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Snow Mountains of New GuineaThe discovery in 1938 of the densely populated and agriculturally advanced Grand Balim Valley in the heart of the Snow Mountains by American mammalogist, explorer and millionaire, Richard Archbold, and the massively supplied, 14 months' expedition he mounted under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History, may well have been the last great feat of the age of exploration. Among the scores of novelties brought back from the field were no less than 40 undescribed bird taxa, four of which received full species status. Following in Archbold's footsteps, a superb selection of New Guinea's wonderfully diverse montane avifauna can be seen when hiking through cultivation and upper montane forests up the Ibele Valley onto the Lake Habbema alpine plateau at 3,200 m elevation above the timberline, in the shadow of Peak Trikora. Here, in some of the most splendid mountain scenery this side of the Himalaya, lives MacGregor’s 'Bird of Paradise' Macgregoria pulchra. This monotypic genus has been treated as a bird of paradise by virtually all authors. However, T. Iredale observed living birds and back in 1956 already indicated that Macgregoria is instead a member of the honeyeater family Meliphagidae, a conclusion which more recently was reinforced by molecular and morphological evidence.
Montane cloud-forests are the realm of the jewel-like, black and scarlet, Red-collared Myzomela Myzomela rosenbergii, the secretive Large Owlet-Nightjar Aegotheles insignis, and the varied songster Regent Whistler Pachycephala schlegelii. Only three bird species, namely Orange-cheeked Honeyeater Oreornis chrysogenys, Snow Mountain Robin Petroica archboldi and Black-breasted Munia Lonchura teerinki, appear to be genuinely confined to the Snow Mountains but a staggering 33 montane restricted-range species occur. Snow Mountain Quail Anurophasis monorthonyx, Archbold's Owlet-Nightjar Aegotheles archboldi, Short-bearded Melidectes Melidectes nouhuysi, Lorentz’s Whistler Pachycephala lorentzi, Splendid Astrapia Astrapia splendidissima, and Snow Mountain Munia Lonchura montana do range further to the east into the Star and Victor Emanuel Mountains. The latter mountains lie across the border in Papua New Guinea and were first sighted by the great Italian explorer L. M. D'Albertis while cruising the upper Fly River in 1867. D'Albertis named this lofty range for his King. New Guinea Snow Mountains
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Habbema certainly sounds most exotic and one would almost swear that it
is therefore a local Papuan toponym. However, this alpine lake was in
fact named for the Dutch Lieutenant Habbema who's military detachment
supervised the 1909 Lorentz Expedition to New Guinea led by Dr. H. A.
Lorentz. The expedition came first to reach the tropical snow at the base
of the jagged summit of Mount Trikora, then called Wilhelmina, an achievement
which earned Lorentz the hero status back home. Interesting detail: each
Dayak-porter the expedition employed apparently was rewarded with a tatoe
of a snow-clad mountain with a dragon. The 1909 Lorentz Expedition, however,
ends catastrophically. During the decent of Mount Trikora, of which the
actual summit was never reached, Lorentz falls down and breaks a few ribbs.
One Dayak-porter gets lost in the thick fogg and dies of exhaustion. Then,
due to lack of food on the return journey, the rest of the expedition
nearly succumbs. One Dutch soldier disappears without a trace in the dense
forest, and a second Dayak-porter dies totally enfeebled. Eventually,
the party manages to reach the expedition vessel 'Arend' which lay anchored
on an inland jungle river. In 1913 the actual summit of Trikora was reached
on a Dutch military expedition led by Captain A. Franssen Herderschee.
Sadly, the snow caps on Trikora have now vanished completely, revealing
only glinstering limestones.