The Birdman
Jungle adventures with an avid birdwatcher.
We found ourselves trapped in a narrow stone-walled gorge and were nearly washed away by raging river floods, following heavy rain. It was a terrifying experience, but luckily we all survived.
Birding on the island of New Guinea is like “wandering through the Garden of Eden” according to Dr Bruce Beehler. “But it’s not always heaven.” The renowned author and ornithologist from Washington’s Smithsonian Institute, has visited PNG and West Papua more than 60 times over three decades. Along the way he’s faced floods, raging rivers and other perils to discover and document some of the world’s most spectacular and varied avifauna.
Beehler says his passion for birding (the term used for serious bird watching) started on a family picnic in Baltimore.
“As an eight-year-old, I was transfixed by the beauty of a red-bellied woodpecker calling from a tree. It was an epiphany that became a guiding star for my life.”
Following that star led to adventure and exploration far across the Pacific.
“I fell in love with all aspects of life in PNG,” says Beehler. “The back country is fabulous and the rural communities are welcoming and hospitable. The local people are excellent naturalists who can help guide field-research projects.”
During a historic expedition in 2005, Beehler led an international team of scientists to a so-called “lost world” in western New Guinea. Guided only by the rough and ready maps, the
expedition discovered more than 100 new species of plant, insect and animal life.
A return trip in 2009 with a local group from Kwerba village didn’t go so smoothly. “While following the course of the Kali Ibem River we found ourselves trapped in a narrow stonewalled gorge and were nearly washed away by raging river floods, following heavy rain. It was a terrifying experience, but luckily we all survived. ”
During another expedition across the border, a red towel saved Beehler and his team from starvation in PNG’s Owen Stanley Mountains.
Beehler convinced a youth group in the Kokoda Valley to help him blaze a track from the village of Kanga to a high mountain lake, which no living person had visited. He wanted to reach Lake Omha to study the little-known Macgregor’s Honeyeater.
For seven days, Beehler and six villagers braved cold nights, steep terrain and thick foliage to cut a bush track up the uncharted mountainside. Short of food, they finally broke through into alpine grasslands near the summit, set up a camp and waited for a charter helicopter to arrive with supplies.
“Because of heavy clouds, the helicopter had trouble finding us and was about to head back to Port Moresby,” says Beehler. “Just at the last moment, the pilot glimpsed a team member waving his towel and delivered our manna from heaven.”
Birding and paradise have long traditional associations. Birds often figure in creation stories and are seen as sacred symbols or even messengers of the gods in many mythologies. As a national symbol, the Raggiana Bird of Paradise plays a significant role in PNG culture.
For Beehler, birding is a portal to another world. And one of his favourite places in that world is the lek – the communal assembly during the Raggiana mating season.
“It’s like the royal court of Louis XIV in the canopy of one big tree in the forest,” says Beehler. “The male birds are all dressed up in a display of colourful plumage to compete for the females, who check them out. Unlike human society, bird of paradise females are plain. But like humans they want to mate with the dominant, most attractive male – the Brad Pitt of the species.”
Among Beehler’s other favourites is the Victoria Crowned Pigeon. “It’s the world’s largest pigeon and the most beautiful,” he says. “When this bulky bird takes off, it’s as noisy as a 747.”
Another large bird that interests Beehler is the New Guinea Vulturine Parrot. “I think it’s the world’s weirdest parrot because it looks like a vulture and has a low, loud growling voice that sounds like a dinosaur retching.”
However, Beehler considers his first sighting of the Fire-maned Bowerbird as the “strangest” experience. Largely unknown by Europeans until the late 20th century, the black-and-orange beauty was long considered the rarest bird in PNG.
Beehler set out to find the bowerbird in the Adelbert Mountains behind Madang. “I thought it would be an elusive search for the holy grail,” he says. “Instead, I saw one in
a fig tree as I was walking down a dirt road on the first morning. I realised they’re not the rarest species. You just have to look for their favourite restaurant.”
Rare, or not, native species are threatened by human activities in parts of PNG, and Beehler has spent more than 20 years in environmental protection projects. In 2009, he collaborated with Lisa Dabek, of the Woodland Park Zoo in the US, to help establish the first national conservation area, an 87,000 hectare reserve in Morobe Province.
Beehler says you don’t have to go on an Indiana Jones crusade to go birding in PNG, as magnificent species exist in every corner of the country. However, he advises first timers to start in the easier locations.
“I recommend Varirata National Park, just outside of Port Moresby, especially the display tree of the Raggiana Bird of Paradise. After seeing that, you’ll be hooked.