West Papua - Our First BoP Action!

We were off on a very short drive to the Twelve-wired Bird-of-Paradise site this morning and following a 100m walk inside the forest were in position before sunrise. The birds preferred display site was a vertical bare branch some 30m above the forest floor and around 15 minutes after sunrise the male flew in and began calling. What an extraordinary-looking bird! Over the next 90 minutes we had repeated views as he stayed for 5-10 minutes before flying off, only to return a few minutes later. A couple of times we were treated to the full-on courtship display as he circled his branch, up and down whilst keeping his body horizontal. Amazing! 

Twelve-wired Bird-of-Paradise

A Lowland Peltops took advantage every time he flew off to use his branch as a song post and was an amazing looking bird in its own right. Amazingly a Pale-billed Sicklebill flew in once and lingered for a minute before flying off. 

Lowland Peltops

Pale-billed Sicklebill

We also saw a party of Papuan Babblers passing close by and a White-bellied Thicket Fantail gave the usual brief looks. The clearing behind us then took centre stage with Golden Monarch, Black Butcherbird, Boyer’s Cuckooshrike, Double-eyed Fig-Parrot, Orange-bellied Fruit-Dove and Black-billed (Bar-tailed) Cuckoo-Dove being seen.  

 

Our next stop was a nearby bridge which offered a pretty decent vantage point over the forest and we saw Large-billed Gerygone, Rainbow Bee-eater, Black Sunbird, Red-capped Flowerpecker, Streak-headed Honeyeater, flyby Coconut Lorikeet, Papuan Spinetail, and a superb Long-tailed Honey-Buzzard. 

Long-tailed Honey Buzzard

With the temperature soaring to ridiculous levels we took a trail down along the stream that didn’t go very far but offered us some shade and we nailed Amboyna Cuckoo-Dove and an Arafura (Little) Shrike-Thrush. 

 

I must admit it was something of a relief to get in an air-conditioned car and drive back to the lodge for a 3 hour siesta. In the afternoon we drove back to the same area as this morning and walked along the road picking up Black-capped Lory, Streak-headed Mannikin, scoped a pair of Orange-bellied Fruit-Doves, saw more Coconut Lorikeets, and had another male Twelve-wired BoP. We ended the day at KM6 with Yellow-faced Myna and a Black-billed Coucal teed up nicely in the scope, but unfortunately only a couple people saw a Papuan Nightjar flyby.