Wilson's Bird

Wilson's Bird

Photographing the Bird Of Paradise was since long a dream to me.
I badly wanted to see these beautiful and highly evolved bird species in their natural habitat and I started planning this trip several years ago.
West papua was the destination and places like Manokwari , Afar mountains, Waigeo , Gam and Sorong and Klasow where on the schedule, hoping to succeed and to fulfill my dream.
The trip took 18 day’s and the aim was to be able to photograph at least 11 of the in total 39 different species of the BOP.
I was aware that steep climbs on slippery paths , leaving at 3,3 am and staying in tents while sleeping several nights on a wooden floor where part of the operation.
Sunny weather during that time of year allowing me to photograph in good light conditions is primordial ,but I turned out totally wrong.
Rain, overcasted weather, mosquitos and leeches were my loyal partners during 16 of the 18 day’s, where normally it should have been sunny weather.
Only 2 day’s conditions where reasonable to photograph, but I still needed to push my camera to high Iso settings with values going up to 25800.
The display of the birds happened in poor lighting conditions and the window of shooting was very limited starting from around 7 am t’ill 8 am sometimes repeated in the afternoon around 3 pm . Nevertheless , it is trilling and a lifetime sight to see this magnificent birds when they make their display and what I did not succeed today still stay’s a challenge for the future.
Once more , even with good planning we still need the elements of nature to be in our favor, on top of that a good portion of luck.
Image: the Wilson bird in display photographed in Waigeo
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