July 17-19. From Jayapura and Lake Sentani we took a morning flight to the coastal city of Manokwari. Upon arrival Like and Iwein gathered up the supplies and transportation we would need for our week in the remote Arfak Mountains. The drive took us along the coast then up into the mountains to our accommodations in a small village at an elevation of 5000 feet on the flank of Mount Indon. Our guest house was a wooden building with no utilities but in a beautiful setting. Like and Iwein brought everything we would need for our stay including food, drinking water, cooking equipment, and a small generator. And thankfully while the humidity was still brutal for us desert rats, the temperatures were much more moderate now that we were at elevation.
The Arfak Mountains rise precipitously from the coast and reach a high elevation of 9,695 feet on Mt. Arfak. This is also one of the rainiest places on earth with 400 inches of precipitation falling annually. We had decent weather overall during our stay, but did get to experience some rain nearly every afternoon and evening.
The land we were in is owned by various clans, each with a small village of a few families. During our stay we would visit the lands of two of the clans who maintain the trails and blinds (hides) for the Birds of Paradise. This is a lawless area with strict local control of the land by the individual clans. And they don't all get along with their neighbors which made for some interesting stories told by our guides. Like and Iwein have spent years developing relationships with these clans. It was they many years ago who opened up this area to birding and taught the locals how to create infrastructure and birding opportunities, and generate income for the villages.
Flying from Jayapura to Manokwari on the bird's head peninsula
The red dot is the location of the guest house
View from the guest house deck
For the next week we would participate in one of the toughest yet most satisfying birding experiences of our lives. Right from the start I had some business to attend to. Earlier in the trip Susan had reached the lofty goal of 5000 world species seen (with the sighting of a Salvadori's Fig-Parrot) but I still had a few to go. During our late afternoon walk on the road in front of the guest house it didn't take long. In this remote location nearly every bird was a life bird. Within minutes I had the fourth new bird I needed with this normally deep forest skulking Blue-gray Robin poking its beak out on the side of the road. Of the 18 species we tallied on our brief outing before darkness got us, 15 of them were life birds. This was going to be a fun week.
Blue-gray Robin
The day ends in the Arfak Mountains
Birds-of-Paradise (BoP) are members of a family of birds, Paradisaeidae, which includes 45 species in 17 genera. Almost all reside only on the island of New Guinea. The males of many of the species are adorned with decorative feathers that they display to entice a female for mating. Males can take up to 7 years before they are suitably attired and mature enough to attract a female. Each species has a specific behavior and elaborate mating rituals. In some, like the Red and Lesser BoP, many males congregate at the top of high trees early in the morning for short time advertising their prowess to any female that arrives. Females will watch the displays and select the most impressive male for mating. In other species, like Magnificent and Wilson's BoP, a single (usually) male will occupy a "ground court" which is meticulously maintained every day. If a female shows up the male will preform his display from low on a small vertical tree trunk, and if deemed suitable will get to mate. King BoP, while in the same genus as Magnificent and Wilson's BoP, display on a branch high in a very tall tree that is fully leaved. This makes King BoP among the most difficult to observe, especially their displays. The parotias also maintain a ground court but perform their exhibition with an intricate dance on the ground. Loriphonias dance on a fallen log in a clearing. Twelve-wired BoP and the sicklebills do their thing from the top of a single tall snag. For a number of species, suitable sites are few in the dense forest and used for generations of males. This makes locating a site relatively easy for the local people who are adept at moving through the steep mountain forest. Over the last 20 or so years blinds and trails have been constructed by the clans at particularly good sites that are within a reasonable hike from a road. As long as birders arrive at the hide in the dark, before the bird arrives for the morning, and are well behaved and quiet, the show goes on. This is much like attending a grouse or prairie-chicken blind in North America. Get in in the dark, be very quiet, and you will see something amazing.
On our first full day we were up at 4:30 for an early hike in to our first BoP blind. It was about half a mile up a steep muddy trail and we were in by 5:30. There was much anticipation as we awaited the light and the bird - a male Western Parotia on his ground court. When he arrived it was still almost too dark to see him only about 50 feet away. First tasks, clean the ground court by removing fallen leaves and such. Then jump up on a branch and start calling. Got to get those females attention! Lucky for me and my photography there was no real action until the light had improved to at least tolerable. This is deep in the dense forest and even though the light improved somewhat durning the next couple of hours it was still very poor light and high ISO shooting. My modern mirrorless camera came to the rescue on this day. I can only cringe at how awful the images would have been with my old DSLR cameras shooting at over ISO 10,000 just to get a little bit of shutter speed. And back in the film days? Forget it. There is a lot of not much happening as the male preens and cleans the court, continuously calling to attract a female. When a female or two finally arrive its time for action. Our male displayed probably three or four times during our three hours watching and it was glorious. I could try and describe his elaborate dance, but pictures and video will do much better than I ever could. Unbelievable.
Hiking to the blind in the dark
The display court photographed from the blind
The blind photographed as we left
Male Western Parotia
The male Western Parotia performs his elaborate dance.
The action was over by 9:30 and the male had moved off into the forest to feed and rest and whatever else parotias do to occupy their time. Not too far away was the bower of a male Vogelkop Bowerbird, this also with a permanent blind. Bowerbirds are a family of birds from Australia and New Guinea. The male constructs an elaborate bower, or structure usually made from twigs and dried grasses. Each species builds a specific shape for the bower unique to that species. He then adorns his bower with colorful objects arranged in specific patterns. Females determine the suitability of the male based on his bower construction and the decorations. In the old days the decorations would colorful berries, flowers, and the like, but these days plastic items seem to be much more popular. At this bower, our bird favored blue, yellow and red bottle caps, along with other plastic items including a toy car. Bowerbirds are never satisfied with the arrangement of their decorations and are constantly moving things around. When we arrived at the blind he wasn't in attendance of the bower, but it wasn't long after we settle in that he flew in. I think he knew we were there but is conditioned to having birders in the blind. I've included a video below that shows him going about his tasks.
We're off to see a bowerbird!
Vogelkop Bowerbird's elaborate bower that stands 4 feet tall
Male Vogelkop Bowerbird
Video of male Vogelkop Bowerbird as he goes about his business
Later that afternoon we had the opportunity to drive over to a nearby village and join one of the locals for a short trek into the forest to the day roost of a Feline Owlet-Nightjar. Way too cool.
Feline Owlet-Nightjar
The next day we were awake even earlier for the longer and more strenuous trek to the ground court of a Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise. After a mile+ of slipping and stumbling up and down steep muddy trail in the dark we arrived at another permanent blind. Here we would have our first small disappointment. Breeding season isn't perfectly timed between all these species of BoP, and even birds of one species in separate areas can be at different timing in the breeding. And so it was with our Magnificent BoP on this day - the male came to his ground court, called all morning, and no females showed up. So while we got to see all the beautiful colors of this remarkable bird, we did not see a full display. During the morning at least one female looking bird showed up and we got really excited. But the behavior of the adult male indicated that this new bird was a young male in immature plumage (they look like females).
Magnificent BoP ground court
Adult male Magnificent BoP
Immature male Magnificent BoP
Adult male Magnificent BoP
Adult male Magnificent BoP
Immature male Magnificent BoP
From the blind we slowly birded our way back to the guest house tallying a number of new birds arriving back late in the afternoon.
Birding the trail back toward the guest house
I don't like to let these posts get too long so I'll end this one here. There's still lots of fun and excitement to come as we continue our adventures in the Arfak Mountains.
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