Polynesian Component
Aphanolimnas monasa (extinct?), Ptilinopus porphyraceus, and Ducula oceanica are the only species of birds which have reached Micronesia directly from Polynesia. There are in Micronesia, as Mayr (1941b: 204) points out, eight species "which are members of typically Polynesian species or genera" and six species which are either Papuan or Polynesian. The relationships between Polynesian and Micronesian birds is evident, but insofar as the pathways of colonization are concerned the majority of these Micronesian species listed by Mayr have come from elsewhere than Polynesia and the birds of these two areas are thought to have arisen from common ancestors. Aphanolimnas, Ptilinopus, and Ducula apparently invaded Micronesia from Central Polynesia via the Marshall Islands through a rather continuous chain of islands and atolls. Aphanolimnas is known only from Kusaie in the extreme eastern part of the Carolines while Ptilinopus and Ducula are known from the Marshalls, Carolines, and Palaus.