Two American friends and I will be visiting New Caledonia next October. I am trying to plan the trip, so I would very much appreciate any information. The main object of our trip is of course the Kagu, but I am told that this is quite easy to find, and there are almost thirty birds I would like to see. A few other questions. 1. How long would you recommend we spend there? I was thinking four or five days on the main island, and a day trip to Lifou. 2. Does anyone have contact details of a local guide? I am told that birds such as the grassbird and the Crow Honeyeater can be tricky to find and a local guide would help. We were thinking of hiring the local guide for one maybe two days. 3. I had thought that we would be based in Noumea, but I have heard that some birds are easier to find further north. Where? And how many days would be needed? And I assume accommodation would be available close by? 4. Any hints for specific species? Thanks _________________________________________________________________ Frank O’Connor Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au Phone : (08) 9386 5694 Email : foconnor@iinet.net.au
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I am So glad you asked! I’m posting to the list as I can’t recommend New Caledonia highly enough to Aussie birders. It’s close, fantastically beautiful and full of interesting landscapes and birds. The avifauna is limited, but outstanding. Coming from here, the families are entirely familiar (apart from the Kagu) and the individuals lovely. It’s pretty special to see a different variety of Friarbird, for example. For someone coming straight from America, the families would be wholly exotic. The roads and other infrastructure are of excellent quality (usually), however he population density is quite low so services can be thin on the ground. New Caledonia is not cheap. You can get by with English around Noumea a bit but elsewhere, the European language in use is definitely French. We’ve been over twice and have managed a drive around Grande Terre and a visit to Lifou. Briefly: * It’s okay to concentrate on the south end of Grande Terre as that’s where the most accessible birding sites are to be found. * The international and domestic airports are in no way connected or close and the flight schedules aren’t aimed at getting you to or from an outer island on a day you leave or arrive. * Lifou is definitely, definitely worth more than a day. If any of you snorkel, Lifou has *amazing* snorkeling spots. Fantastic reefs full of fish. Some large and toothy fishes included (ulp)…but lots of life. Overall, the island looks like a mixture of small-scale farms and bush fragments. It’s a French mining posession. The roads are so good because of the nickel – the traffic or population wouldn’t justify roads of the quality you’ll see. this is see. A The Kagu is readily visible in Rivière Bleu which is also the only place you have a chance at the Crow Honeyeater. It’s one of the better spots for birds, as you’ll have gathered already. When we visited, it turned out that you can camp at the very end of the park for a fee. There are no services to speak of and my information is old enough to be suspect. You can’t drive in, but there’s a bus available from the parking area. This would be the optimal way to try for the Crow Honeyeater, given the park’s normal hours of operation. We tracked down the (then) coordinator of the Kagu Recovery program five years back and asked her about the Crow Honeyeater. That was my top hoped-for bird. She’d worked in the park on the Kagu for four years and could count clear views of the Crow Honeyeater on one hand. I see reports of people finding it in a day trip, so I presume they’re using tapes (there’s one recording of the Kagu available on CD possibly available on island.) The recovery program for the Crow Honeyeater is….there isn’t one. I’d question hassling or disturbing them in any way, despite them being a bird I would dearly love to see. five You could do fine with four or five days on Grande Terre, but give yourself a bit more time (and a car) on Lifou. For Grande Terre, you’ll have seen trip reports listing the main sites. I used to have a report from our first trip five years ago but let the domain lapse. I’ve reposted it here, in case it’s useful: http://www.4dcompanion.com/Wombat_Country/trips/new_caledonia_2009/index.html (Warning: Some links look stale.) We’ve been back to Farino since and the manager we last saw didn’t speak English. Other than that, the site is still a fantastic place to spend a few nights. You’re right at the base of one of the best tracks in southern Grande Terre – our bird list from there is is as good as from anywhere else. This has been our best site for the Cloven-feathered Dove, a top bird by any standard. Also good for other doves and both parakeets. (The Horned is another top bird.) It’s also a great access point for the Parc des Grandes Fougères (more below.) Noumea will be a good base if you’re trying to get to the domestic airport or to drive out towards Yate and Rivière Bleu. Through accidents of personal history, I’ve birded a few dozen islands in the tropical Pacific. (And as a testament to my lack of skills…dipped on an embarrassingly high percentage of the rarities and endemics.) I mention this as it explains my perspective when saying that Lifou is *remarkable*. When we were landing, what we saw were trees. Lots of trees. Doves everywhere. I can’t remember anywhere better for doves in the oceanic Pacific. While a lot of these birds aren’t endemic, they’re usually hard to see given human pressures (hunting and land use changes – lots of forest in the Pacific is still getting converted to plantations or fields for sugar, palm oil, kava, etc.) It’s sort of like the situation with Coconut Crab. They’re a widespread species (historically), but where can you see them? I’ve only ever seen them on Christmas Island. We found the white-eyes by driving around and stopping at birdy-sounding places….we kind of slacked on hard-core birding because the snorkeling was so exceptionally good. birds one I can’t help you with a guide. The only Grassbird we found was half-way down the island on the way back. One of the Kagu Recovery team members that helped out with “Oiseaux de la Chaine Centrale Province Nord de Nouvelle-Calédonie” told me Grassbirds are much more common in the north. Speaking of the north, we really wanted to drive around Grande Terre and were happy we did. With that said, it doesn’t easily improve your birding chances, for the most part. Like many places in the Pacific, “public lands” is a pretty alien concept. All of the land belongs to someone and you need permission to visit. I don’t know that this would be hard, but it would take some effort…and languages could be an issue. I think that there are a few dozen locally spoken Melanesian languages with French not always spoken. (Speaking of local culture, the Centre Culturel Tjibaou in Noumea is worth a visit, although not much for birds.) Driving around, we did enjoy getting a sense of what was more common – and definitely enjoyed seeing so many New Caledonian Crows. some be I’ll just mention Farino and the Parc des Grandes Fougères here a bit – more details on the old report. We’ve been back since then and this park remains wonderful. Farino is the right base for Parc des Grandes Fougères, and I think that it’s a must see. If you get up early enough and drive to the park before dawn, you can hear the Kagu. The park entrance is along a ridge with valleys on both sides. The Kagu use the bush for cover and the side of hills for amplification. Amazing. Just amazing. We’ve done that twice and the volume was super impressive once and very impressive the other time 😉 There are lots of tracks of other good birds in the park as well. I did spend quite some time tracking down a “Kagu” in the bush only to finally be confronted by a North American Turkey. I didn’t even know they were on island. They are 😉 For field guides, we’ve collected images and sounds before departure and used “Birds of the Solomons, Vanuatu & New Caledonia.” I’ve got here a copy of “Birds of Melanesia” (Guy Dutson.) The Dutson book looks first rate to me but I haven’t field tested it. Multi-island books are always a bit of a pain though…Honestly, the species aren’t difficult to distinguish if you can see them. If you’re interested in the overall natural history of New Caledonia, it’s worth checking for recent papers. For whatever reason (the selection of cheeses and the fresh baguettes?), scientists seem to like New Caledonia. It has off-the-chart levels of endemism in plants, rivaled by only a few places. (I guess I shouldn’t talk about that to someone from WA.) Their endemism rates are high both by % (like Hawaii) and in absolute terms (not like Hawaii.) I’m hopeless on plants so I can’t say more. I did read (as remembered fuzzily off the top of my head) that for a long time Grande Terre was seen to be a piece of Gondwanan crust that’s been floating around since forever…having once been part of Aus. Later research argues that, in fact, the island has been underwater for a great part of the time and that the present pattern of endemism and families present (birds and plants) are based on more typical oceanic island colonization patterns. Either way, Grande Terre is beautiful and full of wonderful birds and plants. The outer islands, by the way, are not geologically related – they’re typical oceanic volcanic remnants, not weird-continental-crust-that-isn’t-on-a-continent. Have a fantastic trip and please post a trip report afterwards. There’s not enough birding-oriented information circulating on this magical destination.
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