Birding in French Polynesia XXVII
27 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.
Tuesday Jan 27 2026 - Day 27
Today, after exchanging countless emails with MANU over the past weeks and months, we were finally provided access to the Monarch Preserve at Papehue valley, so long as we remained with Arnaud, our friend from Natura Exploration, with whom we went to Papenoo Valley with, on the 15th of January.
He picked us up from our Airbnb, and drove up to the valley. We soon started seeing Tahiti Swiftlet, a rather common species in some of the West coast valleys on Tahiti. When we entered the jungle, we soon had to cross a few rivers, and went through some very muddy areas. After a while, we bumped into some MANU volunteers. Soon after, we saw our very first Tahiti Monarch, which was attending a nest, high up in the trees.
Then, we continued, heading towards the Tahiti Swiftlet nesting colony. When we got there, we soon saw all the nests - on an overhang, inside a cave - and the adults flying in and out of the cave. I also managed to collect a Tahiti Swiftlet feather, from the ground, near the colony. Before long, however, the heavens opened, and it started to rain really heavy. After waiting in out, seeing a couple Tahiti Swallows meanwhile, we went to a location, which is supposedly very good for Tahiti Monarch. After a bit of waiting, we saw some Grey-Green Fruit Doves, and, a male Tahiti Monarch, high up in the canopy.
After that, we went back to the nest, and watch the adult returning quite often, to feed its young, we also saw one right next to us, but by the time we got the camera out of the bag, it was gone.
We were extremely happy to see such a remarkable and rare species, that, luckily, is increasing in numbers. Current estimates from MANU reckon there are about 150 adults roaming 3 valleys in Western Tahiti, giving it a Critically Engendered status from the IUCN Red List Committee.
Just before leaving, we also saw a lovely Society Kingfisher, perched in a tree above us.
We made an eBird Trip Report, to combine all our checklists from the trip into one list, which can be found here.
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