Arfak Mountains

The Arfak range rises steeply behind Manokwari to around two thousand nine hundred metres and holds one of the more concentrated sets of New Guinea birds accessible to visitors. The Vogelkop bowerbird is the headline: males build a hut-shaped bower of sticks around a sapling, sometimes a metre across, with a cleared lawn in front on which they arrange collected objects - fruits, flowers, beetle wings, fungi - sorted by colour and rearranged daily, one of the more extraordinary constructions any animal makes. Alongside are the western parotia and magnificent bird of paradise, both displaying on cleared ground watched from village-built hides before dawn, the Arfak astrapia, and endemic butterflies. Villages at Mokwam and Syoubri run the hides and homestays as a community operation.

The landscape

• Vogelkop bowerbird huts - hut bowers with objects sorted by colour on a cleared lawn.
• Parotia and magnificent bird displays - watched from village hides before dawn.
• Community-run hides - the operation at Mokwam and Syoubri villages.
• Steep montane forest - the range rising directly behind the coast.

When to go

All year; drier around June to September. Four days.

What to expect

Pre-dawn starts and cold wet sitting in hides are the routine, and birds are not guaranteed. The road up is rough four-wheel-drive. Accommodation is very basic village homestays. Leeches are constant.

Nearby

Manokwari is on the coast below; Cenderawasih Bay is south-east.

Key facts