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Waitanta endemics

Every self-respecting world birder is bound to at least once in a lifetime undertake the pilgrimage to Waitanta’s avian delights. This birding break now brings the long-lost Bruijn’s Brush-turkey as well as Waitanta’s two fabled birds of paradise within reach of any reasonably fit bird-watching group with a genuine sense for adventure. Just arriving on an island the stature of Waigeo, entering the breathtakingly beautiful Orobiai River canyon, surrounded by scenic, precipitous limestone karst country, is an overthrowing experience, let alone the journey inland to seek those glorious feathered inhabitants that few people have laid their eyes on before. But best of all perhaps, just by joining this birding adventure of a lifetime, you actively help protecting an entire river catchment as part of an ambitious and innovative conservation agreement Papua Expeditions recently concluded with customary landholding groups on Waigeo.

Day-by-day itinerary

Day 1 [Saturday] Afternoon arrival at Sorong’s DEO Airport on domestic flight from the Indonesian gateway of your choice. The final hours of light may still see us gathered at a vantage point outside Sorong in order to get to grips with the restricted-range Black Lory. Dinner and overnight in Sorong.

Day 2 [Sunday] After a hearty pre-dawn breakfast in our Sorong hotel, we shall set out first light on the three hours’ speedboat ride to the mouth of the Orobiai River on Waigeo. Here, water birds as Radjah Shelduck, Little Pied Cormorant, Great-billed and Striated Heron, and Australian Ibis tend to occur year-round on tidal mudflats and in secondary mangroves, alongside a selection of migrant Palearctic waders in season, which usually includes a few Grey-tailed Tattler. Other birds we may encounter here include Little, Beach and Sacred Kingfisher, Large-billed Gerygone, and Torresian Crow. We’ll then have the rest of the morning to slowly bird along the river toward a camp in riparian lowland forest at c. 50 m elevation. Blyth’s Hornbills and colorful parrots that include Rainbow Lorikeet, Black-capped Lory, Palm and Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Red-cheeked, Great-billed and Eclectus Parrot, fly overhead as we acquaint ourselves with the vocally or behaviorally conspicuous subset of the forest avifauna: Yellow-billed Kingfisher, Brush Cuckoo, Slender-billed and Great Cuckoo-Dove, Stephan’s Dove, Wompoo, Superb and Beautiful Fruit-Dove, Purple-tailed and Pinyon Imperial-Pigeon, Mimic and Tawny-breasted Honeyeater, New Guinea Friarbird, Variable and Rusty Pitohui, Hooded and Black Butcherbird, Brown Oriole, Northern Fantail, Spangled Drongo, and Yellow-faced Myna. Following lunch at camp we shall bird all afternoon downstream along the river where we may see Azure Kingfisher, Variable Dwarf Kingfisher, Yellow-capped Pygmy-Parrot, Great-billed Parrot, Moustached Treeswift, New Guinea Bronzewing, Pink-spotted, Claret-breasted, Orange-bellied and Dwarf Fruit-Dove, Red-necked Crake, Grey and Grey-headed Goshawk, Collared Sparrowhawk, White-eared Catbird, Red-throated Myzomela, Spotted, Brown-backed and Green-backed Honeyeater, Brown-headed Crow, Glossy-mantled Manucode, Red Bird of Paradise, and Yellow-eyed and New Guinea Cuckoo-shrike. Incubation mounds of the Dusky Megapode are scattered everywhere throughout the flat bottom-valley lowland forests here, and it should not take long before we feast our eyes on a couple of Western Crowned-Pigeons as they break the relative silence with their clapping wing beats to alight in nearby tall forest trees. Jungle Hawk-Owl and Marbled Frogmouth are possibilities here on an optional nocturnal foray after dinner.

Day 3 [Monday] Following an optional nocturnal stroll, we’ll enjoy our breakfast while listening to the developing dawn chorus, which here invariably includes Hook-billed Kingfisher, Rusty Mouse-warbler, Olive Flyrobin, Black-sided Robin, and Variable and Rusty Pitohui among others. We’ll then take most of the morning to slowly bird up to a camp at c. 450 m elevation. After lunch here, we shall monitor one of several display courts of the Wilson’s Bird of Paradise from a hide, in the dire hope of witnessing the full array of amazing display postures of this extremely sexy bird at close range. Having truly absorbed this, we shall spend the last hours of light at a display tree of Waitanta’s other endemic paradisaeid, the Red Bird of Paradise, and take ample time to observe the several fine males that normally gather here, interacting with soliciting females. Following dinner an optional spotlighting session could produce Sooty Owl, Rufous Owl, Jungle Hawk-Owl, and Marbled Frogmouth.

Day 4 [Tuesday] After an optional nocturnal walk and pre-dawn breakfast, we’ll have a welcome resit or otherwise second observation session at one of the Wilson’s Bird of Paradise courts. Besides, while sitting quietly in the hide, there’s always a chance of a Cinnamon Ground-Dove or Pheasant Pigeon casually walking across the court, or we could attract skulkers as Red-bellied Pitta and Rusty Mouse-warbler. We’ll then require the rest of the day to slowly bird to our final camp at c. 780 m elevation in the summit area of Mount Danai, taking lunch at a subsidiary camp at c. 570 m elevation. Along the way we may be rewarded with sightings of Rufous-bellied Kookaburra, Hook-billed Kingfisher, Common Paradise-Kingfisher, Double-eyed Fig-Parrot, Moluccan King-Parrot, Long-tailed Buzzard, Gurney's Eagle, White-eared Catbird, Red-throated Myzomela, Long-billed and Puff-backed Honeyeater, Fairy and Yellow-bellied Gerygone, Grey Whistler, Little Shrike-thrush, Brown-headed Crow, Glossy-mantled Manucode, Lowland Peltops, Black-shouldered Cicadabird, Sooty Thicket-Fantail, Spot-winged, Golden and Frilled Monarch, Yellow-breasted Boatbill, Olive-crowned Flowerpecker, Black Berrypecker, and Green-crowned, Plumed and Pygmy Longbill. We’ll also pass a court of Wilson’s Bird of Paradise during mid-afternoon which we could monitor from a hide for a while. After dinner, an optional nocturnal effort could produce Jungle Hawk-Owl, Wallace’s Owlet-Nightjar, and Marbled Frogmouth.

Day 5 [Wednesday] Following an optional nocturnal stroll and pre-dawn breakfast we’ll make sure to sit in a hide in front of a tended incubation mound of Bruijn’s Brush-turkey at first light. We shall monitor the mound all morning in the hope of getting to grips with the mound-tending male. After lunch, we shall bird all afternoon in the vicinity of camp, spending time at water sources and at a known roosting tree of Bruijn’s Brush-turkey towards dusk again. Other birds we may see here include Hook-billed Kingfisher, Pheasant Pigeon, Gurney’s Eagle, the highly distinctive steini-subspecies of the Black Myzomela, Hill-forest Honeyeater, Beccari’s and Pale-billed Scrubwren, Green-backed Gerygone, and Brown-headed Crow. Also here, there is a fine ground court of Wilson's Bird of Paradise that we could monitor from the comfort of a hide mid-afternoon. Dinner and optional spotlighting session.

Day 6 [Thursday] After an optional nocturnal walk and pre-dawn breakfast, we could monitor either the incubation mound of Bruijn’s Brush-turkey or the lek of Wilson’s Bird of Paradise, or simply bird in the vicinity of camp. After an earlier than usual lunch, we shall require the rest of the day to slowly bird down to the 450 m elevation camp again, followed by dinner and a good night’s sleep.

Day 7 [Friday] We could start out early with a short nocturnal foray, and after our pre-dawn breakfast, there shall be a final opportunity to spend time at a Wilson’s Bird of Paradise court, or to bird in the vicinity of camp. After lunch, we shall require most of the afternoon to slowly bird down to the 50 m elevation camp again. Dinner and optional spotlighting session.

Day 8 [Saturday] Following an optional nocturnal foray and our usual pre-dawn breakfast, we shall bird all morning along the Orobiai River towards its mouth. After lunch here we shall transfer to a tiny islet in the Dampier Strait where we shall have a relaxed afternoon’s birding in search of regional small island specialists like the prasinorrhous-subspecies of White-bibbed Fruit-Dove, Olive Honeyeater, Island Whistler, Rufous Fantail, Island Monarch, Moluccan Starling, and Lemon-bellied White-eye. Other noteworthy birds present here include Dusky Megapode, Beach Kingfisher, Violet-necked Lory, Spice and Bicolored Imperial-Pigeon, Great-billed and Striated Heron, Varied Honeyeater, and Metallic Starling. We shall proceed to Sorong in the evening for dinner and a good night’s rest.

Day 9 [Sunday] After a hearty pre-dawn breakfast, we shall have a final short birding excursion around the islet, and transfer to Sorong’s DEO airport in time for the midday domestic flight to the Indonesian gateway of your choice.

Green-crowned Longbill Toxorhamphus novaeguineae is one of four species of Longbill, a bird tribe entirely confined to the New Guinea region.

EXTENSION
Sorong lowlands
forest birds

This extension carries us to alluvial lowland forests near Sorong, home to a well diversified and colorful lowland forest avifauna that includes Red-billed Talegalla, dazzling forest kingfishers, a profusion of parrots including the restricted-range Black Lory, the delightful Western Crowned-Pigeon, and a whopping six species of bird of paradise out of which the Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise probably stands out as particularly sought-after.

Waitanta endemics

Day-by-day itinerary

EXTENSION Sorong lowlands forest birds

Related links

EXTENSION
Sorong lowlands
forest birds