Raja Ampat Birds of Paradise Walk
Track Raja Ampat's extraordinary birds of paradise through the Papuan rainforest — the archipelago is home to multiple endemic species including the red bird of paradise and Wilson's bird of paradise, whose elaborate courtship displays in the forest canopy above the island villages are among the most spectacular wildlife experiences in Asia.
- 1
Gam Island Forest Dawn
Gam Island's lowland rainforest hosts the red bird of paradise — the dawn display of the male birds, who gather at traditional display trees called leks and perform their extraordinary courtship rituals for hours before sunrise, is observed by trekking into the forest at 4am with local guides, arriving at the display tree in darkness and waiting in silence as the birds arrive one by one from the surrounding forest.
- 2
Wilson's Bird of Paradise Site
Wilson's bird of paradise on Waigeo Island is one of the most brilliantly coloured birds in the world — the electric blue and red plumage, the curled tail wires, and the cleared display court that the male maintains by removing every leaf from a small area of forest floor for his performance create one of the most astonishing natural spectacles accessible in Raja Ampat, requiring a similar pre-dawn trek as for the red bird of paradise.
- 3
Cendrawasih Bay Connection
Cendrawasih Bay to the east of Raja Ampat (Cendrawasih means bird of paradise in Indonesian) holds the whale shark aggregation sites where these giants feed on fish spawn — the Cendrawasih whale sharks have learned to associate the fish-net lifts of local fishermen with easy feeding and allow divers to swim with them at the surface, creating one of the most accessible large animal marine encounters in Indonesia.
- 4
Papuan Palm Cockatoo Habitat
The palm cockatoo — the largest cockatoo species in the world — is found in the forests of Waigeo and the Bird's Head Peninsula, one of the few places where this extraordinary black parrot with its naked red cheek patch is regularly encountered. The bird's habit of drumming on hollow logs with a stick — one of the very few examples of tool use in birds — has made it a priority observation target for visiting naturalists.
- 5
Biak Island Bird Sanctuary
Biak Island to the southeast of Raja Ampat is the centre of Papuan bird of paradise trade history — the feathers that decorated European fashion in the 19th century came primarily from Papua, and the history of the bird of paradise trade that drove some species toward extinction provides the historical context for understanding why the current community-based conservation model in Raja Ampat represents such a different relationship between humans and these extraordinary birds.
- 6
Raja Ampat Endemic Species
Raja Ampat has multiple endemic terrestrial species beyond the birds of paradise — the Raja Ampat tree kangaroo, the echidna, and numerous endemic lizards and insects represent the terrestrial component of the extraordinary biodiversity that makes the Bird's Head Peninsula one of the most important biodiversity hotspots on Earth, a status that the dive tourism focus on the marine environment tends to understate for visitors who arrive primarily for the reef.