More BoP Action in the Arfak Mountains

We had a big chunk of the morning to catch up with a few things, so whilst most of the group began birding along the road with Royke, getting a surprise Bicoloured Mouse-warbler and Papuan King Parrot, I went with William to the Superb BoP hide. It was only a short walk of maybe 15 minutes down to the hide but I was a little surprised to see it was a feeding station about 30m down below us. Well, in about an hour and a half here we saw at least one male and two female Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise coming in to feed. 

Arfak Catbird

Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise

Apparently males display on the large fallen tree in front of the feeding station, but maybe due to the rain they didn’t fancy it this morning. But we were both content with decent, prolonged views of a male. An Arfak Catbird came in to feed and remained for several minutes, a few female Western Parotias appeared as well, a Crinkle-collared Manucode appeared, and there were several pairs of Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise to round off a truly stunning stint in the hide. 

Crinkle-collared Manucode

Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise

The photos aren’t so great but I was happy to get a few record shots, especially to sort out which manucode it was. So we left and got back up to the road just as the group arrived, with Colin & Pete heading down to the hide to catch up with this new Superb BoP split – having seen it in PNG some years before. 

 

Whilst waiting for Colin & Pete we walked along the road and amazingly came across a group of Masked Bowerbirds with a stunning male being absolutely mind-blowing. My initial reaction was absolute joy for a nanosecond, followed by a ‘Oh f%$k’ as two of us weren’t here and I knew how much everyone wanted to see this stunner. Well, we followed the group of bowerbirds and had repeated views, also seeing Black and Black-bellied Cicadabirds as well as a few commoner species before Colin & Pete arrived. Just about now there was an intense period of sustained activity with a distant calling Magnificent Riflebird we couldn’t locate, a Glossy-mantled Manucode below us, Red Myzomela, a cracking Papuan King Parrot and another Ashy Thornbill. As the flock moved along the slope below us we followed and picked up a group of Hooded Pitohui before amazingly, a male Masked Bowerbird flew across in front of us and followed the treeline beside the road giving everyone a chance to connect with this superb creature. It even had Peter running!! 

Masked Bowerbird

So by now it had passed 10am and we had a flight to catch so drove back down to Manokwari and caught the short flight to Sorong, where we took full advantage of hot showers and cold beers at a great hotel!