Bougainville Strait is one of three major routes for merchant shipping through the Solomon Islands; the routes are the Bougainville Strait and Indispensable Strait which link the Pacific Ocean, Solomon Sea and Coral Sea; and the Manning Strait that links the Pacific to New Georgia Sound, which is also known as ‘The Slot’, through which Japanese naval ships resupplied the garrison on Guadalcanal during the Pacific War. Bougainville Strait Bougainville Strait separates Choiseul Island, part of the Solomon Islands from Bougainville Island, the next to the northward and part of Papua New Guinea. It was first passed through in 1768 by Louis
Malaita dwarf kingfisher Malaita dwarf kingfisher The Malaita dwarf kingfisher ("Ceyx malaitae"), is a species of bird in the family Alcedinidae that is endemic to Malaita Island. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. This species was formerly considered as one of the 15 recognised subspecies of what was then known as the variable dwarf kingfisher ("Ceyx lepidus" or "Alcedo lepidus"). A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2013 found that most of the insular subspecies had substantially diverged from one another. The variable dwarf kingfisher was therefore split and 12 of the subspecies, including the Malaita dwarf kingfisher, were promoted