Discovery of new paradise flycatcher nest lifts spirits of those protecting Seychelles' critically endangered bird

Victoria, Seychelles | May 12, 2019, Sunday @ 11:00 in Environment » SPECIES | By: Betymie Bonnelame | Views: 1234

(Seychelles News Agency) - The discovery of a new nest of the Seychelles’ critically endangered bird, the paradise flycatcher, in an unusual tree is a positive sign that the species is recovering, said the Seychelles National Parks Authority (SNPA).

For the first time, a new nest built by a pair of paradise flycatchers, known as veuve, was spotted in a morinda citrifolia tree (bwa torti in Creole) which produces the noni fruit in the Veuve Special Reserve on La Digue, the third-most populated island.

According to SNPA ranger Josianna Rose, the discovery will have major ramifications for conservation practice of the paradise flycatcher.

“It’s a major positive since it widens the habitat potential for the veuve. We can now add more bwa torti in the reserve, and at about two metres from the ground level, they will be more accessible for us to monitor,” she said.  

Flycatchers typically nest more commonly in takamaka and badamier trees which are seen in plenty in the Veuve Reserve’s coastal woodlands, as well as bwa kafoul and bwa blan.

Rose said that as the species is clawing back from the brink of extinction, nesting and breeding patterns have to be closely monitored to ensure the environment is as favourable as possible toward its recovery.

The paradise flycatchers found only in Seychelles, a group of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean, are currently on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) list of critically endangered species. This species has an extremely small range and probably only one viable population persisting on an island where there has been a continuing decline in habitat.

Read more

Crucial milestone for critically endangered bird

 Date:  March 7, 2019

Source:  University of Kent

A team led by a conservation biologist from the University of Kent has successfully re-located threatened Seychelles paradise flycatchers (Terpsiphone corvina) to a different island to help prevent their extinction.

Four females and two males were caught on Denis Island and taken to Curieuse Island, where they joined 11 males and nine females who were moved there from La Digue Island at the end of last year. Four weeks after that release, the first birds had nested, with the first chick recently fledged.

The project was led by Jim Groombridge, Professor of Biodiversity Conservation and Head of Kent's School of Anthropology and Conservation (SAC). Dr Rachel Bristol, who completed her PhD at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) in SAC managed the project in partnership with the Seychelles National Parks Authority. The project was financed by the UK Government's Darwin Initiative.

The move required the team to:

catch the birds using mist nets

delicately mark their tails so they are individually identifiable until their next moult

take blood samples

put them in transfer boxes (recycled cardboard boxes- modified to ensure air and with a branch placed inside for the birds to perch on)

transfer them by plane to Praslin, then by boat trip to Curieuse

give them rehydration and energy fluid

before releasing them from the hand

The Seychelles paradise flycatcher is currently 'Critically Endangered' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN red list of endangered species and conservationists hope that successfully establishing this additional population on Curieuse Island could mean they are down-listed to a less endangered category.

Read on