Adventure Birding 'n Outdoors in New Guinea's Wild West
Spotless Crake Zapornia tabuensis is the commonest species of rail in the mid-montane wet grasslands of the Anggi Giji basin in the Arfak Mountains on New Guinea's Bird's Head or Vogelkop Peninsula. Copyright © Iwein Mauro
Extension to Arfak montane specialties birding break │ 3 days/3 nights
The twin mountain lakes of Anggi Giji and Anggi Gita, situated at c. 1,800 m elevation in the Sougb-country of the southern Arfak Mountains, were first visited by a western naturalist in 1904, but it was a young Ernst Mayr who in 1928, at the beginning of an extremely productive career in ornithology and evolutionary biology, discovered the area's paramount ornithological attraction on the eastern shores of Anggi Giji: the beautiful Grey-banded Munia, until today known only from here and nowhere else on Earth!
The visually stunning Anggi Giji basin is also an excellent place to come to grips with more widely ranging wet grassland specialists like Lewin's Rail and Spotless Crake, and stands of swampy Pandanus-dominated forest at the base of the surrounding slopes support the nearly mythical Shovel-billed Kookaburra, with a good selection of the montane Arfak avifauna waiting to be explored uphill.
When?
Possible year-round, but most certainly best from June to November.
Scheduled departures
Please inquire for details on our upcoming departures.
Physical effort
Relaxed birding in flat or only mildly sloping terrain.
Tour summary
Day 7 Mount Indon and Anggi Giji basin.
Day 8 Anggi Giji basin.
Day 9 Anggi Giji basin and Manokwari.
Day 10 Manokwari.
Tour description
Day 7 │ Mount Indon and Anggi Giji basin
After breakfast and a final morning's birding in the Mount Indon area of the Arfak Mountains, we shall set out on the three hours'
drive by chartered 4WD-vehicle to our host village near the shores of Lake Anggi Giji, enjoying a packed lunch en route.
Along the seasonally fluctuating lake edge, Pacific Black Duck, Tricolored Grebe, Nankeen Night Heron, Great and Plumed Egret,
Little Pied and Little Black Cormorant, and Eurasian Coot can be numerous, and it shall not take long before we spot our first
Grey-banded Munias, which in season can congregate in flocks of more than 150 individuals. But observing the two secretive rails
may require considerable effort and is influenced also by water levels in the basin.
Come evening and we shall take up position near locally exposed muddy stretches at the interface between water and grassland or
reedbeds. Here both Lewin's Rail and Spotless Crake ordinarily come out to feed toward dusk, and we may hear both species
vocalizing in season. Other birds we may see here include Black and Yellow Bittern, Baillon's Crake, White-shouldered Fairywren,
Australian Reed Warbler, and Papuan Grassbird.
Dinner and overnight in village residence.
Day 8 │ Anggi Giji basin
Following a hearty nocturnal breakfast, a pre-dawn foray could produce Papuan Boobook, Large-tailed Nightjar and Feline and
Mountain Owlet-nightjar.
Around the crack of dawn then, we hope to find the nearly mythical Shovel-billed Kookaburra as it starts calling from the
surrounding forested hill slopes. Other noteworthy forest birds that we may encounter here include New Guinea Woodcock, New Guinea
Eagle, Vogelkop Bowerbird, Rufous-sided and Western Smoky Honeyeater, Vogelkop Melidectes, Mountain Mouse-warbler, Vogelkop
Scrubwren, Fan-tailed Berrypecker, Papuan Sittella, Black Sicklebill, Ashy Robin, and Lesser Ground Robin.
We shall enjoy a packed lunch on site and continue our search for some of these most elusive species throughout the afternoon,
with a potential resit for the Shovel-billed Kookaburra around dusk.
Dinner and overnight in village residence.
Day 9 │ Anggi Giji basin and Manokwari
After breakfast and a final morning's birding in the Anggi Giji basin, we shall enjoy lunch at our village abode and drive back to
Manokwari, making several birding stops en route.
Dinner and overnight in our partnering Manokwari hotel.
Day 10 │ Manokwari
We shall enjoy breakfast in our Manokwari hotel and transfer you to Manokwari's Rendani Airport to check you in for the first
morning flight to Jakarta or alternative destination.
Related links
❯Read on about the birdlife of the Arfak Mountains.
❯Read on about our filming expedition for Vogelkop Bowerbird in the Arfak Mountains with the BBC Natural History Unit.
❯Browse our terms and conditions.
❯Browse our checklist of the birds of West Papua
