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KofiauLocated roughly mid-way between Halmahera and the Bird's Head Peninsula, in the Raja Ampat archipelago still, this truly oceanic island features a generally rather depauperate avifauna with a decidedly Moluccan element, but importantly includes two endemic allospecies: Kofiau Paradise-Kingfisher Tanysiptera ellioti and Kofiau Monarch Monarcha julianae. Both endemics are readily seen, as are a limited selection of restricted-range and more widespread goodies. The paradise-kingfisher had a decidely international introduction to the ornithological world as S.D. Ripley pointed out in his 1959 treatise on the Raja Ampat Islands. First secured in 1867 by one of Hoedt's collectors, most likely D. Hokum, the type was acquired by Count Turati in Milan who sent it to J. Verreaux in Paris for identification. There it was seen by D.G. Elliot of New York, who advised that the specimen be sent to R.B. Sharpe in London. Finally, Sharpe formally described it in 1869. Kofiau Monarch, on the contrary, was the second last bird species to have been formally described from the entire New Guinea region hitherto. This flycatcher was discovered in 1955 by Jusup Kakiaij, S.D. Ripley’s native Misolese assistant back from the days of the Denison-Crockett Expedition to New Guinea, and named by Ripley in 1959 in honor of the late Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. Kofiau endemic birds (2 species)Kofiau Paradise-Kingfisher Tanysiptera ellioti Restricted-range species (5 species)Dusky Megapode Megapodius freycinet Widespread goodiesYellow-capped Pygmy-Parrot Micropsitta keiensis Related linksBrowse our check-list of the birds of Papua. |
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