Standardwing Leks and a Megapode Beach
The first morning’s excursion at Tanah Batu Putih is the short pilgrimage to the Wallace’s standardwing lek. Just before dawn, Anu will guide you across the stream below his house and up a short, steep trail to a small clearing in the forest. Here, in the cool dawn, two or three male standardwings perform their display flights. Shadows at first, but, as the light improves, the iridescent breast spurs and four strange, white, elongated feathers become visible. What a bizarre bird!
Brilliant though it is, this standardwing lek is pitifully small. If you have three or four days and really want an unforgettable experience, ask anu to take you to the lek tree of hundred or more birds he discovered during the 1995 BirdLife International surveys. Getting there is great journey, which starts with a 4-hr bus ride to Tobelo, followed by 2,5 hours by speedboat across the magnificent Kao bay to the village of Lel life. The display tree is just a 4-km trek away.
This trip is easily combined with a visit to another truly remarkable bird phenomenon-the world’s largest nesting beach of Wallacean Scrubfowl. The PHPA office in Tobelo will give permission to visit the 1.6-km long, black sand beach, which is pitted with the nest burrows of this extraordinary bird.
The beach owners harvest the eggs in an apparently sustainable manner. At least, for nearly a hundred years they have been collecting the eggs, and hundreds of scrubfowl still arrive each night to lay their single, massive egg.
Source: Birding Indonesia. Periplus Publishing. Singapore