Birding in Sorong regency of Indonesia

West Papua is one of the most important birdwatching destinations in the world. Its rainforest is the natural habitat of birds of paradise, parrots, kingfishers, hornbills, goshawks, friarbirds, flycatcher, flowerpeckers, frogmouth, pigeon, and etc.

The entrance gate to this region is Sorong. It is a city where visitors arrive to continue their trip to Raja Ampat islands, or to the interior areas of mainland New Guinea. There is a birding destination in the east of Sorong city. Its name is Klasow valley. It is covered by lowland rainforest. Birds such as sulphur crested cockatoo, blyth's hornbill, lesser birds of paradise, goliath cockatoo, pinon imperial pigeon, yellow faced myna, golden myna and shining flycatcher can be seen in the valley.

Pink-spotted Fruit Dove in the forest of Sorong regency

Birding Package

As a tour guide, I offer a 5-day/ 4-night birding tour in Klasow valley.
Price: please, contact us by e-mail

Day 1

Transfer from Sorong city to Klasow valley

Walk through the jungle to reach the birding ground

Birding around the clearing area inside the jungle village to see such birds as Pinon Imperial Pigeon (Ducula pinon), Golden Myna (Mino anais), Sulphur Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita), Blyth's Hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus), Rainbow Lorikeet (Trichogossus haematodus), Pink-spotted Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus perlatus), Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis), Moustached Tree-swift (Hemiprocne mystacea), various species of Friarbird, Spangled Drongo (Dicrurus hottentottus) and hopefully the Magnificent Riflebird (Ptiloris magnificus) which is one of the members of paradise bird family.

Day 2

Wake up early in the morning at around 04.30. 

Walk up and down 2 steep hills to reach the display trees of Lesser Birds of Paradise (Paradisaea minor). Sometimes the Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise (Seleucidis melanoleuca) could be spotted in the same display trees.

Watching the paradise birds until approximately 09.00.

Walk back to the village

After breakfast, we will walk around the jungle to explore the flora and fauna in Klaglass area of the valley

Overnight stay in tents in Klaglass forest.

Day 3

We still have got time to do morning walk to a nearby river to see birds, butterfly and various plants of the jungle.
Klaglass is the place in the forest where wild pig, deer, cassowary bird and wild cow also live. We may see them during the jungle walk.
We can swim in the neaby by river in the evening.
We will also do night walk
Overnight stay in tents in Klaglass forest.

Day 4
After breakfast, we will dismantle our tents and walk back to the village.
Birding during the evening time in the clearing areas of the village.
Overnight stay in the village

Day 5
We will explore the forest in the morning.

After lunch, we will say Good Bye to local people and walk back to the main road where we will be transferred back to Sorong city by 4WD car.

To enhance the birding experience, we will provide spotting scope with tripod, a pair of binoculars and a field guide book "Birds of New Guinea" written by Bruce Beehler, Thane K. Pratt and Dale Zimmerman.
Please, bring a D-SLR camera with telephoto lens or a bridge camera such as Nikon P900 with optical zoom of 83x if you want to take pictures of birds.

How to get there?

• If you live in Asia, you could fly to Singapore, first. After that, take a flight by Silk Air to Manado city. After that you can fly to Sorong city by a domestic airline. I will meet you at the airport and arrange your trip to the valley.
• If you live in Europe, US or Australia, you can fly to Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia) and then by a domestic airliner, you could continue your trip to Sorong city.
• I will meet you at the airport and arrange your birding tour in Sorong.

In addition to watching birds, visitors may also see other wild animals such as boars, deers, wallabies, snakes, and birdwing butterflies while walking in the jungle of the valley.
If you are interested, please, contact me (Charles Roring) by email to: peace4wp@gmail.com