark the skittish Moluccan Scrubfowl emerged to dig holes in the ground into which they would lay their eggs. Scrubfowl, along with megapodes and brush turkeys belong to the Family Megapodiidae, birds that either construct mounds of rotting vegetation or dig holes in volcanically heated or otherwise warmed ground in order to incubate their eggs. The laying sites are maintained to optimise the incubation temperature but then the chicks are left to fledge alone and fend for themselves. As the chicks are at an advanced stage of development when they hatch and claw their way out of the nest hole (in some species can fly on hatching) the eggs are unusually large and so are often targeted by local people for food. Here at least they seem unmolested. This photo was taken on another Birdquest trip by leader Pete Morris on the island of Halmahera in the northern Moluccas and is used with permission. (photo © Pete Morris/Birdquest).
It was well after sunset as our little boat made its way back to Ambon, fortunately the pilot could navigate in the dark …
… but the tide was now low so we couldn’t disembark on the dock, instead had to balance on a narrow plank!
The next morning saw us take a commercial ferry (identical to that seen in the background of this photo) to the island of Seram. We passed multiple islands on route including Haruku where we were last night.
Seram was the largest island that we visited. The ferry terminal was on the south side and it took quite a while for us to travel over the mountainous spine of the island and then eastwards towards our base at on the north coast.
We arrived at Sawai in time for lunch at this fairly basic, yet charming lodge built on stilts over the sea.
This part of Seram has some large areas untouched forest rising from sea level to the mountain tops. (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
It was often overcast and light levels were low. As some of my photos are at a poor resolution or have been greatly enlarged I’m showing them at reduced a size. One of our targets was the bizarre Seram endemic Long-crested Myna.
Another Seram endemic found along the mountain roads was Seram Mountain Pigeon.
Parrots were well represented. The beautiful Purple-naped Lory used to occur on Ambon but is now presumed extinct there and so becomes a Seram endemic. (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
However Coconut Lorikeet has a much wider distribution. ranging from the Moluccas to New Caledonia. The range was once much larger when it was lumped in with several other species in an enlarged ‘Rainbow Lorikeet’ whoose range extended all the way to Tasmania. (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
As well as a great area for birds the road that run along the mountainous spine of the island was also a good place for butterflies such as this Eight-spot Diadem (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
Other Seram endemics included Seram White-eye which by white-eye standards is quite striking … (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
… Streak-breasted Fantail … (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
… and Violet Crow, a recent and well-deserved split from Slender-billed Crow. (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
A few owling sessions got us Moroccan Scops Owl (for a photo see last post) and Seram Boobook but unfortunately not the very elusive Moluccan Masked Owl.
Early one morning we took a couple of boats to a small offshore island called Pulau Lusaolate …
… our target was Olive Honeyeater, a small drab species that is known to like small islands. Unfortunately only one was seen and then just by the leader just as we were approaching as it was high-tailed off to the mainland. Apparently there are usually several on this tiny islet and we can only assume that they come to feed on particular flowers or fruit that weren’t available in September. In 2019 for reasons unknown, this trip was run two months earlier than usual. Differences were the unusually dry and windy conditions which caused problems in some areas and a lack of northern migrants that hadn’t yet arrived from Asia. Chief of these as far as I’m concerned was the lack of Gray’s Grasshopper Warblers, a species that breeds in Siberia that I’ve never seen anywhere and was one of my main targets of the trip. One was heard on Buru by Craig but I didn’t hear it and none were seen, They are apparently quite common in the Moluccas by November.
Around the islet was a series of exposed rocks which acted as roosting sites for Black-naped and Crested Terns. These are common and widespread species but in previous trip they have been joined by at least one individual of another species, the critically endangered Chinese Crested Tern, of which perhaps as few as 50 remain globally. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case this year. Whether this was because the individual involved had stopped coming here or whether, as was the case with the Gray’s Gropper and the Olive Honeyeater, we were too early in the autumn, I’ll never know. However I reassured myself that as I was booked to go to eastern China in May 2020 then I’d catch up with Chinese Crested Tern there, but I wasn’t allowing for the fact that a) due to Covid-19 the trip would be cancelled or that b) the Chinese Crested Terns had abandoned the traditional site visited on that tour. So I went from two very good chances of seeing the species to none at all.
As we explored the little island we had close views of Eastern Reef Egret …
… and in the clear shallows saw some bizarre starfish …
… and a poisonous sea snake, Yellow-lipped Sea Krait.
We had a look at the nearby mainland just in case we could locate the Olive Honeyeater that had been seen flying in that direction …
… before cruising around the bay past various fishing platforms in the hope we could locate a Chinese Crested Tern.
No luck with the tern but we did see a Terek Sandpiper, a Siberian breeding wader that is a rare vagrant to the UK (I’ve seen four in the UK but none since 1998) and has a wide wintering range in the Old World tropics.
We also saw a number of Bar-tailed Godwits, this is a far more familiar species for me as a flock of 100+ winter in Poole Harbour and can be seen from the road at Sandbanks. Even so it was nice to see a few thousands of miles away in the Moluccas.
On our last morning at this site some of us did a very arduous ascent up a steep slope in the mountains. Our target was the almost unknown Seram Thrush. This species has recently been rediscovered in another part of the mountains but it took them three days of extremely difficult hiking to get there. News of another location just off the mountain highway was too good to pass by. We slogged up the slope (can you see John, one of the the other clients, just above me in the upper centre-left of the photo?) and eventually located one. It was in a deep and densely vegetated gully and although it called a few times it refused to budge. In fact the call was so high pitched that only a couple of the participants heard it, fortunately I was one of them.
So it was back to Sawai for lunch, pack up and the long drive along the north coast of Seram to Piru in the north-west corner.
The following morning we left early in small boats for the island of Boano.
We saw a few shorebirds and terns on the crossing but little of note …
… after docking at a small village on stilts …
.
… we headed inland and after a bit of a climb found the endangered endemic Boano Monarch, our last new bird of the trip. (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
Back at the little village we boarded our boats for the trip back to Piru.
… then drove down the coast to catch the ferry from western Seram to northern Ambon and a transfer to Ambon City for a final night before departing home via Jakarta and Abu Dhabi the next day.
So its a goodbye from me, John, Norbert, Steve, Pete, Sally and Rainer. It had been a great trip with about 75 life birds for me. There had been a few disappointments, mainly because I hadn’t realised that the earlier departure would mean less migrants but it certainly is a beautiful and endemic rich part of the world and well worth visiting. (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
I’ll conclude with this lovely phot from Craig of the sunset at Sawai in north Seram. (photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest).
Off all the countries in the world Indonesia is one of the most remarkable. Spread along the equator across almost 50 degrees of longitude with the western point of Banda Aceh on Sumatra level with eastern India and the eastern most point, the border with Papuan New Guinea is almost as far east as Tasmania, it consists of 17,500 islands varying from the huge islands of Sumatra, Borneo and New Guinea to uninhabited ‘desert islands’. It is the fourth most populated nation in the world with nearly 268 million inhabitants yet most people (in the UK at least) couldn’t point to it on a map.
From a biological point of view it is amazing, although the mega-fauna of the large western islands has largely disappeared due to habitat destruction, the bird life is incredible – although similarly threatened by habitat loss. Close to 1600 bird species have been discovered, beaten only by Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia and far in excess of any country that’s not in South America. Two factors can explain this; the multitude of islands had led to the evolution of myriads of variations on a theme, and perhaps more importantly and almost uniquely, Indonesia lies slap across the boundary of two faunal zone with a huge zone of integration between them.
Biologically Indonesia can be split into three zones, the Greater Sundas in the west with their typical Asia fauna, West Papua in the east with its Australasian fauna and between them Wallacea.
On the map above take particular note of the channels that separates 1) Borneo from Sulawesi, 2) Bali from Lombock and 3) Halmahera, Seram and Tanimbar from New Guinea and the Aru Islands. Now look at the next map below. – Map of Indonesia from see here
This map of what is now central Indonesia shows the situation at the height of the Ice Ages. So much sea water was locked up in the polar ice sheets that sea levels were considerably lower than now. Note Bali is connected to Java but the channel between Bali and Lombok still exits. New Guinea and the Aru Islands are connected to northern Australia but Halmahera and satellite islands, Buru, Seram, Kai and Tanimbar islands plus all the Lesser Sundas remain isolated. This huge area that was not connected to Asia or Australia/New Guinea is now known as Wallacea after Alfred Russell Wallace, the co-discoverer (with Charles Darwin) of evolution through natural selection and who was the first to realise that this region has a surprising mixture of Oriental and Australasian flora and flora. Map created by Neahga Leonard neahga@yahoo.com and taken from www.naturalearthdata.com
This map shows the Moluccas and is geopolitical rather than biogeographical. The dark blue encircles the administrative provinces of North Maluku and (south) Maluku. Note that the Aru islands are politically part of Maluku but bio-geographically part of Papua and were not visited on this tour. Photo from Wikipedia Commons.
This was my third visit to Wallacea. I had visited Halmahera and Sulawesi in 1995 and Timor and other islands in the Lesser Sundas in 2006. The tour started at Ambon, then visited Buru, back to Ambon, Yamdena in the Tanimbar Islands, then back to Ambon, Kai Kecil and Kai Besar, then back to Ambon, a short visit to Haruku (from Ambon), Seram, Boano before returning to Ambon for the flight home.
This post deals with the first half of the tour, Ambon, Buru and Yamdena.
I left home on the 4th September for the afternoon flight to Abu Dhabi. I left there in the early hours of the 5th and arrived at Jakarta on Java in mid afternoon. I stopped overnight at the conveniently situated airport hotel and then flew to Ambon where the tour started in the early afternoon of the 6th. I find it annoying when British news refers to almost any island in Indonesia as the ‘the remote Indonesian island of —‘. Ambon Island for example, although only 804 sq km in area has a population of half a million, most of which live in Ambon City, is the capital of Maluku Province and has an international airport. Hardly what I would call remote. Transport is largely by motorbike but that doesn’t prevent the traffic jams!
Our first birding was in an area known as Ewang Tulehu. Ambon was connected to Seram during the ice ages and so has few endemics. The only one currently recognised is the Ambon White-eye which we saw well, but we also saw the Ambon form of Seram Golden Bulbul (above) which is a potential split. Photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest.
We also had good views of Ashy Flowerpecker, a species that is shared with the island of Seram.
Early the next morning we flew west one of the many inter-island turboprop flights to the island of Buru.
We arrived as early as 0730 so it was straight out birding. We saw a number of endemics such as this Buru Friarbird, or was it a Buru Oriole? In one of the strangest cases of mimicry in the world, almost every one of the larger Moluccan islands has a species of Friarbird (a large honeyeater) that is mimicked in both plumage and vocalisations by a totally unrelated species of Old World Oriole. The size and slightly downcurved bill makes me think this is the Friarbird but the definitive test is whether the dark area on the face is bare skin (friarbird) or feathered (oriole). Tour leader Craig Robson made the following comments in the trip report. ‘A recently published paper (Jonsson et al. 2016. The evolution of mimicry of friarbirds by orioles (Aves: Passeriformes) in Australo-Pacific archipelagos. Proc. R. Soc. B 283: 20160409. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.0409) has tested the hypothesis that regional brown orioles mimic friarbirds. Historical observations by Alfred Wallace and Jared Diamond of plumage similarities between co-occurring orioles and friarbirds led them to conclude that the former represent visual mimics of the latter. Here, the authors used molecular phylogenies and plumage reflectance measurements to test the mimicry hypothesis. The results show that friarbirds originated before brown orioles, and that the two groups did not co-speciate (although there is a plausible instance of co-speciation on Buru and Seram). Furthermore, the greater size disparity between model and mimic and a longer history of co-occurrence have resulted in a stronger plumage similarity (mimicry). This suggests that resemblance between orioles and friarbirds represents mimicry and that colonization of islands by brown orioles has been facilitated by their ability to mimic the aggressive friarbirds’.
We also two (rather poorly photographed) pigeons – Spectacled Imperial Pigeon …
… and the exquisite Claret-breasted Fruit Dove. One pigeon we didn’t connect with was Buru Green Pigeon, possibly because this tour wasn’t running at the usual time of year and they weren’t visiting their usual fruiting tree due to lack of fruit.
We did however see plenty of Black-bearded Flying Foxes. Mammals are scarce in Wallacea. We recorded three species of flying, two cetaceans, an introduced Brown Rat and a single species of cuscus, a marsupial that has somehow crossed the sea from New Guinea to colonise one of the Kai Islands. Western Indonesia has (or has had) the full suite of SE Asia mammals; leopards, tigers, elephants, rhinos, wild cattle etc whilst New Guinea has a large variety of marsupials. A single primate colonised Sulawesi but in general Wallacea is depauperate when it comes to mammals, in contract to the situation with the more mobile birdlife. Photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest.
Much of our birding was along this old logging road, but we did make some forays into the forest …
… which proved tricky for the shorter members of the group.
We reached our accommodation on the north shore just before lunchtime where we searched for seabirds until we went out again in the afternoon …
… and we were lucky enough to get close views of Indo-Pacific Bottle-nosed Dolphins just offshore.
There were great views at sunset but having been continuously on the go for several days we were glad we weren’t out owling that night …
… instead we were out at 0430 the following day and scored with Buru Boobook, Large-tailed Nightjar …
… and the diminutive Moluccan Scops Owl. Photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest.
We explored other parts of the island by 4×4 …
… seeing great birds like the endemic Buru Honeyeater (Photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest) …
… and Buru Racquet-tail (named after the unusual racquet-shaped tail feathers which can just be seen on the lower left). Photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest.
But one of the best was this gorgeous White-naped Monarch, one of many species in this mainly Australasian family. Photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest.
Some of us also undertook an arduous trek into the highlands. Our main target was the legendary Madanga, a bird that was once classified as a funny looking white-eye but genetic analysis has shown (crazy as it sounds) to be an aberrant pipit. However if a group of pipits had been blown to this (once) totally forested island they would have had to adapt to survive and what sort of bird survives well in forested environments in Wallacea, small rotund passerines like white-eyes or flowerpeckers! Nowadays of course pipits could find live a more typical lifestyle in the many deforested areas. Unfortunately we didn’t become the second ever tour group to see the Madanga (the first was the previous Birdquest group) but we did see …
… Cinnamon-chested Flycatcher (Photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest) …
… and a juvenile Moluccan Cuckoo being fed by Buru Leaf Warblers. Photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest.
We had done pretty well on Buru, no Madanga or Buru Green Pigeon, but most of the island endemics were UTB. It was time to return to Ambon. We had time to visit a freshwater lake which added a few quality waders, a Black Bittern …
… and the cobalt-eared form of Common Kingfisher to our lists. The rest of the day was spent in forest where a number of new birds (mainly ones we would see again later on Seram) were recorded.
We overnighted in Ambon City …
… and then flew the following morning to Yamdena in the Tanimbar Islands, the southernmost point of our trip and just 350 km north of the Australian mainland.
Our accommodation was built on a pier out into the harbour.
Our rooms weren’t ready on arrival and there wasn’t time to go anywhere before lunch so we just enjoyed the view and watched for seabirds.
There was a great view from our rooms …
… over the nearby waterside shacks and boats.
You could even see Lesser Frigatebirds from your bed.
Yamdena is much flatter than Buru (or Seram) and so is more prone to deforestation, either clear felling for agriculture …
… or by stripping out the tallest trees in the forest.
Quite a bit of our time was spent finding our way through dense thickets …
… and along watercourses. As I said before the Moluccas have little in the way of terrestrial mammals but domestic water buffalo wander these woodlands and can turn up unexpectedly.
We saw a number of exquisite orchids in the gloom of the forest …
… and the bizarre ant plants, epiphytes in the genus Mermecodia that have a symbiotic relationship with certain species of ants. The plants give the ants shelter and food, the plant benefs from the protection the ants provide and nutrients from the ant’s dead bodies and waste. The plant grows epiphytically high in a tree (the seed having been deposited there by a bird) and grows these bizarre convoluted chambers to house the ants. This plant has fallen from a tree and split open exposing the ant containing chambers.
There were many good birds on Yamdena including this endemic Golden Flyrobin (Photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest) …
… and another endemic Black-bibbed Monarch. Photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest
Near the airport was this wetland area where we saw a number of waterbirds, mainly of Australian descent.
Another indication of our proximity to Australia was the presence of several Tree Martins.
Elegant Imperial Pigeons which are found on other small islands in the Moluccas and on the Lesser Sundas.
More widespread is the aptly named Eclectus Parrots which occurs throughout New Guinea and as far as Cape York in Australia. The female surprisingly in the red one whilst the male is green.
With the Eclectus were a number of Tanimbar Corellas, a species of cockatoo, it is endemic to the Tanimbar islands, but a few have been introduced to the Kai Islands.
The local xanthogaster race of Rose-crowned Fruit Dove lacks the rose crown! Variation between different races of a wide variety of species in Wallacea is often greater than the variation between different species elsewhere. It is hard to know where to draw the line between species and subspecies, but modern techniques of voice analysis and genetics may provide the answer. James Eaton et al’s lovely book on the birds of Indonesia splits many more forms (but sadly not this one) than do the various World Checklists. So far when detailed studies have been performed he has been shown to be right. Trips to Wallacea will be source of armchair ticks for years to come.
A nocturnal expedition got us great views of the endemic Tanimbar Boobook but unfortunately no photos.
It was very dry with string winds which is quite unusual in these parts. It made it difficult to traverse the forest quietly. However there were some damp areas remaining and here we located one of the loveliest birds of the trip …
… the endemic Slaty-backed Thrush. Photo © Craig Robson/Birdquest.
But there was one bird that really eluded us. Its presence was obvious from the raised mounds in the forest that it constructs to incubate its eggs. I’m talking about the elusive and endemic Tanimbar Scrubfowl. We searched high and low, occasionally the person at the front next to the leader would get a glimpse, but I usually missed. Eventually one was located in a tree and I got a brief view as it shot away.
Photographer Mark Harper clearly got much better views but he was probably working alone. Tanimbar Scrubfowl photo by Mark Harper from Bird Forum Opus
Our next destination was the Kai Islands about 250 km away to the north-west. Unfortunately we had to fly the 600 km back to Ambon and a similar distance back again. A bit like flying from London to Exeter via Aberdeen.
The next post will cover the rest of the trip with photos from Kai Kecil and Kai Besar, Haruku, Seram, Boano and of course Ambon.
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