Marlborough Sounds fantail morphs

[Colin Miskelly]

Hi all

We spent most of the past fortnight or so exploring various corners of the Marlborough Sounds, and kept a record of the colour morphs of all the (82) fantails that we saw. The overall tally was 11 black (13%) and 71 pied (87%), but proportions varied around the sounds.

The Queen Charlotte Track had 8 black (17%) and 38 pied (83%). Tennyson Inlet (Penzance to Elaine Bay) had 1 black (14%) and 6 pied (86%). The French Pass area (Taipare, French Pass, Bulwer) had 2 black (11%) and 17 pied (89%).

All 7 fantails seen on Maud Island were pied (and the ranger there reported that black fantails are rarely seen there – perhaps only 1 in 50). Additional pied morph fantails were seen on Motuara Island (1) and at Port Underwood (2).

Tallies for the two morphs have been entered in the comments field in eBird lists for each site.

Cheers
Colin Miskelly & Kate McAlpine

[Bill F Cash]

Hi Colin,
Very interesting comments about fantails in the Sounds. Way back over 30yrs ago when I regularly visited Maud island, black fantail were common infact it was about three blacks to about two pied fantail. Plus at that time black fantail were common throughout the Sounds, but on Maud Island they were the dominant morph. Then late 1980's I think we had a drought March/April and fantails almost disappeared throughout the Sounds, they became rare on Maud Island for the next few years. Today on on Motuara Island because of the lack of running water fantails are in low numbers. When they started to return throughout the Sounds the dominant phase was the pied phase and blacks in low numbers and have remained in low numbers.
When doing e bird counts in Marlborough for fantail I now indicate number of pied and the number of black fantail.
Bill