Chapter I Intro & Objectives - SPREP

PHOENIX ISLANDS PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT PLAN
Chapter III. Background, 3. Terrestrial Resources
Draft 1 March 2007
parvirostris
Fregetta albigularis X
Dafla modesta X
*no birds were noted for Enderbury and Orona (Hull) by Lister (1891).
Maude (1952) reported that there were millions of seabirds in the Phoenix Islands including,
frigatebirds, boobies or gannets, the red-tailed tropicbirds, and white and sooty terns.
Murphy and Ikehara (1955) reported on tuna school observations in relationship with bird
schools in the Pacific Islands (including the Phoenix Islands).
Child (1960) reported that Lister observed a few frigatebird nests with two eggs in it in the
Phoenix Islands. Most only had one egg. Child (1960) noted that no breeding colonies were
observed in the Gilbert or Elice Islands. Frigatebirds must fly several hundred miles to rearch
their breeding colonies in the Phoenix Islands. According to Child (1960), Abariringa
(Canton) and other Phoenix Islands were known breeding places for the greater frigate-bird
(Pacific frigate-bird), Fregata minor palmerstoni.
Child (1960) reported that the eggs of the grey-backed tern, which bred in the thousands in
the Phoenix group, were eaten in times of food shortage.
Child (1960) reported that the black-naped tern, Sterna sumatrana sumatrana, was
uncommon in the Phoenix Islands. The sooty tern (wideawake tern), Sterna fuscata
oahuensis, was very common in the Phoenix Islands. Locals on Christmas Island reported
that sooty terns that nest there migrated to the Phoenix group after breeding on Christmas
Island.
Child (1960) reported immense breeding colonies of grey-backed terns (bridled or spectacled
tern), Sterna lunata, in the Phoneix Islands. Child (1960) reported nesting colonies of brown
booby (common booby), Sula leucogaster plotus, on Abariringa (Canton) and other Phoenix
Islands. Child (1960) reported that small colonies of the red-footed booby, Sula sula
(rubripes?) had been observed on most of the Phoenix Islands. The white-throated stormpetrel,
Nesofregetta albigularis, bred in the Phoenix Islands (Child 1960). The species had a
very wide feeding range of nearly 1,609 km (1,000 miles). The Pacific golden plover,
Pluvialis dominica fulva, occurred in the Phoenix Islands (Child 1960).
The Pacific godwit (eastern bar-tailed godwit), Limosa lapponica baueri, had not been
reported for the Phoenix Islands (Child 1960). However, Child (1960) speculated that a few
stragglers may touch the Phoenix Islands periodically.
The long-tailed New Zealand cuckoo, Urodynamis taitensis, was rare in the Manra (Sydney),
Orona (Hull), and Nikumaroro (Gardner) (Child 1960). There was a belief in the Phoenix
Islands that if the cuckoo’s cry was heard above a house, one of the occupants would be
strikened with severe stomach pains.
The shoveller (duck), Spatula clypeata, was observed on Abariringa (Canton) and other
Phoenix Islands (Child 1960).
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