Papua - Indonesia
Indonesia-Papua is the western half of the mysterious, large island of New Guinea. It is a special place, very distinct from the rest of Indonesia with a unique fauna, in particular a spectacular bird life with more than 750 species. Terrain is one of the most challenging in the world with steep mountains, dense, moist and often muddy jungles and on times very limited infrastructure. Even though forest cover still seems to be largely intact, a long tradition of hunting rendered birds shy in most regions and a number of species are becoming rare. Still Papua is home to some of the most spectacular birds on earth including the legendary Birds-of-Paradise. The central mountain range and several isolated mountains form and separate various distinct faunal regions and have created an array of unique and endemic species. In July 2015 we have been able to visit several of these areas: Waigeo Island/Rajah Ampat in the western bird's head region of New Guinea and Nimbokrang in the northern lowlands. Rajah Ampat is a generally rather protected area with ecotourism on its flag, relatively easy to visit and home to fascinating island species. Nimbokrang is an old logging concession with miles of wooden planks to walk on. This is where many of New Guinea's lowland birds can still be found and well known bird guide Jamil managed to lead us to some of them. Our third destination was Wamena in the highlands and Elelim, a remote settlement further east with surrounding jungle areas. This turned out to become a quite challenging trek with difficult terrain and hords of biting insects. Birding unfortunately was disappointing with promising highland forests off limits to us. Elelim jungles had very shy birds, obviously due to extensive hunting.
Bird photography in mostly dense jungles was challenging with on times extremely poor light and necessity to use high ASA, thus compromising image quality. Nevertheless please follow us and enjoy a taste of Papua's unique and fascinating bird fauna.
Hooded Butcherbird, NG endemic
Rajah Ampat in the north western bird's head region of New Guinea is best known for world class diving. However it is also here that some amazing birds live, including two spectacular Birds-of-Paradise.
Great Cuckoo-Dove, the largest of all cuckoo-doves, NG endemic
Helmeted Friarbird, common and conspicious in disturbed habitats
Rufous-Bellied Kookaburra,
common NG lowland endemic
Eclectus Parrots are common in the lowlands, plumages are utterly different between the green male and red female.
Blyth's Hornbill, here a female, is the only hornbill in NG. It is huge and its presence is often revealed by its whooshing wingbeat sound.
Red Bird-of-Paradise, endemic to the islands of Batanta and Waigeo in Rajah Ampat
Several leks (courtship trees) are known on Waigeo, our's attracted only one male during our visit, which however gave a nice show.
Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise is likewise endemic to Batanta's and Waigeo's forested hills.
In order to watch the spectacular courtship display of this small jewel we needed to hike to a known display site before sunrise. A preerected blind - see pic, with guide and author - was purely a plastic foil with several small holes in it. A male bird showed up just before sunrise, when the dancing ground was still almost dark. Photography became a real challenge, trying to follow the bird through the camera lens only and keeping the equipment stable on a tripod. 6400 ASA and a shutter speed of 1/30 s had to be used, not really ideal conditions. Nevertheless, after arrival of two females, our male gave an absolutely stunning courtship performance.
No other bird on the planet combines spiral, plastic-like tail feathers with a bold blue head. A greenish breast shield and erasable yellow flap on the back with weird posings are all designed to lure in a picky female.
Nimbokrang is an old lumber concession area near Cyclops mountain west of Yayapura. It is a large area with good forest and harbours almost all of mainland Papua's lowland birds. For transport we used motorcycles up to the respective 'trailhead' and had then to walk long distances on wooden planks, which had been laid on the muddy forest floor.
This Yellow-Billed Kingfisher is a common NG endemic, but not easy to spot.
Golden Monarch, NG endemic
Pinon's Imperial Pigeon, NG endemic
Yellow-Faced Mynah, NG endemic
The Wompoo Fruit Dove got its name from a characteristic, far reaching call, NG endemic
Buff-Faced Pygmy Parrot, NG endemic
Double-Eyed Fig Parrot, NG endemic
The Twelve-Wired Bird-of-Paradise is another NG endemic. Early one morning we watched a male climbing up his vertical display tree and singing from there. Looking carefully, the unique twelve wired tail can be seen, which plays an important role in courtship by physically touching the head of a female. Our male's efforts finally resulted in impressing a female, which landed on the tree.
A male trying to impress a female, which had landed on the same branch, with exaggerated wingbeats.
King Birds of Paradise (NG endemic) are small and not easy to see and photograph when moving quickly in dense vegetation. This species possesses likewise weird and unique tail feathers.
The Lesser Bird of Paradise (NG endemic) is a spectacular bird and it is difficult to understand why it was given its uninspiring name.
Several males including some juveniles were frequenting a lek tree. Even though no female appeared to be around, one adult male decided to display his colourful plumage, leaving some stunned and happy human observers at least.
