The birds of Ducie Atoll, Pitcairn Islands, in February 2024

In February 2024, as part of “Operation Putuputu” to support research and management in the Pitcairn Islands Marine Protected Area, we visited Ducie Atoll (for 36 hours) and Henderson Island (2 days) in the Pitcairn Islands during 13−16 February 2024. Ducie is c. 470 km east of Pitcairn, and is one of the most remote islands in the world; it has had only a small number of research visits (Rehder & Randall 1975).

Henderson is 360 km away, and has had considerable scientific study, particularly of its birds (Fosberg et al. 1983; Brooke 1995a, b; Brooke & Hartley 1995; Brooke & Jones 1995; Lavers et al. 2016; Bond et al. 2019). Although scientific visits to Ducie are few, occasional visits to support the Pitcairn Islands’ Marine Protected Area have occurred in recent years (Nikitine et al. 2018; Irving et al. 2019; Lincoln et al. 2022).