Dr Guy Dutson is a British-born veterinarian, ornithologist and a leader of birding tours, who is a world authority on the birds of the south-west Pacific region. He has rediscovered or described several bird species.
Dutson was educated at Cambridge University where he studied veterinary science. As a veterinarian, Dutson worked in the UK, Ethiopia and South Africa. In 1990 he led a Cambridge University expedition to the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, in the course of which he rediscovered the superb pitta on Manus Island. Expeditions to Indonesia and the Philippines led to the rediscovery of the Tanahjampea monarch and the Cebu flowerpecker. [1] In 2003 he rediscovered the long-legged warbler in Fiji. In 2008 he described a new species of white-eye, the Vanikoro white-eye, from the Vanikolo Islands in the Solomons. [2]
From 2000 to 2005, based in Fiji, Dutson established and managed the BirdLife International Pacific program, travelling extensively around the islands of Melanesia and the south-west Pacific. [1] He subsequently worked for Birds Australia as the manager of the Australian Important Bird Areas program. Dutson's most recent publishing endeavour is a description of a high altitude observation of the beautiful firetail in East Gippsland, Australia. [3]
from 2009 he went to survey to search for White-chested white-eye but failed to find any individuals.
Dutson wrote most of the Pacific islands species' accounts in the BirdLife publication Threatened Birds of the World. He is also involved in editing the same species for the Handbook of the Birds of the World . [1] As well as numerous scientific papers and project reports, he has authored:
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to Tonga in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea and a few thousand islands.
New Britain is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea and from New Ireland by St. George's Channel. The main towns of New Britain are Rabaul/Kokopo and Kimbe. The island is roughly the size of Taiwan. While the island was part of German New Guinea, it was named Neupommern . In common with most of the Bismarcks it was largely formed by volcanic processes, and has active volcanoes including Ulawun, Langila, the Garbuna Group, the Sulu Range, and the volcanoes Tavurvur and Vulcan of the Rabaul caldera. A major eruption of Tavurvur in 1994 destroyed the East New Britain provincial capital of Rabaul. Most of the town still lies under metres of ash, and the capital has been moved to nearby Kokopo.
The Vanuatu rain forests are tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion which includes the islands of Vanuatu, as well as the Santa Cruz Islands group of the neighboring Solomon Islands. It is part of the Australasian realm, which includes neighboring New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, as well as Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand.
The Santa Cruz Islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Temotu Province of the nation of Solomon Islands. They lie approximately 250 miles (400 km) to the southeast of the Solomon Islands archipelago. The Santa Cruz Islands lie just north of the archipelago of Vanuatu, and are considered part of the Vanuatu rain forests ecoregion.
The rufous fantail is a small passerine bird, most commonly known also as the black-breasted rufous-fantail or rufous-fronted fantail, which can be found in Australia, Indonesia, Micronesia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. In these countries they inhabit rainforests, wet forests, swamp woodlands and mangroves.
The straw-necked ibis is a bird of the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. It can be found throughout Australia, New Guinea, and parts of Indonesia. Adults have distinctive straw-like feathers on their necks.
Choiseul Island, native name Lauru, is the largest island of the Choiseul Province, Solomon Islands, at 7.08°S 157°E. The administrative headquarters of Choiseul Province is situated in the town of Taro, on Taro Island.
The white-chested white-eye also known as white-breasted white-eye or Norfolk white-eye is a passerine from the family Zosteropidae. It is endemic to Norfolk Island between New Caledonia and New Zealand and it is regarded as either extremely rare or possibly extinct. Since 2000 the Australian government has considered the species extinct.
The comb-crested jacana, also known as the lotusbird or lilytrotter, is the only species of jacana in the genus Irediparra. Like other jacana species, it is adapted to the floating vegetation of tropical freshwater wetlands.
The Solomons frogmouth, also known as the Cinnamon frogmouth or Solomon Islands frogmouth, is a bird in the frogmouth family. It was first described in 1901, but not recognized as a distinct species until 2007. The Solomons frogmouth is the only known member of the genus Rigidipenna. It is also endemic to the islands of Isabel, Bougainville and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands archipelago, in the countries of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
The island imperial pigeon is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands archipelago, living in primary and secondary forests and mangroves. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as a least-concern species.
The Melanesian flycatcher is a species of bird in the monarch-flycatcher family Monarchidae. The species is found on islands in Melanesia.
The Vanikoro flycatcher is a species of monarch flycatcher in the family Monarchidae. It has a slightly disjunct distribution, occurring on Vanikoro island and in Fiji.
The Vanikoro flying fox, also known locally as basapine, is a species of bat in the family Pteropodidae. It has only been found in the Vanikoro island group located in the southern Solomon Islands. The species as a whole was originally known from just a few specimens collected sometime before 1930 but following surveys conducted on the island in the early 1990s did not detect this species again causing the Vanikoro flying fox to be listed as extinct. However, the species was rediscovered by a survey conducted in late 2014 which indicated a population in the high hundreds or low thousands and reported all observations.
Vanikoro is an island in the Santa Cruz group, located 118 kilometres to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group. It is part of the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands.
Candoia bibroni is a nonvenomous boa species endemic to Melanesia and Polynesia. Two subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here.
The Vanikoro white-eye is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is endemic to Vanikoro in the Santa Cruz Islands of Temotu Province in the south-east of the Solomon Islands chain. The species is named for David Gibbs, who discovered it.
The Solomon Islands is an archipelago in the western South Pacific Ocean, located northeast of Australia. The archipelago is in the Melanesia subregion and bioregion of Oceania. It forms the eastern boundary of the Solomon Sea. The archipelago forms much of the territory of Solomon Islands. The main islands are Choiseul, the Shortland Islands, the New Georgia Islands, Santa Isabel, the Russell Islands, the Florida Islands, Tulagi, Malaita, Maramasike, Ulawa, Owaraha, Makira, and Guadalcanal. The largest island, Bougainville Island, is geographically part of the Solomon Islands (archipelago), while politically an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea. The nation state of Solomon Islands covers a subset of the Solomon Islands archipelago and includes isolated low-lying coral atolls and high islands including Sikaiana, Rennell Island, Bellona Island, and the Santa Cruz Islands.
David Gibbs is a British naturalist. His main research fields are the ornithology, the entomology, and the ecology.
The eye-ring of a bird is a ring of tiny feathers that surrounds the orbital ring, a ring of bare skin immediately surrounding a bird's eye. The eye-ring is often decorative, and its colour may contrast with adjoining plumage. The ring of feathers is sometimes incomplete, forming an eye arc. In the absence of a conspicuous eye-ring, the orbital ring of a bird is often referred to as the eye-ring. The bare orbital ring may be hardened or fleshy, or may form an eye-wattle. These are useful field marks in many bird species, and the eye-ringed flatbill, eye-ringed tody-tyrant and eye-ringed thistletail are examples of species named for either of these.