Bird surveys of Late and Fonualei Islands, Vava'u, Kingdom of Tonga : September 2013 - Report to Ministry of Lands, Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources (MLECCNR)

Abstract

The survey team were able to spend 3 days on Fonualei Island and two days on Late with support from a Vava’u based fishing boat and checked several areas not visited during the previous 2003 and 2004 scientific surveys. We identified that the Polynesian megapode (malau) Megapodius pritchardii continues to survive in good numbers on Fonualei, locating good numbers in a new area suggesting the total population may be close to 1000. We did not located malau on Late and concluded that there is very little chance that they survive on this island. Both islands are important refuges for Tongan bird species with Fonualei Island of greater significance for malau, and seabirds which nest there in their thousands, and Late Island having a greater variety of landbirds including the endemic Samoan whistler Pachycephala jacquinoti.