Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Night Walk in Malagufuk's Forest

The village of Malagufuk has been a famous destination for rainforest tourism since 2014. This week, I am guiding 2 visitors from Singapore and the United Kingdom. We have explored the forest to look for birds and other wild animals. So far, we have seen King Bird of Paradise, Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise, Lesser Birds of Paradise, Red-breasted Paradise Kingfisher and Common Paradise Kingfisher, Papuan Pitta, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Magnificent Riflebird, Golden Myna, Moluccan King Parrot. We have seen a lot of other tropical birds as well. 

flying fox hanging in a tree
A Flying Fox in Malagufuk's forest

We did night walk several times. We did it along the boardwalk and were happy with the result. We saw Papuan Frogmouth, wallaby, cuscus, White-lipped Tree Frog, and Papuan Boobo. In the previous night, we saw Papuan Pitta, New Guinea Small-eyed Snake (Micropechis ikaheca), and a few nocturnal animals. 

I introduced Malagufuk for the first time in 2014. At that time, no body in ecotourism industry knew its existence. The concept of nature based tourism was new for the villagers. Now, Malagufuk has been listed by world class birding and nature tour companies as important destination in West Papua region of Indonesia.

cuscus or possum
cuscus

For me, personally, the introduction of nature or rainforest based tourism in West Papua will support local villagers to preserve their forest, and coral reef environment. 

birding in west papua
Papuan Boobok, Papuan Frogmouth and White-lipped Tree Frog
malagufuk, west papua
Two visitors with kids in Malagufuk village

Well, if you are interested in traveling to Indonesia to enjoy birding and wildlife watching, you need to bring with you a good pair of binoculars. I personally use 10×50 ed prime lens binoculars from SVBONY, I also use a laser pointer, a small loudspeaker to call birds and bridge camera Fujifilm HS50EXR. The photos in this post were taken using this photographic device. 

If you want to visit Malagufuk and other destinations, and want me to organize your trip and guide you, please, contact me (Charles Roring) by whatsapp to: +6281332245180. 

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