The Solomon Island hosts one of the highest rates of avian endemism on Earth, with individual species and races unique to individual small islands. At Wilderness you have rainforest, coastal and oceanic habitats overlapping, providing a vast array of species in a very concentrated area. Every inch of land is covered with forest.

From walking the adjoining lowland rainforests and coastal zones to following tuna schools just offshore from the Lodge, from walking the untouched Kavolavata River Valley to hiking the cloud forests of Mt Mariu, from visiting the seabird roosting sites on Malemale and Bulo Islands to boating up the mangrove and rainforest reaches of the Varea and Kumabusi Rivers, from early morning and evening stakeouts of the subsistence gardens to visiting the Karubelama Islands where thousands of frigate birds roost every night - there are so many birdwatching options at Wilderness, many within walking distance, and dozens of species visible from the Lodge.

Given the lack of scientific [or amateur] scrutiny and the high degree of endemism, it is likely undocumented races and perhaps species exist on Gatokae and elsewhere in Marovo, with several variations in the Solomons archipelago already proving contentious in definitions of species vs. race and serving to illustrate the difficulties in applying arbitrary scientific categorisation in areas of such subtle and extremely localised diversity. The Myzomela and White-eyes are textbook examples of this cutting-edge of scientific categorisation.

Wilderness has had very few [two at the time of writing] bird enthusiasts visit to date, and our local guides are still learning the English names of our birds. Our guides do, however, possess excellent bushcraft skills, and are very enthusiastic, with good English skills and we already have several prime birdwatching spots. They can take you as far and as long as you want to go, and we have a number of foot trails leading through all of the many different habitats on Gatokae, and where you can't reach by foot, they can take you by boat in most any weather.

Wilderness hopes to build upon the list below to produce a definitive inventory of our avian neighbors, including Common, scientific, and Marovo names, and we are also engaged in dialogue with Conservation International and The American Museum of Natural History as conservation partners to facilitate the preservation of our unique birdlife through local awareness, research, and education.

GUIDES & READING
The standard reference for Solomon Island birds is the field guide
'Birds of The Solomons, Vanuatu & New Caledonia'
Chris Doughty, Nicolas Day, Andrew Plant
Helm Field Guides 9
A compact and user-friendly guide, though frustratingly light on detail, and plates are illustration rather than photos - this is very much unexplored territory and it shows in the lack of scientific knowledge of these birds. This publication is out of print and can only be found on the secondhand market on the Web and bookshops. Wilderness is currently without a copy of this, and we would like to obtain a copy for our Lodge library should the price and condition be reasonable - please email us if you have one available.

There is also Ernst Mayr's classic 'Birds of the Southwest Pacific', written 60 years ago, available in paperback over several reprints. Minimal graphics but definitive descriptions and background

For sea and shore birds, Neville Coleman's 'Sea Birds and others of the Great Barrier Reef, Australasia. South Pacific, and Indian Ocean' is a compact guide with brief but very useful descriptions and excellent large format colour photos. Copy at Lodge.

Another very useful reference, though with very few bird illustrations, and an inspiring read in itself due to it's overage of much of the flora and fauna of this area and it's cultural contexts, is 'Reef and Rainforest - An Environmental Encyclopedia of Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands' by Edvard Hviding and several Marovo contributors. This has been published by UNESCO under it's LINKS/CSI program as a vernacular curriculum reference for Marovo and is not commercially available but may be available from reference libraries. Many thanks to Edvard and his collaborators for use of this reference in compiling the tentative list below. Copy at Lodge.

Another institutional publication which we have yet to view is D. Hadden's 'Birds of the North Solomons', Wau Ecology Institute, Papua New Guinea. Has been recently republished 4 as 'Birds & Bird Lore of Bougainville' by Dove Publications.

For a thorough and inspiring study of endemism in birds of these islands, see Ernst Mayer & Jared Diamond 'The Birds of Northern Melanesia - Speciation, Ecology and Biogeography'.

Lastly, a reference that has come up in bird lists for Guadalcanal - Bulletin of the British Ornithologists Club Gibbs, D. 6, Notes on Solomon Island Birds, Vol . , pp. 18-25.

If anyone knows of other works dealing with birds specific or relevant to the Solomons, we would most appreciate your letting us know of the title and where it might be available!

SPECIES
Below is a preliminary TENTATIVE and by no means comprehensive or definitive list for Gatokae - we have not yet had any serious effort towards ascertaining species and compiling an inventory - it should be used for indicative purposes only, and errors and many omissions expected.

The categories are loose groupings only and species ranges often overlap, reflecting the overlapping habitats we have here [for example dense tropical rainforest on tiny oceanic coral islands].

Should anyone have lists or positive IDs relevant to Gatokae or Marovo it would be very much appreciated if you could pass them on to us and they will be included in the list with credit and any other information.

SEABIRDS (easily spotted around our three offshore islands and often viewable from the Lodge)

Lesser Frigate bird - Fregata ariel - belama [both species in very large numbers year-round hunting over the tuna schools, often circling over the Lodge]
Greater Frigate Bird - Fregata minor - belama
Brown Booby - Sula leucogaster - paraparao
Crested Tern - Sterna bergii - vangolo [also the name of one of the ancestral chiefs of Peava Village]
Black-naped Tern - Sterna sumatrana - chelekae
Terns - Sterna spp. - chelekae [several other species without positive ID]
Noddies - Anous spp. - dekere, kikiki [no positive ID]
White-tailed Tropic Bird - Phaethon lepturus - the ocean wanderer......
Wedge-tailed Shearwater - Puffinus pacificus [present on seasonal migrations]

COAST & SHORE BIRDS

Solomon Sea Eagle - Haliaetus sanfordi - kakaka
Osprey - Pandion haliaetus - chogachoga ihana
Brahminy Kite - Haliastur indus - ke [present in all habitats]
Pacific Reef Heron - Egretta sacra - chou [white (heva) and black (chinoko) phases, several tame residents at the Lodge, also common in gardens]
Beach Stone Curlew - Burhinus neglectus - bilikiki [icon of the Western Province, with a traditional dance Roviana dance mimicking it's behaviour]
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper - Calidris acuminata - chegochego mati [present on seasonal migrations, also a very entertaining dancer
Whimbrel - Numenius phaeopus
Beach Kingfisher - Halcyon saurophaga - kiokio / kikio
Common Kingfisher - Alcedo atthis - chige
Kingfishers - several other species without positive ID

LAND & FOREST BIRDS

Blyth's Hornbill - Aceros plicatus - omehe [v. common here as not hunted. Often seen flying over Lodge, very heavy noisy wingbeat and cockatoo-like cry]
Buff-headed Coucal -Centropus milo - ao / chehoho [a strange bird with an even stranger call, rarely flys, strongly associated with evil spirits in Marovo]
White-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike - Coracina papuensis - pisale
Cuckoo-Shrike - Coracina sp - [unidentified species, possibly 2]
Cuckoo - Cacomantis sp - unidentified species
Melanesian Scrubfowl - Megapodus freycinet - io [the famous mound-builders]
Purple Swamphen - Porphyrio porphyrio - bichere [a rather unpopular bird in Marovo for it's habit of digging up gardens]
Rail - unidentified species
Rufous-breasted Hawk - Accipiter novaehollandiae [these smaller raptor IDs are tentative]
Pied Goshawk - Accipiter albogularis
Pacific Baza - Aviceda subcristata
White-throated Nightjar - Eurostopodus mystacalis - totoa?
Dollarbird - Eurystomus orientalis - kekerakocho
Willie Wagtail - Rhipidura leucophrys - pitikole [another iconic bird, a carving of which graced the stern of the war canoes, resident pair at the Lodge]
Fantail - Rhipidura sp. - unidentified species
Flycatcher - Myiagra sp - unidentified species
Yellow-breasted Sunbird - Nectarinia jugularis - vio
Golden Whistler - Pacycephala pectoralis - voku
Metallic Starling - Aplonis metallica - chichiu
Pacific Swallow - Hirundo tahitica - keja
Moustched Treeswift - Hemiprocne raystacea - chiku reta?
Swiftlet - [several species without positive ID]

Monarch - Monarcha sp - unidentified species
White-eyes- Zosteropidae sp. - Chiku bisa? [no positive ID yet, but 2 species suspected]
Myzomela - Myzomela sp. - [no positive ID yet]

Red-knobbed Fruit Pigeon - Ducula rubricera - kurukuru isu binga
Nicobar Pigeon - Caloenas nicobarica - bakupa (frequently ground foraging and quite tame on offshore islands]
Grey Fruit Pigeon - Ducula pitrianna - kurukuru
Large Pigeon - unidentified species
Fruit Doves - several unidentified species
Cuckoo Dove - unidentified species
Ground Dove - unidentified species

Eclectus Parrot - Eclectus roratus - kara [male (mahi) green with brilliant colours under wings, female [chiri] dark red and blue, often overflying Lodge]
Singing Parrot - Geoffroyus herteroclitus
Cardinal Lory - Chalcopsitta cardinalis- chiri [many in coconut palms around the Lodge, and often flying between the islands]
Yellow-bibbed Lory - Lorius chlorocercus - chiri (occasional sightings of individuals, assumed having crossed from other islands)
Rainbow Lorikeet - Trichoglossus haematodus - chiri
Lorikeets - unidentified species
Solomon Cockatoo - Cacatua ducorpsi - kaka [often overflying Lodge and between the islands]

Vivoho- a Marovo term for several species of unidentified small songbirds of the forest - possibly leaf-warbler, flower-pecker, sunbird species

'Pipito'
Male Eclectus Parrot - kara mahi

'Pipito Jr'
Yellow-bibbed Lory - chiri

The Usual Suspects - some of our tame, free-flying friends around the Lodge and house, not including Topi the hornbill and the tribe of Herons