July 20-24, 2023. On the fourth day of our visit to the Arfak Mountains we were offered a hike to the top of Mt. Indon. This would get us to a higher elevation with the associated species that don't occur lower down the mountain. And if we took the offer we could start early enough to try for the difficult and rare Black Sicklebill (a Bird-of-Paradise) near the top. But we would have to start very early and climb a mountain in the dark. Oh sure, we're in!
The high elevation Black Sicklebill wasn't a sure thing, in fact it was unlikely to see it on it's display snag. This is a species with no permanent blinds in the area so we would head up with time to construct a temporary blind. We were awake at 2:45 and on the trail by 3:15. To the location where we would set up for the sicklebill was 1.1 miles with an elevation gain of 1500 feet. That is STEEP! And in the dark. And on a slippery mountain trail. We made it in an hour, much faster than guide Iwein expected. He said in 20 years of hiking this trail, we did the climb faster than any other group. Yay us. Iwein put up some camo netting in the copse of tree roots and covered us with ferns. We waited. As the light increased we could hear the bird calling, often times right above our heads. But he never landed on his display snag. Oh well, such is the life of a birder. Iwein came and got us at 7:15. He knew if the bird hadn't landed on the snag by then it wasn't going to happen. We continued our day with much still to find.
We moved up to the top at 6600 feet elevation where lots of higher montane species awaited us. We birded the high elevation for the rest of the morning and into the afternoon finding many great species including Smoky and Ashy Robins, Lesser Ground-Robin, Arfak Honeyeater, Mountain Mouse-Warbler, Mottled Berryhunter, and more. The high montane forest was spectacular and we really enjoyed the day.
Early in the morning of day 5 we were back in a blind for a new BoP, this time a Vogelkop Lophornia. A half mile hike with 500 feet of descent (in the dark of course) got us to the blind. The Lophorina is a relatively small bird-of-paradise who does his display on a fallen log in a clearing. The locals had also placed a pandanus fruit at the edge of the clearing to attract other birds to the area. We had quite a bit of action during our time in the blind including some displays by the Lophorina and many other species coming to the fruit. The best sighting of the birds coming to eat the pandanus fruit was a young male Black-billed Sicklebill which was quite rare in this area. And because we were in the hide, all kinds of birds just passed through keeping us busy with sightings all morning.
Clearing and display log of the Lophorina. Pandanus fruit hanging in the back of the clearing.
Our view from the blind
This hide was made from bamboo poles and leaves
Arfak Catbird
Black-billed Sicklebill
Drongo Fantail
Green-backed Robin
Male Vogelkop Lophorina tries to entice a female to his display log
Male Vogelkop Lophorina shows off his amazing feathers
Male Vogelkop Lophorina shows off his amazing feathers
Female Vogelkop Lophorina
Female Vogelkop Lophorina
Female Vogelkop Lophorina
I did get some video of the male Lophorina on his display log. This isn't his full blown display but does show him trying to entice a female to his log.
After leaving the blind and climbing back up the hill, we did some general road birding near the village with some of the locals.
White morph Variable Goshawk, a stunning bird!
In the afternoon we had the opportunity to follow one of the local guides into the forest for a day roosting Mountain Owlet-Nightjar. How these guys can find these tiny birds roosting in the densest of forest settings is beyond me. But I'm glad they can, and I'm very happy to have made the slog into the forest to see it.
Mountain Owlet-Nightjar
The following day we were up early (see a pattern here?) for the one mile trek to a Lesser Bird-of-Paradise lek. Arriving at dawn we settled in for the show. Lesser BoP males gather at the tops of very tall trees to strut their stuff. This particular setting wasn't great for photography but we did get to observe a lot of action when the occasional female would drop by. After an hour and a half of so of action it was over. We spent the rest of the morning slowly birding our way back up the mountain to the road.
Lesser Bird-of-Paradise lekking treees
Male Lesser Bird-of-Paradise
The typical crappy weather in the afternoon pretty much shut down the rest of the birding day.
At this point in the visit to the mountains we had seen all of the possible BoP species and were given a choice for repeat visits. Susan and I opted to try again for Magnificent BoP the next morning, this time in a different hide than the one we visited days before. Thankfully it was a relatively easy and short quarter mile walk to the blind so we got to sleep in to all of 4:30. As it turned out, this male Magnificent BoP had no better luck attracting females than the one we had seen before. He spent the entire morning calling from the trees above the ground court and had no luck. So as the morning went on we thought our luck had run out as well. And then magic happened and a pair of Papuan Scrub-Robins wandered right in to the ground court like they owned it. Papuan Scrub-Robin is one of the most secretive species there is anywhere - there are very few images of the species and most sightings are nothing but a glimpse of a bird in the forest if you are really lucky. Imagine our shock when not one, but a pair walked into the clearing and went about their normal activities for over 10 minutes. The male even hopped up on several perches and sang his heart out for us! Of course I took tons of images and minutes of video. Our disappointing morning had just become the experience of a lifetime.
We did a little road birding later between rainstorms, tallying a few more species.
Arfak Honeyeater
Ornate Melidictes
On our last morning we chose to return to the Lophorina hide hoping to get a better display out of the male. He didn't perform any more than our previous visit, but we did get a life bird sighting of Trumpet Manucode at the pandanus fruit.
These are some mighty steep trails
Trumpet Manucode
Male Vogelkop Lophorina
That afternoon we packed up and headed down the mountain to continue our adventures in West Papua. But that's a story for another day.
WOW! What a trip through those forests in those mountains. What a contrast to BoP is the Papuan Scrub Robin. He really belts out his song. They are very handsome birds. Thank you for a mesmerizing video.
WOW! What a trip through those forests in those mountains. What a contrast to BoP is the Papuan Scrub Robin. He really belts out his song. They are very handsome birds. Thank you for a mesmerizing video.
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