Do I not Like Orange...Kumul (Papua New Guinea): June 2010

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Getting back to Kumul Lodge after feasting on the Blue Bird-of-paradise, we watched this corking male Brown Sicklebill wolfing down fruits on the Kumul bird table. This wonderful bird-of-paradise blows the picture away in the field guide, and ALWAYS makes the select list of birds at the end of the trip that are chosen for selection as best birds of the trip. The plumage is good enough, with iridescent green sheen running down the back, golden-tinged flank plumes, and that long, long tail. As if that is not enough it has a canary yellow gape, seen well when it is chucking large pieces of fruit down its throat at the bird table here (top photos). This alone was awesome, although we could not resist returning to look at the flame orange male Crested Satinbird in its favored fruiting tree. The fruit may have been waning, although the bird looked as spiffing as ever (bottom photo).

(For those of you who are not familiar with the title phrase here, it is used in reference to the orange Crested Satinbird, after a phrase made famous by the much derided England soccer manager Graham Taylor when his team was losing to the Dutch team who were dressed in orange)