As we came into land on the runway in the north of Taveuni near to Matei our first birds for Taveuni were a couple of Pacific Golden Plover on the runway and a Fiji Goshawk harassing a couple of Collared Lory just outside the airport. MK sorted a lift and we headed the short distance to the Hotel Marravu (formerly Bibi’s Hideaway) at Matei. After checking in a cold beer was in order and we seawatched from the hotel balcony seeing around 50 Collared Petrel offshore, 5 Greater Crested Tern and small numbers of Short-tailed Shearwater. After sorting the logistics for tomorrow we wandered to the nearby beach and spent an hour in the evening seawatching, we recorded around 15 Herald Petrel, further Collard Petrel, 2 Red-footed Booby, 6 Brown Booby, large numbers (several hundred) of Short-tailed Shearwater, Lesser Frigatebird, many Brown Noddy and Eastern Reef Heron and Green-backed Heron on the offshore rocks while in the bushes lining the beach were Polynesian Triller and Vanikoro Flycatcher.
Collared Kingfisher of race vitiensis - Taveuni, Fiji
Female Vanikoro Flycatcher of race rufiventris - Taveuni, Fiji
Male Lesser Frigatebird - Taveuni, Fiji
Map of Taveuni from the Lonely Planet guide
Links to other days of the trip
