PAPUA NEW GUINEA ..  BIRDS
New Guinea birds with their brilliant colour, surpass those of any other country.  Beautiful Birds of Paradise (the country's emblem), and wonderful dances of the flag-birds and others. 
There are 650 species, within 75 families.
The richest collection of kingfishers in the world, lives on the island of New Guinea.  26 species are found in Papua New Guinea along, while afurther 3, which do not extend across the border live in West Irian.
In pNG they range in size from 12 cm long and about 14 grams in weight, to about 40/44 cm long and 440 grams in weight.  Kingfishers are always seen near water and catches most of its prey there.  It is a common inland bird as well as being found in mangrove and river estuaries.
Here on the left is a Common Paradise Kingfisher.  One of the handsome group of Paradise Kingfishers.  They have unually long tails, colourful bills and bright body plumage.  This Common one is the longest of the New Guinea Kingfishers at about 46 cm.  It doesnt develop its colourful blue and white plumage until adulthood.  The young are variegated browns and very handsome. They live in the rainforest but are also seen in the open savannah country.
On the right is a Yellow-billed Kingfisher, which is another forest bird.  Mostly resident throughout the
2 lowlands of mainland New Guinea and on many large adjacent islands.  It seldom perches in sunlight and is not easy to see, but its distinctive call is often heard in the jungle; a long ascending trilling whistle.
The Dwarf Kingfisher, belongs to the water kingfishers but is a forest bird. (left)
It eats mainly insects, especially the dragonfly.  It will dive into streams
for tadpoles and other aquatic animals.  Most sit on open perches, and dive onto a moving animal.  They then carry the prey back to a suitable perch, on which they beat and thrash it before swallowing it.  This bird has a lot of bright yellow and brilliant blue colourings.
The 23 species of New Guinea kingfishers range in size from the tiny LITTLE KINGFISHER, 100 mm in length, to the giant Blue-winged Kookaburra, 400 mm in length.
A lowland forest bird, the Little Kingfisher prefers the vicinity of water where it catches fish and insects.  Individuals habitually sleep on the same twig for a number of nights
Papua New Guinea has 45 of the total 62 different species in the bird of paradise/bowerbird family.  2 of the threatened species is the Tomba Bowerbird (seen here on left)
and (right) the Ribbontail Astrapia Bird of Paradise.

The Tomba bowerbird is endangered because the 2 small areas where it occurs are being exploited for timber, and the Ribbontail is falling victim to am ore plentiful and aggressive near-relative, the Stephanie astrapia.
(see below)
The Tomba lives in a small area of forest in the Tomba area of Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands Province.  Some are found in an area of the Southern Highlands too.

The Bird of Paradise is one of the countries emblems and appears on the flag.  The plumes from these birds gave way to a sort-after trade.
Stepanie Astrapia Bird of Paradise.  male birds are aggressive and most will not allow a female to perch nearby.
Lesser Bird of Paradise (right). 3 or more of these colourful males  display daily on bare branches at the top of a tree.
Left is a male RAGGIANA BIRD of PARADISE. In display the males of this species virorously dance and dart about a cleared courtshiparea, throwing their wings above the body and reaching a climax with body horizontal, plumes erect and puffed over the back, wingsdroopedand shivering.  Females, attracted to the males are the display court, choose amale and mate, and have little more contact while building, incubating and feeding the young.
In modern PNG symbolic Birds of paradise adorn both the national flag and the crest of the independent state.  All species of this bird are protected by law.  Hunting is controlled and allowed only by traditional methods.  Visitors must be prepared to travel to jungle area in the early morning when the males call from their display trees.   It takes time and patience to see them.
Parrots in New Guinea number 46 species.  The small BUFFY-FACED PYGMY PARROT about 75 mm is one of the smallest of the world's parrot.  These birds nest in an arboreal termite mound, and out of the breeding season groups of birds sleep in the same nest cavities.
These birds explore crevices and tear off flakes of rotting bark from trunks of trees in the manner of tree-creepers.  Perhaps they feed on fungus and algae on the bark.
A bird of the sky and waterside habitats, the WHITE-BREASTED SEA EAGLE ranges from India, through Malaysia, to New Guinea and Australia.
It is the largest eagle of the lowlands but as the occupant of the top of a food-chain is not frequently seen.  Young birds are brown, more lightly speckled .
This bird is distinguished by a shorter, white tail.
Both the Barn Owl family and the Hawk Owl family live in Papua New Guinea.  The former  are typfied by a distinctive heartshaped face ringed by a border of stiff feathers.  The latter lack this feature and are most hawk-like in appearance.
The PAPUAN HAWK OWL (right) is a long-tailed small owl of forests from sea-level to 1300 metres.  It is a little known species in which the heavily streaked underparts contrast with the barred upper-parts.
The deep litter of the floor of the rainforest is the habitat of a variety of ground birds, especially the litter of the humid, wet forests which suffer no dry season.  Rotting leaf-fall, abundant fungus and sub-surface earthworms soon add to the soil. Here lives species of Eupetes.
At a higher altitude from 600 to 1400 metres the MID MOUNTAIN EUPETES replaces the lowland species.
It differs chieifly in the rich chestnut crown and back.  Higher still occurs the High Mountain Eupetes, with black wing coverts spotted white.
Above the forest litter and beneath the canopy, in the sparser leafy growth of small trees and shrubs, there lives a variety of birds, the Fly-catchers, with 49 species.
The BLUE WREN WARBLER is a large species of the undergrowth in lowland rainforest, and similar to Fairy Wrens in Australia, so is from a slightly different fly-catcher variety.
The WHITE-eared CATBIRD is common in the lowland rainforests to about 1000 metres.  It is a large aggressive species, and though in the bowerbird family, it neither builds a bower not has an elaborate display.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA PAGE
HOME
SIGN GUESTBOOK
VIEW GUESTBOOK