How do you know when you’re in birders’ heaven?

You’ve passed through customs at Port Moresby international, having officially entered Papua New Guinea – part of earth’s second largest island. After months of dreaming about the fascinating and exotic home of nearly 750 indigenous groups; whose cultures, customs, traditions and ceremonies remain largely unaffected by outside influences. 

There have been (many) times where visualising yourself birding virtually untouched forests, searching for flashy fruit doves, fig parrots, fairywrens, jewel-babblers, pittas, honeyeaters and berrypeckers, has occupied your thoughts for hours. The anticipation of over twenty different species of dazzling birds-of-paradise, often presenting unbelievably iridescent colouration, wild tail plumes and extraordinary dance routines, was almost too much excitement to bear. 

For weeks leading up to this point, friends and family have listened in awe as you’ve described to them the plans for your trip of a lifetime to this little-travelled country, knowing they will be even more enthralled by your stories of some of the most astonishing exhibits of the natural world on your return home.

You will share your knowledge and experience of this destination with others for years to come, how the lack of predatory animals and diverse variety of habitats and climates has provided the birds of Papua New Guinea with the opportunity to adapt to each of their own remarkable, and often exuberant behavioural niche. You’ll entertain them with pictures of yourself, taken with the local residents, adorned to mimic the island’s fabulous birds with elaborate head plumes made from the feathers of various parrots and birds-of-paradise.

The night before your visit to Varirata National Park, you listened intently as your expert Rockjumper Tour Leader prepared you for the following day, your travel companions chattering eagerly about the park, which opened as recently as 1973. Covering 1063ha of state land, it hosts an impressive array of unique plants and animals including the scarce Forest Wallaby, two species of secretive cassowary, upwards of 10 species of kingfisher, pitohui’s, monarchs, berrypeckers and lekking flocks of Raggiana Bird-of-paradise.

When the day finally arrives, you find yourself listening and watching the surrounds come alive, your mind racing through recalled research “most notable of all extravagantly attired birds”, “leaves nothing to spare in terms of flamboyance, charm and dancing ability”, “bold representative for avian communication on the most linguistically diverse place on earth”, “solitary and fairly elusive” as you take in the scenic views.

Exhilaration doesn’t begin to describe the feeling you have on reaching our reliable site for these staggeringly beautiful birds, festooned with elaborate red and orange flank plumes. You watch with delight as the chaotically choreographed courtship displays of the testosterone-ridden male Raggiana Bird-of-paradise attract a good number of somewhat duller, but equally intricate females.

After all of your dreaming, visualising, researching and describing – the moment you lay eyes on the Raggiana Bird-of-paradise is when you will know for sure that you really are in birders’ heaven!

You may feel somewhat overwhelmed after witnessing the grandiosity of Papua New Guinea’s national bird, but there is there is plenty more adventure to follow on the rest of the tour. There are hundreds more bird species that call Papua New Guinea home; and travelling by air, road, and boat we shall explore winding lowland rivers, sprawling grasslands, and rich montane forests to together.