Papua New Guinea: New Britain Premium Extension – Bismarck Archipelago Birding

Papua New Guinea: New Britain Premium Extension – Bismarck Archipelago Birding

August 2023/2024 September 2025

This incredibly exciting premium extension to New Britain, the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea and a certified tropical paradise, offers the chance for some rarely seen and stunningly beautiful endemic birds.

Purple-bellied Lory is one of the many species of colorful parrots to be found on this New Britain birding tour (photo Dejan Stojanovic).

We stay in a luxurious dive resort with excellent facilities making for a fantastic and relaxing bird-filled experience (and some amazing snorkeling at a wonderful reef too). This tour is an ideal add-on to our Papua New Guinea: Birding Attenborough’s Paradise, where we look for Blue Bird-of-paradise and a multitude of other jaw-dropping species.

On this short New Britain bird tour, we will find numerous New Britain endemics, along with plenty of Bismarck Archipelago endemics, and some Solomon Islands endemics too. Some of the many possible highlights include Melanesian Megapode, Blue-eyed Cockatoo, Black-capped Paradise Kingfisher, Bismarck (New Britain) Pitta, and Golden Masked Owl. We will also enjoy sightings of numerous parrots, pigeons, kingfishers, and exciting passerines that will provide an incredible splash of color.

Itinerary (6 days/5 nights)

Day 1. Arrival in Port Moresby

After your arrival at Jacksons International Airport in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG), you will transfer to our comfortable hotel for the night. Time after arrival is at your own leisure. We will meet for a group welcome dinner in the evening.

Overnight: Port Moresby

Day 2. Fly from Port Moresby to Hoskins, New Britain, transfer to, and birding at Walindi

We will depart from Jacksons International Airport, Port Moresby in the morning for Hoskins Airport in New Britain. On arrival we will transfer to our extremely comfortable base at Walindi Plantation Resort (Walindi Dive Resort) for the four nights of our stay on the island.

Not only is Walindi Plantation Resort a great and luxurious place to stay in terms of accommodation, meals, and diving, it also offers excellent on-site birding and access to numerous nearby areas that are perfect for finding a range of New Britain endemic birds and wider Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands endemic birds.

After checking in to the resort we will get on with some birding around the grounds. The resort includes a mosaic of habitats, with lowland rainforest, open landscaped gardens, and beachfront, all resulting in some great birds, and here we might find Red-knobbed Imperial Pigeon, Blue-eyed Cockatoo, White-necked (Pied) Coucal, New Britain Boobook, New Britain Friarbird, Ashy Myzomela, Bismarck Crow, Long-tailed Myna, Red-banded Flowerpecker, Red-flanked Lorikeet, Purple-bellied Lory, Buff-faced Pygmy Parrot, and Moustached Treeswift.

Overnight: Walindi Plantation Resort

The striking Red-knobbed Imperial Pigeon will be a target while birding in New Britain (photo Dejan Stojanovic).

Day 3. Birding New Britain (Birding Garu Wildlife Management/Conservation Area and Kulu River)

We will spend our morning birding at Garu Wildlife Management/Conservation Area. This is a large reserve incorporating a range of habitats, including some excellent lowland rainforest and geothermally heated hot rivers! This site is of huge importance for breeding Melanesian Megapode, one of our main targets here. This area is also excellent for the endemic Black-capped Paradise Kingfisher along with other endemics like Pink-legged Rail, Black Honey Buzzard, Finsch’s Imperial Pigeon, Knob-billed Fruit Dove, Blue-eyed Cockatoo, Purple-bellied Lory, Violaceous Coucal, White-necked (Pied) Coucal, White-mantled Kingfisher, Ashy Myzomela, Bismarck Whistler, Black-tailed Monarch, Velvet Flycatcher, and Red-banded Flowerpecker. Plenty of other species can be found too, such as Papuan Eclectus, Red-flanked Lorikeet, Coconut Lorikeet, and Buff-faced Pygmy Parrot.

We will spend the afternoon birding at Kulu River. We will cover grassland habitats along with river flats and oil palm plantations. A wide range of species are possible and likely to include crakes, bitterns, shorebirds, and waterfowl. Some of the more notable species here include Pied Cuckoo-Dove, White-bibbed Fruit Dove, Knob-billed Fruit Dove, Red-knobbed Imperial Pigeon, Nicobar Pigeon, Pink-legged Rail, Blue-eyed Cockatoo, New Britain Boobook, Bismarck Kingfisher, Bismarck (New Britain) Pitta, Black-tailed Monarch, White-backed Woodswallow, and Red-banded Flowerpecker, along with Spotted Whistling Duck, King Quail, and Black Bittern.

Overnight: Walindi Plantation Resort

Day 4. Birding Kimbe Bay by boat, including Restorf, Malumalu, and Schaumann Islands, with afternoon birding at Numundo

During the morning we will take a boat into Kimbe Bay where we will visit the rainforest-clad Restorf, Malumalu, and Schaumann Islands. We will hope to find fruiting trees which could be busy with pigeons and parrots, and we can also find exciting endemic passerines here. Some of the targets will include Melanesian Megapode, Nicobar Pigeon, Island Imperial Pigeon, Yellowish Imperial Pigeon, Yellow-bibbed Fruit Dove, Mackinlay’s Cuckoo-Dove, White-bellied Sea Eagle, Lesser Frigatebird, Great Frigatebird, Beach Kingfisher, Sclater’s Myzomela, Mangrove Golden Whistler, Island Monarch, Velvet Flycatcher, and Red-banded Flowerpecker. We will also keep our eyes peeled for Heinroth’s Shearwater and Beck’s Petrel while on our boat trip.

Our afternoon birding will take us to Numundo, where we will look for birds found in disturbed habitats such as oil palm plantations and grasslands. We will check this area out for Buff-bellied Mannikin, Papuan Grassbird, Australian Reed Warbler, Golden-headed Cisticola, Black Bittern, Spotted Whistling Duck, King Quail, White-browed Crake, and Pale-vented Bush-hen. We will also look out for other wildfowl and shorebirds.

Overnight: Walindi Plantation Resort

Buff-bellied Mannikin is found in the Bismarck Archipelago and Bougainville (photo Dejan Stojanovic)

Day 5. More New Britain Birding!

We will spend more time birding Kulu River, where we will look for those birds mentioned in Day 3, as well as any others we can find. We will also visit the lowland forest at Hela where we can walk through the forest looking for mixed feeding flocks and look for birds such as Melanesian Megapode, Black Honey Buzzard, Knob-billed Fruit Dove, Finsch’s Imperial Pigeon, Black Imperial Pigeon, Blue-eyed Cockatoo, Bismarck Hanging Parrot, Black-capped Paradise Kingfisher, Bismarck Kingfisher, New Britain Dwarf Kingfisher, White-mantled Kingfisher, Black-bellied Myzomela, Black-tailed Monarch, and Red-banded Flowerpecker. We will look for Golden Masked Owl in the evening if we’ve not seen it before now and we might also find Large-tailed Nightjar and Nankeen Night Heron.

Overnight: Walindi Plantation Resort

New Britain Dwarf Kingfisher is one of several regional endemic species we will look for on our New Britain birding tour (photo Henry Cook).

Day 6. Walindi to Port Moresby and departure from Papua New Guinea

We will transfer from Walindi to Hoskins Airport before flying on to Jacksons International Airport, Port Moresby. If you are not on our Papua New Guinea: Birding Attenborough’s Paradise tour your tour will conclude and you will be free to depart in the evening(please check international flight timings with us prior to booking any flights so we can check them against the flights between New Britain and Port Moresby).

If you are continuing with our Papua New Guinea tour, you will commence Day 1 of that tour, likely with some late afternoon birding at the Pacific Adventist University (depending on the time of the internal flight between Hoskins and Port Moresby).

Overnight: Not included (unless taking part in our Papua New Guinea tour)

Please note that the itinerary cannot be guaranteed as it is only a rough guide and can be changed (usually slightly) due to factors such as availability of accommodation, updated information on the state of accommodation, roads, or birding sites, the discretion of the guides and other factors. In addition, we sometimes have to use a different international guide from the one advertised due to tour scheduling.

Papua New Guinea General Information

We loved traveling with Andy. Thanks to Andy’s birding and organization skills, this trip exceeded our expectations. Andy is an excellent bird guide and tour leader! His knowledge of the birds, their songs, habitats, and ability to locate birds was amazing. We all appreciated his ability to make sure that we all saw good views of the birds.

Donna and Allen