Birding in West Papua Photo Gallery – November 2025

Birding in West Papua provides easy access to several highly sought-after Birds-of-Paradise, species that most birders would have thought impossible to see in years gone by. On our West Papua exploratory birding tour in 2025 we found a surpirsingly high proportion of target species, given how short the trip was, and found that seeing many of them was nowhere near as difficult or arduous as is commonly thought. You can read the full trip report, with a day-by-day account, here – West Papua Birding Tour Trip Report November 2025 .  On this page we present a wider range of bird’s from this year’s exploratory tour, in this West Papua birds photo gallery, along with some accompanying notes.

Sorong Mangroves 02/11/25

Just outside the town of Sorong is an area of fairly extensive mangroves, with a series of roads and tracks through them, allowing for easy access for birders. Although there is plenty of access here the location is known to present difficult birding and so it proved, although several exciting birds were seen, including the stunning Emperor Fairy Wren. Sorong Mangroves is a very convenient location to start a birding trip in West Papua and provides a morning or afternoon of specialised species as well as a location to get to grips with a selection of the commoner birds. This is a nice spot to start this birding in West Papua photo gallery.

Malagafuk 03/11/25

Malagafuk is becoming a legendary birding destination  and also one that is infamously tiring to visit. Only an hour and a half from a comfortable hotel in Sorong there is wonderful early morning birding along the 3.3 kilometre long boardwalk through some pristine forest. Fruiting and flowering trees attract a wide variety of colourful and memorable birds while a series of stakeouts and hides/blinds provide a window into the lives of some sensational birds. One day of birding at Malagafuk was superb but on our tours here we will spend longer so as to enjoy birds at a more sensible pace.

TWA Forest, Sorong 04/11/25

This area of lowland forest is just a short drive from the town of Sorong and a great place for a few hours of early morning birding where a really good selection of species can be found. While birding along a quiet road through the forest lots of birds perch out in the early morning sun including a variety of colourful fruit doves. This is an easy place to reach and to become familiar with a lot of West Papua’s more widespread lowland forest species as well as a few that can be tricky to see elsewhere.

Raflow Resort, Waigeo Island 04-08/11/25

As well as being a pleasant place to stay, with nice local food and a great location looking out to sea, Raflow Resort is surrounded by forest patches and is a very birdy spot indeed. In the early morning and late afternoon a riot of bird activity ensued every day, indeed even in the middle of the day several species of parrot were active. Night birding is very profitable here too with several nocturnal species and roosting birds to be found. Raflow Resort is a great place to get to grips with many of Waigeo Island’s more abundant birds as well as a few of the most sought-after species.

Warkesi Forest Park 05-07/11/25

Covering a healthy portion of forest this area provides lots of birding opportunities along a very quiet road and several trails where local rangers can provide help in seeing some of the highlight species. Mornings and late afternoons are best with activity levels through the middle of the day being very low, making for an ideal time to take a break. Virtually all of the island’s forest species can be found in this area and several hides/blinds provide birders with access to some incredible birds. This area will always form the key birding area on Waigeo Island for birding tours and full of photographic opportunities for this birding in West Papua photo gallery.

Airport Bay, Waigeo Island 05-06/11/25

For a bit of a change of scene, and birds, Airport Bay was nice at low tide for a variety of wading birds, some common open country species and some kingfishers. Although there was not a lot of tidal movement during this stay it still provided a pleasant change of pace and plenty of birds. Although there is lots of excellent forest birding available in this area, it can become tiring walking through the forest in the heat so it was nice to just sit and look at some wetland birds at Airport Bay on Waigeo Island.

Join us on our next tour to West Papua. Full itinerary and links to our booking page here – West Papua Birding Tour.