The Port Moresby Nature Park has opened a new walk-through bird of paradise precinct and is stepping up efforts in bird research and breeding. Nicola Gage reports.

One of the birds at the new Bird of Paradise Precinct. Credit: Port Moresby Nature Park

Papua New Guinea is home to 32 of the world’s 34 bird of paradise (kumul) species, however the majority of research undertaken on this unique creature occurs overseas. Despite it being the country’s national bird, little is known about it.

Port Moresby’s Nature Park is increasing its focus on further research in a bid to change this, and become an internationally recognised breeding and research destination.

‘For us, it’s about bringing it home,’ says Michelle McGeorge, the park’s general manager. ‘Most ex situ research on PNG animals is currently done overseas, so the goal of the nature park is to bring research of PNG animals, especially the bird of paradise, back into the country.’

‘We would like to be able to successfully breed the national bird and, as we’ve already seen them conduct nesting behaviours here in the park, we are confident it will be a success.’

The first step is to have the right facilities. With help from its sponsors, a new bird precinct, Plumes of Paradise, has been constructed—a walk-through interpretive centre that showcases eight species of the
bird of paradise, as well as other wildlife.

A place to thrive

Credit: Nicola Gage

The K700,000 project has been two years in the making and was designed by the park’s curator, Brett Smith, purposefully planned with breeding in mind.

‘Bird of paradise have quite a few requirements in order for successful breeding to occur,’ McGeorge explains. One of those requirements is the height of the exhibits—many of the males need room to conduct their spectacular breeding displays.

‘For a lot of those species, they want to do that up high, so the exhibits are tall,’ she says. ‘We’ve also got special lock-off areas where we feed the birds, so when we start to see nesting behaviour of the female, we can successfully move the male into a different exhibit.’

That’s because the males tend to destroy the eggs.

‘As soon as the female is not in her nest, she’s ready to breed again, so they have motives for destroying those eggs,’ McGeorge says.

The park’s first aim is to successfully breed the raggiana species.

‘We would like to be able to successfully breed the national bird and, as we’ve already seen them conduct nesting behaviours here in the park, we are confident it will be a success,’ McGeorge says.

While she admits it will be challenging, McGeorge is confident that, with the new precinct, they will prevail.

‘Some species have never been bred in captivity, so a lot of this is world first and trial and error,’ she says.

‘We’ve reached that maturity with the organisation that now we’re turning our attention to developing that conservation and research arm, and it’s bringing a whole new dimension of expertise to the park.’

This story was first published in the May-June edition of Paradise, the inflight magazine of Air Niugini.