Field Guides Birding Tours

NEW CALEDONIA

Specialty tour to seek the fascinating, bizarre relict Kagu and other endemics.
2008
August 10-19 with Phil Gregory 		2009
July 24-August 2 with Phil Gregory

$3375 (2008 fee). 10 days
From Noumea. Limit: 10
Good accommodations, easy to moderate terrain, warm climate. Our staff travel agents can book your air travel for this tour. Contact us at (800) 728-4953 for more information. May be combined with PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

See our triplist for 2006 or 2005 or 2003.

Kagu
Kagu, photographed by
participant Hans Jornvall
New Caledonia, first revealed to Europeans by Captain Cook in 1774, is an important center of avian endemism in the tropical Pacific.  Most birders who know of this isolated and ancient island learn first of the Kagu and only then find out where it lives.  The magnificent Kagu, only member of the bird family Rhynochetidae, is perhaps best known for its loud calls and a strange nuptial display that reveals the beautiful wing pattern.  It is a handsomely crested, bizarre, mainly nocturnal, and highly threatened species, thought to be most closely related to the cranes and rails.  Its only home is this mountainous island, a French overseas territory lying halfway between Australia and the Fiji Islands.

New Caledonia is approximately 250 miles long by 30 miles wide, and of course the Kagu is the primary draw for birders who travel there.  We have had wonderful views of this remarkable bird during our outings, even seeing a pair with a fledgling in 2005, thanks to the success of the feral animal control programs in the national park where Kagu numbers have greatly increased.  In addition to the Kagu, however, there are numerous other birds of interest on the island.  These include a broad range of endemics—the spectacular Cloven-feathered Dove, the huge New Caledonian Imperial-Pigeon, the bizarre Horned Parakeet, Yellow-bellied Robin, the highly endangered Crow Honeyeater, the tool-using New Caledonian Crow, the mysterious and rarely seen New Caledonia Grassbird, and New Caledonian Friarbird—plus many more widespread species of the western tropical Pacific.  We will also go to delightful Lifou Island for the two endemic white-eyes, and to Ouvéa, which we pioneered in 2002, for the rare Ouvéa Parakeet.  Our tour that year was the first ever to see all the available endemic species.  Join us for this exciting tour to the land of the legendary Kagu!

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