The Huon Bowerbird Amblyornis germana, recently elevated to species status, is endemic to montane forests on the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea. Huon Birding has identified several key areas near the camp to observe this endemic. Rothschildi is restricted to the Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea, in montane and subapline forests from 1,460-3,500 m.
Same scenario as the previous evening, stumbling around uncomfortably inside the forest proved useless and we eventually came out to the edge where 3 or 4 Goldies including full males seen well. Blyth’s Hornbill, Channel-billed Cuckoo and Sulphur-crested Cockatoo were also added. Fried sweet potato and tea for breakfast, during which JH saw a Cinnamon Ground Dove fly through the clearing. We left at 07.15 and during the descent saw the highly localised Curl-crested Manucode showed well and lower down a small flock included Spot-winged and Black-faced Monarchs, Large-billed Gerygone and Grey Whistler. This agreed, by late afternoon they produced the first bird at 6 pm with great daytime views of a calling Manus Hawk-Owl. Departed Rossun leaving JH in his 50 kina accommodation after declining a large meal of chicken, fish, taro, greens and rice from AJ’s sensible wife Susan.
” Over the next hour or so we had great views of the bird perched in the trees and were able to take some photos. We then ambled slowly out the forest seeing Variable Dwarf Kingfisher, Meek’s Pygmy-Parrot, Golden Whistler, Pied Monarch, Shining Flycatcher and Northern Fantail. We paid Temote, who is a really nice guy, 250kina and soon reached the road where the hotel vehicle was waiting.
Huon Birding has identified several key spots to allow easy observation of this stunning endemic. Back on land we eventually found the ancient Land Cruiser that would take us back to Alotua where we settled into the comfortable surroundings of Napatana Lodge . Birding the grounds produced Sacred Kingfisher, Helmeted Friarbird, Rufous-banded Honeyeater, Chestnut-breasted Munia and Fawn-breasted Bowerbird. Had a couple of beers with JH who had elected to stay in the cheaper Saugeri Guesthouse close by and had added Grand Munia to the list. Ate dinner, later spoilt by the arrogant, bloody minded and unhelpful attitude of Greta, the expat British manger whose role that evening seemed to be to get pissed with the locals and to hell with the passing guests. The Emperor Bird of Paradise is the most distinctive member of the “typical” Paradisea species group.
Returned to the car and left the park around 13.00, heading back to POM to change money. The car had a flat tyre and DW took ages to come back and collect us, but then on to the supermarket to buy basic provisions for the next few days at the Huon Peninsula. Returning to the hotel we dumped all the unnecessary gear to meet the 15kg baggage weight restriction for the small plane that would take us to Wasu tomorrow. Went down for dinner and await the arrival of Birdquest led by MvB, returning from Huon, from whom we hoped to get some useful information. In the event they did not appear so we would have to make our own arrangements with the reputedly unfriendly villagers.
The Huon Mountains are isolated from other montane regions by the lowland barrier of the Ramu/Markham Basin lowlands. Wahnes’s Parotia is only found in a narrow band of suitable habitat within the Huon Peninsula and is the longest-tailed member of the genus Parotia. The male performs a spectacular courtship “ballerina dance” on the forest floor. We passed the rest of the evening in real “village” style with a dinner of sweet potato, corned beef,pumpkin, greens and noodles with lots of tea. Interesting chat about belief systems and secret valleys with special trees before we retired to our floor for the night.
Within the Astrapia genus, its seemingly in the middle of the tree, though it’s more closely related to the Ribbon-tailed (A. mayeri) and Stephanie’s astrapias (A. stephaniae) than the Splendid (A. splendidissima) and Arfak (A. nigra) astrapias. The vocalizations of the Huon astrapia are vaguely known, though its calls are described as a rough “jj jj jj”; however, when adult males take flight, their wings produce a “shek” noise akin to a sprinkler, like other members of the genus. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. All structured data from the file namespace is available under the Creative Commons CC0 License; all unstructured text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy. The climate of the ecoregion is tropical wet, which is characteristic of this part of Melanesia, located in the western Pacific Ocean north of Australia.
However, this requires a journey of about 4 hours by dinghy from East Cape to Esa’Ala women’s guest house on the north side of Normandy Island to see the Manucode, and then a 90 minute-2 hour boat ride to Fergusson Island where the Goldie’s are. The sea can be rough at this time of year due to the SE Trade Winds – BirdQuest had to abort the trip for this reason this year. This little known bird-of-paradise is distributed and endemic to the mountain forests of Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea.
After some debate we decided to take DW as intermediary, costly but it was to prove well worth it. At 09.40 we began walking the Circuit Trail, seeing Dwarf Whistler and Sooty Thicket-Fantail. Semirubra it is necessary to charter a boat to Tong Island outside the coral reef near Lorengau.
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There are 81 mammal species in this ecoregion, including six species that are endemic or near endemic. The Huon tree-kangaroo is restricted to the peninsula forests at higher elevations. The endangered Papuan long-beaked echidna is resident, as well. Huon Astrapia is another bird of paradise only found in the isolated mountain ranges of the Huon Peninsula.
Later discovered that JH had walked all the way back to the Mission. Similar routine as yesterday except that the vehicle picked up JH and AJ at Rossun then returned to collect us, before driving to Temote’s house in Pokun village. A calling Boobook was spotted at the edge of the forest and gave good views in torchlight. Walked in pretty quickly, AJ whooping loudly, to the area where we had stopped yesterday.
It has a very limited range, confined to the mid-mountains of the Huon Peninsula. This unique bird of paradise has an incredible upside-down hanging courtship display. Paid Anton 300 kina including a small tip which he accepted with bad grace and in many ways we were happy to depart his dubious company. Back at the hotel, JH went round to Grace & Ken’s who kindly agreed to allow us the use of their boat the following morning. We had JH for company now, having given up village living for the relative comforts and cold beer of the hotel. Tour groups tend to go to Sebutuia Bay on West Fergusson Is as there is a more easily seen population of Goldie’s of about 10 birds at sea level only 20 minutes easy walk from the beach.
- The vocalizations of the Huon astrapia are vaguely known, though its calls are described as a rough “jj jj jj”; however, when adult males take flight, their wings produce a “shek” noise akin to a sprinkler, like other members of the genus.
- The rain continued unabated the entire afternoon and was still pouring as we went to bed.
- This unique bird of paradise has an incredible upside-down hanging courtship display.
- Semirubra it is necessary to charter a boat to Tong Island outside the coral reef near Lorengau.
- Rothschildi is known to feed on Pittosporum seeds and the fruits of the genus Schefflera and Freycinetia, as well as some animal matter, like skinks and possibly insects and arachnids, like nearly all of the Astrapia species.
Rothschildi is restricted to the Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea, in montane and subapline forests from 1,460 to 3,500 m. Rothschildi is known to feed on Pittosporum seeds and the fruits of the genus Schefflera and Freycinetia, as well as some animal matter, like skinks and possibly insects and arachnids, like nearly all of the Astrapia species. It tends to probe knotholes, pecking and tearing among moss and epiphytes while foraging. They spend most of their time in all levels of the forest, excluding the highest canopy, though mainly feeds in the lower levels. The Huon Peninsula Montane Rain Forests blanket one of the most spectacular montane landscapes on the planet. The three mountain ranges―the Finisterre , Saruwaged , and Cromwell and Rawlinson ranges―rise sharply form a narrow coastal plane.
King-of-saxony bird…
The Huon astrapia is considered as Least Concern, though as poorly-known as it is, it almost comes in into the Data-Deficient category. It is not routinely hunted, though the skins and tail feathers of the males are important cultural items for the people of Nokopo. The Huon astrapia , also known as Rothschild’s astrapia, Huon bird-of-paradise, or Lord Rothschild’s bird-of-paradise, is a species of bird-of-paradise belonging to the genus Astrapia. Except for some forest loss along the southern part, habitat modification of the narrow coastal shelf, and the Buweng Timber Rights Purchase , most of the ecoregion’s natural habitat is intact, especially the Huon Highlands. Two proposed large protected areas (Finisterre and Mt. Bangeta) cover about 18% of the ecoregion area, but recent protected area assessments suggest their boundaries, gazettement, and management are presently unconfirmed.
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or fewer. We feature fascinating species, inspiring climate heroes, and impactful projects from around the world led by individuals and community organizations who are making the vision of a green, resilient future a reality. Breeding recorded from October to November, display only recorded in early February.
Wahnes’s parotia is endemic to the Huon and nearby Adelbert Mountains. The Finisterre Range, covering a third of the ecoregion, is home to more mainland endemic species of warm-blooded vertebrates than any similar-sized area in Papua New Guinea. We slept better than anticipated even although it became quite chilly in the night, and arose at 05.30 having foregone the opportunity to look for the owls calling an hour earlier. We packed our gear and as dawn broke wandered to the edge of the forest where the Goldie’s were calling.
Huon Astrapia – BirdForum Opus
AJ lectured us on standing still and not making any silly mistakes like yesterday when, according to him, our minimal movement had scared off the bird – no comment! More whooping elicited a distant response, then it was heard closer at which point AJ hared off down the track hooting even more loudly but the bird came no closer. We walked a little further and began the whooping again when suddenly the bird appeared above us vibrant red, blue and black calling loudly.
A common species in its limited habitat range, the Huon astrapia is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. Terrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv… The generic name, Astrapia, is derived from the Greek word Astrapaios, which means “flash of lightning”, referring to the iridescent plumage of the genus. Its specific name, rothschildi, is for Lord Walter Rothschild, a famous collector who kept the first specimen in his private museum sent to him by German naturalist Carl Wahnes.
To my knowledge, we were the first non-commercial birding party to visit the latter two areas successfully in recent years. It was a good trip as we saw all the hoped-for species including Superb Pitta, Manus Boobook, Curl-crested Manucode, Huon Astrapia, Wahnes’ Parotia, Goldie’s and Emperor Birds-of-paradise, Spotted Berrypecker, Cinnamon-browed Melidectes and Spangled Honeyeater. The logistics worked well, apart from the flight that was unable to land at Alatoa due to heavy rain, costing us some birding time, and the rather rough return by boat to the mainland from Normanby Island. It was during the latter voyage that we had the tantalising view of a small party of what appeared to be Grey-backed Tern, a species claimed before from PNG waters but with no accepted records. This isolation has led to the evolution of a highly distinct flora and fauna. For example, the Huon Mountains are home to four endemic bird species—spangled honeyeater, Huon melidectes, Huon astrapia and emperor bird-of-paradise.
It takes around 5–6 years to reach full adult plumage, like its congeners. We ate lunch on the road and while the others wandered off in search of new species we walked back down to the trail where we had seen the first Parotia the previous day. No sign of the bird but good fly-by views of Pesquet’s Parrot. Left JH by the trail, camera poised and walked back up the road to give the Parotia one more try. Down at the hide we were rewarded with stunning views of the bird on the ground clearing its display court of leaf litter, with iridescent breast-shield, orange nose bump and swirling plumes clearly visible without bins. The bird appeared to be gearing itself up to display but, possibly lacking the stimulus of a female audience, suddenly gave up and disappeared.
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The rain persisted and grew heavier so around 13.00 we descended the by now treacherous trail – JH slipping into the river – finally reaching the house by the road where we again sheltered under the eaves. Paid the guide half of what he asked for and began to walk up the road to the village. Fortune favoured us as a vehicle stopped to pick up which saved our legs but left us soaked through by the time we arrived at the Mission. The rain continued unabated the entire afternoon and was still pouring as we went to bed. Returning to the car park we scanned the trees around the open area and saw Zoe Imperial-Pigeon and the uncommon Coroneted Fruit-Dove.
A latish start due to some sleepy, slow risers and a change of direction today as we walked downhill to the start of the trail leading to the Emperor Bird-of-Paradise display tree. In the semi-dark we began the walk in to the display tree, the trail proving narrow and slippery, but soon arrived and could hear the birds calling loudly. As the light improved we had great views of several male Emperor BoPs displaying in a large tree 70 metres away and indeed from time to time they would fly in and display above us. The birds put on a great show augmented by Magnificent Riflebird calling loudly and offering occasional glimpses as it sped from perch to perch. Very content with the Emperor we stumbled down another trail to a small hide overlooking the display court of Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise.
This little known bird of paradise is distributed and endemic to the mountain forests of Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea. The vegetation of this ecoregion is mostly tropical wet evergreen forest with a large percentage of tropical montane evergreen forest and a small amount of limestone forest. The forest is low canopied, diverse in tree taxa, such as Nothofagus, Lauraceae, Cunoniaceae, Dacyrdium, Elaeocarpaceae, Lithocarpus, Castanopsis, and Syzygium. The Cromwell Ranges are the only extensive unlogged Dacrydium forests in the Southern Hemisphere. Cloud forests heavily laden with moss are characteristic at higher elevations.
This is only possible if the sea is not rough and the locals not at war with each other. If impossible, it is worth visiting the nearby Kandriu Island (also known as Hawaii, though nothing like it!) for small island species. The Huon astrapia, also known as Rothschild’s Astrapia, Huon Bird-of-paradise, or Lord Rothschild’s Bird-of-paradise, is a species of bird-of-paradise belonging to the genus Astrapia. Rothschildi is a rather elusive member of its genus and family.
A common species in its limited habitat range, the Huon astrapia is evaluated as least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Welcome to BirdForum, the internet’s largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it. All PNG images can be used for personal use unless stated otherwise. The above preview shows how to use the live preview on this website. The image displayed is just an example, and is not available for sale.
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