Tabubil and Kiunga

The mountains of western PNG have only recently become "available" to visiting birders, with the development of the mining town of Tabubil, built to service the vast Ok Tedi copper and gold mine to the north. When you visit Tabubil, you feel like you are there under sufferance, very much with the company's permission - it's a company town! It's by no means scenic - and the main pastimes include drinking, rugby league on TV, alcohol, drinking and TV sports, plus a bit of drinking.

We got to Tabubil on a flight via Kiunga, itself about an hour west of Mount Hagen. A brief stop at the steamy lowland airport was a shock after the cool of Hagen, but we did see Australian Pratincoles!

Tabubil, by contrast, was very cloudy, cool, murky and (frankly) wet. It was solidly cloudy the entire three days we were there, and it rained a lot of the time - mostly whenever we stepped out of the hotel, the Cloudlands (itself an "interesting" affair!)

We opened our account in the foothills of the Star Mountains with a desirable torrent specialist - Salvadori's Teal. OK, they weren't close, but we only had to wait two minutes to see one!

We had harboured hopes of accessing a really remote area of forest on the Ok Ma service road to the west of town, but alas the bridge had washed out in a storm (more rain!) and there was no question of getting across - so sadly our faint hopes of Shovel-billed Kookaburra and Greater Melampitta bit the dust.

Instead, we tried a "new" area of forest near the rather scary and very wet tunnel (1km long) - in dreadful weather, either side of the tunnel, we did connect with Magnificent Riflebird, Orange-fronted Hanging-parrot, Variable Pitohui, Bare-eyed Crow, Slaty-headed Longbill and even a very brief Blue-faced Parrotfinch - plus a retrospectively confirmed female Carola's Parotia. Miraculously, we even heard Shovel-billed Kookaburra calling - but could we see one? Nope.

But most of our field time at Tabubil was spent at Dablin Creek road, a very steep service track running alongside a massive pipeline down from the hills. Sadly, where you get a road, you get smallholders, and hence deforestation, and the habitat here is degrading year by year. But there is still forest all around, and with patience, you see lots - despite the near constant rain!

Big highlights here were Obscure Berrypecker (at about its only reliable site on the planet), Fairy Lorikeet, Highland Peltops, Black Butcherbird, Obscure and Spotted Honeyeaters, Orange-breasted Fig-parrot, Red-breasted Pygmy-parrot, Golden Cuckoo-shrike, Blue-collared Parrots (which sound like wind chimes and whose habitat is fog) and various others.

But the honest truth is that Tabubil was a pretty depressing place - and it was with optimism that we left town by road, for the 130km drive south, downhill to Kiunga.

En route, we picked up some important species, notably White-bellied Thicket-fantail, Pesquet's (or Vulturine) Parrot, Channel-billed Cuckoo and Rufous-tailed Bush-hen.

After checking in to our unpreposessing but more than adequate hotel in Kiunga, we travelled with our local guide, the famous Samuel Kepuknai, to the equally famous km17 site, where David Attenborough got hauled up a tree to see Greater BoPs displaying. And see them we did - along with Raggiana BoPs, and even a few hybrids between the two!

Also added here, over two visits, were Yellow-bellied Longbill, Variable Dwarf Kingfisher and near invisible Blue Jewel-babblers!

Boystown Road, about an hour out of town in the other direction, was a good site for a morning's birding - Trumpet Manucode calling in full view, plus Crinkle-collared Manucode for good measure, Moustached Tree-swift, Meyer's Friarbird, Lowland Peltops and (crucially, but very distantly) a male Flame Bowerbird.

Eventually, it was time for the jungle adventure proper - down to Kiunga "docks" (=a muddy creek), into two fast boats, and away up the Fly and Elevala Rivers. Top forest birds followed at once - Collared Imperial Pigeon, lots of Blyth's Hornbills, Golden Myna, Long-tailed Honey-buzzard, Glossy-mantled Manucode, and even distant views of Twelve-wired BoP on a dead tree snag.

But undoubtedly the highlight of the boat ride was not one but SIX magnificent Southern Crowned Pigeons, posing and accepting our adulation on the river banks. One hell of a bird, that.

Samuel's excellent new Kwatu Lodge was basic, but characterful, and featured a wonderful ginger cat without a name. We called him Nemo. Deep into the forest, we explored local trails, and within minutes we were seeing our last, and perhaps most desirable BoP of all - the incomparable King BoP. Awesome. Also in these woods we found Little Paradise and Hook-billed Kingfishers, and even a relatively showy Hooded Pitta.

Our final morning at Kwatu was truly excellent - after a near miss with Spangled Owlet-nightjar (heard only), we had a Yellow-eyed Starling (rare) at breakfast, and then we experienced a real forest bird rush - great views of of Twelve-wired BoP, White-crowned Koel, Large-billed Gerygone, Yellow-billed Kingfisher, Red-bellied Pitta, Wallace's Fairy-wren, Golden, Frilled, Hooded and Spot-winged Monarchs, and Rufous-backed Fantail - epic!

The boat ride home was relaxing and rereshing after the lowland heat and humidity, and we added Palm Cockatoo!

Although we had to wade through a sewer and make our way through an active building site to get back to the main road in Kiunga, and although Julia had been bitten to death by some unidentifed insect foe in the jungle, all were agreed that this had been a top segment of the trip!

Full blow-by-blow
trip report

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