Avifauna of a lowland forest site on Isabel, Solomon Islands

We provide the first comprehensive description of a bird community from a l owland rainforest site on a major island in the Solomon Islands. During two dry season visits (July 1997, June 1998) to the lower Garanga River valley on the island of Isabel, we recorded 65 resident and 6 migrant species of birds. We document relative abundances, habitat preferences, and foraging g uilds for the members of the bird community. The Garanga River site sustain s all but 11 of the 76 species of landbirds known from Isabel. Of those 11 species, four are small-island or beach specialists, three are montane, and four are of unknown status. Habitat heterogeneity, maintained largely by r iver dynamics, is a major contributor to avian diversity at the site. The a vifauna is dominated by nonpasserines, especially parrots, pigeons,]kingfis hers, and hawks. The flightless rail Nesoclopeus woodfordi, previously rega rded as rare and threatened with extinction, was common. We recorded Ixobry chus flavicollos, Falco serverus, and Eudynamys scolopaeca for the first ti me on Isabel. We also documented occurrence in the lowlands of Micropsitta finschii, Collocalia spodiopygia, Coracina caledonica, and Pachycephala pec toralis, four species previously thought to be confined to upper elevations on Isabel. The depauperate understory avifauna of the Garanga River site m ay be anthropogenic and could belie what otherwise seems to be an intact av ifauna.