This Indonesian EBA extends northwards from near the tip of the Minahassa peninsula of northern Sulawesi (EBA 166) towards the southern tip of Mindanao (EBA 154) in the Philippines; it comprises the Sangihe and Talaud island groups and the tiny island of Miangas, all of which are in Sulawesi Utara province. The Sangihe group are mountainous, rising to 1,784 m on Siau and 1,320 m on the main island of Sangihe, but Talaud and Miangas are relatively low-lying. The natural vegetation of the islands is tropical lowland evergreen rain forest, with tropical montane rain forest at the higher altitudes, and probably some areas of forest on limestone (Whitmore 1984). On Sangihe, however, virtually all of the forest has been replaced by coconut and nutmeg plantations and the secondary vegetation of abandoned gardens (Whitten et al. 1987c,d).

The habitat requirements and distributions of the restricted-range species are incompletely known, because the larger islands in the EBA have only been visited by ornithologists on a few occasions, and some of the smaller islands have seldom, if ever, been studied (see White and Bruce 1986, Bishop 1992).

A survey of the main islands in the Sangihe and Talaud groups in 1995 recorded all five species which are confined to the EBA (Riley 1995). Of the three species which are endemic to the Sangihe group, Loriculus catamene and Aethopyga duyvenbodei were found to be locally common, and birds believed to be Eutrichomyias rowleyi (a monotypic genus endemic to the EBA which was feared extinct: Whitten et al. 1987c) were found to survive in small numbers in remnant forest patches and adjacent agricultural land and plantations. Todirhamphus enigma, which is endemic to Talaud, was found to be common in the forested interior of the main island. Eos histrio was recorded in small numbers in forest and adjacent plantations on Talaud, and a tiny population was found in plantations adjacent to remnant forest patches on Sangihe, where this species was previously feared to be extinct. A form of shrike-thrush Colluricincla from Sangihe was provisionally treated as a subspecies of Rufous Shrike-thrush C. megarhycha (by, e.g., White and Bruce 1986), but studies since its rediscovery on Mt Sahendaruman in 1986 suggest that it would be better treated as an endemic species (Rozendaal and Lambert in prep.). In 1996, a new taxon of Gymnocrex rail was found on Talaud, and this may also prove to be an endemic species (F. Lambert verbally 1997).

Most of the islands of the EBA were largely deforested by 1920 (Whitten et al. 1987c), and the only extensive natural forest now remaining is on Karakelang, the main island of the Talaud group. In the Sangihe group, the only remaining forest on the main island is in mainly secondary patches on Mt Awu and around the peak of Mt Sahendaruman, while little or no forest is believed to exist on the volcanically very active island of Siau (Bishop 1992, Riley 1995, K. D. Bishop in litt. 1993).

Five of the restricted-range species are classified as threatened, including four of the five species endemic to the EBA, and the poorly known small island specialist, Ducula pickeringii. The main threat to most of these is continuing habitat loss, particularly on Sangihe, but Eos histrio is also threatened by illegal trapping for the wild bird trade (Nash 1993, Riley 1995) and possibly by introduced species of parrot (F. Lambert verbally 1997). A more widespread threatened species which occurs on Talaud is Blue-naped Parrot Tanygnathus lucionensis (classified as Endangered), which formerly occurred widely in the Philippines but is threatened by habitat loss and heavy trapping for the wild bird trade.

The only protected area in this EBA is Karakelang Hunting Park on Talaud, where site evaluation is required to define boundaries and management needs, and it has been recommended that its status should be changed to Wildlife Sanctuary. On Sangihe, Mt Sahendaruman has been proposed as a new protected area, as it contains one of the few remaining areas of forest on the main island (Sujatnika and Jepson 1995), and several of the restricted-range species were recorded there in 1995 (Riley 1995). However, the area of forest here is small, and there is a need for surveys of both the main island and the smaller islands of the Sangihe group to locate more areas of forest which may be suitable as reserves.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Endemic Bird Area factsheet: Sangihe and Talaud. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/eba/factsheet/166 on 22/11/2024.