Day 409: November 13, 2025 – Alotau, Papua New Guinea
I was very much looking forward to my birding excursion in Papua New Guinea. This country is home to 800+ species of birds, including the coveted Bird of Paradise. Unfortunately, the birding turned out to be a bit disappointing, probably due to our late start. The Odyssey docked at 8 AM and by the time we cleared immigration, instead of our usual 5 AM start for birding, we didn’t get there until 10:00, not the best time for spotting birds. I did get a fleeting glimpse of a Bird of Paradise flying off, and several other birds calling.
But the tour was interesting nevertheless, in spite of the lack of bird life. We hiked through a rainforest privately owned by the Imowai clan, an indigenous Papuan tribe. Our guides used machetes to clear a path for us through the jungle.
This little marsupial, a sugar glider, liked to hang out with humans. The name reflects a preference for sugary foods such as sap and nectar, and their ability to glide through the air.
This sweet boy climbed to the top of a coconut tree (with bare feet!) to get some fresh coconuts for us. I love this picture; he is the face of Papua in my Faces of the World Gallery.
The machetes also came in handy for popping open the coconuts.
Coconut water hit the spot on this very hot, humid day. We were all drenched by the time we left.
A fascinating thing about this country is that it is the most linguistically diverse country in the world. It is estimated there are at least 826 Papuan languages. That’s as many languages as there are birds here! Some are spoken by just a handful of people, while others by 100,000.
Source: Wikipedia
The matriarch of this clan said they occasionally get solo birders, but we were the first large group (there were 8 of us) to visit their land.
6 responses to “Machetes and Sugar Gliders”
Fascinating facts about the languages…!
Bummer in the birds. I can’t believe you have seen that many birds! Wow!
Sugar gliders are just insanely cute.
They really are adorable. And not shy.
This may be a silly question, but where do the birds go after 10 am that you can’t see them? Are they all taking a nap in their nests? It never occurred to me that birds don’t stick around during the day.
Very interesting info. about the number of languages. I think Margaret Mead, my childhood heroine, did some research in New Guinea, but not about the languages.
As always, pictures capture the essence of the place. Thank for sharing.
It’s not so much that they go anywhere, it’s that they are much harder to spot. They are most active after they wake up, at dawn, and at dusk. They’re out foraging for food after resting, doing mating calls, singing, building nests. That makes them much easier to find because you can follow the sound or track their flight. Their activity goes way down during the day. Some retreat to shaded areas to cool off from daytime heat. It’s hard to spot a bird if it’s just sitting quietly, not moving, behind leaves or branches.
There are of course many birds don’t follow this pattern – the most common city birds like sparrows and pigeons, you can spot them throughout the day. But in general, dawn and dusk are considered the golden hours.
That all makes sense. I guess I’ve never noticed it.