Pitohuis and Poison

One group of birds I enjoyed seeing were the Pitohuis. Their feathers and skin contain the toxin batrachotoxin, which is apparently sequestered from some food item, possibly Choresine beetles. The same, or a closely related toxin, is also found in some poison dart frogs, California Newts and pufferfish.
One young man from Western Highlands Province said that they eat the birds only after soaking them in water first to remove the "sour" taste of the birds. I suppose roasting them burns off the poisonous skin.

This Hooded Pitohui's colors might be warning that it's a bad meal.

Tabubil and Kiunga

Tabubil is a town built to support the Ok Tedi Mine. This open pit mine is (was) a mountain of copper ore topped with gold ore. It has provided 25-35 % of PNG's export earnings at times. It has also adversely affected around 50,000 people living downstream because of mine tailings  and chemical pollutants. The slurry concentrate from the mine is shipped down the Fly River from Kiunga.

This spectacular vine in the pea family grows along the Fly River.

This elegant flying fox flew overhead as we boated to our camp.

Both a Dwarf and Southern cassowary were kept as "pets", but I didn't see any adults around and presume they were all destined for the pot in the future.

This spider wasp (Pompilidae) was moving her paralyzed meal on the forest floor.

This pair of New Guinea Flightless Rails were foraging around an area where people were harvesting  Sago Palms by extracting the starch from the trunks. These birds are often quite hard to find.

This tiny orchid  Dendrobium cuthbertsonii is growing on a water supply pipeline, and the leaves were less than 5 mm, though the flowers were over 2 cm. in length. (X)

Mt. Hagen and Komul Lodge

Komul Lodge was located about an hour away from Mt. Hagen. The lodge had an elevated platform where they put their discarded fruit scraps to attract birds.

Chestnut Forest Rail (X)

Common Smoky Honeyeater (X)

Female Brown Sicklebill with bright yellow gape (inside of mouth).

Brehm's Tiger Parrot (X)

Huli Wigman get down!

One of the cultural highlights was arranging to see a dance by the Huli. Traditionally the Huli men grow their hair and fashion it into a wig. In this dance inspired by the Raggiana BoP (Bird of Paradise), and feathers of several species of birds are used as decoration. These include parrots, lorikeets, Black/Brown Sicklebill BoP, Raggiana BoP, Parotia BoP (probably Lawe's), King of Saxony BoP and Ribbon-tailed Astrapia BoP. Cowrie shells and plant seeds, in addition to beads, are used to make the necklaces. (X)
I have a short video clip for you to enjoy. (This video diplayed and played ok with the Google Chrome browser-not sure if it worked correctly with Internet Explorer or Firefox.)

Painting the face over a base coat of white coloring.

Putting on the wig-it is colored black. Note the cassowary thigh bone decoration on the right side-these can be sharpened into a dagger-like weapon.

Adding the feathers to the attached wig. The feathered headdress is resting a a wooden drum-lizard skin is often used on the cover. Wax is used to help tune the drum.

The two dancers on the left are wearing their own hair and are in the process of growing it to make a wig. The back decorations include the bill and casque of the Papuan Hornbill and pig tusks.  Pig fat is used to add shine to the skin.

Tari and the Western Highlands

Sunrise over Tari (X)

One of my favorite birds of the entire trip was the aptly-named Ribbon-tailed Astrapia Bird of Paradise (BoP). The adult males have a pair of black-tipped white tail feathers which can be over 3 feet long.

Here is the same bird in profile. This was the last BoP described by Western scientists in the mid-1930's. Although not uncommon in it's range, it has quite a small distribution in PNG only.

 My favorite bird of the entire trip was the King of Saxony BoP.  I am posting a couple of pictures which you will have to use together to get an idea of what's going on with this bird. The male has 2 very un-featherlike highly modifed plumes projecting from his head. He can move them like giant feelers.  They are much longer than the his body! The feathers are a pearly blue on one side, and dark on the other. With some imagination, you can see the left plume shows the darker underside, while the right one shows the reflective side.

 This picture below shows the position of the head plumes.

 

This is the bower of the MacGregor's Bowerbird. The male builds this remarkable structure towering around 4 feet, and clears a bowl-like depression at the base. The male, a robin-sized bird, tries to attract the female to his bower, and was seen skulking around and heard singing nearby. A thin sapling was selected, and hundreds of small twigs were gathered and interwoven into the structure. He seems to have chosen a place where the sun can shine directly on his bower.

One day our guide Luke decided to dress up in the traditional special occasion garb of the Huli. His headwear includes the frontal shield of the male Superb BoP, lorikeet wings and feathers, cuscus fur, and topped with some cassowary feathers.  What a dandy! (X)

Papua New Guinea-Port Moresby and Varirata National Park

We visited Papua New Guinea (PNG) on a birding tour from mid-July until August 2010. We flew from Brisbane, Australia.  Above is a Papuan Frogmouth in its cryptic pose at the Pacific Adventist College grounds in Port Moresby, the capital of PNG. (X)

Potoos are in a related family of birds and are found in the New World. This is a photo of the Common Potoo I took in Bolivia of a well-hidden bird...found by a guide of course!  They share the habit of assuming near invisibility once they have perched and freeze. (X)

On the left are some epiphytic "ant plants" (Hydnophytum / Myrmecodia?) which provide a home for ant nests. Below is one which had fallen, so I cracked it open to show the multitude of chambers which the ants can live in. (X)

On the right are some "Jewel " orchids, a group of orchids whose most attractive attribute are its leaves, not the flowers. These leaves are almost black. These were found at Varirata Park on the outskirts of Port Moresby. (X)

Our first first Bird of Paradise (BoP)was the Raggiana BoP. The males display together in a group of trees, and were unfortunately not easy to take a photograph. I think David Attenborough had a little more set-up time. They are a sight and sound spectacle since they call loudly while displaying. They are the inspiration for one of the Huli Wigman dances, which I will write about later.

Tasmania

Traveling friends-Dana, Steven, Lillian, and our wonderful hosts, Els and Bill

A friendly pademelon at Mt. Field Park.

A very close look at a nearby Platypus delighted everyone!

This endemic Pink Robin brightened the forest floor.

Jelly fungus on a decaying log.

This was the devilishly handsome Tasmanian Devil we observed. We traveled up to the northwest coast near Marrawah to see these increasingly rare animals threatened by a contagious facial cancer. Devils are most active after sunset.

This devil is eating a road-killed wallaby, which has been put out to attract this hungry beast.