July 5 – Day 9: Transfer to Cloudlands

Another very early start as we had a long drive to Mt Hagen airport for our 9.10 flight to Tabubil on PNG Airlines. An hour later and we were close to landing as we descended through the thick cloud and the landing gear deployed only for the captain to make a late decision to abort and ascend up above the clouds. 

Flooded forest in the Tabubil area

Presumably the approach to the runway was still enshrouded in low cloud. So we carried on to the next airport, Kiunga, instead. We had to wait a while for vehicles so we had lunch first. We’d dropped down in altitude and it was noticeably warmer and humid with some rain around.

Birding in the rain - a regular occurrence at Tabubil

Driving on, we stopped a few times for some birding en route, once just getting back into the vehicle before a tropical downpour. We did see a couple of distant Pesquet’s Parrots and Blyth’s Hornbill, the latter being the only hornbill to have crossed the Wallace Line. 

We drove through a tunnel to OK Menga where we scanned the river. I managed to find our quarry, the endemic Salvadori’s Teal which likes fast-flowing rivers. 

Salvadori's Teal

We also managed a brief view of a Mountain Peltops before going the short distance to the aptly named Cloudlands Hotel where we would be staying for four nights.

Cloudlands Hotel

July 4 – Day 8: Lei River & Hospital

After a leisurely breakfast we visited some different sites today. On our way to the Lei river we chanced upon one of our targets in town, a family party of Torrent Flycatchers. Around the grounds of a hospital we had some Singing Starlings and the first House Sparrows of the trip (!). It was quite a busy site with Rainbow Bee-eaters, Great Woodswallow, Brush Cuckoo and Mountain Myzomela all seen.

Driving along and checking other sites we encountered several raptors: Brown Goshawk, Pygmy Eagle and Brown Falcon. A Papuan Grassbird kept us waiting but eventually showed well. Back at the lodge a Mountain Mouse Warbler walked under the feeding area while the Belford's Melidectes continued to squabble over the plentiful fruit, often chasing the BoPs away.

Belford's Melidectes

Brown Sicklebill

The commonest bird at the feeders was Common Smoky Honeyeater. They have either a yellow or red face patch. We though this was either due to breeding condition or individual colour morphs but I watched one bird's colour change from yellow to red at it was being hassled by a Melidectes and a few birds showed a bit of both colours.

Common Smoky Honeyeater

Common Smoky Honeyeater

Friendly Fantail in the lodge grounds

In the afternoon we went to what looked like someone’s garden with benches, fruiting trees and a view over a clearing in the forest. It proved an ideal location, straightaway we saw Loria’s Satinbird, not as stunning as yesterday’s Crested but still a good bird to connect with. 

The afternoon birding site

There were lots of birds visiting, probably more than we’d seen at any other site, including Rufous-throated Bronze-Cuckoo, Tit Berrypecker, Fan-tailed Berrypecker, King of Saxony BoP, an enormously-tailed Princess Stephanie’s Astrapia, Black Cicadbird and Ashy Robin of the Black-capped race.

Back at the lodge we tried for some night birds before dinner. We walked along a damp trail and stopped at a small clearing where New Guinea Woodcock can sometimes be seen. We heard it call very close behind us and then a bit later a long way down the hillside so our luck was out this time. It was a similar story with Papuan Boobook and Mountain Owlet-Nightjar which were also heard-only.

July 3 – Day 7: Kumul area

Feeling much better after a good night’s sleep and some breakfast I was ready to go birding again. We went in convoy with another birding group that were staying at the lodge to the Lesser BoP site. It was calling regularly when we arrived but not showing. 

The Lesser BoP site

Lesser Bird of Paradise

While we waited there were plenty of other good birds to see such as Magnificent BoP and Greater Lophorina, although both were females, and a Yellow-breasted Bowerbird. Eventually the male Lesser BoP flew across to the tree in front and showed really well, another stunning BoP and considerably better than the females that I saw flypast several times in West Papua.

The next location was the Blue BoP site, which again involved waiting for it to show while we listened to it calling. We did see two male Greater Lophorinas displaying and frustratingly brief views of the Blue BoP. We returned to the lodge for lunch and another session at the feeders with a short break down to the end of the cabins to see a Mountain Firetail, albeit a dull brown juvenile rather than a smart male.

Ribbon-tailed Astrapia at the feeding station

Eastern Crested Berrypecker in the lodge grounds

We returned to the Blue BoP site in the afternoon. While we waited in the garden belonging to the local who protects this bird, a dog suddenly jumped into a bush and a Buff-banded Rail shot out the back! We finally nailed good scope views of the Blue BoP along with Lawe’s Parotia and Mountain Fruit-Dove.

July 2 – Day 6: Yasukom to Kumul

Last night’s awful dinner gave me food poisoning so I skipped breakfast. We packed up and drove back to the track for more birding. Despite not feeling great I still managed to see a few new birds: Grey-streaked Honeyeater, White-shouldered Fairywren, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Garnet Robin and Black-throated Boatbill. Mid-morning we left the area and drove to the next lodge, arriving in time for lunch.

Kumul Lodge was a refreshing change from the last hotel and is famous for its feeders which attract, amongst others, Birds-of-Paradise. We dumped our stuff, grabbed our cameras and headed to the upper veranda. 

Brown Sicklebill

Ribbon-tailed Astrapia

Within a few minutes we’d seen two BoPs – Brown Sicklebill and Ribbon-tailed Astrapia. Other birds came in regularly to feed on the fruit while other birds fed on the lawn or in surrounding trees, such as Island Thrush, this race looking very like our familiar Blackbird, along with White-winged Robin and Rufous-naped Bellbird.

Island Thrush

White-winged Robin

After lunch we took a rather too energetic trail around the grounds. It obviously hadn’t been walked for a while as a tree had fallen down and completely blocked the path which meant crashing through the undergrowth to rejoin it. And for our troubles, almost the only bird we saw was Papuan Scrubwren. We returned to the feeders until we received news that a pair of Crested Satinbirds were showing in the grounds so we dashed outside to see these rare and stunning birds. 

male Crested Satinbird

Back at the feeders we also saw Brehm’s Tiger-Parrot and Eastern Crested Berrypecker.

male Brehm's Tiger-Parrot

female Brehm's Tiger-Parrot

Insects of PNG

We saw many spectacular butterflies, moths, dragonflies and other insects during the trip, none of which I've yet managed to put a name to. If you can identify any of the following please leave a comment.

moth 1

moth 2

butterfly 1

butterfly 2

butterfly 3

butterfly 4

butterfly 5

butterfly 6

butterfly 7

butterfly 8

butterfly 9

butterfly 10 (a skipper)

butterfly 11

dragonfly 1

dragonfly 2

dragonfly 3

July 1 - Day 5: Yasukom area again

We left the hotel in low cloud cover; it had rained overnight but it soon cleared. We drove a short distance to a new area known as The Ridge and walked along the main track. This was quite a birdy place for a change. 

One of the first birds seen was a Black Sicklebill which flew over and landed high in a tree then stayed there for ten minutes, occasionally calling. This was the only one we saw all trip so it was great to get such good views. At the same time, a Princess Stephanie’s Astrapia flew over, making up for the one I’d missed yesterday; we later saw another five and several more in the afternoon so this is clearly a good location for them. Our first pigeons for several days were a flock of Papuan Mountain that flew over, which they typically do.

Hooded Manakins

New trip birds were regularly added with Black-billed Cuckooshrike, Regent Whistler, Hooded Manakin, Rufous-backed Honeyeater amongst others. We walked up and down the track before taking a trail into the forest. Here we saw a new BoP, an immature male King of Saxony; it was singing but resembled a female in plumage so wasn’t the view we were hoping for.

We returned to the hotel for lunch; it was already laid out and had clearly been sitting there a while as it was stone cold. The staff obviously hadn’t learnt anything from the visiting chef and need to do a lot better if they want to attract groups to stay there. At least Max had finally arrived, having suffered a repeat performance yesterday of flying out and back to Port Moresby without landing due to the cloud cover.

King of Saxony Bird-of-Paradise

After lunch we returned to the same area and had good views of the exquisite Blue-capped Ifrit and four King of Saxony BoPS – the same prince we saw in the morning, a queen and two distant but cracking Kings complete with twin foot long serrated head feathers. With darkening skies we retreated back to the hotel.

June 30th - Day 4: Yasukom area

We should have had a 5am breakfast but there was no sign of life in the kitchen. It turned out last night’s celebrations had continued late and somehow the message didn’t get through. So while Leio knocked on doors and made phone calls we went mothing instead. Eventually staff were woken and breakfast was had and we could go birding, well after ticking the Great Woodswallow hawking over the hotel car park.

Yasukom Resort

We visited a brand new birding location that Max had scouted out. It was slow going at first in the forest but we managed to tease some new birds out: Belford’s Melidectes and Sooty Thicket Fantail for starters. At a clearing we could see a distant black blob that was a displaying BoP. Through the scope we could make out the pale blue eye of a Lawe’s Parotia. 

Yasukom area

Here on the forest edge there were more birds around with several Common Smoky Honeyeaters along with a Brown-backed Whistler that showed more than a passing resemblance to a Lesser Whitethroat, some fly-over Yellow-billed Lorikeets and a Long-tailed Shrike. Suddenly someone called Superb BoP and we turned to the same tree the parotia had been in and there was a different displaying BoP, what used to be one species but now split into four, this one being Greater Lophorina. It displayed on and off for half-an-hour,  with great scope views of the wide metallic green breast patch.

We carried on along the trails adding several flocks of Papuan Sitellas, a family of Nuthatch like birds and better views of feeding Yellow-billed Lorikeets with at least one Orange-billed amongst them. Turning a corner I saw a Brown Sicklebill fly over and land and my call meant most of the group got onto it before it quickly moved on. 

I’d earlier missed a Princess Stephanie’s Astrapia fly over (good job I didn’t need to call that out as it’s a bit of a mouthful) which meant we’d seen four BoPs in this patch of forest, clearly a very good site and one that groups are likely to visit in future.

Lookout where we lunched

View towards lake

We stopped for lunch at a lookout with a large lake in the distance and our hotel on the other side. Lunch was brought up by porters and we relaxed for a while. As we rested a pair of Black Kites were hunting in tandem over some fields and a pair of Brown Falcons were seen in the distance. 

Fully rested, we walked back down the road and tried a few other spots but it was still quite hot and bird activity was low. Later in the afternoon we saw a Yellow-browed Melidectes. As we drove back I saw a bird fly up into a tree and start calling, as we stopped I recognised it as Mountain Kingfisher but it fly off as we piled out of the vehicle. We spent a little while trying to relocate it but failed, however we did see several Brush Cuckoos.