Local Photography Tour Companies and Guides

Sultan Birding is the Wildlife Photography and Birding Tour Companies in Indonesia offer different photography tours and trips catering for the beginner to the photography expert. Contact Sultan Birding, a local Wildlife Photography and Birding Tour Companies and Guides to enquire directly about your next photography journey and birdwatching trip to Indonesia including Sulawesi, West Papua for Birds of Paradise, Halmahera, Flores and Bali. Bird photography offered can either be photography specific.

Maibri Birding Ecolodge Arfak Mountains, West Papua

Maibri Birding Ecolodge
Please note that it is impossible to forget the first time you see a Western Parotia Bird of Paradise Dance. 

Bird of Paradise Lists that you can see at Maibri Birding Ecolodge Arfak include Western Parotia, Magnificent Bird of Paradise, Superb Bird of Paradise, or new name Vogelkop Lophorina, Lesser Bird of Paradise, Black-billed Sicklebill, Magnificent Riflebird, Glossy-mantled Manucode, Trumpet Manucode, and Crinkle-collared Manucode.

Guest’s review
In November 2023 we visited Arfak Mountains in West Papua and stayed in Maibri Birding Ecolodge for 5 nights. If you want to have views of the Birds-of-Paradise of David Attenborough quality, this is the place to be. It takes some patience because you stay in hides for hours, but the sight of dancing Vogelkop Lophorina and Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise will last forever. The forest where they live is beautiful and hosts a lot more biodiversity, although the birding is not easy. The lodge itself is basic but clean and comfortable. It’s situated directly on the main road on the edge of a small Papuan village near the forest. You can both interact with the friendly people who live here and at the same time enjoy nature (my moth net attracted hundreds of beautiful moth species at night). Everything is within a radius of not more than 3 km, so you don’t waste time traveling.

About Maibri Birding Ecolodge, Arfak Mountains, Papua
Maibri Birding Ecolodge in Arfak Mountains, Is only a two-hour drive from Manokwari. It's located in a beautiful Arfak highlands village called Kampung Maibri. Our new lodge offers excellent service, comfortable 3 rooms for 6 guests, and excellent food cooked by our professional chef  "Mr. Presly", We have a hot water shower, the lodge is clean and the right place to stay in Arfak Mountains.  The accommodation is run and managed by Sultan Birding with the local Man called Niko, They work together with
the
community to put up a small ecotourism accommodation, which makes it easy to explore the surrounding forest in the early morning and late afternoon. Because the bird watchers and bird photographers are important to the Maibri villagers’ income, the local people protect the forests.








Malagufuk Birding, Birding Malagufuk, Malagufuk Eco Village, Papua by Sultan Birding

Malagufuk Eco Village is a small jungle village in the Klasow valley of Sorong Regency in Southwest Papua Province. Malagufuk Eco Village is located quite deep in the lowland forest of Klasow Valley. It’s easy to reach (only two hours by car from Sorong) and very remote (3.5 hours of walking from the main road to the village). The small community has put up a small ecotourism accommodation, which makes it easy to explore the surrounding forest in the early morning and late afternoon. Because the bird watchers are important to the villagers’ income, the local people protect the forests. Birding here equals walking, you won’t be in a car during your whole stay.

Malagufuk BirdLists

Bird of paradise you can see in Malagufuk:

Magnificent bird of paradise, Magnificent Riflebird, King Bird of Paradise, Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise, Lesser Birds of Paradise, and Glossy-mantled Manucode.

Malagufuk also have almost all of the lowland endemic species of the region are in the one friendly village that is fast becoming dedicated for birders who enjoy finding endemics, There are species here that are very difficult to see anywhere including; Wallace Owlet-nightjar, Beautiful Fruit Dove, Orange-bellied Fruit Dove, Wompoo Fruit Dove, Pink-spotted Fruit Dove, Ornate Fruit Dove, Brown Cuckoo Dove, Great-cuckoo Dove, Pinon Imperial Pigeon, Western-crowned Pigeon, Thick-billed Ground Pigeon, Green-naped Pheasant Pigeon, Blue Jewel Babbler, Rainbow Bee-eater, Yellow-faced Myna, Golden Myna, Greater Black Coucal, Blue-black Kingfisher, Common Paradise Kingfisher, Yellow-billed Kingfisher, Red-breasted Paradise Kingfisher, Azure Kingfisher, Rufous-bellied Kookaburra,
Sacred Kingfisher, Lowland Peltop, White-bellied Cuckooshrike, Boyer's Cuckooshrike, Red-bellied Pitta, Hooded Pitta, Shining Flycatcher, Grey-streaked Flycatcher, Variable Goshawk, Grey-headed Goshawk, Tawny-breasted Honeyeater, Spangled Drongo, Black Sunbird, Olive-crowned Flowerpecker, Hooded Butcherbird, Oriental Dollarbird, Glossy Swiftlet, Moustached Treeswift, Metallic Starling, Rufous Owl, Papuan Nightjar, Northern Cassowary, Emperor Fairywren, Papuan Babbler, Little Shrike-thrush, Helmeted Friarbird, Yellow-bellied Longbill, Frilled Monarch, Rusty Pitohui, Black-browed Triller, Black-sided Robin, Olive-crowned Flowerpecker, Oriental Cuckoo, Forest Bittern, Eclectus Parrot, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Palm Cockatoo, Black Lory, Black-capped Lory, Large Fig Parrot, Red-cheeked Parrot, Coconut Lorikeet Lorikeet, Blyth's Hornbill, Nankeen Night Herron, Torresian Crow.

 


 

 

Papua Birding 2024

 Papua birding trip 15 days / 14 nights

Birding code: 0110/15 days/PWBT
Summary: Jayapura Nimbokrang, Arfak, Malagufuk Lowland, Waigeo, Sorong – Indonesia
Day 1: Jayapura – Nimbokrang
Day 2: Nimbokrang
Day 3: Nimbokrang – Jayapura
Day 4: Jayapura – Manokwari – Arfak
Day 5: Arfak
Day 6: Arfak
Day 7: Arfak – Manokwari
Day 8: Manokwari – Sorong – Malagufuk
Day 9: Malagufuk
Day 10: Malagufuk – Sorong
Day 11: Sorong – Waigeo
Day 12: Waigeo
Day 13: Waigeo
Day 14: Waigeo – Sorong
Day 15: Sorong – Next destination

Papua birding trip 15 days / 14 nights
Birding code: 0111/15 days/PWPBT
Summary: Arfak Mountain, Malagufuk Lowland, Waigeo, Nimbokrang Jayapura – Indonesia
Day 1: Manokwari – Arfak
Day 2: Arfak
Day 3: Arfak
Day 4: Arfak – Manokwari – Sorong
Day 5: Sorong – Malagufuk
Day 6: Malagufuk
Day 7: Malagufuk – Sorong – Waigeo
Day 8: Waigeo
Day 9: Waigeo
Day 10: Waigeo – sorong
Day 11: Sorong – Jayapura – Nimbokrang
Day 12: Nimbokrang
Day 13: Nimbokrang
Day 14: Nimbokrang – Jayapura Sentani
Day 15: Jayapura – Next destination

Sulawesi Birding Tour cover Malino, Ramang ramang, Lore Lindu, Tangkoko Park

Upcoming Departure 2024

Sulawesi Birding Trip 15 days / 14 Nights
Price US$  Per Person ( Min. 2 Person)

Price included: English Speaking Bird Guide, Mineral water, Snacks, Meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), Accommodation during the trip, Entrances to Parks and Reserves, Local guides, local park ranger, birding site fee, landowner fee, Private car.

Price not included: Domestic flight tickets, Insurance, Alcoholic Beverages, Laundry, Tips, All personal expenses that are not mentioned on the items above, and Any kind of expenditures incurred due to flight cancellation/delays or due to other causes beyond our control. Kindly please book in advance to ensure availability.

Sulawesi birding trip for 2024,  please choose one of the summaries  of  new birding plans below:

Sulawesi birding trip 15 days / 14 nights
Birding code: 01/15 days/SBT
Summary:
day 01: Makassar arrival – Malino
day 02: Malino birding full day
day 03: Malino – Ramang ramang
day 04: Ramang-ramang birding
day 05: Raman ramang – Airport, fly to Palu – Lore Lindu
day 06: Lore Lindu National Park
day 07: Lore Lindu National Park
day 08: Lore Lindu – Palu
day 09: Palu – Makassar – Manado – Tomohon
day 10: Tomohon Gunung Mahawu birding
day 11: Tomohon – Tangkoko
day 12: Tangkoko Nature Reserve
day 13: Tangkoko Nature Reserve
day 14: Tangkoko Nature Reserve – Manado (tongkaina)
day 15: Morning birding in Gunung Tumpa – Transfer to the airport

Sulawesi birding trip 15 days / 14 nights
Birding code: 02/15 days/SBT
Summary:
day 01: Manado arrival – Tangkoko Nature Reserve
day 02: Tangkoko
day 03: Tangkoko
day 04: Tangkoko – Tomohon
day 05: Tomohon
day 06: Manado – Makassar – Palu – Lore Lindu
day 07: Lore Lindu National Park
day 08: Lore Lindu – Palu
day 09: Palu – Makassar – ramang2
day 10: ramang – ramang
day 11: ramang – ramang
day 12: Ramang – ramang to Malino
day 13: Malino
day 14: Malino – Makassar
day 15: Transfer to the airport

What is included?

  • English Speaking Bird Guide fee
  • Mangrove boat Trip near Tangkoko Park
  • Meals, daily breakfast, lunch, and Dinner
  • All accommodations during the trip
  • Entrances to Parks and Reserves
  • Local guide fee / Local ranger fee
  • Car Transport during the trip

What is not included?

  • Insurance
  • Alcoholic Beverages
  • Airfare or domestic flights
  • Laundry
  • Tips
  • All personal expenses that are not mentioned on the items above.
  • Any kind of expenditures incurred due to flight cancellation/delays or due to other causes beyond our control.

Payment Term and Condition
We require a minimum of 50% deposit payment to confirm your booking, we cannot guarantee your booking until this has been received. Bookings will be held for 7 days to allow the client time to send a deposit payment. We reserve the right to release the booking if the deposit is not received within 7 days of the booking being made. Changes of dates to bookings after the deposit has been made can be done but will be subject to availability.
Cancelation: Deposit payment No Refund, No show – full payment charge.
Full Payment, The full payment will be required at least 30 days prior to your date of arrival. The invoice amount has to be paid in full, net of all transfer costs and bank charges.

TYPE OF LAND TRANSPORTATION & ROAD
We will use a minibus or cars. The road is some part in good condition and some parts in bad condition. While for the mangrove boat trip, we will use a small boat.

BIRD GUIDE
This trip will be provided with an English speaking bird guide during the whole trip and a local guide (who owns/guard the land) for each place in Sulawesi

LIABILITY
Sultan Birding Tours acts only as agents for the passenger in regard to travel, whether by railroad, motorcar, motor coach, boat, or airplane, and assumes no liability for injury, damage, loss, accident, delay, or irregularity which may be occasioned either by reason of defect in any vehicle or for any reason whatsoever or through the acts or default of any company or person engaged in conveying the passenger or in carrying out the arrangements of the tour. Sultan Birding Tours can accept no responsibility for losses or additional expenses due to delays or changes in air or other services, sickness, weather, strike, war, quarantine, or other causes. All such losses or expenses will have to be borne by the passenger, as tour rates provide for arrangements only for the time stated. Baggage is at the owner’s risk entirely. The airlines concerned and their agents and affiliates are not to be held responsible for any act, omission, or event during the time passengers are not on board their aircraft.

Introducing Sulawesi, Dazzling Birds on An Island Rich in Culture
Sulawesi has some really dazzling birds. Just a perusal of the names is enough to get the andrenalin going: Purple-bearded Bee-eater, Sulawesi Lilac cheeked Kingfisher, Fiery-browed Myna, and Great-Shortwing. An assortment of unusual mammals – the strange Babirusa of “pig deer”, The rare see Anoa ( a dwarf buffalo), three unique species of tarsier, and seven unique species of macaque – add to the excitement of being in the forest. World-class snorkeling and diving are available whenever you need to cool off. Birders will gravitate towards the northern peninsula and central Sulawesi, where the largest areas of rainforest are found, and in particular to the huge national parks of Lore Lindu, 100 km south of the provincial capital, Palu.  Dumoga Bone, on the “northern neck”, and the much smaller reserve of Tangkoko – Dua Sudara, on the tip of the Minahasa peninsula. with 120 endemic species to go for, the birder will find Sulawesi a real Mecca. it is quite possible to see 80% of these endemics in a 3 – week trip with a little effort and planning. Sulawesi is the highest level of endemism in Indonesia, of 421 bird species known from the island, approximately 88 (27%) are found nowhere else. Fourteen genera are so unusual that they are considered unique to Sulawesi.

For those wishing to get well off the beaten track, however, Sulawesi has a fascinating collection of satellite islands to explore. Muna and Buton, off the southeast corner, are the largest, but the most interesting for birders are the Banggai Islands – home to a unique megapode and crow – off the Western peninsula, and Sangihe and Talaud, which have the dubious distinction of supporting the highest concentration of threatened birds species in Indonesia.

This 189,000 sq km island also boasts impressive landscapes and a fascinating range of cultures. Sulawesi is in essence a group of volcanoes and, if global warming were to raise the sea level just a few meters, it would become a cluster of islands separated by narrow straits, as the Philippines archipelago is today. Indeed, this was how Sulawesi appeared 4,000 years ago. Ritual in Sulawesi, as elsewhere in the archipelago, is not a rich part of the social calender but also an arena to display and assure health and status. Best known are the death rites of the Toraja, a distant ethnic group inhabiting the gloriously scenic Tana Toraja highlands in South Sulawesi. The Toraja are also famous for their beautifully carved “origin” houses, and effigy-guarded cliffside graves.

Sulawesi Birdwatching Tour

Sulawesi Birding Tours Guarantee Departure 16 June 2025 – 30 June 2025 (Space Available) 8 July 2025 – 22 July 2025 (Space Available) 9 Augu...