Search the SPREP Catalogue

The NISSAP is a tool aligned with the Guidelines for Invasive Species Management in the Pacific that identifies the strategy and key actions to effectively prevent, manage and reduce the impacts of invasive species to the environment, our economy, culture and health and well-being in Tonga.

This guide presents a vivid visual reference to all the land birds and breeding seabirds found across Samoa and American Samoa. Designed for ease of use in the field, it features detailed colour illustrations and concise identification cues to support naturalists, researchers, and birdwatching enthusiasts in the South Pacific.

Two families of lizards are widespread and common colonizers of the islands of Occania. The skinks (Scincidae) are diurnal and predominantly terrestrial lizards; the geckos are nocturnal and mainly arboreal ones. The origins and dates of these lizards’ colonization of Oceania remain debatable, although recent man-assisted colonization seems unquestionably the mode of dispersal for a few species. E.g. moth skink (Lipinia noctua; Austin 1999) and house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus; Case et al. 1994).

The Van Tienhoven Foundation provided Dick Watling with a grant of US$2000 to enable him to visit the islands of Late and Fonualei to determine the success of translocation efforts of the Polynesian Megapode Megapodius pritchardii to those islands in the early 1990s. This report is the formal account of the visits for the Van Tienhoven Foundation and is submitted in accordance with the conditions of the grant.

This publication is designed to be an introduction to the birds of Tonga which can be used conveniently in the field or alternatively as a poster display. Every breeding and commonly occurring Tongan bird is illustrated.