Tuesday, Nov 8 - Birding the Road to the Tari Gap

We walked over to the dining room and had a delicious breakfast at 6:00.  Warm porridge, yummm, for me and eggs for Bob.  We met David and the others at 6:30 and due to a change in plans, climbed aboard the bus and drove up to road to above the Bailey Bridge to about 8700’.  The temperature was a very pleasant 60 degrees; a nice and refreshing change from the “green hell” (Bob’s description of the lowlands)!

We stopped frequently and David and Joseph, our new local guide, got us onto some pretty terrific birds!  One of the most impressive was the King-of-Saxony Bird-of-Paradise, a bird about the size of a robin with a black back, white front with an apricot blush in the middle of the breast, and most amazingly, with two long plumes with a serrated edges, more than twice his body length, emerging from his forehead.  He can manipulate the plumes independently and whips them around his body while calling out a machine gun-like rattle.  We were able to watch him for quite a while.

(pic:  King-of-Saxony Bird-of-Paradise)

Another great bird was the Papuan Lorikeet, a medium-size parrot who has a brilliant red head, neck and breast with a blue and black on the back of the head, a green back, and a very long tail, which was feeding on small, equally red, flowers.  He flew up into the air and gave us a great show of his wonderful red colors and his long trailing tail feathers.

We came back to the hotel for a delicious lunch of macaroni with a veggie sauce, lentil salad and a curry.    (pic:  Painted Tiger Parrot, a rare bird!)

We re-assembled at 3:15 and drove past the bridge up to the Tari Gap at 9200’ where we found paramo-like grasslands which actually are the result of logging in the past.  The area is very beautiful with scattered tree ferns and lots of flowers.  We saw a Island Thrush, a large thrush with an orange bill.  As we started down, I saw some movement in a thick tree and got onto a beautiful golden yellow and black bird that turned out to be the Regent Whistler! We continued back to the Lodge with several more exciting sightings.  Bob got ~25 new life birds today!

We assembled for the List at 6:30, munching home-made sweet potato chips and drinking some good red wine, and when the gong for dinner sounded, had some tasty lentil soup, spicy beef on rice and passion fruit cream pie.

(pic:  Ribbon-Tailed Astrapia)