Birding tour to Indonesia: the birds-of-paradise of Papua

West-Papua is the home  range of one of the most appealing bird families in the world, the birds-of-paradise! At this rarely visited place you will have the opportunity to see about 20 species of birds-of-paradise in an incredible setting. For people who love adventure, love birds and have always wanted to stand among dancing birds-of-paradise, this is the dream destination. Of all travel organizations in the Benelux, STARLING has the largest “field experience” in West-Papua. We have observed almost all possible species that you can see here more than once.

Birding tour for the more seasoned  adventurers

Our West-Papua birding tour focuses on birds-of-paradise and the other exclusive species and families that roam the forests on the island. As one of the largest islands in the world, through a combination of isolation as well as a varied landscape, an extremely rich ecological diversity evolved over the course of history. Some of the most beautiful bird species on our planet call these forests their home here. Since the island is still years away from civilization, West-Papua is also one of the least visited destinations in the world. Quite exciting to travel there, so to speak!

On the schedule: birds-of-paradise, wildlife and so much more

Our adventure starts at  Nimbokrang, where we can see a nice range of lowland birds-of-paradise and other species. Think of local specialties such as pale-billed sicklebill, twelve-wired and lesser bird-of-paradise or the rarely seen blue-black kingfisher. Maybe we come across a roaming northern cassowary, a shovel-billed kingfisher, a magnificent riflebird or the Victoria crowned pigeon? Moreover, it is the place for 2 of the most beautiful bird species on our planet: the king bird-of-paradise and the blue jewel-babbler.

Then we travel west to the Vogelkop peninsula, more specifically to the Arfak Mountains. We fly to the small town of Manokwari, from where we travel with 4×4 pick-ups to the village of Sioubri. We visit the dance grounds of the western parotia and magnificent bird-of-paradise and have the chance to score 5 extra birds-of-paradise: Arfak astrapia, long-tailed paradigalla(rediscovered in 1989!), Vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise, buff-tailed and black sicklebill. Further on we see the impressive artworks of the Vogelkop bowerbird and the masked bowerbird.

For the past two years, we have been one of the only travel organizations in the world to successfully do a trip to the gray-banded manakin. A bird species of which only one location on the Vogelkop peninsula is known. For this one,  you sure gotta visit the right spots!

Along the way we discover more beauties: a few species of owlet-nightjars(strange crossings between owls and nightjars), Papuan eagle (a species from the Harpy eagle family), the endemic white striped forest-rail and much, much more.

Finally we go to Sorong. There we take a boat to the Raja Ampat Islands, where we visit the cliffs of the Wilson’s bird-of-paradise, one of the most bizarre and rare birds of the trip. We also visit the red bird-of-paradisedancing site and we also have a good chance of seeing western crowned-pigeon. A worthy end to the journey!