Records of brown booby Sula leucogaster in the Pitcairn Islands with additional observations during 2015-19

• Published in: Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club
• Main Authors: Bond, AL, Lavers, JL
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: British Ornithologists' Club 2020
• Subjects: Biological Sciences; Ecology; Population Ecology; Four Islands; Henderson Island; Ogilvie; Pacific
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v140i1.2020.a11; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/138044

The Pitcairn Islands are a UK Overseas Territory comprising four islands (Oeno, Pitcairn, Henderson and Ducie) spanning >600 km in eastern Polynesia, in the South Pacific Ocean. Oeno and Ducie are low coral atolls, Henderson is a large raised coral island, and Pitcairn is volcanic in origin ( Spencer 1995 ). The islands' avifauna have received considerable scientific attention, mainly focused on Henderson Island, beginning in the early 20th century ( North 1908 , Ogilvie-Grant 1913 ), followed by the Whitney South Seas Expedition ( Murphy 1924 , Murphy & Mathews 1929 ). There was some work in the late 1980s on Henderson's landbirds ( Graves 1992 ). The Sir Peter Scott Memorial Expedition in 199192 stationed researchers on Henderson Island for more than a year, and thoroughly studied the birds ( Brooke 1995a , b , Brooke & Jones 1995 , Imber et al . 1995 , Jones et al . 1995 , Trevelyan 1995 ). This was followed in the early 21st century by studies into the effect of introduced Pacific Rats Rattus exulans on Henderson's native fauna ( Brooke et al . 2011 , Amos et al . 2016 , Oppel et al . 2016 , Bond et al . 2019b ), and of the abundance of various species ( Oppel et al . 2017 , Bond et al . 2019a ). There are far fewer studies of the avifauna of Pitcairn ( Williams 1960 , Schofield & Bond 2016 ), Oeno ( Brooke et al . 2018 ) and Ducie, although all were reviewed by Brooke ( 1995b ) and Bourne & David ( 1983 ). Ducie and Oeno possess no endemic species of birds, whilst Pitcairn is home to the endemic Pitcairn Reed Warbler Acrocephalus vaughani ( Brooke 1995 b), and Henderson supports five endemic speciesHenderson Petrel Pterodroma atrata , Henderson Crake Zapornia atra , Henderson Fruit Dove Ptilinopus insularis , Henderson Lorikeet Vini stepheni and Henderson Reed Warbler Acrocephalus taiti ( Graves 1992 , Brooke 1995 b, Oppel et al . 2017 , Bond et al . 2019a ). The avifauna of the group as a whole has been described largely in three works ( Williams 1960 , Brooke 1995b , Thibault & Cibois 2017 ), and one review ( Bourne & David 1983 ). Of the 41 species recorded from the islands ( Williams 1960 , Bourne & David 1983 , Brooke 1995 b), a handful are vagrants or possible breeders, and could become established as breeding populations in the Pitcairn Islands, based on range and suitable habitatWedge-tailed Shearwater Ardenna pacifica , White-tailed Tropicbird Phaethon lepturus and Brown Booby Sula leucogaster . Here we summarise records of Brown Booby across the island group and add three additional sightings from 201519.