Long-tailed Paradigala

Long-tailed Paradigala is a species of birds of paradise that lives in tropical rainforest of West Papua. It is an endemic bird of Arfak mountains. I saw it when I guided two American birdwatchers on a 2 week birding and snorkeling tour from Raja Ampat to Manokwari. We did not have plan to find the bird because he does not have a fixed display tree. 

Long-tailed Paradigala

One early morning time in Arfak mountains, I and Paige (one of the tour participants) went hiking to the dancing ground of Western Parotia (Parotia sefilata). We started at around 05.00 a.m. when it was still dark. The slopes were steep so we walked slowly and stopped several times on the way. Around forty five minutes later, we arrived. A red pandanus fruit had already been placed just outside the dancing ground of Western Parotia to attract the bird to come. 

Shortly after we sat on our "bench" which was actually a fallen log, we saw that some birds began to land on the fruits. There were female Black Sicklebills, female Vogelkop Superb Bird of Paradise and Western Parotia. They took turn in occupying the red fruit to have their breakfast. 

Suddenly, a Long-tailed Paradigala landed. I was surprised to see it. I had not seen the bird during my previous trips to Arfak mountains. Now the bird of paradise was just around four meters from me. I immediately aimed my camera at the bird and and took some pictures of him. After getting his fair share of the red grains as his breakfast, he flew away. 

That morning, we saw the Western Parotia dancing on the ground. There were also Green-backed Robin, Black-eared Catbird and Blue Gray Robin, Vogelkop Melidectes, Western Smoky Honeyeater, and Spectacled Longbill that we saw during our walk back to the guesthouse.

We were happy with the morning walk because we could see birds that are endemic to Arfak mountains. This was written by Charles Roring.

Logo Burung Cendrawasih Merah

Ini adalah logo burung Cendrawasih Merah yang saya buat dengan posisi kepala menghadap ke bawah (lihat ilustrasi dijital ke - 2). 

Kalau kita pergi ke Pulau Waigeo di Raja Ampat, untuk menonton burung Cendrawasih Merah berdansa, kita akan mendapati posisi alami saat sang jantan berdansa adalah dengan kepala yang menghadap ke bawah.  Gambar ini saya buat sketsa manualnya menggunakan pensil di kertas, setelah itu saya gambar lagi menggunakan stylus memakai Autodesk Sketchup.

Gambar Burung Cendrawasih Jantan sedang berdansa

Oleh karena itu, logo yang saya buat ini, posisi kepalanya menghadap ke bawah. Saya membuatnya menggunakan software vektor inkscape. 

Logo Burung Cendrawasih

Nama ilmiah burung Cendrawasih Merah adalah Red Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea rubra). Burung ini spesies endemik Raja Ampat dan bisa dijumpai di Waigeo, Gam, kemungkinan juga Pulau Mansuar, Batanta. 

Foto Burung Cendrawasih

Saya memiliki banyak sekali foto burung Cendrawasih Kuning Kecil/ Lesser Birds of Paradise (Paradisaea minor). Foto-foto tersebut saya buat ketika memandu wisatawan di dalam hutan hujan tropis Papua Barat. Burung ini indah sekali warnanya sehingga menjadi target pengamatan yang utama di kalangan para wisatawan pengamat burung baik di dalam dan luar negeri. 

Lesser Birds of Paradise

Untuk menontonnya, kami harus bangun pagi sekali dan pergi ke pohon tempat biasanya burung surga ini berkumpul untuk berdansa dan kawin. Cendrawasih Kuning Kecil hidup di dataran rendah dan hutan perbukitan di Tanah Papua. Burung ini suka berdansa di pagi dan sore hari. 

Lokasi burung berdansa biasanya terletak lebih ke dalam hutan. Di Manokwari, saya suka mengantar wisatawan ke hutan Susnguakti yang terletak di kawasan pegunungan rendah dari Pegunungan Arfak. Di Kabupaten Tambrauw dan Teluk Wondama serta Sorong, Burung Cendrawasih dapat pula diamati. Wisatawan perlu berjalan kaki ke lokasi pohon tempat burung surga ini biasa berkumpul.

Burung Cendrawasih dan burung-burung tropis Papua lainnya memakan buah dan menyebar biji-bijiannya ke seluruh penjuru hutan. Ini artinya, burung Cendrawasih bermanfaat dalam melestarikan hutan tropis.

Cendrawasih Jantan dan Betina

Perkembangan penduduk, pembangunan jalan, gedung perkantoran serta perumahan telah mengakibatkan luasan hutan hujan tropis Papua, yang adalah habitat alami dari burung Cendrawasih, semakin berkurang. Hal ini diperparah lagi oleh masih adanya perburuan satwa burung cendrawasih di Tanah Papua. Akibat dari semua ini, populasi Cendrawasih juga ikut terancam.

Apa yang bisa kita lakukan untuk menjaga kelestarian burung Cendrawasih?

• Tidak membeli burung Cendrawasih baik yang masih hidup atau yang sudah diawetkan.
• Tidak ikut merusak hutan hujan tropis Papua
• Memperkenalkan satwa Cendrawasih ini kepada sesama kita agar mereka ikut peduli.

Cendrawasih Jantan

Saya juga suka menggambar burung-burung surga baik secara manual menggunakan pensil warna dan kertas, maupun secara digital menggunakan gambar vektor inkscape dan bitmap seperti Adobe Autodesk Sketchbook. Gambar-gambar itu selanjutnya saya upload ke situs Redbubble untuk kemudian bisa dibeli cetakannya oleh pembaca dalam bentuk mug, t-shirt, tas, sarung bantal, dan lain sebagainya. Pembaca bisa melihatnya di link berikut:

• Bird of Paradise drawing
• Paradise Birds in Watercolour

Baca juga artikel berikut:

• Cendrawasih Kuning Kecil
• Burung-burung Surga

Manta Postcards

I have just received emails from Redbubble which says that somebody just bought postcards with my drawing of mantas. I don't know who bought it but I would like to say thank you. I am happy if people appreciate or buy artworks that I create and upload to my Redbubble pages. 

Freediving with manta

I created the manta drawing a few years ago using Derwent watercolour pencils. I drew the fish and a lady who was freediving to get closer to mantas. Well this was not an imaginary picture. It was an experience of mine when guiding tourists in Raja Ampat islands. I guided some European tourists on 1 week snorkeling trip across the beautiful archipelago. The presence of a lady swimming towards manta is a good comparison for us to see how big the giant fish is. 

Vector illustration of Swimming with Manta

When we were at Manta Point one early morning time, we saw a group of mantas moving around in the water in circle formations. To get closer to the fish, we freedived to a depth of 5 to 7 meters. Because there were no scubadivers at that time, we could enjoy the show for quite long. After that we continued our tour to Piaynemo karst. I recreated the manual drawing in the first picture above into some digital versions using vector drawing software: inkscape hoping that with more choices more people will be interested in buying artwork that printed in various functional products like t-shirts, mugs, bags, laptop skin, smartphone skins, pencil skirt, pillow, anti-covid virus masks. To my surprise, people bought more of my manual drawings instead on the digital ones. 

After finishing the tour, I returned home with ideas of creating a number of drawings inspired from the marine creatures that I saw in Raja Ampat. 

If you are interested in seeing them, please, have a look at my art page at this link: Art Inspired from Nature.