Our trip report this time will discuss the trip with one of our special guests Mr. Arman Abdul Fatah from Singapore. He is a client who has been doing bird photography with us since 2008 until now. We have done bird photography in Sulawesi, Tangkoko and also the Arfak mountains in 2017. In 2019 he finally decided to take a trip on the mainland of West Papua again. Our trip this time lasted 17 days. A long day to explore birds in West Papua. Our destination for bird photography this time starts from Sorong and then goes to Malagufuk, Salemkai, Tambrauw, Waigeo (Raja Ampat) and Biak.
Upon arrival in Sorong, we directly check-in at the local hotel to stay overnight. Tomorrow morning we will be headed straight to Malagufuk as our first destination and then move to Tambrauw and Salemkai. We stay for 2 nights in Malagufuk village, and 1 night in Tambrauw. We are not staying in Salemkai, we just stop in for a while during our way from Malagufuk to Tambrauw. The guesthouse both in Malagufuk and Tambrauw are still basic accommodation but the birds were wonderful. Despite how hard the way to get into Malagufuk where we have to drive from Sorong about 1 hour to the stop point and then continue to walk from there about 3 hours with leech everywhere but the birds we meet made us speechless. Along our days doing birding in Malagufuk, Salemkai and Tambrauw we were blessed with how easy we capture the pictures of Red-breasted Paradise Kingfisher, Blue-black Kingfisher, Papuan Kingfisher, Northern Cassowary (fed by the local community), King Bird of Paradise, Lesser Bird of Paradise, Magnificent Riflebird, Blyth's Hornbill and Yellow-billed Kingfisher on our camera lens. There are so many birds we found along our way but unfortunately, we didn't catch any photos of them.
After our trip to Malagufuk, Salemkai and Tambrauw finally we headed back to Sorong overnight again at the hotel. Such a nice combination after the long way of the trip into 3 villages we get back safely to the city and stay in a comfortable hotel with hot water and a soft bed. Our trip continued to the land of Wilson's Bird of Paradise and Red Bird of Paradise. We had our boat at 09.00 am from Sorong to Waigeo island. Sailing for 2 hours finally we arrived in Waigeo at 11.00 and directly check in to Raja Ampat Dive Resort. We stayed and do birding there for 3 days. Along our days in Raja Ampat, we had a chance to photograph our main bird targets such as Wilson's BoP, Red BoP, Common Paradise Kingfisher, Beach kingfisher, Hook-billed Kingfisher, and Papuan Frogmouth. Spending our time at a comfortable resort with our birds' target fulfilled made our tour on Waigeo island ended very satisfyingly. From Waigeo we headed back to Sorong by boat again. In Sorong, we stay overnight again for our flight to Jayapura tomorrow for our next birding schedule.
Our flight from Sorong to Jayapura was at 11.10 with Lion Air (JT796) and arrived in Jayapura at 13.10. From Sentani Airport we headed directly to Nimbokrang with a drive for 2 hours. Our main birds target in Nimbokrang such as King BoP, Lesser BoP and also Twelve-wired BoP. Other birds also luckily captured by our lenses like Yellow-billed Kingfisher, Rufous-bellied Kookaburra, Rainbow Beater and Papuan Hornbill. Well, it's not much bird but we ended the trip in Nimbokrang satisfyingly.
Now we move to the Biak islands. Our flight from Jayapura to Biak at 07.55 am with Garuda Air (GA651) and arrived in Biak at 09.05 am. We stayed in the Asana Biak Hotel for 3 days. During our birding schedule in Biak, we found Biak Paradise Kingfisher, Northern Cassowary, Biak Scops-owl and Biak Monarch. At that time we waited several days for Biak Hooded Pitta to appear but unfortunately, we had not been given the opportunity to see him. well, that's natural life. We cannot predict and regulate the lives of birds in their habitat. On our next trip, Biak Hooded Pitta is on the first list to see.
It's a long journey but finally, our trip comes to an end. During our 17 days trip to West Papua, there are many things happened, changing schedules and also bad weather where almost every day in Waigeo was raining. But after all, we proudly said that our trip to West Papua was successful. Mr. Arman had a chance to complete his Kingfisher collection up to 49. We want to make it to 50 with Numfor Paradise Kingfisher but unfortunately, we did not have a chance to do that because of the time. Well, next time Numfor Paradise Kingfisher is one of our main targets.
Mr. Arman had his flight back to Singapore from Biak with Garuda Air (GA651) at 10.50 am and safely arrived in his hometown at 23.30 pm. That's the end of our trip report this time. With good preparation and wonderful teamwork, our trip with Mr. Arman ended successfully.
If you are interested to do birding or bird photography in West Papua do not hesitate to contact us. We are happily welcome you here to enjoy and experience the joy of hunting birds of paradise pictures.
WEST PAPUA TRIP
BIRDING SORONG
BIRDING MALAGUFUK
BIRDING RAJA AMPAT
BIRDING ARFAK
BIRDING NIMBOKRANG
BIRDING BIAK
