[Biak Bird Watching Tour] - 06 May'2025

Having had the opportunity to write today, I will tell you about my birding activities 10 days ago with American Couple & 1 Indonesian TL, so this is my little story....😁😁

This morning, May 6th-2025, the plane was scheduled to arrive late at Biak Island, but I had been at the airport since 05.30am (at most 1 hour, I was on standby at the airport because of duties and responsibilities) 😂😂 and after hearing the sound of the plane on the runway, I immediately contacted the baggage porter (my friend) to take care of the guest's luggage. Today we checked-in at the hotel around 08.00am, then had breakfast and took a short break before our adventure on Biak Island.

The journey on day 1 began at 13.30pm, we started to our first main target, Biak Hooded Pitta (about 35 minutes one way to the car stop then continued on foot to the bird spot for about 15-30 minutes, depending on the condition of the guests and while doing a birding intro). 

It was very unfortunate, when we had to go to the location in the rain. 😞😞
Upon arrival at the car stop, I tried to discuss with our Tour Leader and Team about the situation now and finally we agreed to continue the journey by walking slowly to the bird spot using an umbrella. 

On this afternoon's trip, we were surprised by the displayed of the most dangerous type of snake in the world on the path we passed (This snake can be found on Biak Island & surroundings, Papua Mainland / Papua New Guinea and Australia), which I identified as a male snake by looking at the size and length of the snake. The snake I mean is IKNAMPU (Local name), in English it's called Common Death Adder and in Latin it's called Acanthophis Antarcticus.

Arriving at the bird hide, we waited for about 1 hour due to bad weather and "Yes !! " at 15.10pm the rain stopped and Pitta came quietly and silently eating worms and grasshoppers that we put on a dead tree branch on the ground and of course we were happy to see it and captured its amazing appearance on the camera lens 😁😁.

After seeing the Pitta, we moved to another location to see other Endemic Birds like: Biak Paradise Kingfisher, Biak White-eyes, Biak Gerygone, Biak Triller, Biak Black Flycatcher, Geelvink Fruit-dove, Long-tailed Starling and some Common Birds such as: Red-capped Flowerpecker, Golden Monarch, Sahul Sunbird, Black Sunbird, Claret-breasted Fruit-dove, Shining Flycatcher, Metallic Starling, Glossy Swiftlet, Uniform Swiftlet, Willie Wagtail and finally after seeing a couple of Biak Scoops Owl in the afternoon (18.15pm), we started walking slowly back to the car and headed straight to the hotel for dinner and stay overnight. 

On day 2nd - 4th, we still remained with the main target in the form of additional Endemic birds and we got them such as: Black-winged Lory, Biak Lorikeet in flight, Geelvink Imperial Pigeon from the distance that can be seen using a telescope, Biak Monarch flew several times in front of us, Geelvink Pygmy Parrot a small one that always whistled and hid in its nest (but we saw it), Biak Cicada behind a branch, Biak Fantail the rare bird and several common Bird of Papua mainland birds such as Pacific Baza in flight, Stephen Emerald Dove that flew in front of us twice in different places, Blyth Hornbill in flight, Eclectus Parrot, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Amboyna Cuckoo-dove, Great Cuckoo-dove dancing in the sky, Red-Cheeked Parrot, Superb Fruit-dove, Emperor Fairywren, Variable Goshawk, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Brahminy Kite, Sooty-headed Bulbul, Rainbow bee-eater, Sahul Brush Cuckoo and the last day's closing on the afternoon trip on day 4 to see several sea birds like: Beach Kingfisher, Striated Heron and Common Sandpiper.

NOTE : 
*In this time being can not attach photos of my bird watching trip because there was a little problem with my gears (Lens not working) and hope on my next trip I can show photos of my bird watching trip.