6th August 2023: The morning was spent at the Arfak Astrapia site and walking back down to Minggre. The afternoon was meant to be for packing up and travelling back to Manokwari. After the washout of our previous two afternoons spent in the Magnificent Bird of Paradise hide (missing the bird completely), I was keen to try and have another go and we were able to squeeze in 90 minutes at the second of the two hides (this one right by the track).
In contrast to the previous two days, it was sunny and hot when we arrived at the hide and the Magnificent Bird of Paradise appeared after around 30 minutes to start tidying up his court:
Housekeeping done, the male then settled down and appeared to doze in the centre of his court, only opening an eye when he sensed any sort of movement.
During this time a White-faced Robin moved through the area.
A movement in the trees above got the males attention and he sparked into life:
The calling had the desired effect and the interested females moved in for a closer look:
There was then a fair bit of activity at the back of the court in a tangle of vines before the action moved back to centre stage for the finale:
The performance didn’t end with the result the male was looking for (and probably deserved!) but was a wonderful end to our time in the Arfak mountains.
All the photos and video above was from a ~2 hour visit to the second hide, which was right beside the dirt road and looked down onto the display area. Both the hides were relatively small, ideal for 3-4 people.
Two afternoon spent in this original hide where the lek was slightly uphill from our position but we never actually got to see a bird here due to the heavy afternoon rain.
Number of visits to hide: 3 in total to the two different hides
Total time spent in hides: 8 hours
Total time spent getting to/from hide: <30 mins (both hides were very close to the road – in fact the second hide was actually on the road)
Next post: King Bird of Paradise (Malagafuk Lowlands)
Previous post: Arfak Astrapia (Arfak mountains)