What’s the crake
The photograph above helped identify the small brown moorhen-like bird found by Cas Eikenaar in Cousin’s wetland area in late December 2004. This is the first Little Crake (Porzana parva) recorded in Seychelles. Despite their tiny size and unlikely physique for long distance travelers, crakes and rails migrate long distances between Africa and Eurasia. Even so, for this Little Crake to have reached Cousin is some feat of navigation and endurance.
Mistery visitor identified
A mysterious bird was seen on Cousin island twice. The bird was first found and photographed on 29 August 2003 by warbler researcher Cas Eikenaar. It was resting in the Wedge-tailed Shearwater colony, apparently exhausted.
It was clearly a species of petrel, but the exact kind was not so obvious. On 29 June the following year an identical bird, presumed to be the same one, reappeared in the same place. At first it was thought to be a Round Island Petrel (Pterordroma arminjoniana) but it has now been identified as a Kermadec Petrel (Pterodroma neglecta), the first record of the species for Seychelles.
The photograph here helped experts to identify the species.