Bishop, K David

Mittermeier, John C

Rosyadi, Irfan

English

KUKILA

Kukila 18 (2) 2015 Short Communication 75 The status of Oriental Honey Buzzard Pernis ptilorhynchus in Wallacea, with a description of the first record for Ternate  JOHN C. MITTERMEIER1,2, IRFAN ROSYADI3 AND K. DAVID BISHOP4 1Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences, 119 Foster Hall, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA; 2School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK. Email: john.mittermeier@gmail.com; 3Burung Indonesia, Jl. Dadali No. 32, Bogor 16161, Indonesia; 4P.O. Box 1234, Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia. Ringkasan. Sikep-madu asia Pernis ptilorhynchus orientalis diketahui sebagai pengunjung  musim dingin di seluruh sunda besar, Nusa Tenggara dan Sulawesi, tetapi belum pernah tercatat ditemukan di kepuluan Maluku. Pada tanggal 22 September 2013, kami mengamati dan memotret seekor Sikep-madu asia yang teridentifikasi sebagai subjenis P. p. orientalis sedang hinggap di pohon di pinggir Danau Tolire, Pulau Ternate, Maluku Utara. Dalam tulisan ini juga dibahas mengenai status dan catatan kehadirannya di pulau-pulau lain. Introduction The Oriental Honey Buzzard Pernis ptilorhynchus, also known as Crested Honey Buzzard, is a widespread polytypic species with six subspecies including five largely sedentary subspecies occurring in the Philippines (philippensis, palawanensis), Java (ptilorhynchus), Sumatra, Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula (torquatus), and mainland Asia (ruficollis), and one migratory subspecies (orientalis) which is a common winter visitor to the Philippines and Indonesia, where large numbers occur annually on Java and Bali (e.g. Ash 1993; Nijman 2004, Germi 2005; Germi & Waluyo 2006). In Wallacea, the species was originally considered to be only an occasional visitor. White & Bruce (1986), for example, list only two records, both specimens from the late nineteenth century. Additional documentation of Oriental Honey Buzzard in Wallacea remains limited with published records consisting primarily of a handful of sight records from islands in the Lesser Sundas (Gibbs 1996; Coates & Bishop 1997).  Recent fieldwork and increased coverage by birdwatchers, however, has revealed numerous observations of Oriental Honey Buzzard in the Lesser Sundas (J. Hornbuckle, J. Eaton pers. comm.), proving that the species is a regular visitor to this part of Wallacea, with substantial numbers occurring annually. Germi (2005) and Germi & Waluyo (2006) documented large numbers of honey buzzards traveling eastwards across the Lombok Strait into the Lesser Sundas in autumn, including nearly 8,000 individuals in September-November 2005. However, there are still only a handful of records of the species from the Moluccas.  Observations  While observing birds on Ternate island, Maluku Utara, IR discovered a medium-sized raptor along the edge of Tolire Lake (0° 50’ 17” N, 127° 18’ 18” E; 93 m asl) at 12:15 hrs on 22 September 2013. The bird was observed for several minutes and photographed (Plate 1) while perched in a tree Paraserianthes falcataria along the cliffs surrounding the lake. The following day, 23 September, IR observed the bird again in the same area, but it was not found during the following week. While several medium-sized raptors occur in the Moluccas, the combination of a relatively small, pigeon-like head, long barred tail 76 Short Communication  Kukila 18 (2) 2015 with broad black subterminal band, pale underparts with dark streaks and white throat bordered with black streaks identified this as an Oriental Honey Buzzard.  Plate 1: Oriental Honey Buzzard, Tolire Lake, Ternate, 22 September 2013 Discussion There are only two records of Oriental Honey Buzzard from the Sulawesi region: a specimen from Selayar, south of Sulawesi (White & Bruce 1986), and a single observation from Sangihe, north-east of Sulawesi, in October 1995 (Riley 1997). The contrast with the Lesser Sundas likely represents real distributional patterns (Germi et al. 2009), as well as a degree of survey bias. Even though there are no published observations of the species from Sulawesi, recent studies by the Hachikuma Project at Japan’s Keio University have used satellite tracking data to document migratory individuals visiting the island. In autumn 2012, for example, two out of the four individuals tagged in Japan visited Sulawesi, one travelling directly east from Borneo across the Makassar Strait and the second going north from Flores (Keio Research Institute 2014). The lack of observer records from Sulawesi almost certainly results from this species being overlooked due to confusion with the resident Barred Honey Buzzard Pernis celebensis, and future visitors to the island should carefully check honey buzzards, particularly during the boreal winter. In the Moluccas, by contrast, there is no evidence of satellite tagged Oriental Honey Buzzards and, apart from the Ternate bird described above, we know of only three records IRFAN ROSYADI Kukila 18 (2) 2015 Short Communication 77 of the species from the Moluccan biogeographic region. The first is of a single bird observed by M. Poulsen on Kai Dulah, near Kai Kecil, South Moluccas, on 8 February 1997 (Johnstone & van Balen 2013). The second is an unpublished record by KDB from Weda Bay, Halmahera, North Moluccas, on 25 November 2012 (photos available), and the third is a recent observation from Seram, South Moluccas, by A. Geilvoet on 4 January 2015. While this scarcity of records may be partly due to the limited ornithological survey work in the region, it is probable that migratory Oriental Honey Buzzards only reach the Moluccas as occasional vagrants. Honey buzzards breeding in Japan follow a detoured migration in which they travel west to mainland Asia and then go overland along the Malay Peninsula before curving east to reach wintering grounds in the Sundas and Philippines (Higuchi et al. 2005; Yamaguchi et al. 2008, Keio Research Institute 2014). This migration path likely contributes to their rare occurrence in northern Wallacea and the Moluccas, particularly relative to other raptors such as Chinese Sparrowhawk Accipiter soloensis and Japanese Sparrowhawk A. gularis for which a portion of the population reach Wallacea by traveling directly south via the Oceanic Flyway (Germi et al. 2009). While it has been suggested that a resident population of Oriental Honey Buzzards may occur on some islands of the Lesser Sundas (Verhoeye & King 1990), the records we reviewed that included subspecies identification in Wallacea were all migratory orientalis of which small numbers, particularly first year individuals, likely remain in the region year round (Coates & Bishop 1997; C. Trainor pers. comm.). Measurements of the three specimens from Wallacea confirm this (Mees 2006). Our observation also supports this pattern with several plumage features indicating that the Ternate bird is probably orientalis, specifically: long primaries, a short crest, and overall pale coloration with streaked underparts lacking the rich colors and barring of resident subspecies. Late September is early for migratory honey buzzards, but not exceptionally so; early dates for southbound migrants on the Thai-Malay Peninsula are 10 September (Wells 1999), late September for central Java (Nijman 2004), and 11 September for eastern Bali (Germi & Waluyo 2006).  Acknowledgements Research on Ternate by IR is supported by Burung Indonesia; JCM’s research at LSU was funded by a Ron and Mary Neal Graduate Fellowship. We thank Bas van Balen for suggesting we publish this observation, Adam Supriatna for assistance with the initial identification and feedback on the manuscript, and Colin Trainor and Richard Noske for helpful comments and review. James Eaton, Rob Hutchinson, Jon Hornbuckle, Arthur Geilvoet, and Marc Thibault kindly assisted by providing information on their personal records of Oriental Honey Buzzard from Indonesia. References Ash, J.S. 1993. Raptor migration on Bali, Indonesia. Forktail 9: 3-11. Coates, B.J. & K.D. Bishop. 1997. A Guide to the Birds of Wallacea: Sulawesi, the Moluccas and the Lesser Sundas, Indonesia. Dove Publications, Alderley, Australia. Germi, F. 2005. Raptor migration in east Bali, Indonesia: observations from a bottleneck watch site. Forktail 21: 93-98. Germi, F. & D. Waluyo. 2006. Additional information on the autumn migration of raptors in east Bali, Indonesia. Forktail 22: 71-76. Germi, F., G.S. Young, A. Salim, W. Pangimangen & M. Schellekens. 2009. Over-ocean raptor mgiration in a monsoon regime: spring and autumn 2007 on Sangihe, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Forktail 25: 104-116. 78 Short Communication  Kukila 18 (2) 2015 Gibbs, D. 1996. Wallacea: a Birdwatchers Guide. Privately published. Higuchi, H., H. Shiu, H. Nakamura, A. Uematsu, K. Kuno, M. Saeki, M. Hotta, K. Tokita, E. Moriya, E. Morishita & M. Tamura. 2005. Migration of Honey-buzzards Pernis apivorus based on satellite tracking. Ornithological Science 4: 109-115. Johnstone, R.E. & S. van Balen. 2013. The birds of the Kai and Tayandu islands, Maluku region, Indonesia. Western Australian Naturalist 29: 11-56. Keio Research Institute at SFC—Laboratory of Biodiversity Studies. Oriental Honey Buzzard migration satellite-tracking project open-to-the-public. hachi.sfc.keio.ac.jp/home_e.html [accessed 5 October 2014] Mees, G.F. 2006. The avifauna of Flores (Lesser Sunda Islands). Zool. Med. Leiden 80: 1-261. Nijman, V. 2004. Magnitude and timing of migrant raptors in Central Java, Indonesia. Ardea 92: 161-168. Riley, J. 1997. The birds of Sangihe and Talaud, North Sulawesi. Kukila 9: 3–36. Verhoeye, J. & B. King. 1990. Notes on three raptor species new to Flores. Kukila 5: 65-68. Yamaguchi, N., K-I. Tokita, A. Uematsu, K. Kuno, M. Saeki, E. Hiraoka, K. Uchida, M. Hotta,  F. Nakayama, M. Takahashi, H. Nakamura & H. Higuchi. 2008. The large-scale detoured migration route and the shifting pattern of migration in Oriental honey-buzzards breeding in Japan. Journal of Zoology 276: 54-62. Wells, D.R. 1999. The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Volume one: Non-passerines. Academic Press, London. White, C.M.N. & M.D. Bruce. 1986. The Birds of Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia). British Ornithologists’ Union, London. 

The status of Oriental Honey Buzzard Pernis ptilorhynchus in Wallacea, with a description of the first record for Ternate

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The status of Oriental Honey Buzzard Pernis ptilorhynchus in Wallacea, with a description of the first record for Ternate

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