3/9/2024 0 Comments Solomons cockatooWhilst the habitat is somewhat degraded, nevertheless, there are a plenty of birds which we could see that are endemic to Bougainville and nearby islands and these include Bougainville Rail, Bougainville Monarch, Bougainville Bush Warbler, Bougainville Crow and Bougainville White-eye with other possibilities which include Blyth's Hornbill, Ultramarine Kingfisher, Meek's Lorikeet, Solomons Cuckooshrike, Solomons Rufous Fantail and Yellow-throated White-eye. Until relatively recently, Bougainville was closed to outsiders (due to political problems), however, it is now a welcoming destination and home to another suite of speciality birds and those on the birding excursion will head up a paved road to explore some mid-elevation forest with excellent opportunities to find a range of localised species on an island that very few birders have had the opportunity to visit. We will also want to see what was previously regarded as the local subspecies of Collared Kingfisher when we are in the Louisiade Islands as this has now been split as Iset Kingfisher, making it one of the most range restricted kingfishers in the world.Īfter landings in the D’Entrecasteaux Islands where we will look for a highly localised bird-of-paradise, Curl-crested Manucode, the ship will visit the Trobriand Islands and then Woodlark Island before crossing the Solomons Sea to Bougainville, an island that athough politically is part of Papua New Guinea, from a biological perspective has much more in common with the Solomon Islands. This also means that many are home to good numbers of speciality birds with Tagula, for example, being the only place in the world where Tagula Honeyeater, Tagula Butcherbird, Tagula Shrikethrush, Tagula Manucode and Tagula White-eye can be seen. Many of the islands we will visit throughout the cruise see very few foreign tourists due to the remoteness of their location. The next six days will be spent exploring a series of island groups as we begin our journey east with the first of these being the Louisiade Archipelago and Tagula Island. The trip begins in Cairns, generally considered the gateway to Australia's amazing Great Barrier Reef, and after an overnight stay in a downtown hotel, the following morning there will be a short flight to Port Moresby where the comfortable expedition ship Heritage Adventurer will be berthed. Along the way, there will be daily landings providing an opportunity to explore remote islands, see an impressive list of regional endemics, snorkel on some simply stunning coral reefs and interact with friendly villagers living in isolated island communities. The islands of Melanesia stretch in a vast arc eastwards from Papua New Guinea to Vanuatu and on this 17-day expedition cruise, participants will travel over 4,000 kilometres journeying from Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, to Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu. With the voyage also offering the opportunity to snorkel on some simply stunning coral reefs, interact with friendly villagers on remote islands and learn about their lives, this cruise offers a perfect way to explore a part of the world which is packed with special birds and ordinarily extremely difficult to visit. The trip then concludes with landings on three islands in Vanuatu where there are more specialities with chances for Vanuatu Megapode, Vanuatu Kingfisher, Melanesian Flycatcher, Vanuatu Streaked Fantail and Vanuatu White-eye. There will then be visits to five very different islands within the Solomon Islands which could potentially add at least another thirty regional endemics including Solomons Nightjar, White-headed Fruit-Dove, Solomons Cuckooshrike, Buff-headed Coucal, Solomons Cockatoo, Kolombangara Monarch and Makira Starling. Over the next sixteen days, the ship will sail eastwards providing the chance to visit remote New Guinea islands such as Tagula, D’Entrecasteaux and Bougainville which are home to endemics such as Tagula Butcherbird, Curl-crested Manucode (a highly localised Bird-of-Paradise) and Bougainville Monarch. The trip starts with a short flight from Cairns, generally considered the gateway to Australia's amazing Great Barrier Reef, to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea where the comfortable expedition ship Heritage Adventurer will be berthed. Stretching in an arc eastwards from Papua New Guinea, the islands of Melanesia are home to a multitude of special birds and on this relaxed-paced expedition cruise, there will be the opportunity to look for a fantastic range of endemic and localised bird species.
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