Papua New Guinea I
This cracking Wallace´s Fairywren was voted bird of thet trip. (DLV) PAPUA NEW GUINEA I 30 MAY– 16 / 20 JUNE 2018 LEADER: DANI LOPEZ VELASCO and JOSH BERGMARK Our first tour to Papua New Guinea –including New Britain- in 2018 was a great success and delivered a high number of quality birds. A total of 21 species of Birds-of-paradise (BoPs) - undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary, and “out of this world” bird families in the world-, were recorded, perhaps most memorable being a superb male Blue BoP, seen at close range near Kumul for as long as we wished. Just as impressive though were spectacular performances by displaying Raggiana and Greater BoPs in excellent light, stunning males King and Twelve-wired BoPs in the Kiunga area, a cracking adult male Growling Riflebird at Varirata, several amazing King-of-Saxony BoPs, waving their incredible head plumes like some strange insect antennae in the mossy forest of Tari Valley, great sightings of both Princess Stephanie´s and Ribbon-tailed Astrapias with their ridiculously long tail feathers, superb scope studies of Black –doing full display!- and Brown Sicklebills, uttering their machine-gun like calls, and so on. While Birds-of-paradise are certainly the signature family in PNG, there is of course plenty more besides, and this year the cracking and little-known Wallace´s Fairywren was awarded bird of the trip, ahead of BoPs, crowned pigeons and owlet- nightjars! We recorded a grand total of 33 species of pigeons and doves, -they reach their greatest diversity here in New Guinea, as do kingfishers-, including 11 Fruit Doves, and, during the extension, the rare Eastern Bronze Ground Dove.
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