Ever since my childhood, I have always been intrigued by birds and animals. Birds in particular, have always held a very special place with their colorful plumage, calls and ability to fly the earth. At the same time, I have always loved taking pictures too. Pictures always felt like this magical way to jolt a memory and remember a past moment in time. Perhaps this was the reason for when I bought my first DSLR camera, both of these interests came together and besides clicking everything with it, I consciously turned its attention towards nature and wildlife – especially to create more awareness about nature in the minds of people in this modern day age where technology is literally taking over. Once I embarked on this journey, it just fiercely caught hold of me and there has been no looking back.
Perhaps like many of you, the curiosity and fascination with the Birds of Paradise (BOP) arose when I saw them for the first time in the amazing documentaries by Sir. David Attenborough. For a person used to seeing the typical fauna of South India, the Birds of Paradise were incredibly unusual in behavior, strikingly beautiful in appearance and had the most amazing and unique calls. Perhaps, I will run out of adjectives to describe them in words so let’s just say that they were seriously leagues apart. However, I always wondered if in person they look the same as you see in these videos or was there something more to them? So, with this, the dream of visiting Papua New Guinea to see these birds took shape and made it to the top contenders in my bucket list.
I usually go on wildlife trips every year with the limited number of leaves I have from work and it so happened that in 2018, a friend of mine randomly mentioned of a photography group from my hometown in Kerala – India, visiting Papua New Guinea (PNG) to capture the pictures of the Birds of Paradise. Apparently the safety and security was a concern owing to the volatile poverty induced socio-economic tensions, and the occasional tribal war and crimes in the region. He also suggested that we were perhaps one of the very few photography groups of Indian citizens visiting the island too. Apparently, travelers to the island from India have been mostly missionary workers and diplomats in the past. There also have been a few violent mishaps with European tourists which had the PNG government concerned about the safety of tourists.
Although this news was alarming, it was not going to keep me away from perhaps a once in a life-time opportunity to visit the island before some of the critically endangered species among the BOPs disappeared. As with every tropical forest paradise on Earth, with the ever growing need for natural resources, and human population explosion and encroachment, the forests which are the typical habitats for these birds are shrinking year-on-year at an alarming rate. So, I took a chance embarking on this dream trip, well aware of the risks and I am glad I did it. The first trip in 2018 was so exciting that I made a subsequent second trip in 2019 to capture images of some more of the BOP species.
In total, there are currently 42 identified species of Birds of Paradise spread across the island of Papua New Guinea, eastern Indonesia and eastern Australia. A very interesting fact is that their closest evolutionary relatives surprisingly are the Crow and the Jay family. Evolution in this remote Island, took its own direction millions of years ago in making these birds so typically unlike their close ancestors. These birds typically range from as small as 8 inches to as large as 49 inches in size. For example, the King Bird of Paradise is probably one of the smallest and the Black Sicklebill, is among the largest.
Majority of these birds are sexually dimorphic which means that males and females share different characteristics beyond just the differences in their sexual organs. Typically, in the case of the BOP, the males have in particular highly elongated and elaborate feathers extending from the beak, head, tail or wings. The male birds are colorful while the females are drab in comparison with duller plumage. This distinction can be seen in the picture with the male and female Superb Bird of Paradise. Most of the BOP birds usually inhabit the dense tropical rainforest habitat with a diet comprising of mainly fruits and in some cases, small insects. Now their sounds are unique too. Although, some of them such as the Magnificent BOP, sounds sometimes like a crow, their calls always feel distinct and different. The most outrageous one I heard so far is that of the Black Sicklebill which sounds so artificial just like something out of an electronic device. These birds can also be categorized as Terrestrial BOP and Canopy BOP based on their choice of habitat. Birds like the Red Bird of Paradise spend most of the time on the topmost branches of trees while birds like the Magnificent BOP, roosts and displays closer to ground.
The most intriguing and impressive aspect of these birds are their courtship displays. This is probably the most difficult to witness in the wild as these happen deep in the rainforests or high up in the trees. This means that you’d have to endure long hikes before dawn in difficult terrain with the gear. The courtship display of most of the BOP’s are sometimes bizarre with the birds sometimes hanging upside down, turning from side to side, bouncing up and down, crouching, squatting, bowing, leaning to one side or the other, expanding or swinging their feathers to make the wings into abstract shapes, tail swishing, head shaking and even open-mouth “gaping”. Words can hardly explain how amazingly the male birds transform to impress the female.
Once you reach the possible ‘lek’ or roosting spot, any photography has to be done very quietly and behind hides, as to not disturb the bird. Long hours have to be spent patiently and the birds’ arrival and display may vary. Additionally, there are a lot of external factors such as the unpredictable tropical rains, winds, the birds’ mood and other conditions that could prevent the bird exhibiting courtship displaying. So, someone has to be very lucky to witness the male courtship display. That said, I was lucky to witness one of the most amazing courtship display transformations of the national bird of Papua New Guinea, the Raggiana Bird of Paradise.
The biggest challenge facing the survival of the BOPs are owing to extreme human activity in and around their natural habitat. I would like to illustrate the impact with an example of a bird that shares this habitat with the BOPs and was once thought to be closely related to them called Bowerbirds. The Bowerbirds are renowned for their courtship behavior where the males typically spend months to build and decorate a structure with sticks. They use objects such as seeds, fruits, stones and other colorful items to then decorate the structure at precise locations around it, in hopes of impressing the female. These birds are usually found at high elevations, in the remote areas of the forest and it is amazing how they manage to find such colorful objects. However, from the recent picture I clicked in West Papua, it is evident that the rate of pollution surrounding these tropical rainforests are reaching alarming levels. In the image of the bowerbird’s nest, it can be seen that this bowerbird found a plastic bottle and other human material remains to adorn the nest. This was a very disappointing sight showing the sad state of human impact on this beautiful paradise habitat.
Now, this is only one among the many other human impacts. Tribal war, mining, logging, deforestation for cultivation and other human activities are also impacting the natural habitat of the island. Even though the limited tourism to the region and photographers like myself who are paying the local community when we visit to see these birds, help to keep these impacts under check; the rate at which these are affecting the other parts of Papua New Guinea does not leave too much hope for the survival and conservation of these birds for future generations to see and admire, just like I did as a child. Both in Papua New Guinea and West Papua – Indonesia, governments are getting increasingly aware of the importance of rainforest conservation and various measures are currently being undertaken to protect the habitat and in turn protect the BOPs. There is also a drive to scale and increase eco-friendly tourism in the region to ensure the locals get a livelihood beyond deforestation. These birds have been a part of the cultural heritage of the indigenous communities for many years too. Although the birds were heavily hunted by the indigenous people in the past for making their tribal garb and headgear, through awareness building these days, they are only reusing the old ones. External Agencies such as WWF frequently run surveys from time to time and are also helping create awareness in the community through an educational approach.
I truly hope that many more measures will come into effect in tandem to balance all the urbanization in these countries and these birds thrive in the most beautiful forest I have ever witnessed in my life. Truly it is a Paradise with these birds in it for all mankind to behold and cherish!
