Arfak Mountain Magic!

We split up into groups of three this morning in order to visit the various BoP hides, some of us visiting a hide for Western Parotia, whilst Magnificent & Superb BoP’s were on the menu for others. I went to the Western Parotia hide, which involved a steep uphill climb for around 25 minutes. Everyone had top leave at 4.30am after a hot cup of coffee in our rooms, in order to be inside each hide before daybreak, which was around 5.50am. We didn’t have to wait long, as an absolutely awesome male came in and began tidying up some scattered leaves from his display site before doing a brief wing-shuffling display.   

Blue-grey Robin

Red-breasted Pygmy-Parrot (female)

He hung around for quite a while and we enjoyed superb views. Once he was finished we began walking down the trail and scored a fine Blue-grey (Slaty) Robin, both Perplexing and Vogelkop Scrubwrens, Sclater’s Whistler, Black Fantail (my 7,000^th lifer!), Mountain Fruit-Dove (split from White-bibbed), a female Red-breasted Pygmy-Parrot, a huge Green-backed Robin, Goldenface, Garnet Robin, Ashy Thornbill, Mid-Mountain Berrypecker and finished with a Black Pitohui. Little did we know that this was the birdiest trail of the entire stay up here in the Arfaks! 

 

Back at the homestay for lunch we compared notes on a successful morning before heading back out immediately to visit a couple different Western Parotia hides, one of which had a displaying male ‘doing his thing’ for quite a while. But the other just had a male sitting around posing and not really doing much at all…… Them’s the breaks! But the trail back downhill did produced another Goldenface, Papuan Treecreeper, Arfak Catbird, a flock of Red-collared Myzomela and ended up with everyone seated in another hide watching a rather demure Vogelkop Bowerbird perched next to his amazing bower.

Vogelkop Bowerbird and his bower....

We spent the remainder of the afternoon staking out a fruiting tree, which produced a steady stream of sightings. Several Vogelkop Melidectes got the ball rolling, with Slender-billed, Black-billed and Great Cuckoo-Doves appearing regularly. An Arfak Honeyeater then appeared, another Vogelkop Scrubwren showed well, a superb pair of Ornate Melidectes added the Wow! factor, and a group of Black-fronted White-eyes passed in front of us. 

Great Cuckoo-Dove

A Mountain Mouse-Warbler called from dense vegetation behind us before we saw a mixed group of New Guinea and Capped White-eyes, and ended with a brief Eastern Superb Fruit-Dove and some Papuan Mountain-Pigeons to end the day on a high.