Birding Pemba Island

In order to help fill a yawning gap and satisfy an increasing requirement for more precise
Tanzanian birding information we have decided to include in this web site some brief 'blog reports' from the more bird-focused safaris which we design and help guide here in tropical Tanzania.
Egrets
We were on Pemba ten days ago. We stayed this time on the south western fringe of the
island, at the sumptuous Fundu Lagoon Lodge, for two wonderful nights. Although on this visit to the fabled, and ecologically richest, spice island we did not have time to go to the endemic-rich Ngezi Forest reserve. Ngezi lies some 12km north of the friendly little town of Wete and is therefore more easily accessible from the only other high quality tourist accommodation on Pemba - the very well-situated Manta Reef Lodge which is close to Ras Kigomasha and the northern tip of the island. And it seems that these days you might have to go to either Ngezi (ca 600 ha) or to Mwita Mkuu forest (ca 200 ha) to be sure of seeing the Pemba Green Pigeon (Treron pembaensis)- undoubtedly the "toughest of the endemics". I saw at most five individuals in three days at Ngezi in January 2005.

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We were on the more indented, sheltered south west coastline. There were few palearctic waders, and no captivating Crab Plovers (Dromas ardeola) , to admire on the beaches at this season; there were only 'over-wintering' or 'over-summering' - i.e. non-breeding Eurasian Whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus) and Grey Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola); so I decided to concentrate on working the residual indigenous forest that remains on the Fundu peninsula. The owners and management of Fundu Lagoon have done wonders, over the past eight years, by building their accommodation very carefully into these fragments of Pemba's unique woodland. Woodland which continues to regenerate, almost wrapping around each of the superbly landscaped and well constructed bandas; a 'tourist banda' in Tanzania is a canvas room; here sheltered by a highly durable thatch roof. Consequently nowadays one can lie a-bed in comfort and awaken if you wish, just pre-dawn, to the calls of that highly localised endemic the Pemba Scops Owl (Otus pembae). Whose softly mournful "poop .... poop" rises and falls above the sound of the ocean breakers; whilst pro-simian Galagos (bush babies) quietly bicker, cackle and chuckle with the Pemba Vervet Monkeys in the trees which overhang your, otherwise very private, sea-view verandah.

By far the commonest bird in the trees at Fundu Lagoon is the brimstone yellow Pemba White-eye (Zosterops vaughani) to my mind one of the smartest members of the whole group; whose various and complex calls usually dominate the arboreal soundscape. In addition to the "peeer peer peer" contact calls, that everyone must come to associate with the genus Zosterops, these Pemba birds make an interrogative short nasal whinny and a rasping Monarch flycatcher-like "za-zreee-zrit". Furthermore the almost day long preponderance of the white-eye's sweetly elaborate warbling song is a truly delightful and intrinsic feature of this highly romantic island resort. The white-eyes are perhaps best viewed when they come, at eye level and at midday, to the white-flowered trees growing alongside the wooden balcony of the resort's health spa. This quiet haven stands very near to the lodge's infinity pool, set on a little hill within the lodge grounds. Despite my being a five decade birder I must say that the treat of simultaneously watching ocean going Swift Terns (Sterna bergii)and brilliant yet diminutive nectaring Pemba Sunbirds (Cinnyris pembae) felt like quite an accomplishment; even though here at Fundu this can be done whilst
half-immersed in the swimming pool!

Other avian goodies 'on offer' to the serious 'phylogenetic lister' at Fundu are the singing Pemba Black-bellied Starlings (Lamprotornis corruscus vaughani), which nest in cavities in the gnarled old stag's heads of the fringing mangroves, and the three Pemba African Goshawks (Accipiter tachiro pembaensis) that display overhead early each morning. These 'feather-weight' Goshawks are actually best heard (a slowly repeated, quiet whip-lash, "chet ... ... chet") and seen from half way along the 200m wooden jetty, beside the state of the art sunset 'beach bar', a seriously breath-taking and quiet location; strangely so; it was almost devoid of humanity ... well it was at just -on sunrise ... 0630 hrs!

Mangrove Kingfisher (Halcyon senegaloides)is a lovely bird and one that seems to adapt very happily to well-planned hotel developments along our coastline. For at both Saadani Safari Lodge and at Pemba Fundu Lagoon they forage for invertebrates around the tree-fringed buildings; sometimes flashing past you almost in tandem with an African Pygmy Kingfisher (Ispidina picta natalensis)- another mauve and purple light-bolt, which at this time, and on the coast, is probably a migrant from populations breeding farther down the eastern hinterland. At Saadani one Mangrove Kingfisher frequently sits on chair backs and snatches fish from the pool within the lounge!

One morning (at least) at Misali Island reserve which lies just 4 km offshore from Fundu (only 45 minutes - even in the slowest of the three boats available) is clearly an absolute must. Apart from the almost limitless opportunities for a host of expertly-buddied 'in depth' diving experiences and some superb snorkelling, right off the white sand beach, there are some very good birds here too. Firstly the highly arboreal Pemba White-eye and Pemba Sunbird are both very common indeed. Secondly, haunting the little-used coral rag woodland of this small island, most interesting, yet quite exasperating for me, were two skulking Pemba (African) Reed Warblers (Acrocephalus (baeticatus) suahelicus) singing away at up to 4 metres in the mid-storey of this evergreen 'forest'. The song of this taxon, or form, or shall we call it a species even (because like so many vertebrate taxa in Africa it's really not yet been split simply because it's in Africa where there are so few birders - cf Europe and North America - and is "all boring and brown" i.e. difficult to distinguish visually from its 'close congeners'), might be described as a very slow, quite deliberate and richly soft version of the typical song of Acrocephalus scirpaceus - the European Reed Warbler. In the absence of a varied suite of 'sylvioid' competition, which is typically present in all such forested wetland margin habitats (at least in those that have as yet escaped the charcoal makers) on the adjacent mainland, this swamp land bird seems on Mesali to have taken to the trees, and is well on the way to becoming a real south sea island speciality in much the same manner as those other Indian Ocean warblers, the 'acrocephalines of the archipelagos' must have done in ages past.

I have never heard "Pemba Warbler" anywhere on the Pemba mainland and one must wonder about its present status. Is it endangered by the escalating clearance of indigenous flora, of sapling undergrowth and climbing plants; considered untidy and a dangerous refuge for snakes especially when in proximity to houses? More likely it is being quietly extirpated by the semi-feral cats, which unfortunately run rife, even at Fundu Lagoon lodge.

Around Misali Island graceful, slate-coloured Dimorphic Egrets (Egretta dimorpha) fish the inshore shallows, then sauntered on slowly flapping wings from beach to beach, just above the pairs of snorkeling honeymooners.

Unfortunately, since on our visit we also went for a snorkel, we had no time to explore westward by boat, into the Pemba Channel, beyond the fringing reef, yet out there we could see one of my all-time favourite birds - Indian Ocean Roseate Terns (Sterna dougallii bangsi)- heading south, far offshore but going where - to Mafia Island perhaps? Sadly this is yet another species with a very uncertain future.

Out in the deep blue Pemba channel other pelagic beauties hide, unseen for the most part by landlubber mankind. Northbound migrant Humpback Whales are due through here very soon - they peak in early September. Whilst tantalizingly many people assure me that pods of Indo-Pacific Humpback, schools of 'Eastern or Indian Ocean' Bottle-nosed (another recent split) and recklessly energetic Spinner Dolphins abound out there just beyond the reef and should do - for a good while yet, especially if more foreign tourists come - beyond the idyllic turquoise inlets of Fundu's sparkling lagoon.

Humpback Whale off Pemba: Photo by Filbert Nathan