Birding in Tambrauw forest with 4 Scandinavian Girls

I have just completed a birding tour in the forest of Tambrauw regency with 4 Scandinavian girls. They were from Denmark, Norway. 

Scandinavian Girls Were Birding in Tambrauw

We explored the forest to find Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise (Seleucidis melanoleucus), King Bird of Paradise (Cicinnurus regius), and Red-breasted Paradise Kingfisher (Tanysiptera nympha) as well as other tropical birds including Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita), Rufous-bellied Kookaburra (Dacelo gaudichaud) Yellow-billed Kingfisher (Syma torotoro), Wompoo Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus magnificus), Pinon Imperial Pigeon (Ducula pinon), Black-capped Lory (Lorius lory).

Red-breasted Paradise Kingfisher

We also did night walk in the forest to look for nocturnal animals. We saw Papuan Frogmouth (Podargus papuensis) and fruit bat whose scientific name I could not identify. 

Papuan Frogmouth

Wompoo Fruit Dove

The birding activities were going on well because I was accompanied by local villagers Daniel, Yoram, Meki and Yosias. The walking path was muddy, we had to wear rubber boots when we wanted to go to the lek of the Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise. At 06:00 of 2 March 2023, the rain fell. We were quite nervous after a long walk in the jungle. When the rain stopped, the bird did not come. We continued to sit and wait. After around 45 minutes, I decided to play the call of the paradise bird for a few minutes and then I stopped. Fortunately he replied the call,  flew to and landed on his pole. Finally we were able to watch Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise. Its feather during the rainy (non-breeding) season was not as colorful as the breeding. He stood on a "pole" of a tree quite far from us. I aimed my old Fujifilm HS50EXR at the bird and made some shots. The pictures were not so good. However, we were all happy because we could watch the paradise birds. 

A group picture with the Scandinavian birdwatchers

After hiking in the hills of Tambrauw regency, we walked back to our homestay, had lunch and then returned to Sorong city by a chartered 4WD car. This is written by Charles Roring