Notes on the mountain birds of New Ireland

Abstract

This first account of some birds of the high mountains of New Ireland is based on twelve days' collecting in the Hans Meyer Range, in February 1976. Seventy-two specimens were collected and observations were made on forty-one species of birds. Eighteen species were found in stunted mossy forest above 1,200 metres but only one, Turdus poliocephalus, appears to be confined to it. Lowland species, typified by Philemon eichhorni and Dicrurus megarhynchus, have invaded the high mountains, where the avifauna is depauperate. Eleven of the eighteen species in the high mountains are derived from lowland forms.

New records for New Ireland are Columba vitiensis and Turdus poliocephalus. The endemic Lorius albidinuchus is reported only for the second time and was common in the upland forests, living sympatrically with D. hypoinochrous only between the altitudes of 500 and 750 metres.