Papua 2023 Travel Report
This in-depth travel report covers the 15th episode of wildlife travel by Henriette and Ferdy.
Trip destination
In recent years we heavily focused on exploring South America leading to four trips to Colombia and one to Ecuador. This year we felt a visit to Asia is overdue. Our last Asian destination was Sri Lanka in 2014.
In our search for locations we have a tendency to go for adventurous locations, pristine habitat and unique species and that’s how Papua came to the top of our list.
About Papua
As we discussed our travel plans within our circles we noticed that the term Papua does not immediately ring a bell to everyone, so I figured it doesn’t hurt to give some extra context in this section.
Papua concerns the western half of the island of New Guinea (plus some smaller islands) and is politically part of Indonesia, whilst the eastern half forms the independent country of Papua New Guinea. Papua is also called Western New Guinea, Indonesian New Guinea, Indonesian Papua, or West Papua.
As for our idea to look for a destination in Asia, we failed. Technically, the island of New Guinea is part of the Australian continent. A failure we approve of because that makes it the 6th continent we visited.
Notable about our destination is the habitat (75% rain-forest coverage at varying elevations), the Papua people and their culture, and its unique wildlife with above all the stunning birds-of-paradise.
Trip organization
Henriette and I were exploring the offerings of tour operators and weren’t feeling very confident about how to organize this trip. Our goal was to replicate our successful formula used in Colombia. It consists of piggy-backing a birding tour whilst also attending other categories of wildlife. Specifically, the macro category (insects, plants, reptiles, amphibians) as well as the niche practice of photographing moths attracted to our mobile light trap.
Who might cater to these very specific needs in remote Papua?
The universe conspired to come up with an answer. In February 2022, a user named “Mehdh” registered on the wildlife community that I founded (JungleDragon) and uploaded some awesome wildlife photos taken in Papua.
Well over a year later, I suddenly remembered how when I first checked out the user’s profile, it linked to a small birding company. We decided to check it out, liked what we saw and wrote an email to the company with our custom request.
That company is Birding Indonesia, which is co-founded by Mehd Halaouate. They were very responsive to our communication and excited to come up with a custom program to our liking. And that’s how a coincidental connection turned our vague idea for a destination into a tailor-made plan.
Trip program
Our trip concerns an 18-day private tour attending 4 main locations within Papua (additional transfer locations not included):
- Nimbokrang. Far east of Papua, hot lowlands, swamp-like.
- Sorong. Far west of Vogelkop (Bird’s Head Peninsula).
- Arfak Mountains. Far east of Vogelkop, cool highlands.
- Raja Ampat. Archipelago of islands north-west of Vogelkop.
Preparation
Just like last year, we found our teenage nephew Ramon willing to temporarily live in our home whilst we are away and take care of our cat Shiva.
My good friend Christine Young was once again willing to administer JungleDragon during my absence.
❤️ Thank you both!
Gear update
A few days before the trip I finally pulled the trigger on a little gear dilemma. For about a decade I’ve been using the AF-S NIKKOR 80–400mm f/4.5–5.6G ED VR as an all-round travel lens. It’s flexible and relatively lightweight.
But there’s issues. 400mm is on the short end for birding. The rubber on the focus ring is loose and almost entirely detached and the focus mechanics occasionally stutters. The lens is at the end of its life but at the same time I don’t want to invest too much in a new DSLR lens given that at one point I’ll switch to mirror-less.
I’ve found the AF-S NIKKOR 200–500mm f/5.6E ED VR to be a decent compromise, so I got one. As I was testing it days before the trip, I noticed an issue with the battery in my battery grip, so I had to replace it as well as get a new charger. Here’s the upgraded combination:
And with all of this out of the way it’s finally time to get to the day-by-day coverage of our adventure.
October 8
Start of a journey that is the furthest we ever traveled by distance. Where usually we check into a hotel close to the airport a day before departure, this time we directly drove to the airport’s long term parking as this concerned a night flight.
Traffic was light on the road as it was a Sunday. During the drive our car reported a flat tire. We got out to check but it was a false positive. We’re not surprised. This is a car full of bugs and glitches. During heavy rain, the alarm goes off and Henriette gets a notification on her phone about somebody breaking into the car. It will also tell you that the suitcase in the back seat should really wear its seat belt.
Arriving at long term parking, the shuttle bus bringing us to Schiphol airport appeared immediately and about 5 minutes later we were in the departure hall where we experienced a first:
Last year, due to worker shortages in security and baggage handling, one would be lucky to catch a flight even when queuing 4 hours before departure. This year, it took us about 15 minutes to get through baggage drop-off, passport and security checks.
It all went so smoothly as to instill fear. Like characters in a movie that are happy for about 10 minutes, you just know something bad is around the corner.
We did some shopping and had absurdly expensive junk food dinner for a lack of better options. Next, we boarded the Boeing 777 to depart at around 7:30PM. Henriette had arranged Economy Plus exit seats, giving ample leg space during a flight that took well over 12 hours.
October 9
We landed at 3:30PM local time in Singapore airport, which is amazingly luxurious. First order of business was to get boarding passes for our next flight to Jakarta. We were able to check into the flight beforehand, yet it failed to produce an actual boarding pass.
At the airport’s information desk they reported that our reservation was canceled. We had no idea why as we have a flight confirmation. Luckily, they were able to resolve it within 15 minutes.
After that we had some time to kill and explored the airport. A notable highlight is that they have a butterfly garden.
At 7:15PM we departed from Singapore for a 1.5 hour flight to Jakarta. Half the plane was empty which explains why fixing our cancelled reservation was not a problem.
Landing in Jakarta, we were worried about getting a Visa since the process to get one beforehand failed and we were told to get one on the spot. Luckily, it did not take long. After collecting luggage we finally met our tour leader Mehd, so let’s properly introduce him.
Mehd Halaouate is born in Morocco, has lived in Sweden for 20 years and now lives in Bali, Indonesia. He’s 57 years old but stunningly energetic and fit. He speaks 5 languages. Besides running tours for Birding Indonesia, he’s active in conservation projects. In terms of character we’d describe him as calm, knowledgeable and friendly. He has a big heart.
We got to know each other over juice drinks at Jakarta airport as we were waiting for the final flight of one very lengthy journey. Amazingly, we still had a 5 hour flight in front of us, which indicates the vast size of Indonesia.
October 10
At about 5AM we landed at Sentani airport, named after its nearby lake, with a view on the Cyclops Mountain range. Finally we made it to Papua, but we still had a 2 hour drive ahead to make it to our first accommodation.
We drove to the town of Nimbokrang which is famous because the BBC crew used it as a base to document several birds-of-paradise in the region. BBC’s coverage of birds-of-paradise is the reason many people even know these birds exist and in all likelihood we would not be here without it.
We arrived at the guest house, which we found disappointing but over time we learned to live with its shortcomings. The biggest issue is the relentless heat and humidity and the lack of any method to cool down. The air temperature is around 31–33°C typically which due to humidity feels like 36–38°C. Next, add some 5°C to that due to the metal roof, concrete surroundings and lack of vegetation. It’s an oven.
The shower is a weak drip. The toilet doesn’t flush, instead you’re supposed to scoop water out of the bath tub and pour it over whatever you produced. On the upside, the hosts are incredibly kind and the lady cooking for us produced the best food of the entire trip.
The backyard of the guest house has an unusual occupant:
This is a Northern Cassowary in captivity. Kholik, the owner of the guesthouse, bought it from a poacher when it was still a chick in order to preserve it. The forestry department is supposed to collect it to release it in the wild but failed to do this thus far.
Mehd shared an anecdote where he once met this Jurassic bird in the wild. It showed a keen interest and slowly approached him. Only a tree was in between the both of them, the bird and Mehd circling around it. A tense moment when you consider this:
Although this bird is largely vegetarian and optimized to flee rather than fight, it’s dagger-like claws will easily slice open any meat bag. In truth, humans are far more dangerous. The hunting of birds is widespread in Papua. Hence, Mehd’s conservation motto towards the people is this:
Hunt a bird and get paid once. Protect the bird and keep getting paid.
At 3:30PM we got invited to check out something cool in the backyard of a local resident living across the street. A pair of Papuan frogmouths sleeping high up in a palm tree:
As it was already getting late, we proceeded to do some light birding in the nearby meadow fields. We saw a handful of birds, most at a large distance. Notable highlights are the Grand Munia and the hot-headed Crimson Finch:
As a final stop for the day we were taken to a hide from where we waited for a Hooded pitta to appear. In the middle of the forest there was an open spot, at the center of it a large log with strategically placed worms to lure the pitta. It did not make an appearance during this session.
After dinner we went to bed as early as 7PM. Exhausted from the long trip to get here but also because we were scheduled to start early the next day.
October 11
A 3:30AM breakfast. Even for birders this is really early but there’s logic to it. Quite a lot of Papua’s high value bird targets are in a relatively fixed position. A tree they always attend, a dance floor they perform their courtship ritual at. You don’t have to explore an entire forest to figure out where the bird will be.
However, one must already be at this known location in darkness so that the bird doesn’t notice you moving in. And then you wait for the sun to rise and hope that the bird will appear.
From our Nimbokrang base, the approach would typically be a 30 minute drive followed by a 1 hour hike to get deep into the forest. Mehd explained how 20 years ago, the drive was unneeded. The forest and its birds are rapidly disappearing due to logging and hunting.
In this location it would be hard to combine macro photography with birding since our urban base is not suitable for it nor is it typical to have night tours. Instead I figured to use the 1 hour hike in early morning darkness as an opportunity to pick up some insects along the way.
We arrived at the spot in the forest for our first bird-of-paradise. It was near a very tall tree where staff provided small fold-able chairs for us to wait for an appearance.
It did not take long for the Lesser bird-of-paradise to appear. A mixed group of young and adult males were loudly calling and displaying.
The photos are of questionable quality, but there’s nothing we could do about it. The birds were remote and backlight was strong. So we take it as it is and celebrated that we broke the ice: we saw our first ever bird-of-paradise!
On the way out of the forest, I switched back to macro. This time there was less time pressure and I took joy in everybody helping to spot things. Absolute highlight of the session is this bizarre Pygmy grasshopper:
Its head seems to consist of nothing but an eye. It is rarely photographed.
We proceeded to another place in the forest to see the King Bird-of-Paradise, whom regularly uses the same tree to call and display for females. We saw it make a quick appearance but it was largely obstructed by branches. We will get more opportunities to see it later in the trip.
We continued with a second attempt to see the pitta from a hide but it again failed to show. Instead, small lizards were feasting on the worms that were put there for the pitta.
We made it out of the forest where on the road we waited for the car to pick us up. During the wait we enjoyed the many gorgeous dragonflies and damselflies. They are numerous and omnipresent in Papua, even more so in this swampy area.
Back at our base around 11AM, we had lunch followed by siesta. We discovered an upside to the crazy heat: drying your clothes takes about 20 minutes in the full sun.
We went out again at 3PM for our next target bird, the Common Paradise-Kingfisher. We were ill-prepared for its extraordinary beauty:
It’s the exception amidst Kingfishers as they normally don’t have decorative bells and whistles. We also saw the female. She too has a tail, yet it is shorter and curved from sitting on the nest.
Note that there’s a proposal to split this species of Kingfisher into 6 individual species based on locality. This might become the Papuan paradise-kingfisher, Tanysiptera galatea.
On the way out of the forest we scored another insect highlight:
This straight-snouted weevil is probably in the Ithystenus genus, which is exclusive to the island of New Guinea.
We returned to base at 5:15PM where after a delicious dinner we settled for the night.
October 12
Another 3:30AM breakfast followed by a 30 minute drive. This time we found ourselves in a swamp with wooden boards to cross it. The moment I turned on my headlight, my ears, eyes and mouth were under attack by swarms of flying insects. The macro attempt was not fruitful other than this exquisite Grass hawk in the Neurothemis genus:
Note the fine-grained patterns in the wings.
We marched on to arrive at the location from where we might possibly see our next bird-of-paradise, the Twelve-wired bird-of-paradise. Once again we found ourselves sitting on tiny chairs in the forest, staring upwards at a tall tree waiting for the sun to rise.
It didn’t take very long for the male to appear, followed by the female. The above scene captures the essence of the species. The male’s butt wires are to be inspected by a critical female jury driving natural selection. These butt wires were considered adequate as mating soon followed, which is about a 3 second event with lots of clumsily flapping wings.
And that doubles our bird-of-paradise counter. From 1 to 2. We had success with another target bird, the Rufous-bellied kookaburra:
This was soon followed by the insect of the day, a colorful Katydid possibly in the Scambophyllum genus:
This was when our luck turned around. We had a 3rd attempt at seeing the pitta which again failed to show despite a 2 hour wait. You might think sitting and waiting from a hide is easy but it’s brutal. You’re cooked alive by the heat and under constant attack by swarms of mosquitos that really appreciate a hot mammal sitting still. It drains your energy but you can’t allow for that because any pitta appearance is brief, so you have to stay focused.
To add insult to injury, a young Paradise kingfisher, the very bird we targeted a day before was feasting on the worms, sabotaging the scene. From glorious beauty to unwelcome guest.
We proceeded to the land of Dance, which needs some explaining. Dance (pronounced as dan-see), an old cheerful Papua man, is always with us in this area. I figured he was a porter as he kept offering to carry my heavy backpack. He turns out to be quite an important person. He owns a lot of land around these parts and allegedly has 4 wives.
Dance is our security. It is an example of a pattern that occurred during our entire trip. Javan Indonesians and native Papuans are entirely different peoples, ethnically, religiously, and culturally. And there’s tension in the air between them. Some (if not many) Papuans feel that they are effectively being colonized by Indonesians, where before they were colonized by the Dutch. The bottom line is that when a foreigner visits, a true Papuan must be part of the party so that it isn’t just Indonesian people benefiting from the visit. And that’s just one of Dance’s roles, he also takes care of land permissions and has amazing navigation skills within the forest.
On his land we were searching for pygmy parrots which we did hear but they failed to come into view. Next we had a try at the Yellow-billed kingfisher but there was no sign of it. It was quite a bad streak.
Back at the guest house we had an early low point in the journey where a lot of negativity came together. The relentless heat, the urban nature of the guest house putting us out of direct reach of the forest, the repeated failures in seeing the pitta as well as a few other target birds. We were moody and having lots of time to ponder over it made it worse. Although we tried to keep this to ourselves, Mehd could sense the vibe and offered comfort. This is the hottest location of them all and we’re not done yet with the pitta.
At 3PM we headed out again, stubbornly persisting in trying to see a bloody pitta from what had become a familiar place:
Patience was once again tested, leaving lots of time to think. Do pittas really exist? Are we part of a social experiment or practical joke?
It’s not a joke, it’s the pitta way. They are supposed to be hard, otherwise it’s not a pitta. A flash appearance of this Hooded Pitta during the last light of day broke the bad spell. Our first pitta ever as they mostly occur in Asia and Australia where we’ve done little birding.
With an improved mood, we did some road-side birding where we found this bower bird’s bower close to the edge of a forest:
This case of animal architecture is constructed by the male of the Fawn-breasted Bowerbird, designed to impress the female. The bird was loudly protesting our presence as it does with the presence of anything but the female.
Back at the guest house, dinner was once again a treat and we concluded on a rough day. But not before making my annual romantic gesture towards Henriette.
I noticed how in Indonesia, as we’ve seen in many developing countries, they largely make use of what we call Kebab lights. The harshest, palest white lights that make everything look terrible and soulless. As if you’re about to go for surgery. I figured to upgrade the atmosphere by putting my headlight into a trash bag:
Similar to the efforts of most bower birds, it had no actual rewards.
October 13
A slightly later breakfast at 5AM, after which we proceeded to a hide to await a second species of pitta, the Papuan Pitta. Once again a Kingfisher was stealing worms from the site. The wait was very long but we persisted because we could hear the pitta. The stealth of a pitta is remarkable. You hear its call from one direction. A minute later it comes from a completely different direction. The forest floor is covered in dry leaves and still you do not hear the bird move.
After 2 hours, a panicky 5 seconds commenced. The pitta arrived but the Kingfisher wasn’t having it and chased it away. In the commotion I managed to focus and get in 2 shots, when I looked up it was gone. My heart was racing from relief, I would not have forgiven myself if I were to be a second later.
A generous interpretation of seeing these two pittas is that we’ve now seen all pittas in Papua. However, some authorities split both species into several species by locality. This might be the Northern Papuan Pitta whilst there’s also a Southern one. Same for the Hooded Pitta.
We proceeded to search for The King, short for King Bird-of-Paradise. Although it was at a large distance, we did get it into full view this time:
A high quality video to fully appreciate this jewel of a bird:
Can you believe that these are basically crows that took a very weird path in evolution? That puts our bird-of-paradise counter at 3.
The little macro detour produced this beautiful Curved-horn Moth:
We took the car to Dance’s plot of land again to retry the targets we missed the day before. This time we did see the pygmy parrots as well as the Yellow-billed Kingfisher:
Needless to say, we were thrilled with this comeback after yesterday’s doubts.
Back at the guest house, we tried to help the Cassowary as we saw it struggling with the heat. This bird is as powerful as it is dumb though. It keeps tipping over the bucket of water that we bring only to curiously look inside of it and wonder where the water went. At one point it stomped one foot on the bucket, the bucket shooting away like a bullet.
At 3PM we proceeded to Jalan Korea, a road famous amidst birders. This old logging road cuts through two sections of forest. The idea being that you can see many birds as they cross between both sections. Mehd mentioned how this road is losing its former glory due to logging. Indeed, we saw freshly cut forests and rows of palm oil plants ready to be planted.
After arriving at the road, we moved a tiny bit into a forest section on wooden boards. This is where we faced a peculiar species of ant. The floor revealed armies of tiny ants. The problem is that they climb you and bite you if you dare to stand still for a few seconds. Both Mehd and me were being bitten all over our body as the ants colonized our pants and shirt. Henriette was immune because she was the only person wearing boots.
Suffering aside, we managed to see a few important targets such as this rarely photographed Ochre-collared Monarch:
Other stars of the show included the Lowland Peltops (Peltops blainvillii) and Black-browed Triller (Lalage atrovirens). We also tried the Shovel-billed Kookaburra, the rarest and hardest bird in the area, but did not hear or see it.
We headed back to base entirely satisfied with this day.
October 14
After a 4:30AM breakfast we once again headed to Jalan Korea. This time we did hear the Shovel-billed Kookaburra, but never saw it.
Kholik observed something that had me puzzled. He was pointing out a bird high up in a tree. But all I could see was leaves. I tried the camera’s viewfinder but failed to detect what he saw even after he directly located it with a laser pointer. Out of politeness I figured to just photograph the leaves. I then reviewed the shot on the back of the camera, zooming in as far as possible and my mind was blown:
How on earth do you spot this from over 20m away without binoculars? Another interesting bird seen was the Moustached Treeswift:
The largest treeswift in the world, and probably the most beautiful one. Bird activity soon dropped so we went for a group selfie as our time was running out here:
We ended the morning session early at 8:30AM as the heat became unmanageable for both us and the birds. Back at the guest house we were treated to cold Cola and cake.
I asked Henriette to make a photo of my back as I was assessing the bodily damage of several days of living in a swamp. We both looked at it and concluded to immediately delete it as it was just too gory. Henriette too was covered in bites, bumps and red spots.
The siesta time saw the first rain of our stay here. We learned from Mehd how he once had a few tourists here during days of continuous rain. They saw close to nothing at all during their entire stay. That really put our sometimes challenging times here in perspective.
At 2:30PM we went out for the final session of this location. We were driven to a location attended before but within the forest took an entirely different path. Dance led us to a magic spot only he knows about. The path was beautiful but difficult. Slippery, steep, full of obstacles and often we could barely detect there being a path at all. It took a full hour to arrive at the spot which is a small clearing in the forest with in the middle a very tall tree without leaves.
It’s not an exaggeration to call this a magic tree. We saw the Red-cheeked Parrot, Blyth’s Hornbill, Salvadori’s Fig-Parrot, Pale-billed Sicklebill, Gray Crow, and Pinon’s Imperial-Pigeon. With the exception of the Hornbill, every single bird in this list is rarely seen or photographed and here they all make an appearance in the same single tree.
The photography though was heavily compromised. It was getting dark already, the angle is straight-up and there’s lots of back-light.
I’ve included the above questionable photo as evidence because it is relevant to the theme of our journey. The Pale-billed Sicklebill is a bird-of-paradise, which puts our bird-of-paradise counter at 4.
A happy ending of our stay here. Yet it was soon met with a reality check. On the drive back to base we came across a column of 20 large trucks each full of logs. The forest is rapidly disappearing. You can see it and hear it everywhere you go. This is becoming the next Borneo. Next we saw a snake roadkill, the only snake we would see during this trip.
October 15
We got up at 5AM, packed our luggage and proceeded to breakfast. We tipped and said goodbye to the team at the guest house after which we drove in the direction of the airport.
We made a stop to do some roadside-birding amidst agricultural lands. A local Papua man had to be paid for the security aspect explained earlier. He followed us on a scooter. Nobody asks questions when you have a Papua man with you.
At the airport we got unexpected access to the executive lounge. Mehd had negotiated it as compensation for a flight the airline had canceled earlier. Waiting for the flight we could relax in comfy chairs and feast on the open buffet. The flight was delayed by one hour.
We landed in Sorong at about 3PM. After collecting luggage we had a warm welcome from a group of jumpy Papua people with a massive Toyota 4x4 truck. Some of them had blood-stained teeth that Mehd warned about.
It’s not blood. Rather it’s a side effect of chewing Betel nut. An addictive psychoactive nut that is commonly chewed to get a mild high. I invite you to read this article to learn more about it:
The Papuans were excited for two reasons, in no particular order:
- They live in a rural village a few hours away and are excited to visit the city. It allows them to see family in the city as well as to do shopping.
- We were the first guests to stay in their village. Birders typically drive to the village, visit the surrounding forest to see their target birds, and then drive back to the airport, all in one day.
We proceeded into the city to buy supplies for the next days. Gas for the generator. Rice. Bananas. Tomatoes. Water and eggs. And of course Betel nuts. Mehd commented that they were buying way more than our needs, whilst he’s paying for it. This type of hustle culture of take-whatever-you-can is common. Part of it you have to let go, but sometimes you have to push back when it gets out of hand. It’s a balancing act.
We proceeded on a 3 hour drive to the village as the sun was setting. Most birders here attend a village that is closer to the airport yet requires a 3km hike from the road, whilst our target village is further away but closer to the road.
We arrived in darkness in the village named Malayauw. We were surprised by the modernity of it, here’s our main stay by daylight:
We believe a government development project invested here. The houses look new, are made from concrete and tile floors. There’s electricity by means of a generator. Our room:
We actually stayed in the home of the chief of the village. He temporarily moved to make space for us.
The only upsetting aspect is the total lack of running water. There’s just a barrel of water and a scoop. This makes it very hard to clean yourself and you can imagine that for women the situation is extra impactful. I don’t write this as to sound spoiled, instead as to express this to be so unnecessary. In one of the other locations we saw how gravity and a tiny pump would produce running water with pressure. It’s not complicated or expensive, and its sorely needed for hygiene.
Our stay here would be two nights, but this first night was already ending so effectively one full day. We went to bed at 9PM.
October 16
We got up at 5AM. In this location there’s no hides to move into in darkness. It’s free-format exploration of the forest, which we prefer over sitting still and waiting.
We started the morning session at 6AM. It was very misty and the chief of the village noted that this means it will be an extra hot day. He would be right about that.
We moved into the forest and were impressed by its beauty, it’s clearly very old. Another thing we were impressed with is mosquitos. The travel program warned about it but still we were ill-prepared for it. When you look at the person walking in front of you, you can clearly see a cloud of them following the person, ever more joining as this hot mammal is detected. It’s maddening. Almost undoable.
Still though, we managed to convert the suffering into early success:
This extraordinary bird is basically the #1 target of the area. Many birders solely come all this way just to see this one bird and then leave. Henriette figured it would be a good idea to celebrate Colombia style:
Unfortunately, the practice of posting it on Facebook and tagging half the planet wasn’t possible as we had been without internet since the beginning of the trip.
Throughout the entire trip we saw Mehd photograph these strange structures found in trees for his friend that studies them:
These ant plants live in a symbiotic relationship with ants where the plant provides food and shelter in return for safety as the ants keep out slugs and other threats.
As for birds, we saw the King bird-of-paradise again, the Black Butcherbird, Blyth’s Hornbill, Black Lory, Black Sunbird, Great Cuckoo-Dove, Black-capped Lory, Coconut Lorikeet, Rufous-bellied kookaburra, Yellow-faced Myna.
It was a productive but extremely exhausting session. One hour after deciding to head back, we were still in the forest. Irritated, wondering what’s the hold-up. We should be happy that we stayed as bird magic happened next.
Local staff spotted a large bird on the forest floor, far away, moving away from us. They thought it might be a Western Crowned-Pigeon. That’s like hitting the jackpot as this species only occurs in the most remote areas of Northwest Guinea and is rarely spotted. The team figured we’d never get a clear view of it on the forest floor so instead somebody made a direct run at the bird, forcing it to move into a tree for safety. And there it is:
Other than its rarity and gorgeous crown, we were surprised about its size. It’s a huge bird.
We happily returned to the guest house after this hardcore session where it took considerable time to recover.
After lunch, I made good use of the macro opportunity. Unlike the previous location here you’re directly in nature and can explore it all day. In particular the forest edge had many insect treats such as this beautiful longhorn beetle:
After returning to cool down, I went for a second session, this time in the forest. It’s very dark and it was much harder to find insects.
And then I got lost. I took the wrong turn when heading back and didn’t know which path to take to exit the forest. I knew the general direction to move towards but the paths I tried curved into another direction mid-way. I shouted Mehd! but got no reply.
I was in a mild panic but then got distracted by this gorgeous butterfly:
It took me an additional 30 minutes of trying every possible path until by luck I was at the village again, pretending that nothing had happened. I had little time to settle as a villager alerted us to this on his front door:
It’s enormous.
Just before the late afternoon birding session, Henriette and I constructed the moth light trap, hoping that later that night we could have our first session in Papua.
At 3:30PM we started the afternoon birding session. As seems common in Papua, it was much less productive compared to the morning session. The reason might be that it doesn’t really get cooler in the afternoon. Still we managed to see 5 different target birds, including the Sacred Kingfisher and this Sulphur-crested Cockatoo in front of its nest:
We powered on the moth light before dinner. Henriette called to share a spectacle: a large group of enormous foxes (bats) was crossing the village. I saw a glimpse of it but was too late for a recording.
We attended the moth light trap and were disappointed. Only a dozen or so appeared and it soon started to rain, ending the session.
Whilst we’re used to the occasional disappointing session, we still had an itch to scratch. We consider mothing in Papua a golden opportunity and weren’t exactly nailing it thus far.
That being said, our day overall had been eventful, interesting, challenging and successful. We love the vibe of this place and the ability to freely explore it.
October 16
A 6AM start for a last birding session in this location.
It seems impossible, but mosquitos were even worse than the day before, probably because of last night’s rain. Where before I called it practically undoable, now it really became undoable. Every second spent in the forest feeling like torture. Everybody was agitated, had low energy and since bird activity was low anyway, we quit after 2 hours. We’re happy that we pushed so hard the day before, securing many targets. The only notable target missed in this location is the Blue-black Kingfisher. It is often missed based on experiences by other groups visiting.
We did some relaxing, packed luggage and had lunch. During the goodbye ritual the chief of the village proudly dressed up in uniform:
A great man although not literally:
We hugged, tipped and received a gift from them. Handbags made from bamboo.
We continued to a destination we’ve been looking forward to: a hotel. After a 3 hour drive back to Sorong we found ourselves at a hotel close to the airport at about 2PM. We had been without running water, a functional toilet, a way to cool down, and Wi-fi for a full week. The small break into luxury was a godsend.
At 7PM we had dinner at the hotel where service was awful. The hotel is ran by incompetent teenagers. Some are sleeping on the job, others are shocked when you request service, and food was undercooked. Henriette and I didn’t mind much, we were happy to be cool and clean, but Mehd was quite pissed and decided to never book this hotel again.
October 18
Today’s goal was to make it to the third location of our trip. At 6AM we had an ultra short taxi drive to the airport of Sorong. Check-in was smooth. Boarding was announced when we were still buying some high quality coffee from the shop so we took it on to the flight.
After a one hour flight we landed in Manokwari, where it was hot. We were once again welcomed by a group of Papuans in a massive 4x4 truck which cruised downtown to buy supplies for the coming days.
We took the drive very steeply uphill. So steep that no ordinary car would be able to manage it. About 2 hours later we arrived in the village called Minggre in the Arfak Mountains.
As for this being a village, it’s a tiny section of road containing 8 houses. The first thing we noticed when we got out is the climate. Cool and fresh. We’re at about 1,500m ASL. What a joy to escape the relentless heat, humidity and mosquitos.
Our arrival was a little bit chaotic. We first got an upstairs room in the largest house in town, where the other rooms in this same building were taken by a group of 7 or 8 other birders. The group consisted mostly of Americans (and possibly Canadians) and at least one Swedish guy. Very kind people whom we would continue to meet in other locations during our trip.
Whilst we loved the opportunity to socialize, this house was quite crowded, posing a logistical challenge. Sharing a single shower and toilet with 10 people sucks, especially when you’d use it during the same peak moments. Organizing meals is hard because supplies and cooks are separate between both groups. The solution was to move us (Mehd, Henriette, me) next door to a smaller house just for us:
The homes are solid and clean. The toilet flushes and the shower has decent water pressure and even has warm water (after a long wait). Electricity comes from a generator, typically switched on at 6PM.
It took a while for lunch to be ready so they kept us busy with a small detour to see two remarkable birds. We walked downwards a very steep road, crossed a highway, and then went further down into a forest.
Staff then pointed out two Owlet-Nightjar species endemic to New Guinea. The Mountain Owlet-Nightjar and the Feline Owlet-Nightjar:
They were hidden in a dense web of branches. They are so hard to detect, the photo is significantly brightened.
We returned to the village for a late lunch, relaxed a bit and went out for a birding session as of 3PM. Just behind our house is a path directly into the forest that steeply descends. There we found a hide that had a direct view at the work of the ultimate bowerbird, nature’s greatest seducer. The Vogelkop Bowerbird:
Imagine being the first human being to ever see this. What would you think lives here? 4 inch humans?
This bird has a solution for a problem typically faced by tech billionaires. What if you’re visually unappealing and socially awkward? How would you still get laid? There’s only two ways:
- Start a rocket company
- Build a temple
A temple it is. The design of each temple is different. The many plastic items are disturbing, but that’s because this temple is close to the village where there’s lots of litter. As you go deeper into the forest, the temples have natural items only. Here’s an example of a second bower found deeper in the forest one day later:
I figure the bird loves plastic though. It’s colorful, consistent and doesn’t rot. The many colorful items distract from the amazing roof structure which took years to build and easily withstands heavy rain.
Before we entered the hide, staff intentionally displaced a few items, triggering the bird to appear and fix it. This feels a bit mean, but it’s no big deal as the bird is reorganizing all day. Rain and wind displace items. Colorful fruits rot. Competing males steal items. It’s incredible that the bird is even able to detect a violation of its grand design out of hundreds of items.
Let’s get to work:
Note the pile of beetle wings behind him. Fun fact about this site: they once put a David Attenborough doll near the bird so that it can get used to it in preparation of the real Sir David Attenborough attending and presenting closely to the bird.
A nice little bonus appeared near the hide:
“Just” a Robin, but a very rare one. With light disappearing, we returned to the village for dinner and watched the mystical sunset in the cloud forest.
We went to bed early as we’re on the birds-of-paradise clock again. This location is promising for a few iconic species.
October 19
We got up at the ridiculous time of 3AM, had breakfast and then a short drive to an entry into the forest. Mehd figured to try the hardest bird first: the Black Sicklebill, which is a bird-of-paradise. It is the hardest one of this location for two reasons:
- It is the most difficult one to get to
- It has a very limited display/dance time window
We took a very slippery path steeply up and down in full darkness. I didn’t time it exactly, but I think it took some 60–80 minutes to complete. We noticed how the soil here is very weird. It bounces back, as if walking on an air cushion.
We reached a tiny hide. Low and narrow, I had to get to floor level to make the angle of the viewing hole which revealed a bare tree.
After some waiting, we heard a bird approach. It didn’t land at the tree yet but its call was loud and unbirdlike and the fraction of the bird we could see shocked us. We did not expect a bird this large. It soon moved into position:
It did not help that it was still pretty dark and this bird being all-black, I struggled to focus with the camera, but what a sight it was. Like a dark emperor overseeing the forest as it awakens.
As it morphed into a featureless comet shape our brain struggled to comprehend what we’re looking at. Henriette and I have seen footage of some birds-of-paradise, but had no idea what was coming this time as we’re not familiar with this species and had no internet to look it up.
The nuance and complexity of the display is easily missed. Note the continuous line of blue feathers on the sides. These feathers are disconnected in the bird’s ordinary pose and only align during the display, which requires precision and practice. And that’s why this bird-of-paradise does dance rehearsals without the female present. About 3–5 times at first light, and that’s it.
Like a dial on a clock, an abstract shape swirls and rotates around the tree as if physical constraints temporarily do not apply. It is an astonishing sight to see that is hard to express with photos, so this is mandatory viewing:
Whilst some other birds-of-paradise are more colorful and have more engaging dance acts, this one has a special place in our heart. A quiet mysterious performer in seduction. A craftsman in subtle foreplay.
The birds-of-paradise counter is now at 5.
We reversed the path in daylight where we spend a lot of time on this bird that rarely sits still:
Do not skip the “ordinary” birds. There are none here. Almost all of them are exclusive to the area or the larger island of New Guinea and poorly documented.
Making it back to the main road we first experienced a great service in this area:
These motor cyclists continuously cruise between the city of Manokwari and remote villages. They carry popular items, cold drinks but you can also place custom orders.
We were never given the names of the 3 guys with us but the one in yellow is their leader. He’s the driver, knows where all the hides are, organizes logistics and permissions whilst the other two guys assist.
Mehd shared how the previous leader of the community, an elderly man, was killed by machete due to a dispute, the details of which are unknown. It’s one example of the tribal mindset still being a thing in local culture. A less violent example is a man in town that is originally from another village yet married a woman here. Whilst the marriage was accepted, the man himself is not. He’s socially isolated, can’t join on our trips, can’t share in revenue, for he is originally not from this town.
In a way, villages are like tiny countries that are distrustful if not hostile to each other. It’s miniature geopolitics. It includes behavior similar to article 5 of NATO. You don’t have to worry about somebody out of town stealing something from you because such an attack would be seen as an attack on the town as a whole, and retaliation would be collective and overwhelming. Infrequent violent conflicts ensure frequent safety.
The dynamics shouldn’t be exaggerated though. In the more remote highlands as well as big parts of Papua New Guinea, tribal warfare is the default whilst here we’re seeing the echoes of this cultural past. It’s still a thing, but it operates in the background and softens over time.
We had plenty of time to relax back at our base both before and after lunch until we headed out at 3PM for our next bird-of-paradise target. Once again we took a short drive but this time did not have to get deeply into the forest. This hide was very close to the road. A very noisy situation because a new highway is being built just behind us.
We’re about to wait for a bird-of-paradise with a dance floor. Staff threw a few leaves on the ultra clean dance floor as to trigger the bird to come and clean it. Not much was happening and the longer we waited, the more we lost hope. But 50 minutes in, a magnificent character appears:
No time was wasted cleaning the dance floor because a female appeared. And then another one. It’s dance time!
The male defies gravity in a vertical perch, reveals its green chest and belly and forms a yellow umbrella shape around its head whilst vibrating its curled tail feathers. Note that the female perspective of this display is much different from what we see, as this video explains:
The birds-of-paradise counter is now at 6.
And the day wasn’t over yet. At night we had our first successful mothing session in Papua:
To those new to this practice: the setup is entirely mobile. Two legs, each consisting of 3 sections, hold up a large white cloth whilst we hang a light from a 3rd leg in the middle of the cloth, behind it. The light is a LepiLED, which produces light at multiple points in the spectrum optimized to attract most families of moth. The light is powered by USB using a large capacity power bank.
We were excited that Medh was excited as he photographed every single moth on the cloth. We’re basically moth missionaries spreading the virus. Mothing is fun and moths are beautiful in their endless variety. Mehd got so hooked that he opted to soon buy the same LepiLED.
Whilst we do mothing wherever we get a chance, to us the idea of mothing in Papua is extra special. In Papua, birds are well documented. Literally everything else isn’t. It’s new territory, largely unexplored.
This night had a good result, not record-breaking, but solid. I still have a lot of sorting out to do so I can’t say which one was most beautiful, if there even is such a thing.
We called it a day at 9PM.
October 20
A somewhat later 5AM start to go on a short drive and hike to find the next bird-of-paradise. We soon were in our new theater, a large hide with viewing holes at awkward heights, giving a view of a spotless log in the forest.
The bird almost immediately landed. It called a few times and displayed:
This is a partial display only, as no female was around that would trigger the full dance. Check out this video to see it in full:
Those that have seen the famous bird-of-paradise videos from BBC would be familiar with the impressive if not hilarious ritual. But I just learned a fascinating fact. This is not the species featured in those videos, the species we’ve seen is the Vogelkop Lophorina, which is a very recent addition to the bird-of-paradise species taxonomy. This video explains the distinction:
The birds-of-paradise counter is now at 7.
After our successful observation, we kept waiting for a long time, hoping for a second appearance in better light, but the bird didn’t return.
We continued with some birding in the forest, but it was relatively calm. Notable birds seen are the Papuan Treecreeper and this beautiful Red-breasted Pygmy-Parrot:
After lunch and siesta we departed on foot at 2:30PM towards a hide very close to town. We ruined the dance floor by dispersing a few leaves on it:
The size of the dance floor predicts a dance that is not stationary. Some 30 minutes later a surprisingly large bird arrives judging our vandalism:
After cleaning up the mess, he paused to listen for females:
And then left the scene. But not for long, because nearby females were heard and the male rushed back and started its mesmerizing and complicated dance:
Which can only be fully appreciated in a video:
The birds-of-paradise counter is now at 8.
After dinner we tried our luck at mothing again. It was extremely misty.
The thick mist created a strong diffusion effect which seemed to help.
About twice as many moths as the day before! And we were still only starting, new waves of moths were coming in still. And that’s when heavy rain started. I was gutted. A treasure in front of me but I can’t document it.
I did managed to photograph about two dozen moths before my camera got too wet for comfort.
October 21
At this moment we learned that regarding the birds-of-paradise, we were in a situation of privilege. We documented the 4 species of this area in two days. Yet we have an additional 2 days here.
This safety margin in the length of the stay is due to weather. It’s highly unpredictable in this cloud forest where sometimes it can rain for days, and zero birds will appear. Another aspect is that hide reservations have to be coordinated with other groups of visitors. We never had to wait for a slot but it possibly occurs when it’s busy. We’ve simply been incredibly fortunate in hitting all targets in just 2 days.
That does leave the question as to what to do with this extra time. Options:
- Revisit a hide to try and get better footage, a better display ritual.
- Explore the only path into the forest from the village. It has fairly low bird activity typically, and it’s not great for macro either.
- Road-side birding. Marginally productive in this area.
- Mothing.
At 5AM we went on foot to retry the Western Parotia as it has the most impressive dance. The bird did appear again leading to similar photos as the day before but Henriette managed to record videos of the spectacle that include cleaning, dancing and mating. Here’s the dance video:
After the session, we did some road-side birding whilst also photographing orchids and pitcher plants. Returning to the village, Anche pointed out a rare mountain pigeon in the distance:
Now would be a good moment to introduce Anche. He’s the driver that took us here from the airport. Yet he became so much more. For some reason, cooking service was very unreliable in town. Staff didn’t wake up, was hours late, or couldn’t be bothered at all. Anche stepped in and took charge. Of cooking, helping with spotting birds, handling land permissions and fees, all of it. We’re grateful.
We then had an odd coffee realization. We were running out of solvent coffee, where Mehd suggested to switch to the ordinary coffee that locals drink. It tastes OK-ish but it leaves a thick layer of residue at the bottom of the cup. Everybody seemed to be drinking it this way. I then realized that it’s not solvent coffee, it’s filter coffee, but nobody bothers to filter it. Do they not know or do they do not care? I’m unsure.
After lunch, the afternoon birding session was canceled due to rain, reminding us of our luck during the previous days. Overall, this was a very slow day. But perhaps that’s good for us, and so is not having access to the internet.
Around dinner time rain finally stopped, which triggered us back into moth mode. The yield was perhaps 20% of the moth madness of the previous night (which failed due to rain) but this still amounts to quite a lot of species if you obsessively document them all, which we did.
October 22
A 5AM start with a goal to retry the Vogelkop Lophorina, because the first time we did not see a full dance ritual. This time we would be trying from a different hide.
This turned out to be a poor gamble. Despite a 3 hour wait, the bird only appeared once and immediately fled the scene. This particular hide was way too close to the dance floor, which doesn’t work.
Returning to base, we had plenty of time to kill so I did a solo tour on the forest trail whilst Henriette relaxed with an audio book.
I enjoyed the solitude of taking the trail alone. There’s no time pressure, performance pressure, and way less noise. I managed to see and photograph 3 birds including two dull-looking ones that still need to be identified:
Mehd was surprised when I showed them and could not immediately identify them. It requires a deeper comparison using literature. I’ll update the caption as soon as I know what they are.
As I returned to the village, we met Oka. Oka is the other half of Birding Indonesia and just arrived with 2 French guests. A very cheerful Indonesian guy with a permanent smile.
After lunch it was time for a fun road trip, an opportunity to see the Gray-banded Munia. This is an extremely local bird that only occurs in a tiny area in the Northwest of Vogelkop.
From here, it requires a 2 hour drive to get to the area, on roads unbelievable steep. Along the way are alpine-like views that include pine forests.
They were surprisingly easy to find. The moment we arrived into the town near the lake, we saw a large flock of a few dozen individuals, which we followed for some 30 minutes.
We bought some supplies in town and made the drive back to the village.
On our last night here, we went for a moth finale. Conditions were difficult as it rained yet with dry intervals, and it was very windy. The moth yield was about the same as the previous night. Not very high, but interesting enough for me to push and try and photograph all of them.
October 23
A day of departure and luxury. We got up “late” at 6AM and prepared luggage. After breakfast, we said our goodbyes, made group photos and tipped staff.
We drove to the very luxurious Aston hotel close to the airport. There was an extended wait before our rooms were ready. In the lobby, Mehd met a fellow bird guide, an old Indonesian guy that spoke some Dutch.
For the rest of the day, we didn’t do much at all other than enjoying the comforts of the hotel and sending some messages to friends and family as we had been without internet for several days.
October 24
After a 6:15AM breakfast we took a short drive to the airport at 7AM. After a smooth check-in we took the 40 minute flight from Manokwari to Sorong where we landed around 10AM.
We then took a short drive to a dock that had a great restaurant where we relaxed and later had lunch. We were then driven to a port from which we would catch a ferry at 2PM.
The ferry takes us to our final destination: Waigeo, the largest island of the Raja Ampat archipelago which is famous for its diving opportunities. The ferry is enormous and calmly cruised us to Waigeo in about 2 hours.
Exiting the ferry, Mehd went ahead to get permits, which are needed to stay on the island, whilst many cab drivers were begging us to take their ride. We soon found the reserved driver and took a very slow drive towards our accommodation.
Henriette and I were immediately into a beach holiday mode, tremendously enjoying the views and relaxed nature of this place. After about 20 minutes, we arrived at our new base, a wooden bungalow on stilts with a direct ocean view:
Awesome. The bungalow has a great bed, permanent electricity, and a water cooler/heater for self service drinks. The toilet and shower are shared and in a separate building but there were no other guests at this time.
We had dinner at Medh’s bungalow where we had a serving of fresh fish.
Just before setting for the night, we got an alert from staff, they found an interesting animal in a tree nearby:
That puts our mammal counter at 1. Papua does not have a lot of mammals and the few there are, are hard to find.
October 25
As much as Henriette and I enjoyed the sunset overlooking the ocean, we wouldn’t be experiencing a sunrise as we’re on the birds-of-paradise schedule once more.
We had a 4AM breakfast after which we went on a drive. First on the main road, followed by a very narrow secondary road cutting into the forest. After being dropped of, we still had a small hike to reach the next bird theater. After some 30–40 mins, one of the most visually attractive birds-of-paradise appeared:
Actually, we’re unsure about the timing. In near darkness we were staring at a horizontal branch when we noticed the iridescence. Weak reflections of light, but noticeable. We were unable to see the bird itself, only its visual side effects. The bird was already there, and we have no idea for how long.
It proceeded to tidy up the dance floor and repeatedly called for the female.
Which worked:
There is no real dance. The display is interesting. From our angle, we admire the beauty of the male with its red, yellow and blue colors but the female seems to not care about it at all. She cares about the state of the dance floor and the frontal flash. Is the male the brightest leaf in the forest?
What a bird! The birds-of-paradise counter is now at 9.
Reversing the path, we did a bit of macro photography. As we set our first step out of the forest on to an open path, an excruciatingly loud bird call made us freeze.
A gang of 3 Brown-headed Crows! These birds are very rare to see due to their tiny fragmented population.
We did some more macro after which we returned to the bungalow where we were treated to an iced coffee. Henriette and I went for our first ocean swim. Whilst wonderful and refreshing, we soon learned that early morning swims are not ideal due to the low tide. You have to get far into the ocean and then soon hit a wall of coral reef. Later on I tried to use my iPhone under water to photograph some of it but this approach did not work as the touch screen is irresponsive when submerged.
From our wonderful bungalow on stilts, we’d watch the terns during our entire stay here. They’re constantly targeting a school of small fish that we had a direct view on:
These fish would sometimes gather into ever-larger schools, like a giant cloud. Safety in numbers, but not for all:
This is the horizontal attack, where the tern slides over the water surface. The more common attack is a straight vertical dive. Another neighbor around the bungalow is the Willy Wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys). They are nesting under the roof of the bungalow as well as below the floor, near the stilts. Great alarm clocks. But not really, because we get up earlier than any bird does.
Mehd and I were doing some birding along the edge of the forest where I was frustrated with a continually obstructed bird where I only managed to produce this garbage shot:
The reason I’m including the photo is because unexpectedly, this is a bird-of-paradise. Unexpectedly because it looks very plain, has a simple call, no courtship ritual that I know of, no dance floor, and males and females look alike.
I guess this is the one linking back birds-of-paradise back to crows. It is one of 3 species of birds-of-paradise on the island and that puts our total counter at 10.
After lunch and siesta, we had an afternoon birding session on foot, navigating some very steep upward roads. Henriette and I were protesting it in silence. Not only was it very hot, this place puts you into a beach relaxation mode where doing anything at all seems quite ambitious.
Nevertheless, we did see a few birds, most at a fairly large distance. Highlight of the session was a very cooperative Hooded Butcherbird:
They are called butcher birds because they impale prey and then rip it apart bit by bit. This species is endemic to New Guinea.
Returning to base, we did some more swimming and relaxing and then had dinner. Which was interrupted for something amazing:
Just like the day before, a Cuscus was spotted by staff. As the name suggests, this one is more special as it is endemic to this island.
October 26
A 3:30AM breakfast followed by a 4AM departure by car. It was quite a long drive across the island where a Malukan man on a scooter (our local birding guide and hide owner) directed us. Exiting the car, we hike a very long and steep path. We were overheated when arriving at the enormous hide and needed a long time to recover.
It wasn’t very hard to find the bird we were searching for because they appeared in great numbers and are very loud.
This beautiful species is endemic to Raja Ampat. It is superficially similar to the Lesser bird-of-paradise, yet its ornamental plumes (seen only in adult males) are red.
And with that we documented all 3 species of birds-of-paradise on the island. Our total counter and trip end result is 11 species.
Almost as a copy of the previous day, we once again heard a bird immediately after we came out of the forest.
Another in the category dull but rare. We had been searching for this bird the day before, but here we got it on a silver platter. We spotted a Dollarbird before proceeding on a drive to a pond to find 2 species of ducks. We did not manage to see them.
We returned to the bungalow, did some swimming, had lunch, followed by more swimming. In particular the late afternoon swim was memorable. A wholesome moment between Henriette and me. In the ocean at sunset, in a calm sea, watching the birds and fisher boats. So calming and peaceful.
At last light I photographed a few more Terns and Frigatebirds before retiring the camera.
October 27
A 6:30AM breakfast after which we were driven to the port to hop on to the ferry for the 2 hour cruise back. Mehd had arranged spacious seats as before. Next, the reserved taxi driver took us to a luxury hotel near the airport.
We had lunch in the hotel, did laundry, repacked bags and connected with friends and family. We had pizza dinner as is tradition at the end of our trips. At dinner, Mehd handed over the bird administration which will be useful as I sort everything out. Remember that this travel report despite its length still only documents highlights, a fraction of what we’ve seen and photographed.
At night in the hotel room Henriette and I could not stop laughing as we watched a few ridiculous Japanese game shows on TV.
October 28
A 7:30AM breakfast, the latest we ever had. We left the hotel at 8AM for a very short drive to the airport.
This is where Mehd and us would split ways. He’s on another flight in the direction of Bali whilst we’re going to Jakarta. We miscalculated our flight, thinking it would take 2 hours only. It’s actually 4 hours due to time zone differences. Mehd found out that his flight was delayed by hours.
As we needed to board soon, we had our goodbye. Mehd had done an excellent job as our tour leader. He’s energetic, kind, knowledgeable and looks after us. He solves problems on the spot and keeps those headaches away from us. Mehd replied how he too enjoyed the trip and experienced it as a group of friends traveling. And he appreciated the attention for insects and other non-bird wildlife. He revealed it as a primary reason to take up our request, despite his small company already getting reservations for 2025. We tipped and hugged.
Arriving at Jakarta, we had to find the shuttle train to take us to the international terminal. We tried to check in but were too early, it would only open 4 hours before the flight. We killed a lot of time at the airport’s Starbucks where we also met the other group of birders again.
As we could finally check in, we only had one group in front of us at the counter. A group of divers, with some 40 bags to check in. It took forever. Luckily we could check in at the next desk, despite it being for business class only.
Our flight took us to Singapore airport in about 90 minutes and was nearly empty. In Singapore, we had to get out of the plane and board it again. The plane was full now, but luckily we had comfort seats again and were on our final flight home.
October 29
Half-way through the night flight, I looked out the window, puzzled by a light on the ground. I checked the flight tracking system. We were flying over Iraq, and we’re looking at the flames of oil fields.
The second half of the flight, a whopping 6 hours left, took forever. Henriette and I were playing a lot of Yahtzee on the entertainment system. In the high score list I’d use names that roast Ajax, the football club. They’re having a historically bad season and I figured a plane heading to Amsterdam would have some people taking the bait, but nobody did. Perhaps that was best for my safety.
We landed in Amsterdam at about 7AM local time. Once again we cursed at the Schiphol luggage system. So you come out of a plane and are close to your luggage. Then you need to walk 2 miles to go to the collection point and your suitcase has to travel the same distance. Make it make sense. It took well over an hour to collect luggage, compared to the typical 10 minutes on every other flight we had.
Regardless, we were luggage-complete and took the shuttle bus to long term parking where we picked up our car. The one hour drive home was calm as it was another Sunday.
Arriving home, we reunited with our cat Shiva. Ramon had already exited the house and left some cool 3D printed figures as ornaments. My brother’s wife Mira had stocked the fridge with delicious food.
Closing words
Henriette and I needed some time to come to a verdict on this tour as it was so unlike our other trips.
What stands out in particular are the hides. Where we normally very actively look for birds (and anything else), here the process is more passive and time consuming. You dedicate a lot of time to just one bird, but what birds they are!
The birds-of-paradise, bower birds, kingfishers and pittas are astonishing. No disrespect to any other territory but these have to be the most remarkable birds on the planet. They are what lured us here and they’re even better in real life. Unforgettable and unique.
And then there’s the “secondary” birds. The ones that are ordinary looking. Only back home do we realize how very rare they are. And we still have to sort out the insects and moths in particular.
Bottom line, we feel that we added yet another treasure to our travel history in a region new to us. I remember reading the guest book in one of the locations saying:
Thank you so much for allowing me to see the bird of my dreams. I’ve been saving up 3 years for this trip and you made my dream come true — Karthik
That remark really humbled us. It was not a trip to see a million things as in Colombia, it was a trip to see a smaller set of iconic species that will forever be with us.
Special thanks
Thank you Henriette, love of my life, for tolerating me and my obsessions. For the beautiful new memories that we created together.
Thank you Mehd, all drivers, local guides, cooks and other staff. Without you, we’re just a bunch of clueless fools that wouldn’t find much. Every single one of you was essential.
Thank you Ramon, for taking care of the house and Shiva once again.
Thank you Christine Young, for taking care of JungleDragon administration whilst I was away. You’re an amazing friend. Thank you to all others that helped to keep things running.
Thank you dear reader, if you made it this far.
The photos
This travel report contains a handful of photos out of the 1,000 or so I expect to publish. I will do so on JungleDragon, where I post them in small batches with species information included. It’s a lengthy process, typically taking 6–9 months.
“We travel not to escape life but for life to not escape us” — anonymous
