Bird of Paradise Magnificent – BIRD HIDE – West Waigeo, New Guinea – Click for Notes

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The Rockjumper Group at the Bird Hide.

Up at 04:00 a drive and rough jungle trek, we arrived at the hot spot at 06:30; there was not much light. We entered the specially created Hide under the tree canopy with a small windows cut in the from canvass for each birder, it was a very dark area. We stat motionless for 1 hour 10 minutes by which time I and others had nodded off from time to time.  Suddenly the Magnificent Bird of Paradise entered the area and started  jumping about and tossing leaves.  Fortunately  I had removed my x1.7 teleconverter so the excellent Nikon 300mm f2.8 lens was giving me the optimum light and precision capability yet appreciated a higher f stop would give more depth of field, settings are a compromise. My Nikon D850 camera was set to auto ISO that at times went up to 25,000 achieving  shutter speeds of  around 400/sec. Nevertheless  I accepted that I would get a lot of grain. This opportunity challenged my photographic experience completely.  I had to think fast making several camera adjustments as I proceeded to reduce the grain but since the bird moved very fast a high shutter speed was essential. The following selected images are the best I could manage. At every angle the bird displayed and revealed different colours, quite amazing.