@america: national geographic and birds of paradise!

Jakarta (22/8), my friends (KPB Nycticorax, Kutu Aer, Indonesia Wildlife Photography) and I went to Pasific Place, a place where high technology of USA displayed, yep @america! not about the technology brought us here, but the presentation did. that day, National Geographic with its professional wildlife photographer - Tim Laman, Ph.D came from Harvard University plus ornithologist named Edwin Scholes from Cornell Lab Ornithology, showed off their 8 years experiences in Papua, Indonesia. Laman hunted the birds of Papua - birds of paradise for photographs! more than 500 days in the field, no less than 100 tree climbing, oh damn ghost he is so good at field biology! he set up his cameras on the trees, covered them with leaves, and connected into his laptop. he also made up a house from leaves etc for living and hiding along the days taking photos. fantastic!

there are 39 species of birds-of-paradise in the world and my country, Indonesia, has them all in Papua island. for first time, they are all captured in photos by Laman with Scholes as the guide. sadly, when I'm googling, news did not say it is in Indonesia. pfft! New Guinea, only said. but yeah, New Guinea means Papua and Papua New Guinea. anyway, the most famous bird-of-paradise is the King of Saxony bird of paradise, Pteridophora alberti and the most common bird-of-paradise we see in glass display case is Goldies’ bird of paradise, Paradisaea decora.

Pteridophora alberti

P. decora males dancing in front of female

the most striking in birds of paradise are  the ways that courting males transform themselves from typical bird-like forms into unusual geometric abstractions, flower-like puffs of colour, or even pecu-liar ballerina-like dancers on the forest floor (Frith & Beehler, 1998; Scholes, 2006 in Scholes, 2007). Laman showed his video of the males attracted females. they are dancing and displaying their colours also their plumage. 1 male dances in front of some females. another males could be around for seeing their rival. Laman told us that birds of paradise get their ability on fantastic dancing by learning, what a smart!

brown (females, 8) and black (males, 2)

when discussed, the birds of paradise have a bright colour, wonderful one is because of lacking predators. most of them are on canopy, far away from ground, so they are hard to catched up by predators. there are many snakes in Papua, but so are the eagles. snake is not a threat, but human are! local people use their plumage for accessories and hunters want them as commodity in trade. wish the people are going to get awareness soon, the birds of paradise should be free in the wild, long life! that is one of our mega biodiversity, hey Indonesia!

in the end of presentation, beside discussion, we-the participants are also attracted by quiz from National Geographic Indonesia (NGI). first qusetion, I could not answer the species name of the king of saxony. second question, I could answer but I was not choosen by the mc. it was the easiest one, what kind of photography Laman's is? yeah, wildlife. the last question is, when is the first launching of National Geographic Indonesia? hahaha some participants answered but wrong, I did not know the answer till my senior in wildlife photography-mas Ady Kristanto told me: March, 2005. then I get the prize: 

NGI stuff. thanks a bunch, mas ady! :D

Laman and us, cheers!

friends and I

refferences:

http://press.nationalgeographic.com/2012/11/14/all-39-bird-of-paradise-species-documented-for-first-time/

 http://timlaman.com/

Scholes, Edwin. 2007. Evolution of the Courtship Phenotype in the Bird of Paradise Genus Parotia (Aves: Paradisaeidae): homology, phylogeny, and modularity. New York: Cornell University.