Table of Contents

Foreward 9
1. Ornithological discovery, exploration, and research on the Auckland Islands, New Zealand subantartic, 11
2. Birds of the Auckland Islands, New Zealand subantarctic, 59
3. Subantarctic Adams Island and its birdlife 153
4. Birds of Enderby Island, Auckland Islands, New Zealand subantarctic, 189.
5. Shipwrecks and mollymawks: an account of Disappointment Island birds 213
6. Introduced land mammals and their impacts on the birds of the subantarctic Auckland Islands 247
7. Holocene bird bones found at the subantarctic Auckland Islands 269
8. An extinct New Zealand raven (Corvus antipodum) on the Auckland Islands - an osteographic enigma? 295
9. Population estimate for yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes) in the subantarctic Auckland Islands, New Zealand 299
10. Development of aerial monitoring techniques to estimate population size of great albatrosses (Diomeda spp). 321
11. Variation in the bill colour of the white-capped mollymawk (Thalassarche cauta steadi). 333
12. Population trends of light-mantled sooty albatross (Phoebetria palpebrata) at Adams Island and trials of ground, boat, and aerial methods for population estimates 341
13. First northern giant petrel (Macronectes halli) breeding population survey and estimate for the Auckland Islands, New Zealand 357
14. Year-round distribution, breeding cycle, and activity of white-headed petrels (Pterodroma lessonii) nesting on Adams Island, Auckland Islands 369
15. White-chinned petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis) burrow density, occupancy, and population size at the Auckland Islands
387
16. Genetic analysis reveal an unexpected refugial population of subantarctic snipe (Coenocorypha aucklandica) 403
17. Macquarie Island shags (Leucocarbo purpurascens) at the Auckland Islands - an addition to the New Zealand list 419
18. First record of South Polar skua (Catharacta maccormicki) from New Zealand - Auckland Islands, March 1904 427
19. Endemic is good, introduced is boring? Biases in bird reporting rates at the Auckland Islands 431
Acknowledgements 435

Promotional Information

* The first-ever book on the birds of the Auckland Islands.
* Written by expert contributors, under the auspices of Birds New Zealand (the Ornithological Society of New Zealand).
* Well illustrated with both photographs and maps.

About the Author

Dr Colin Miskelly is an ornithologist with broad interests, including conservation ecology, biogeography, and the history of science. Employed as a curator of vertebrates at Te Papa since 2010, Colin previously worked for the New Zealand Department of Conservation as a scientist and manager. His research on snipe and seabirds first took him to the subantarctic region in 1982, and has led to an ongoing interest in these remote islands and their spectacular wildlife. Dr Craig Symes has a broad ornithological interest, with a focus, until recently, on Afrotropical birds. As an Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, much of his research focused on bird communities, bird movements and migrations, bird diets and community ecology, parrot biology and conservation, urban bird communities, and birdplant mutualisms focused on pollination in the genus Aloe. He is currently a science teacher in Rotorua, New Zealand.

Reviews

'Te Papa's Lost Gold: Ornithology of the subantarctic Auckland Islands stands as a collation of nearly all that's known about this remote and spectacular birdland. It's a natural history and a history, too, of the birdwatchers who put in the hard work. ... Its chapters are well-researched scientific papers; there are no bold assertions, no flowery prose; it's all hard-won data based on meticulous observation and plain hard slog' - Matt Vance, reviewed as Book of the Week on Newsroom's ReadingRoom (21 May 2020).