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American Samoa

Pacific Imperial Pigeon Pygocselis antarctica ©Sarah Koschak http://www.listeningearth.com.au/

American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa. The main (largest and most populous) island is Tutuila, with the Manuʻa Islands, Rose Atoll, and Swains Island also included in the territory. American Samoa is part of the Samoan Islands chain, located west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 300 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group. The 2000 census showed a total population of 57,291.[2] The total land area is 200.22 km² (77.305 sq mi). Consisting of five, rugged volcanic islands and two coral atolls, it is frequently hit by typhoons between December and March, due to its positioning in the South Pacific Ocean.

numbers

Number of bird species: 81

useful reading

A Guide to the Birds of Fiji and Western Polynesia including American Samoa, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Wallis & Futuna

By Dick Watling Hard Cover; 16 Full Colour Plates; Figures, Tables & Maps; 272 pages.
ISBN: 9829030040
Buy this book from NHBS.com

useful information

Proact

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reserves

National Park of American Samoa

http://www.nps.gov/archive/npsa/home.htm
On oceanic islands, birds are usually the most abundant and diverse animals. This park is home to more than 35 species, both resident and migratory, including seabirds, water birds, forest birds, and shore birds. The cliffs and sea stacks are ideal nesting habitat for tropical seabirds, while the rainforest is home to collared kingfishers, cardinal and wattled honeyeaters, bluecrowned lories, Samoan starlings, purple-capped fruit doves, many-colored fruit doves, Pacific pigeons, and banded rails.

Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

http://www.oceanlight.com/html/rose_atoll.html
Remote, tiny and unprotected, Rose Atoll stands alone at the eastern extreme of the Samoan archipelago, 14 degrees south of the equator and southernmost among National Wildlife Refuges. Among the world`s smallest and most pristine atolls, Rose is a nearly square reef surrounding an azure lagoon dotted with coralline bommie towers. Tiny Rose Island rises above the waterline at the atoll`s eastern corner. Rose Atoll`s beauty lies not only in its geometry but in the vibrant pink hue of its reefs it is one of the few atolls whose primary element of construction is the pink calcareous coralline alga Porolithon ... (continued)

Wetlands

http://www.wetlands.org/
American Samoa has both saltwater and freshwater swamps and marshes, as well as cultivated and ruderal wetlands and a number of perennial streams. Much the most important wetlands are the mangrove swamps and coastal freshwater marshes...

trip reports

Travelling Birder
http://www.travellingbirder.com
The Travellingbirder.com birding trip report search engine guides you to 7,000+ birding trip reports on the Internet. You can search for trip reports from a specific country and time of year. Not all these reports are in English. So, if you can’t find the trip report you want on this Fatbirder page… give them a try!

1996 [July] - Peter Lonsdale - Western Samoa

http://www.camacdonald.com/birding/tripreports/Samoa96.html
The short list of Samoan landbirds includes a few cosmopolitan spp (eg. Barn Owl); many found also in Tonga and Fiji (where I birded last year); and my special targets, 10 endemic spp. All 10 are members of Tonga/Fiji genera except for the rare Tooth-Billed Pigeon. In my short visit I missed the Samoan White-eye (present only on the unvisited island of Savaii); the T-B Pigeon and the shy Mao honeycreeper (both probably more common on the less populous Savaii).

1999 [April] - Peter Lonsdale - Upolu

http://www.camacdonald.com/birding/tripreports/Upolu99.html
This note is really an addendum to a trip report I posted to Birdchat a couple of years ago, describing 24 hours near the town of Apia on the Western Samoan island of Upolu. In that brief time I was able to see most of the 10 endemics, and much else besides, but I missed two that were on my most-wanted list: the Mao (Gymnomyza samoensis); a large forest honeyeater;and the Manume`a or Tooth-billed Pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris); an almost mythical and almost extinct forest pigeon with a parrot-like (or Dodo-like) bill.

2000 [November] - Craig Faanes - American Samoa and Western Samoa

http://www.camacdonald.com/birding/tripreports/Samoa00.html
...I walked to the entrance of the National Park of Samoa where I found Cardinal Myzomela (endemic) for my first life bird of the trip. Listening to its voice I was reminded of the rusty hinge calls of the I`iwi on Hawaii. I guess cousins sound similar even when they`ve been separated by thousands of years of evolution. The forest here was surprisingly dead for bird voices. An occasional White-tailed Tropicbird sailed overhead making it a little more exciting...

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