Papua New Guinea: Sep 19—Oct 09, 2009

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Tour Leaders

David Bishop

David Bishop loves his vocation and cannot imagine anything better than exploring wild and beautiful places in Asia and the Pac...

Dion Hobcroft

Dion Hobcroft has been working for VENT since 2001. He has led tours to Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Bhutan, India, Sout...

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Brown Sicklebill — Photo: K. David Bishop

Exceptional tropical forest birding with large numbers of endemics in one of the world's most exotic birding destinations. We explore vast, untouched areas of lowland, hill, and pristine montane forest from comfortable, well-appointed, air-conditioned hotels and lodges. We expect to see an excellent variety of birds-of-paradise, fabulous kingfishers, pigeons, parrots, bowerbirds, and many handsome forest skulkers. Outstanding tribal cultures.

Thunder rumbles across the heavens, the atmosphere is still and pensive. Suddenly there is a break in the gathering clouds and a shaft of late afternoon sun chances upon a huge and ancient tree, transforming what seemed moments before a mere shadow into a creature of unparalleled beauty. As if animated by the hands of the gods, a bird-of-paradise takes wing—its exquisite velvet-black plumage embellished with patches of iridescence, and its elongated, ribbon-white feathers flared outward against the darkening sky. This is New Guinea, the home of a family of birds of such beauty and complexity that they defy simple description. When explorers first brought back the leg-less skins of these fabulous birds, recipients took them to be wanderers from a celestial paradise, an idea that persisted for over 200 years. During this tour you will have the perfect opportunity to investigate these claims for yourself.

New Guinea, albeit the second largest island in the world, is in reality an island-continent. This still wild, sparsely inhabited, and somewhat mystical land hosts more than 700 species of birds, the world's richest island avifauna, nearly half of which are found nowhere else on earth. While the extraordinary birds-of-paradise are the finest jewels in New Guinea's ornithological crown, there is so much else to attract the birdwatcher—huge, flightless cassowaries; strange mound builders; a gorgeous array of doves, parrots, and kingfishers; exquisite fairywrens; and fascinating bowerbirds. Interesting mammals include numerous little-known marsupials, in addition to some striking and weird reptiles and amphibians, and a wondrous plethora of butterflies, including the spectacular birdwings.

We focus our attention on the somewhat more diverse eastern half of the island within the independent nation of Papua New Guinea. This itinerary, carefully devised and based on an unparalleled 32 years of tours and research expeditions, will give you the finest opportunity to see an excellent cross section of New Guinea's wildlife, and introduce you to its exceptional culture. It will be a true wilderness experience, but with all the comforts and trappings of civilization. (Much to the astonishment of previous tour participants, you can drink the water and even eat the salads!) We have now substantially revised our itinerary to give you a greater opportunity to see more of this wonderful tropical island's very special endemics including some outstanding pigeons, parrots, and birds-of-paradise.

Excellent to very good accommodations and food; generally easy walking, mostly roadside or from river-boats, or occasionally along well-defined easy trails, and very occasionally an optional moderate grade hike for certain special birds; hot and humid in the lowlands, cool and pleasant in the hills and mountains.

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