The Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues, situated in the southwest Indian Ocean, once harboured a number of diverse bird species, most notably the Mauritian Dodo. Unlike most other oceanic islands, the Mascarenes were in pristine condition when first discovered by humans, who recorded important but often vague details in ships’ logs and journals. The arrival of Europeans at the end of the 16th century, with their accompanying commensal animals, proved disastrous for the […]

When I decided to pursue my passion for poo at PhD level, I never imagined I would end up on Heron Island: a (very) small coral cay on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Just half a mile long, this sub-tropical island is home to a huge variety of biodiversity. So much so that David Attenborough opted to film there. Fig 1 Heron Island, credit: Andrea Estandía

Storm-petrels are the smallest of the petrels, are closely related to albatrosses, and represent more than one-third of the world’s truly oceanic seabird species. Most are nocturnal at their nesting sites, shy by nature, and breed on remote and often inaccessible islands. These features of petrels render them difficult to study and many populations are hardly documented. The description or recognition of a new species is a very rare event. Our new study, published in […]

Africa still has vast regions which are ornithologically undocumented and may offer surprises and potentially new discoveries. This is certainly true of Mozambique: a country with low population density and poorly explored wetlands, lakes, woodlands and forests.  Even as a frequent visitor to this exciting country, one is never quite sure what to expect! The story of Forbes-Watson’s Swift in Mozambique begins in March 2017, when I led a birding tour to southern Mozambique – […]