The Tahiti flycatcher (Pomarea nigra) is one of several monarch flycatcher species in the Polynesian genus Pomarea, all of which are threatened. The Tahiti flycatcher is currently known from only the western side of Tahiti where, during the 1998-99 season, at least 24 individuals, including 10 pairs, were located in four valleys (Blanvillain 1999). Although ten nests were protected from rats in 1998-99, only three were successful in fledging young. Two of these young apparently disappeared one week after fledging and the third, two months after fledging (Blanvillain 1999). Concern was raised about the possible predation by common myna (Acridotheres tristis), and/or red-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer) on juveniles.
In 1999-2000 the Societe d'Ornithologie de Polynesie (MANU) was granted funding for Tahiti flycatcher conservation by the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). During 13-26 September 1999, RP visited Tahiti to advise and help CB with aspects of the programme. This advisory work was funded by the N.Z. Ornithological Congress Trust Board (ICBP). It builds on work by Gaze & Blanvillain (1998) funded by the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust.
Since 1987, I have assisted the Cook Islands Conservation/Environment Service and, more recently, the Takitumu Conservation Area Project and the Avifauna Conservation Programme of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to plan and implement a recovery programme for the kakerori, a critically endangered forest bird endemic to Rarotonga. In 1989, the kakerori was one of the 10 rarest birds in the world, and classified as 'critically endangered' (Collar et al. 1994) with a population of just 29 birds. I calculated
that there was a 50% chance of kakerori becoming extinct by 1998 unless nest predation by rats was significantly reduced. During each breeding season since 1989, rats have been poisoned in the 155 ha of forest occupied by kakerori (Robertson et al. 1998) and the effectiveness of this work has been measured by-
recording breeding productivity (Saul et al. 1998), and by undertaking an annual census the following spring (Robertson 1998, 1999).
Native birds and animals of New Zealand had very few predators. Until the introduction of pests and rats onto New Zealand soils, they were able to roam freely and could be found in great numbers. Nowadays, they are subjected to extinction at an alarming rate. In response, the Department of Conservation sent out a team to eradicate rats through an experiment that proved successful. It was planned that in 1990, the Department of Conservation were to introduce some of the endangered animal species back onto Breaksea Island.
