Birding in French Polynesia XII

12 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.

Monday Jan 12 2026 - Day 12

Today, we hopped on the zoom, planning to do a presentation about bird ringing at Girdleness, to the local SOC branch (for Aberdeen, not Polynesia). Unfortunately, due to a connection issue on their end, I wasn't able to present and a recording of my presentation was shared instead. If you would like to view my presentation, click here.

The schedule

We instead went for a what turned out to be the best snorkelling session we've had so far. I soon got eyes on an Ornate Butterflyfish, which my sister unfortunately missed. In the deeper water with my dad, I saw two Moorish Idols, one of the most beautiful fish of all. We also saw many other species, here is a list: