A few days ago (March 13th, 2026), I guided a couple (Marcus and Jo) from Australia on a birding tour in the lowland and coastal forest of Sorong regency. We started early in the morning at 05:30. I met them at Aston hotel and then by car we went to a forest area outside Sorong city. It took around 40 minutes to reach the entrance site of the forest. At that time, we could hear the calls of Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise (Seleucidis melanoleucus).
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| 1 Day Birding Tour in the forest of Sorong Regency |
The bird was sitting on the vertical pole of a tree waiting for his female mating partner to come. I set up my 2 tripods, one with a pair of binoculars mounted on it and the other with a spottiny scope, and aimed them at the paradise bird. We waited for the female bird to come. The male Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise did some rehearsal by hopping down and up the pole. He hopped down to the top of lower pole and sit on it for awhile.
Marcus and Jo used their camera to take pictures of the paradise bird. They also made some video using their cell phone through the spotting scope.
After waiting for around one and a half hour, unfortunately the female paradise bird did not come, the male one flew away leaving the dancing lek.
We left the watching site and continued our activity by doing general birding. We saw a lot of species of interesting birds including Papuan Eclectus, Spangled Drongo, Yellow-faced Myna, Glossy-mantled Manucode, Orange-bellied Fruit-dove, Willie Wagtail, Helmeted Friarbird, Black Butcherbird, Sahul Sunbird, Palm Cockatoo, Black-capped Lory, Shining Flycatcher, Blyth's Hornbill and Gray-headed Goshawk.
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| A female Papuan Eclectus |
If you are interested in taking this 1 day birding tour at the outskirts of Sorong city and want me to organize your tour, please, contact me by gmail to: peace4wp@gmail.com or by whatsapp to: +6281332245180.
Also read:
- Birding and Wildlife Tour in Tangkoko and Minahasa Highland
- Birds in North Sulawesi
- Reizen in Noord Sulawesi
- Birding in Sonder
Water Lily from A Swamp in Merauke
In addition to guiding tourists, my daily avtivity now is drawing and painting. I have just completed an old sketch of Water Lily of Merauke in watercolour. This is a small painting on paper size A5 (14.5 cm×21 cm) Winsor & Newton Wire-O sketch book. I saw this water lily flower in a swamp at the outskirts of Merauke. I visited the town years ago. There was only one flower at that time. Usually in a swamp, there are various kinds of water plants and including tens of waterlily flowers. However, I only saw one flower. So, the only one water lily flower that was still standing in the dark water of the swamp, when I arrived, deserved my attention. The swamp was at the roadside. I even asked the driver to stop his car so that I could walk closer to it.
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| Water Lily from Merauke |
The watercolour painting is now inside a simple frame that I hang on the wall of the front room of my house.
I still have other watercolour paintings that I will discuss in my later posts.
