Tongan megapode Tongan megapode The Tongan megapode ("Megapodius pritchardii") is a species of bird in the megapode family, Megapodiidae, currently endemic to Tonga. The species is also known as the Polynesian megapode, and as the Niuafo'ou megapode after the island of Niuafo'ou to which it was restricted for many years. The specific epithet honours British consul William Thomas Pritchard. The Tongan megapode is the only remaining species of megapode in Tonga out of the four or five species that were present on the islands in prehuman times (as shown through the fossil record), and indeed the only species of megapode that survives
Nicobar megapode of the dusky megapode ("Megapodius freycinet"). The exact island from which the original type specimen came was not known and a later specimen from Trinkat Island, described as "Megapodius trinkutensis" is now considered to be indistinguishable from the nominate subspecies. In 1901, W L Abbott collected specimens from Little Nicobar which were described in 1919 by H C Oberholser as a new subspecies "abbotti", distinguished by its darker brown plumage. The species is found only in the Nicobar Islands. This range is so well separated from the main megapode distribution (especially of the genus "Megapodius") that in 1911, it was