The avifauna of Biak Island, Papua, Indonesia with comments on status, conservation, natural history and taxonomy
Author
Bishop, K. David
text
Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club
2023
2023-03-06
143
1
3
62
journal article
298463
10.25226/bboc.v143i1.2023.a2
6028cf6b-e944-40d1-b774-7caa1c970409
2513-9894
11642130
805136AB-F3FE-4C77-85AC-E37423156B6D
[FORK-TAILED SWIFT
Apus pacificus
]
Status
No previous records of this Palearctic migrant on any of the Teluk Cenderawasih Islands or in virtually all of northern New
Guinea (Beehler & Pratt 2016)
. However,
Richardson (1997)
noted some sizeable groups of this species passing through in late
November 1996
, and on
25 August 2008
A. Whitlock saw three near Warafri (eBird checklist 48738894), but neither record is documented. More convincing details were provided by J. Mazenauer (
in litt
. 2021) from the airport on nearby Numfor. As noted under the previous species, on the evening of
25 September 2018
, during a period of strong winds, he saw a group of ten of this species, which he identified by the clear white rump, deeply forked tail and white scaling on the underparts, before they flew east and disappeared. It therefore seems that both this and the previous species pass through the region, at least during autumn passage.