Birding in French Polynesia III

3 January 2026

Over the next 28 days, I will be spending my time birding on Tahiti and Mo'orea, two islands in the Windward Islands, an archipelago belonging to French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France. Birds in italics indicate lifers.

Saturday Jan 3 2026 - Day 3

Today, we woke up after sleeping nearly 13hrs, all afternoon, and all night. In the morning, we were woken by the many RJs that were being as noisy as they could possibly be. We watched the 5:20am sunrise while preparing for the day ahead. We didn't have any food, so for breakfast we went to the Urban Cafe, our accommodation.

Enjoying breakfast at the Urban Cafe

Notre-Dame Cathedral of Pape'ete

After the best breakfast of my life at the Urban Cafe (highly recommended), walked towards central Pape'ete and the Rue Francis Puara Cowan, along a small canal. We quickly found a Wandering Tattler, which landed on the balcony of a nearby building. We also saw a couple of Waxbills with a couple of Chestnut-breasted Mannikins, and a few Zebra Doves.

Chestnut-breasted Mannikins + Common Waxbills

View over the highlands of Tahiti

Zebra Dove

Me birding along the canal

We saw many fish in the canal, mainly Mozambique Tilapia. The canal itself was much dirtier and polluted than we expected. We also spotted some red dragonflies, which we believe to be Coral-tailed Cloudwings, Tholymis tillarga. We spotted some Great Frigatebirds, and saw a Myna nest before finding my main target species for this location: the Little Heron. Formerly known as the Striated Heron, it has been spilt from the South American population and the Galápagos population, and all Old World birds have been classed under the taxa “Little Heron”. The birds on Tahiti are of a rare and fragile, endemic subspecies (B. a. patruelis). The bird we saw, which was a juvenile, had been colour-ringed with green and orange tags.

Mozambique Tilapia

Little Heron

We then continued walking, towards the Taaone Beach, in Pīra'e, seeing many of the same species on the way. When we got there, we immediately spotted some Brown Noddies, and White Terns, among the more common species. We settled down in the shade of a parasol, and I soon got another lifer, when a Great Crested Tern flew past.

Great Crested Tern, in flight

At this point, my life list was sitting at 299, but I decided to go for a swim in the Pacific Ocean before. The water was cool, but nowhere near as cold as in Aberdeen on the 3rd of January. After a while, I got the camera and went for a quick walk, since I had spotted another Wandering Tattler in the distance. I walked towards the mouth of a small stream, where a saw a couple Red-vented Bulbuls. As I was photographing them, I noticed a grey bird moving behind them; it was the Wandering Tattler. I took some nice photos before it flew to the far bank of the river.

Wandering Tattler

Wandering Tattler, in flight

I then went back to where my parents were resting, under the parasol, to do some seawatching. I set up my scope and started scanning the distant water, spotting White Terns, Brown Noddies, and, eventually, my lifer Tahiti Petrel! My life list had hit 300!!! I was ecstatic, since this was an amazing bird to hit such a milestone. The Tahiti Petrel is a breeding endemic of Tahiti, meaning it only breeds on Tahiti. I watch the birds as they glided over the water, alongside Brown Noddies. I tried taking some photos, but they came out quite bad. I also saw a Brown Booby resting on a buoy, and a flock of Great Crested Terns, resting on a distant island.

Terrible photo of a Tahiti Petrel, over the horizon

Brown Booby, sat on red buoy

Brown Noddy

We were busy trying to open coconuts, when I saw more frigatebirds fly over. I took some photos and, later, at home, we confirmed that one of these birds was an adult female Lesser Frigatebird. We also saw a juvenile bird, which we think is also a Lesser Frigatebird.