Kadavu fantail

Rhipidura personata

The Kadavu Fantail is a species of bird in the fantail family Rhipiduridae. It is endemic to Kadavu and Ono in the Kadavu Islands, Fiji.

It is closely related to the Streaked Fantail of the rest of Fiji, and forms a superspecies with the numerous island species of fantail ranging from the Solomon Islands (the Brown Fantail) to Samoa (theSamoan Fantail).

The Kadavu Fantail is restricted to tropical moist lowland forests, where it feeds by flycatching for insects.

It sometimes joins mixed-species feeding flocks with Polynesian Trillers, Fiji Bush-warblers and Silvereyes. The breeding season is October and November.

It is threatened by habitat loss.

Rhipidura personata is endemic to Kadavu and the satellite island of Ono, Fiji. Recent surveys found this species to be fairly common in native forests, with 36 birds recorded (mostly calling males) in 23.5 hours at a mixed lowland and montane site and 13 birds in 15 hours at a montane site.

Estimating an average pace of 1 km/hour and an effective detection distance of 25 m each side of the trail suggests that around 31 and 17 birds were detected per km² at these sites.

The area of dense and medium-dense forest on Kadavu is around 225 km², suggesting that the total population falls in the band 2,500-10,000 birds (G. Dutson in litt. 2005). The species also occurs on the island of Ono which probably constitutes second sub-population as fantails rarely cross the sea, totaling about 5% of the total population.

This species is probably declining at the rate of forest loss and degradation on Kadavu, which is estimated to be 0.5-0.8% per year across Fiji (Claasen 1991), but is probably higher on Kadavu which has suffered extensive fires in recent years (G. Dutson in litt. 2005).