John and Mary Kormendy: Birding in Australia and Papua New Guinea (July-August 2022)

These pictures are from a Victor Emanuel Nature Tours birding trip to Papua New Guinea (PNG: July 24 -- August 5, 2022) preceded and followed, respectively, by 4 days of birding near Brisbane, Australia, and 5 days of birding near Cairns, Australia.

Many things went wrong in this tour, including delays in getting PNG visas (they cost us 4 days of the tour, i. e., most of the birding in the PNG lowlands), delayed and cancelled flights, and intestinal problems despite care (they started in PNG but cost us 5 days of birding in Cairns). Birding in PNG sometimes was spectacular, although birds have been hunted extensively and mostly are hard to see. We saw them best at Kumul Lodge in the highlands, where -- unlike at other lodges -- fruit feeders bring birds close enough for superb looks. Many of the best pictures posted here are from Kumul lodge. Australia birding was somewhat slow, but we did well at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat in Lamington National Park, south of Brisbane. Highly recommended.

In the end, John and Mary got 7 and 8 life birds, respectively, in Australia, and lots of new pictures of previously-seen birds. John and Mary got 113 and 58 new birds in PNG, less than we hoped for but excellent in quality.

I have barely started this web site. It will grow in the coming year as I process and add more pictures. But this will be slow, because we will be traveling for much of the year. Pictures are copyrighted and should not be used without permission.

Trip Bird

Our overall trip bird was -- surprisingly -- not seen in Papua New Guinea, despite the fact that the birds there were wonderful. Our trip bird was Southern cassowary, seen on our last day of birding in Australia. Cassowaries are famously grumpy, and this one was wary, taking care of an almost-grown chick. So I stood very still as he came up to me and tasted my shirt (which had a camouflage print of forest leaves). The bird stands chest-high, so we were almost eye-to-eye. I was found wanting ... and the cassowary wandered on. I have never before had such a spectacular look at a life bird.

Australia 1 -- Near Brisbane

Regent bowerbird (male, at Oreilly's Rainforest Retreat)

Eastern whipbird

Striated pardalote (Pardalotus striatus melanocephalus)

Papua New Guinea

Flame bowerbird and his bower (lowland rain forest near Kiunga)

Blyth's hornbill overflying the Fly River

Hook-billed kingfisher (Rare! This is our life bird, seen from the Fly River.)

Sclater's crowned pigeaon on nest overhanging the Fly River, near Kiunga

Ambua Lodge -- scroll right to see the complete view from our deck (We got 2 life birds from our deck -- Yellow-browed melidectes and Papuan king-parrot.)

Papuan king-parrot (This is our life bird. The camera's response to red is so strong that I had to decrease the color saturation slightly.)

Black-breasted boatbill (This is our life bird.)

Rufous-backed honeyeater (A belly view is not ideal, but this picture does show the important field marks.)

King of Saxony bird of paradise

Ribbon-tailed astrapia (bird of paradise)

Brown sicklebill (bird of paradise) (female)

Belford's melidectes (the big noise in the highland forest)

Brehm's tiger-parrot

Smoky honeyeater

Island thrush

Rufous-naped bellbird (At Kumul lodge: This is our life bird.)

Rufous-naped bellbird (This juvenile was also at Kumul Lodge.)

White-winged robin (This is our life bird, at Kumul Lodge.)

Purple-bellied lory (These are our life birds: West New Britain.)

Golden masked-owl (Very rare -- This is John's life bird. Full disclosure: The branch in front of the bird's chest extended up and covered his left eye. I took two pictures from different vantage points in which the branch covered different parts of the face. I then made a photoshop composite that removes the branch and shows the full face. It captures the look of the bird well but is not guaranteed to be 100 % correct.)

Nicobar pigeon is, to us, symbolic of the treasures hidden in the islands of PNG and surrounding seas.

Red-knobbed imperial pigeon (West New Britain)

Bismarck munia (Lonchura melaena melaena on West New Britain)

New Britain kingfisher (These are John's life birds.)

Black-capped paradise-kingfisher (John's life bird in West New Britain) (We heard it often, but it was extremely hard to see. This view is through a tunnel of holes in the foliage, magically found by our guide, Max Breckenridge.)

Australia 2 -- Cairns to Georgetown to Etty Bay

Australian bustard

Three finch species in a small flock near Georgetown, North Queensland (Zebra finches at the top; Masked finches at lower-left, and Black-throated finches at lower-right)

Zebra finch (male at left; female at right) (Finches are "eye candy".)

Southern cassowary (male at Etty Bay on the last day of birding: "Don't mess with my chick!")

Our bird pictures from around the world follow standard ecozones approximately but not exactly:

Birds from the USA and Canada:   our house,   Hornsby Bend and greater Austin,   Texas,   California,   Hawaii,   Canada,

Neotropic birds from Central America and the Caribbean:   Honduras,   Costa Rica,   Panama,   Trinidad and Tobago

Neotropic birds from South America:   Ecuador,   Ecuador 2017,   Brazil.

Western palearctic birds:   Europe: Germany, Finland, Norway,   Europe: United Kingdom,   Europe: Spain,   the Canary Islands,   Europe: Lesbos, Greece,   Israel

Eastern palearctic birds:   China

Birds from Africa:   The Gambia,   South Africa

Indo-Malayan birds from   India: North-west (Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand)   India: North-east (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya)   India: Central (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh)

Birds from   Australia,   New Zealand.

For our 2014 December trip to India, see this travelog.

For our 2016 May-June trip to India, see this travelog.

For our 2017 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.

For our 2018 March trip to India, see this travelog.

For our 2018 May trip to China, see this travelog.

For our 2018 November trip to China, see this travelog.

For our 2019 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.

For our 2019 July trip to China, see this travelog.

For our 2021 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.

For our 2021 December trip to Ecuador, see this web site.

For our 2022 January-February trip to Peru, see this web site.

For our 2022 July/August trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea, see this web site.

For our 2022 September trip to Bolivia, see this web site.

For our 2022 November-December pre-trip to Argentina (before our Antarctic cruise), see this web site.

For our 2022 November-December cruise to Antarctica, see this web site.

For our 2023 January birding in Chile, see this web site.

For our 2023 January-March cruise from Chile to Antarctica and around South America to Miami, FL, see this web site.

For our 2023 March-April birding in south Florida (after the Seabourn cruise), see this web site.