Arfak mountains are famous destination for birding. There is a good site for watching King Bird of Paradise, its name is Mount Mabowi. Its lower montane forest is a good site for watching King Bird of Paradise (
Cicinnurus regius). While I was guiding some Australian and Chinese tourists in that forest, I saw a male King B.O.P. while he was calling his female counterpart for mating. The male and female King Bird of Paradise were sexually dimorphic. Male had red upperparts and white belly. The female one had plain brown wings feather with white underparts covered with dark brown stripes.
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| King Bird of Paradise in Arfak mountains |
Taking pictures of the bird was quite difficult, The bird was quite small. He sat in the vines or twigs of a tall tree. I had to immitate his calls to attract his attention. When he jumped or flew to another twig, I was able to spot him and quickly aimed my camera at the bird. During the birding trip in Arfak mountains, I also saw other birds such as Lesser Birds of Paradise, Slender-billed Cuckoo Dove (
Macropygia amboinensis) in the forest of Mount Mabowi.
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| Slender-billed Cuckoo Dove |
There are several birding sites in Manokwari that visitors can go to. I recommend Arfak range (both lower montane and higher montane forests), Lowland Forest of Manokwari in Mesirrokow river-forest and Mansinam islands.
Please, contact me by e-mail to: peace4wp@gmail.com or by whatsapp: +6281332245180 if you want to watch King Bird of Paradise in Mount Mabowu of Arfak range - Manokwari
For taking pictures of birds, I recommend a powerful bridge camera with telephoto lens, i.e.: Nikon COOLPIX P900 Digital Camera 16MP 83x Optical Zoom 1080/60p Video Built-In Wi-Fi
