Fiji Woodswallow
Encyclopedia
The Fiji Woodswallow is a species of woodswallow
in the family
Artamidae
. It is endemic to most of the islands of Fiji
, although it is absent from Kadavu Archipelago
and the Lau Archipelago
. The species was once considered a race of the White-breasted Woodswallow
, which breeds from Australia
, New Caledonia
and Vanuatu
through to Borneo
and the Philippines
. Some authors retain it in that species.
The Fiji Woodswallow is a chunky bird 18 centimetres (7 in) long with a heavy black-tipped blue bill
. The plumage
is sooty dark above, with a white belly, rump and throat. It is distinguished from the White-breasted Woodswallow by the amount of white on the throat, which in the Fiji Woodswallow comes up to the level of the bill.
, namely Viti Levu
, Vanua Levu
and Taveuni
. It is absent from the fourth largest island, Kadavu, but is present on smaller Gau
in the Lomaiviti Archipelago. Its natural habitat
is tropical moist lowland forest
s and savannahs, but it has adjusted to human-altered habitats and also lives in cultivated areas; there are even urban populations in Suva
and Nadi
. In Viti Levu it is found in the highlands, but not on the highlands of Taveuni.
Unlike the nomadic populations of Australian White-breasted Woodswallows, the Fiji Woodswallow is sedentary. Family groups will occupy a tree in which they roost and nest in over several years. It is thought that this is because the climatic conditions in Fiji are less extreme.
s, butterflies
, dragonflies
, and grasshopper
s being the main prey taken. Most of the prey is obtained by hawking
, with birds sitting on prominent perches and sallying after flying insect prey. Prey is usually taken out in the open away from obstacles but is occasionally taken from near the ground. Alternatively the woodswallow may make sweeps over flowering plants and snap at insects. It seldom lands to catch prey. Smaller items of prey are swallowed whole, whereas larger items are taken to a perch and dismembered, with the insect held on the perch with a foot and pecked apart. The wings of some species, such as dragonflies, are often stripped off before swallowing.
Family groups will feed each other during the breeding season, and injured
birds are fed while they recover.
Fiji Woodswallows are highly social
and will often form clusters on perches. At night groups habitually roost in the forks of a nesting/roosting tree, except during storms when they roost further down the tree.
Fiji Woodswallows are preyed upon by the Fiji race of the Peregrine Falcon
and the young are vulnerable to the Fiji Goshawk
. Fiji Woodswallows are highly aggressive and will attack these raptors
, often at risk to themselves, as well as introduced
mammals such as cats and dogs. They will also harass the introduced
Common Myna
and Red-vented Bulbul
to drive away from nesting and roosting sites, but display less aggression towards other harmless native species such as the Fiji Parrotfinch
.
breeding system, in contrast to the White-breasted Woodswallow, which is socially monogamous. Two males and two females have been observed building the nest, incubating the eggs and raising the young. It is not known if both the females lay or if only the dominant one does, but copulation has been recorded as occurring "indiscriminately" between different members of the group.
The nesting season begins in May, with nest building
beginning then. Nest building is a communal activity, with all members of the group participating.
Woodswallow
Woodswallows are soft-plumaged, somber-coloured passerine birds. There is a single genus, Artamus, The woodswallows are either treated as a subfamily, Artaminae in an expanded family Artamidae, which includes the butcherbirds and Australian Magpie, or as the only genus in that family...
in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Artamidae
Artamidae
The family Artamidae gathers together 20 species of mostly crow-like birds native to Australasia and nearby areas.There are two subfamilies: Artaminae, the woodswallows, are sombre-coloured, soft-plumaged birds that have a brush-tipped tongue but seldom use it for gathering nectar. Instead, they...
. It is endemic to most of the islands of Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, although it is absent from Kadavu Archipelago
Kadavu Group
The Kadavu Group is an archipelago south of Viti Levu, one of Fiji's two main islands. Dominated by Kadavu Island, the fourth largest island in Fiji, the group also includes Galoa, Ono, and a number of islets in the Great Astrolabe Reef....
and the Lau Archipelago
Lau Islands
The Lau Islands of Fiji are situated in the southern Pacific Ocean, just east of the Koro Sea. Of this chain of about one hundred islands and islets, about thirty are inhabited...
. The species was once considered a race of the White-breasted Woodswallow
White-breasted Woodswallow
The White-breasted Woodswallow, Artamus leucorynchus, is a small passerine bird which breeds from the Andaman Islands east through Indonesia and northern Australia. The name "woodswallow" is a misnomer as they are not closely related to true swallows...
, which breeds from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
and Vanuatu
Vanuatu
Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...
through to Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. Some authors retain it in that species.
The Fiji Woodswallow is a chunky bird 18 centimetres (7 in) long with a heavy black-tipped blue bill
Beak
The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which is used for eating and for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship and feeding young...
. The plumage
Plumage
Plumage refers both to the layer of feathers that cover a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage vary between species and subspecies and can also vary between different age classes, sexes, and season. Within species there can also be a...
is sooty dark above, with a white belly, rump and throat. It is distinguished from the White-breasted Woodswallow by the amount of white on the throat, which in the Fiji Woodswallow comes up to the level of the bill.
Distribution and habitat
The Fiji Woodswallow is endemic to the major islands of FijiFiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, namely Viti Levu
Viti Levu
Viti Levu is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji, the site of the nation's capital, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population.- Geography and economy :...
, Vanua Levu
Vanua Levu
Vanua Levu , formerly known as Sandalwood Island, is the second largest island of Fiji. Located 64 kilometres to the north of the larger Viti Levu, the island has an area of 5,587.1 km² and a population of some 130,000.- Geography :...
and Taveuni
Taveuni
Taveuni is the third-largest island in Fiji, after Vanua Levu and Viti Levu, with a total land area of 435 square kilometers . The cigar-shaped island, a massive shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, is situated 6.5 kilometers to the east of Vanua Levu, across the...
. It is absent from the fourth largest island, Kadavu, but is present on smaller Gau
Gau Island
Gau is an island belonging to Fiji's Lomaiviti Archipelago. Located at 18.00° S and 179.30 °E, it covers an area of 136.1 square kilometers, with a total shoreline of 66.3 kilometers, making it the 5th largest island in the Fijian archipelago. Its maximum altitude is 738 meters...
in the Lomaiviti Archipelago. Its natural habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
is tropical moist lowland forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
s and savannahs, but it has adjusted to human-altered habitats and also lives in cultivated areas; there are even urban populations in Suva
Suva
Suva features a tropical rainforest climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city sees a copious amount of precipitation during the course of the year. Suva averages 3,000 mm of precipitation annually with its driest month, July averaging 125 mm of rain per year. In fact,...
and Nadi
Nadi
Nadi is the third-largest conurbation in Fiji. It is located on the western side of the main island of Viti Levu, and had a population of 42,284 at the most recent census, in 2007. Nadi is multiracial with many of its inhabitants Indian or Fijian, along with a large transient population of foreign...
. In Viti Levu it is found in the highlands, but not on the highlands of Taveuni.
Unlike the nomadic populations of Australian White-breasted Woodswallows, the Fiji Woodswallow is sedentary. Family groups will occupy a tree in which they roost and nest in over several years. It is thought that this is because the climatic conditions in Fiji are less extreme.
Diet
The Fiji Woodswallow feeds on insects, with mothMoth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
s, butterflies
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
, dragonflies
Dragonfly
A dragonfly is a winged insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera . It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body...
, and grasshopper
Grasshopper
The grasshopper is an insect of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish it from bush crickets or katydids, it is sometimes referred to as the short-horned grasshopper...
s being the main prey taken. Most of the prey is obtained by hawking
Hawking (birds)
Hawking is a feeding strategy in birds involving catching flying insects in the air. The term usually refers to a technique of sallying out from a perch to snatch an insect and then returning to the same or a different perch...
, with birds sitting on prominent perches and sallying after flying insect prey. Prey is usually taken out in the open away from obstacles but is occasionally taken from near the ground. Alternatively the woodswallow may make sweeps over flowering plants and snap at insects. It seldom lands to catch prey. Smaller items of prey are swallowed whole, whereas larger items are taken to a perch and dismembered, with the insect held on the perch with a foot and pecked apart. The wings of some species, such as dragonflies, are often stripped off before swallowing.
Family groups will feed each other during the breeding season, and injured
Injury
-By cause:*Traumatic injury, a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident*Other injuries from external physical causes, such as radiation injury, burn injury or frostbite*Injury from infection...
birds are fed while they recover.
Social behaviour
Social behavior
In physics, physiology and sociology, social behavior is behavior directed towards society, or taking place between, members of the same species. Behavior such as predation which involves members of different species is not social...
and will often form clusters on perches. At night groups habitually roost in the forks of a nesting/roosting tree, except during storms when they roost further down the tree.
Fiji Woodswallows are preyed upon by the Fiji race of the Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
The Peregrine Falcon , also known as the Peregrine, and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache"...
and the young are vulnerable to the Fiji Goshawk
Fiji Goshawk
The Fiji Goshawk is a species of bird of prey in the Accipitridae family. It was once considered to be the same species as the Brown Goshawk of Australia and New Caledonia. It is endemic to Fiji, where it occurs on the larger islands of Viti Levu, Vanua Levu, Taveuni, Kadavu, Gau and Ovalau...
. Fiji Woodswallows are highly aggressive and will attack these raptors
Mobbing behavior
Mobbing in animals is an antipredator behavior which occurs when individuals of a certain species mob a predator by cooperatively attacking or harassing it, usually to protect their offspring. A simple definition of mobbing is an assemblage of individuals around a potentially dangerous predator...
, often at risk to themselves, as well as introduced
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
mammals such as cats and dogs. They will also harass the introduced
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
Common Myna
Common Myna
The Common Myna or Indian Myna also sometimes spelled Mynah, is a member of family Sturnidae native to Asia. An omnivorous open woodland bird with a strong territorial instinct, the Myna has adapted extremely well to urban environments...
and Red-vented Bulbul
Red-vented Bulbul
The Red-vented Bulbul is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka east to Burma and southwestern China. It has been introduced and has established itself in the wild in many Pacific islands including Fiji, Samoa,...
to drive away from nesting and roosting sites, but display less aggression towards other harmless native species such as the Fiji Parrotfinch
Fiji Parrotfinch
The Fiji Parrotfinch is a species of estrildid finch endemic to Fiji that was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the Red-headed Parrotfinch. This parrotfinch is a small, mainly green bird with a red head and tail and a stubby dark grey bill...
.
Breeding
A few studies of this species suggest that it has an unusual polygynadrousPolygynandry
Polygynandry occurs when two or more males have an exclusive relationship with two or more females. The numbers of males and females need not be equal, and in vertebrate species studied so far, the number of males is usually lower.-In Bonobos:...
breeding system, in contrast to the White-breasted Woodswallow, which is socially monogamous. Two males and two females have been observed building the nest, incubating the eggs and raising the young. It is not known if both the females lay or if only the dominant one does, but copulation has been recorded as occurring "indiscriminately" between different members of the group.
The nesting season begins in May, with nest building
Bird nest
A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American Robin or Eurasian Blackbird, or the elaborately woven hanging nest of the...
beginning then. Nest building is a communal activity, with all members of the group participating.