
The island of New Guinea includes some of the least explored areas of the planet. We collaborate with Christophe Thébaud at the University of Toulouse, France, and Hidayat Ashari at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense – LIPI at Cibinong, Indonesia, to study the biogeography and systematics of select avian groups from this fascinating part of the world. In 2014 we joined a two-month expedition to New Guinea’s Bird’s Neck region in West Papua (see link to a full documentary below), led by the Institut de la Recherche pour le Development (IRD, France), and we had the opportunity to explore the Kumawa Mountains, a remote mountain range that had been previously visited only by Jared Diamond in the early 1980’s. We sampled understory birds using mist-nets at an elevation of 1200 m, and made several interesting observations. We detected species not previously reported for this area (Sericornis spilodera and Symposiachrus axillaris), and we captured an individual of what could represent a new species of berrypecker in the genus Melanocharis. It seems to be related to Melanocharis longicauda but with satin-white underparts and larger size, apparently similar to birds observed by David Gibbs in the nearby Fakfak Mountains in his 1994 expedition. Molecular analyses are underway to determine the degree of divergence relative to other congeners.
We conducted a second expedition to the Kumawa Mountains in October and November 2017, and captured three more males of the new Melanocharis species. Check out this little home video of this last expedition, showing the amazingly pristine lowland and cloud forests in the Kumawas:
And Click on one of these links to view an excellent professional documentary on our 2014 expedition!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
For more information on the Lengguru 2014 expedition visit:
http://www.lengguru.org/?lang=en
https://viajesdeinvestigacion.wordpress.com/2015/01/13/papua-la-conquista-de-kumawa/ (in Spanish)
- The Lengguru region of West Papua, Indonesia
- Arses tescopthalmus
- Papuan Dwarf Kingfisher, Ceyx solitarius
- Stephan’s Emerald Dove, Chalcophaps stephani
- Painted quail-thrush, Cinclosoma ajax
- Climbing to 1200 m, Lobo
- Ready to climb at Lobo
- Lowland forest in Kaimana, New Guinea
- The Airaha at Lobo
- The Airaha
- “Le Boutre”
- Lowland forest near Lobo, New Guinea
- Ptiloris magnificus female
- Micropsitta pusio
- Dicaeum pectorale
- Syma torotoro
- Paradise kingfisher, Tanysiptera galatea
- Dacelo gaudichaud
- Papuan Dwarf Kingfisher, Ceyx solitarius
- Variable Pitohui
- Futukama Beach, Bomberai Peninsula, New Guinea
- Les herpetos, Main camp at Lobo
- Main Camp at Lobo
- Bernard Pouyaud at the controls
- Suparno and Hidayat preparing specimens
- Dr. Evi Arida at work
- Christophe, Phillipe, Jean and Antoine, heading to Lake Sewicki, Urisa, New Guinea
- Vincent Droissart and colleagues and their orchid specimens
- Camp at 1200 m, Lobo, New Guinea. Photo: Vincent Droissart
- At work processing captured birds near Lake Sewicki. Photo by Jean Marc Porte
- Checking for feather mites on a variable pitohui. Photo: Jean Marc Porte
- Starting the climb in the Kumawa Mts.
- Taking a blood sample from a Paradise Kingfisher
- Paradise kingfisher, Tanysiptera galatea
- Heteromyias albispecularis
- Sericornis beccari
- Crateroscelis spilodera, Kumawa Mts.
- Peneothello bimaculata
- Toxorhamphus novaguinaea
- Melanocharis nigra
- Melanocharis sp., a new undescribed species from Kumawa, New Guinea
- Camp at 400 m, Kumawa Mts., New Guinea. Photo by Vincent Droissart
- Kumawa Mts. at sea level
- Borja, Basamai, Christophe, and Kadarusman, Nusa Ulan
- Christophe Thébaud, Usman, Wais, BM, Rei, Dayat, Arga, and Ewan , Kumawa Mts., 1100 m
- My hammock (home), Kumawa Mts., 1100 m
- Camp at 1100 m, Kumawa Mts.
- Back at 400 m after descending from 1100 m, Kumawa Mts., New Guinea