Birds of the Kimbe Bay Area, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea

We report our observations of birds in the Kimbe Bay area of West New Britain and compare species seen with those collected by the Whitney South Sea Expedition (1932) in the same area. We saw and definitely identified 61 species, including 44 of the 83 species seen or collected previously. Avifaunal changes in the much-disturbed habitats we visited seem to have been minimal, possibly due to the flexibility inherent in the species that were able to colonize New Britain. Birds restricted to undisturbed forest, including many of the endemic species of presumably longer residence on the island, do not appear able to adapt to the disturbed areas and are therefore the vulnerable species when primary forest is destroyed.