The breeding of the Grey-backed Storm Petrel (Garrodia nereis) at Houruakopara Island in the Chatham Islands (44° 06′ S, 176° 31′ W) was investigated and the nest site, egg, and chick are described. Both parents incubated the egg in poorly synchronised shifts averaging 1.9 days. generally followed by a desertion period of 2.7 days. Eggs hatched from mid-November, and the chick was brooded by either parent for up to 4 days after hatching. Chicks were fed on average every 1.6 days and the size of each feeding increased with age. The average daily increase in body weight was 12.6%, and by 17 days the
weight of the chicks equalled that of the adults.
Evidence of competition for nest sites within the species and with Broadbilled Prions (Pachyptila vittata) and Little Blue Penguins (Eudyptula minor) is discussed and a list of food items taken from regurgitations is presented.
The vertical and horizontal zonation and foraging habits of 17 Fijian forest passerines are described. Mist-netting showed that five species, Island Thrush, Fiji Shrikebill, Blue-crested Broadbill, Spotted Fantail and Orangebreasted Honeyeater, contributed to 60% of the captures. These were the five main lower-zone species on Viti Levu, but only two and three on Vanua Levu and Taveuni, respectively, where other species occupied this zone.
The species foraging in the middle and upper zones were more similar between the islands with two species of White-eye, two or three species of honeyeater, Polynesian Starling and Vanikoro Broadbill predominating. Horizontal zonation showed that most species occupied the middle and outer zones, except for the Fiji Shrikebill. Foraging strategies revealed that the
Spotted Fantail and the Vanikoro Broadbill were the main flycatchers, followed by the Golden Whistler and Slaty Flycatcher. The main gleaning species were the Fiji Shrikebill and the Silktail, most other species being foliage-searchers.
This study shows that the Red-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda) has a gradual clinal increase in the intensity of the rose-pink suffusion, egg size, culmen length and wing length in breeding populations between Kure Atoll in the northern Pacific and the Kermandec Islands in the southern Pacific. The illusion that birds from this cline comprise three subspecies has long been accepted because the large range of latitude that each subspecies had been arbitrarily given resulted in significant differences in mean measurements. However, as neither the northern rothschildi nor the southern roseotincta are clearly separable from melanorhynchos in the centre of the cline, they must all be one subspecies. Because the mean measurements of the nominate “subspecies” are nor significantly different from those of birds from
similar latitudes in the Pacific cline, or from westralis in the eastern Indian Ocean, there is no valid reason for distinguishing any subspecies in the Red-tailed Tropicbird.
The birds of Upolu and Savai’i, Western Samoa, were surveyed in August 1984. Birds were counted along a 2 km transect in 0 le Pupu-Pu’e National Park and 5-minute bird index counts were used in upland and lowland Savai’i. There was a significant difference in the composition and density of bird communities between partly logged and unmodified tava (Pomeria pinnata)
forest. The composition of bird communities differed at varying altitudes both in the national park and in Savai’i. There were more species at higher altitudes on Savai’i, and rare species were recorded at only the higher altitudes on Upolu and Savai’i. The relative abundance and occurrence of threatened bird species were noted, and possible sightings of Puna’e, the Samoan Woodrail, in upland Savai’i were recorded.