PAPUA NEW GUINEA HIGHLIGHTS SEPTEMBER 12–25, 2019 Raggiana Bird of Paradise LEADER: DION HOBCROFT LIST COMPILED BY: DION HOBCROFT VICTOR EMANUEL NATURE TOURS, INC. 2525 WALLINGWOOD DRIVE, SUITE 1003 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78746 WWW.VENTBIRD.COM PAPUA NEW GUINEA HIGHLIGHTS SEPTEMBER 12–25, 2019 By Dion Hobcroft The extraordinary male King of Saxony Bird of Paradise has occipital plumes more than twice as long as the bird itself. They can independently twirl the plumes. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 2 Papua New Guinea Highlights, 2019 After our successful pre-trip to New Britain, we returned to Port Moresby. With everything going to plan with the new inbound participants, there was time to organize an afternoon trip to the village of Lea Lea on the coast south of Port Moresby. We made stops at mangrove mudflats, small freshwater ponds, patches of tropical Eucalyptus woodland and, finally, right on the coast in a patch of coconuts and scrubby village vegetation. The mudflats produced Australian Gull- billed Terns hawking for crabs; the ponds turned up a lovely Buff-banded Rail; and the enormous Blue-winged Kookaburra was a big hit with participants. Despite stiff winds we quickly had good views of our two major targets on the coast—the localized Silver-eared Honeyeater and Varied Honeyeater. Villagers were selling fish, betel nut, and fruit and vegetables. It was a public holiday—Independence Day—and many people were dressed up and the mood festive. This male Raggiana Bird of Paradise was wonderfully tame this year in Varirata National Park. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 3 Papua New Guinea Highlights, 2019 The day in Varirata National Park, one of my favorite birding locations on the planet, is a big day of the tour. So we were up early and, as we neared the park gate, we flushed both a Large-tailed Nightjar and an Agile Wallaby. The picnic ground was a hive of activity with fruiting figs attracting Yellow-eyed and Boyer’s cuckoo-shrikes and Orange-bellied and Pink-spotted fruit-doves, while Brahminy Kites were attending a nest. Best of all was a stunning Purple-tailed Imperial- Pigeon we scoped at length. As the weekend public holiday continued, I was keen to get to the Raggiana Bird of Paradise lekking site before it either was disturbed or became too windy. Luckily it all worked to plan, and one male Raggiana Bird of Paradise in particular was incredibly tame and obliging. We watched it caroling away and spent quality time taking in this fascinating spectacle. The spectacular Brown-headed Paradise-Kingfisher is quiet and inconspicuous in the hill forests of south- east PNG. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 4 Papua New Guinea Highlights, 2019 Shortly afterwards we found a responsive Brown-headed Paradise-Kingfisher and then a superb Barred Owlet-nightjar with its whiskered face studying us from its tree hollow hide-out. As we walked along a forest trail, we found almost constant bird activity—something quite rare in PNG. We had fantastic views of Rufous- bellied Kookaburra, Yellow-billed Kingfisher, a male Growling Riflebird, a couple of Crinkle-collared Manucodes, a pair of Papuan King-parrots, and then we hit some mixed flocks with Hooded and Rusty pitohuis, Puff-backed Meliphaga, Tawny- breasted Honeyeater, Spot-winged and Frilled monarchs, Chestnut-bellied Fantail, Black Berrypecker, Spectacled Longbill, Yellow-bellied Gerygone, Pale-billed Scrubwren, Gray Whistler, and Little Shrike-thrush (despecta ). Painted Turtle is a rarely seen freshwater species found in southern New Guinea and Cape York. After lunch we returned briefly to the forest, adding Beautiful Fruit-Dove and Green-backed Honeyeater to our haul. The Eucalyptus forest allowed us to add some tropical woodland birds including a beautiful pair of Leaden Flycatchers and, best of all, the scarce White-bellied Whistler. A surprise was a big female Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 5 Papua New Guinea Highlights, 2019 Peregrine Falcon of the black-backed race ernesti . It is a rare bird in New Guinea. We returned to Pacific Adventist University for the participants who had not had the chance to visit this excellent birding site we had visited on the pre-tour. We recorded many of the same species including all the hoped for targets and added a lovely Painted Turtle as a bonus. It was huge day, and we listed 115 species for the day! An on-time flight and a slightly later breakfast allowed everyone to recharge their batteries. We had arrived in Kiunga, close to the border of Indonesia. After lunch and settling in, we drove to Kilometre 17 and prepared to do battle with the tropical lowland jungle birds that are decidedly elusive. After a patient, somewhat frustrating wait, we eventually found a male Greater Bird of Paradise we could scope. As it preened and fussed about, calling loudly intermittently, we could see the whole bird through the leaves. Papuan Babbler and Southern Variable Pitohui made appearances but were not for hanging around. The forest edge was quite lively, and in quick succession we scoped a perched Black-capped Lory, pair of Yellow-faced Mynas, a pair of Pinon Imperial-Pigeons, and a female Pacific Koel. A morning at the Bowerbird Hill on the Boystown Road is a good way to start any day, and we were lucky with overcast conditions and a light shower keeping the avian activity sustained until 10am. This time, Greater Bird of Paradise perched out openly in a leafless tree on one occasion, and another flew beautifully right past us on another occasion. We had a good time with parrots, scoping Double- eyed Fig-Parrot, Orange-breasted Fig-Parrot, the tiny Yellow-capped Pygmy- Parrot, and numerous Red-cheeked Parrots. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 6 Papua New Guinea Highlights, 2019 Beautiful Orange-breasted Fig-Parrots raid a fruiting fig in Kiunga. This is the Dusky-cheeked population. A coloring-up male Flame Bowerbird also perched out well and was even heard uttering its rasping call—a rare event for me. Also very handy was a great view of a Trumpet Manucode that has been getting more difficult as the years go by. A short stroll down the road brought in a stunning pair of Emperor Fairy-wrens, a male Golden Monarch for some, a scoped Dwarf Fruit-Dove and, best of all, a great scope view of the decidedly enigmatic Long-billed Cuckoo—a cracking male! We were back in the forest in the afternoon, and it proved to be a frustrating session in Kilometre 17 where shy Painted Quail-thrush, Papuan Dwarf-Kingfisher, and King Bird of Paradise were all seen briefly, poorly, or not at all depending upon your luck. I decided to change locations and that worked well. In a recent logging coup we enjoyed in quick succession a great view of a perched male Dwarf Koel, Gray Crows, a pair of Yellow-eyed Starlings, an Obscure Honeyeater, feeding Pygmy Longbills, and fantastic views of feeding Yellow-streaked and Black-capped lories. Magnificent Riflebird was wolf-whistling clearly but did not break cover. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 7 Papua New Guinea Highlights, 2019 Always a welcome find: a perched Gray-headed Goshawk in Kiunga. Our day of exploring upstream along the Fly, Elevara, and Ketu Rivers had arrived. The river level was very low, and I feared it would be a mud fest, but luckily most of the mud had been exposed for a long time and was baked hard by the sun, so it was not as bad as I had feared. We had one of the major highlights of the trip quite quickly when a female Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise arrived at the male’s display stump. He went into full display mode and brushed his wires across the female’s face as we had it all lined up in the scope—an amazing scene and a good bit of luck! Plenty of great birds were sighted including fabulous perched views of Collared Imperial-Pigeon, Glossy-mantled Manucode, Golden Myna, Gray-headed Goshawk, Long-tailed Honey-buzzard, Golden Monarch, Orange-breasted Fig- Parrot, Large Fig-Parrot (here the Yellow-naped population), Azure and a rarity in a Little Kingfisher, Black Bittern, Shining Monarch, Common Paradise-Kingfisher, Black Cicadabird, and a whole lot more flying over including several spectacular Great Cuckoo-Doves. It was, however, the incredible Sclater’s Crowned Pigeon Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 8 Papua New Guinea Highlights, 2019 that really wowed everyone, and we had terrific fortune with three sightings of four birds at close range. A final morning, and it was all about the King Bird of Paradise that had proved to be very difficult to find in his vine tangle kingdom, as the dry conditions or lack of interest by females had him in a half-hearted mode. We wandered back in to his display area, and this time we had luck with the male allowing himself to be scoped for a few minutes, giving everyone the chance to catch up with this gem- like elf. I breathed a sigh of relief! George arrived in the PAC-750, and we were whisked up over the central ranges to 13,000 feet and safely descended into Mount Hagen. Wilson and Sambe were there to transfer us to Kumul Lodge, and an hour later we were having lunch, watching the feeder table and being entertained by extraordinary Ribbon-tailed Astrapias in display mode—shuffling about and bouncing off the perches in a sight I had never witnessed. New birds came at a great rate of knots: Brehm’s Tiger-Parrot, Brown Sicklebill, ebullient Belford’s Melidectes, and emotionally transformative Smoky Honeyeaters.