Atiu and Takutea, The Cook Islands
Our last day in the Cook Islands dawned bright and clear as we neared the island of Atiu. We made a Zodiac landing in the small harbour where we were welcomed by the traditional blowing of the triton trumpet shell and a challenge by a local warrior. After successfully passing the challenge we split into groups and headed inland to explore this beautiful raised coral makatea island.
Atiu has been known as the ‘Island of the birds’ or the 'Island of the insects’. Perhaps today the former name was more appropriate. One group spent the morning birding, encountering a number of local species including the rare kakerori, or Rarotonga monarch, endemic to Atiu and Rarotonga. In 1989 there were only 29 kakerori, all restricted to a small area of forest on Rarotonga. After an intensive recovery programme there are now an estimated 270 kakerori on Rarotonga and a second population of about 60 birds established by an introduction on Atiu.
But perhaps the star bird of Atiu is one found nowhere else in the world. Endemic to this tiny island, the Atiu swiftlet is a mere 5 inches long and weighs just a few ounces. It breeds in limestone caverns in the makatea and it was for one of these caves that a group of us headed. Once in the cave we discovered an unusual aspect of this species – when inside the cave in pitch blackness the bird changes it’s call from a contact call to a series of audible clicks. The swiftlet uses these clicks to echolocate and therefore navigate through the darkness to a nest made of strands of vegetation welded together with saliva and perched on a narrow ledge (a more famous, but far commoner, relative of this species is the source of birds’ nest soup). The Atiu swiftlet is one of less than 10 species of birds in the world to have developed the ability to echolocate.
The bird theme continued in the afternoon. We relocated to the smaller, uninhabited, island of Takutea which is a notable seabird colony. After a dramatic Zodiac passage across the reef we landed and mingled with the locals: boobies, noddies, terns, frigatebirds and hermit crabs. We even met a few visitors from the Arctic, in the form of bristle-thighed curlews, Pacific golden plovers and wandering tattlers; shorebirds that undertake a remarkable long distance migration from the Arctic to spend the non-breeding season on these remote islands in the South Pacific.
Our last day in the Cook Islands dawned bright and clear as we neared the island of Atiu. We made a Zodiac landing in the small harbour where we were welcomed by the traditional blowing of the triton trumpet shell and a challenge by a local warrior. After successfully passing the challenge we split into groups and headed inland to explore this beautiful raised coral makatea island.
Atiu has been known as the ‘Island of the birds’ or the 'Island of the insects’. Perhaps today the former name was more appropriate. One group spent the morning birding, encountering a number of local species including the rare kakerori, or Rarotonga monarch, endemic to Atiu and Rarotonga. In 1989 there were only 29 kakerori, all restricted to a small area of forest on Rarotonga. After an intensive recovery programme there are now an estimated 270 kakerori on Rarotonga and a second population of about 60 birds established by an introduction on Atiu.
But perhaps the star bird of Atiu is one found nowhere else in the world. Endemic to this tiny island, the Atiu swiftlet is a mere 5 inches long and weighs just a few ounces. It breeds in limestone caverns in the makatea and it was for one of these caves that a group of us headed. Once in the cave we discovered an unusual aspect of this species – when inside the cave in pitch blackness the bird changes it’s call from a contact call to a series of audible clicks. The swiftlet uses these clicks to echolocate and therefore navigate through the darkness to a nest made of strands of vegetation welded together with saliva and perched on a narrow ledge (a more famous, but far commoner, relative of this species is the source of birds’ nest soup). The Atiu swiftlet is one of less than 10 species of birds in the world to have developed the ability to echolocate.
The bird theme continued in the afternoon. We relocated to the smaller, uninhabited, island of Takutea which is a notable seabird colony. After a dramatic Zodiac passage across the reef we landed and mingled with the locals: boobies, noddies, terns, frigatebirds and hermit crabs. We even met a few visitors from the Arctic, in the form of bristle-thighed curlews, Pacific golden plovers and wandering tattlers; shorebirds that undertake a remarkable long distance migration from the Arctic to spend the non-breeding season on these remote islands in the South Pacific.
