Kingfisher Park and the surrounding area is truly a birdwatcher's paradise. Just walking around the grounds this morning I was able to see a number of birds that were new for me. Even the common birds here are quite different. Add to that the lush rainforest of the eastern side of the range and the dry savannah on the western side of the ridge and you get one of the most diverse and interesting regions of this part of the country. As Imove farther and farther north, the birds continue to change. I am now seeing more and more birds that are characterstic of the tropics and many that migrate from Papau New Guinea each year. Even of those birds that don't migrate, many of them have populations both here and in New Guinea. While this might lead one to believe that there wouldn't be many endemic birds up here, this area actually has its own group of endemic birds, unique to this very small region. I was fortunate enough to see some of them today and hopefully will find a few more tomorrow. However, my best bird of the day by far was the Blue-faced Parrotfinch which isn't supposed to be here until November, but I was fortunate to find a pair of them.
To give you an idea of this place, I got out of bed this morning and set up the camera and wandered around the campsite. One of the first birds Isaw was a Noisy Pitta (above) and while I didn't get a chance to photograph this individual, I did manage full frame images of another individual later in the morning as it walked right down the path to me. Today, I had 50 species of birds, most of which were seen in the small area around the campground and on the grounds here. Ialso know that as I become more experienced with the local birds, I will see more as I learn the different species and calls of the birds. Ilook forward to tomorrow as I am off to do a bit of exploring in the local area.
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