Our flight left just after midnight and landed at 07:20 into Jayapura, in the ornithological wonderland of West Papua. After meeting up with our local guide, Royke Mananta and his crew, we drove to a nearby hotel for some much-needed breakfast. Afterwards we paid a visit to some nearby grasslands where our first introduction to the delights of this awesome island produced in just a few minutes: Papuan Harrier, Pygmy Eagle, Whistling & Brahminy Kite and a flock of Blue-tailed Bee-eaters. We followed this up with Brown Quail, Brush Cuckoo, Willie Wagtail, Bright-headed Cisticola, Buff-banded Rail, Tree Martin, Grand Mannikin, Oriental Dollarbird, New Guinea Friarbird and eventually a few Hooded Mannikin.
Then we set out on the two hour drive to our lodge at Nimbokrang. Upon arrival we had lunch before walking up the hill behind the lodge. We hadn’t gone far when a Rufous-bellied Kookaburra was scoped and allowed some very decent photo opportunities. A few Moustached Treeswifts were perched on nearby telegraph wires and some Yellow-faced Mynas flew over. The muddy trail slowly wound its way uphill and along the next section we did battle with White-bellied Thicket Fantail, on a couple of occasions just getting the briefest of glimpses. At the first ridge we scoped a pair of Grey Crows before heading into the Lesser Bird-of-Paradise ‘hide’. Several males were calling upon arrival but none were visible for ages and then only briefly which was very frustrating but most people managed some sort of view.
Leaving here rather reluctantly when any chance of BoP action had gone we walked down to the canopy tower and staked this area out seeing several Zoe’s Imperial-Pigeons, Eclectus Parrot perched below us, a weirdly-stunning Pesquet’s Parrot perched at eye-level not too far away, a flyby Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and some Metallic Starlings to round off our first day in West Papua.
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