Birds of Papua New Guniea (PNG) with a Brief but Complex History of the Region and a Sprinkling of Australian Birds

Presented by Chris Conard

In August 2022, Chris joined a group largely composed of Sacramento/San Joaquin-based birders to Papua New Guinea (PNG), which comprises the eastern half of the world’s second largest island. We had a wonderful time viewing and listening to perhaps the most spectacular avifauna on earth, including the incomparable birds of paradise, bowerbirds, crowned pigeons, and paradise-kingfishers to name but a few. The tour ranged from the humid, leech-infested lowlands to cool, mossy forests over ten thousand feet in elevation, and wrapped up on the volcano-strewn island of New Britain in the Bismarck Sea. PNG is both magnificent and fraught. It is also one of the most ethnically complex regions of the world, with a history of human settlement of over fifty thousand years; twenty percent of the world’s languages developed on the island. The capital, Port Moresby, is perennially listed among the ten most violent cities in the world. There is palpable tribal tension in the highlands and shocking poverty in the lowlands. Yet, the local guides were wonderfully helpful and proud to show some of the highlights of their country. If all that wasn’t enough, most of the group spent five days in Australia before heading home.

Chris Conard is a Natural Resource Specialist at the Bufferlands in Sacramento County. He regularly leads field trips for Sacramento Audubon, serves as a county editor for eBird, and is a past president of the Central Valley Bird Club.