Watching Red Bird of Paradise in Waigeo Island

There are several places in Waigeo island where visitors can go to enjoy birding. The usual place which tourists go is Saporkren. I personally go further to the south to entrance area of Kabui Bay. There is a guesthouse at the beach where I and my clients stay. Early in the morning, we wake up to have some preparations and tlhave some tea or coffee. After that we will start hiking up the steep slopes to the lek of Red Bird of Paradise. 

Red Birds of Paradise

Birds start to get active at around 06.00. The male land on the top branches of a tree where they usually gather and begin calling his mating partners. Other male birds also come and call their female birds. When the female Red Bird of Paradise have shown up, the male birds will compete one another to perform  their courtship dance. The one that wins the dance competition will mate with the female bird. 

Two male Red Birds of Paradise were performing courtship dance

In general the dance performance lasts from 06.00 to 09.00. Visitor need to bring binoculars to watch them well. Camera with telephoto lens will also be good for shooting the paradise birds. Canon SX70HS, Nikon P900 and P1000 are the ones that birdwatchers bring. Wildlife photographers bring D-SLR camera with telephoto lens to shoot birds and other wildlife in the jungle. 

Because I like art, I created several drawings of birds of paradise both manually using watercolour pencils and digitally using stylus and cell phone. Here are some of them:

• A Couple of Red Bird of Paradise
• Male Red Bird of Paradise

I hope that you are interested in buying some of them. When the Covid-19 Pandemic has been mitigated, visitors can travel to Raja Ampat again to watch its birds of paradise and see its beautiful nature. by Charles Roring 🙏

Red Bird of Paradise Art Drawing

I have created some art drawing of Red Bird hiof Paradise. Most of them are digital illustration but there is one that I created manually using ordinary media watercolour pencils on paper. Here is one of the artworks:

Red Bird of Paradise - watercolour sketch

The above art is now available in my Redbubble Online Shop

Red Bird of Paradise lives in tropical forest of Raja Ampat islands. Physically they look similar to Lesser Birds of Paradise from mainland New Guinea. Because of thousands of years of separation, the speciation of the birds led to the creation of new bird species called the Red Bird of Paradise.

Red Bird of Paradise

I also made digital illustration of Red Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea rubra) using Autodesk Sketchbook. It can also be seen in my zazzle tropical artshop and can be ordered at this link: Red Bird of Paradise Art.

Also read:

• Red Bird of Paradise
• Watching Red Bird of Paradise

My Bird Art

During this Covid-19 Pandemic, the flow of foreign birdwatchers is stopped by government. I haven't guided birding visitors for 1 year now. Because I like art, I spend my time creating drawings and paintings of birds, flowers, butterflies and fish, as well as human figure. Most of the artworks are inspired by what I see in nature. Here are some of them:

Drawing of Lesser Birds of Paradise

Blyth's Hornbill vector art

Birdwing Butterfly and Hibiscus Flower

Lesser Frigatebird

Some of the artworks are made manually using conventional art media such as watercolor on paper but others are created digitally as vector art using inkscape or as bitmap images using Autodesk Sketchbook. All the artworks can be ordered through my online shop in Redbubble as printed images on various products such as mugs, t-shirts, bags, long pants, leggings, iPhone or Samsung cases, clock pillow and a lot more. 

Please, visit my online shop Charles Roring's Art. You could also click the above pictures to get to the shop.

I hope that you will be interested in ordering some of them. 🙏

New Destination for Birding Tour in West Papua

Wondama is a new destination for visitors who like birding. I like traveling to the regency because it has got a lot of forest areas which visitors can explore to watch tropical birds. Golden Myna, Yellow-faced Myna, Blyth's Hornbill, Black-capped Lory, Rainbow Lorikeet, Red-cheeked Parrot, Palm Cockatoo, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Pinon Imperial Pigeon, Brown Cuckoo Dove, Wompoo Fruit Dove, Pink-spotted Fruit Dove Lowland Peltop are some of the many birds that can be found there. Visitors can spend around nine days to two weeks exploring Wondama's forest to watch its tropical birds. I suggest that birding visitors travel in a group of at least four to eight people to share the cost of transportation. 

Binoculars are important wildlife watching gear that every birdwatcher needs to bring. Spotting scope and camera with telephoto lens are also highly recommended devices for visitors who like bird watching.

Blyth's Hornbill

I provide birding tour to this destination for visitors who are interested in traveling to Indonesia and spend their holiday in West Papua.  

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

First, they need to fly from their country to Jakarta and then to Manokwari city. I can meet them at the airport or the hotel where they stay and organize the trip to Wondama. In addition to birding and wildlife watching, they can also enjoy swimming and snorkeling in Wondama too.

Here is email: peace4wp@gmail.com and my whatsapp: +6281332245180. Please, contact me if you are interested in taking the tour. Thank you. Charles Roring.

Related Posts:

• Birdwatching in West Papua
• Birding Tour in Wondama's Forest

Birder's Field Guide Book for Birding in West Papua

When I guide visitors on a birding tour across tropical rainforests in West Papua, I always bring field guide book with me. It can be a hard copy of Birds of New Guinea by Thane K. Pratt, Bruce Beehler et al. or a pdf version of the same book stored in my tablet.

fieldguide book Birds of New Guinea

Recently I received another field guide book, i.e. Birds of New Guinea including Bismarck Archipelago and Bougainville by Phil Gregory. The former one is a very good field guide but the latter is a newer publication with wider coverage. I got a lot of new information about new species, more accurate illustrations of birds that are presented in the book. 

Birds of New Guinea field guide book by Phil Gregory

In my opinion the former book was better in arranging the index pages. It allows birders to find bird illustrations in the book, match and identify the real bird that they see in nature. 

For birding hotspots, especially in West Papua province, there are more places that I know compared to the ones explained in the above books. Places that are not mentioned in the books include:

• Klasow valley (Klatomok Village, Malagufuk Village, and Klayeli) in Sorong regency; 
• Wondiboy nature reserve, Naikere forest of Wondama regency, 
• Susnguakti forest and Mesirrokow forest of Manokwari regency; 
• Mount Sakofsiah and Ases Valley in Tambrauw Mountains; 
• Trans Waigeo Ring Road in Fish Lagoon area of east Waigeo region.

Birding sites in Wondama rehenc

They are good birding sites that may become famous in the future. For Klasow valley, I see that it has rapidly become famous because a lot of tourists have visited it. I introduced Klasow valley especially Malagufuk to the world in late 2014. There was no one in the birding or birdwatching world who knew its existence. I entered the forest and found 2 tents. The local people were about to open the forest to make a new village for them. I and Nico Nauw were lucky to be the first who introduced birding tourism in the the village.

For me, Wondama regency is another important birding hotspot in the near future. As I write more blog posts about birding in the region, it will attract more visitors to the regency. 

Related Posts:

• Birding Tour in West Papua
• Tropical Birding Tours in West Papua