West Papua – Jun 2009

Rob Tizard and I visited Indonesian Papua (Irian Jaya) in June/July 2009 for an extremely enjoyable three week bird-filled bonanza. For me this trip was a bit of a compliment to an earlier trip I made in 2008, which is described in a trip report posted to www.travelingbirder.com. We concentrated on two sites together – Nimbokrang and then Wamena/Habema – plus a short trip to Biak, which for me was largely an attempt to see stuff I missed there on the 2008 trip. I then continued alone to Merauke and Wasur National Park in the far south-east of Papua; a seldom visited but amazing site.
In total we recorded just under 300 species of birds (almost half the birds of Papua!), with many highlights including: Greater, Lesser & King-of-Saxony Bird-of-Paradise, Brown Sicklebill and Splendid Astrapia, Crested Satinbird (‘Crested Bird-of-Paradise’), Macgregor’s ‘Honeyeater-of-Paradise’, Archbold’s Bowerbird, Victoria Crowned-pigeon, Southern Cassowary, Logrunner, Painted Quail-thrush, Greater Ground-robin, Blue Jewel-babbler, Biak Monarch, Papuan Whipbird, Sooty Whistler, Marbled Frogmouth, Forest Bittern, 25 species of parrot, 24 honeyeaters, 14 kingfishers and many many more!Brickle & Tizard_Papua 2009 compressed.pdf (522 KB)