Taveuni Silktail Lamprolia victoriae Scientific name definitions

12 cm; 16–21 g. Small, dumpy, strikingly iridescent black rhipidurid  with conspicuous white rump and much of tail ; tail short and rounded, long and rather rounded wings. Male  is mostly deep velvet-black, with metallic blue spangling on head, nape, throat and breast; lower back and rump silky white; tail white, margined with black, sometimes tips of central feathers with metallic blue iridescence; iris dark; bill and legs blackish. Female is like male but less glossy. Juvenile/immature is duller than adult; some individuals having buff on lower back and rump, and buffish-white area on central tail extending about a third of way down, are perhaps immatures.

Taveuni (N Fiji).

Mature wet rainforest , forest pockets, logged forest, and plantations close to intact forest.

Sedentary.

Food small arthropods and worms. Singly or in small flocks. Often very active around dawn. Feeds in leaf litter and in lower canopy and substage, seldom emerging on to paths or open areas. Forages up and down along mossy trunks and branches in manner of an Ifrit (Ifrita kowaldi), in smallish stunted native trees. Gleans small items from trunks and foliage, and occasionally flycatches for insects; also probes on the ground. May be confiding and approachable, but can be elusive.

Loud high-pitched whistles, a whistling trill and low rasping squeaks. Also a loud five-note call, with accent on fourth note, given by male displaying to two females. Harsh, rasping high-pitched chatter when mobbing a predator.

Season Jun–Jan. Substantial nest of pliable fibres, vine tendrils, rootlets and shreds of bark, sometimes decorated with moss and green leafy liverworts, usually lined with feathers, slung in horizontal fork 1–3 m above ground and shaded by broad leaves in sapling or shrub. Clutch single egg, pinkish white with reddish-brown and purplish freckles and blotches. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Currently considered Near Threatened. Restricted-range species: present in Fiji EBA. Previously rated as Vulnerable because of expected habitat reduction that would be caused by logging and the establishment of mahogany (Swietenia) plantations over the subsequent decade, but that threat applicable more to L. klinesmithi (formerly considered conspecific with present species); planting of mahogany not a threat on Taveuni, but logging and forest degradation are continuing. Present species occurs in Ravilevu Nature Reserve and Bouma National Heritage Park . Population estimated at 10,000–16,000 mature adults in 2000, but a more thorough survey of numbers is required, followed by implementation of a programme to increase conservation awareness among local inhabitants. The species has been featured on a telephone card (in 1994), and in some stamp issues. It is a unique bird that could be a flagship for conservation and conservation education in the islands.