Tim Laman

| Wildlife Photojournalist

Wildlife Diaries

The Wildlife Diaries newsletter is the best way to keep up to date with Tim Laman’s latest work and travels, and to learn about photography and natural history as well. Read through his recent posts here or sign up to receive the posts via email using the form on the right.

Birds-of-Paradise

Birds-of-Paradise and Strangler Figs – Papua Expedition Highlights Part 2

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Following our pursuit of the Leatherback Sea Turtles that I shared in the last Wildlife Diaries, our team moved into the interior of Western Papua, where we immersed ourselves in the riches of the lowland rainforest at a small village called Malagufuk.  From our base at a small guesthouse, it was a matter of a few steps and we were in the forest.  Our main targets were several species of Birds-of-Paradise, but we also hoped to film other lowland specialists, like crowned pigeons, hornbills, and even cassowaries if we were lucky.

However, the plant life could not to be ignored!  The forest abounded with spectacularly large strangler figs and many beautiful species of palms, so we also spent time trying to photograph and film them in interesting ways.  You can see a few of my efforts below as well as a few bird shots.  Western Papua, and the entire giant island of New Guinea of which it is a part, still harbors vast areas of forest, which is heart-warming to see as a conservationist.  Our main objective of this expedition in fact was to bring attention to this globally important area, which represents the largest intact rainforest region in the entire Asia-Pacific, and the third biggest in the world after the Amazon and Congo basins.  Both as a carbon store, and for its rich and relatively understudied biodiversity, these forests represent a global treasure.

Hope you enjoy the glimpses below into the lowland forest of Papua!

Inside the Strangler Fig

To capture this image, I stepped within the myriad of roots, and pointed my camera straight up.  I was in the space once occupied by the host tree, long since rotted away.  I’ve been fascinated with strangler figs ever since I first went to Borneo, and in fact I did my PhD research on fig ecology in Borneo’s rainforest.  These trees start life as a seedling sprouting high on a host tree, their seed perhaps delivered in a bird dropping.  They send roots down to the ground, and in the case of this species (there are many species of figs with different growth forms) the roots wrap the host tree so tightly that it eventually dies and rots away.  The fig keeps growing and spreading ever wider roots, creating the incredible and rather artistic structure you see here.

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Are you a Bird-of-Paradise Fan?

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I know that many of you, like me, are especially fascinated by the incredible family of birds known as the Birds-of-Paradise.  I love photographing them, and sharing the stories of these unique birds.

My goal with my photography is to spread appreciation and awareness about species like Birds-of-Paradise, and the habitats they depend on, in their case, the rainforests of New Guinea.  If you want to join me in this effort, one way you can do that is by displaying and sharing my images.  Yes, this is a sales pitch, because selling my work is how I make a living so I can keep doing this.  But when you purchase my work, whether it’s a calendar, print, or book, you are helping others see and appreciate birds as well, and you have become part of my team, spreading the message.  

So thanks for reading, and as the holidays approach, and my print sale is running, think about joining me in spreading your love for birds to others.  I appreciate your support, and I believe together we can make a positive impact.

Paradise Practice
A young male Paradise Riflebird practices his courtship display on a perch in the rainforest of southern Queensland, Australia.  The adult male of this species is jet black, where as the young males have the same mottled plumage as the females.  But it is easy to recognize a young male when after watching an adult male perform this raised-wing display, he flies up to the same perch used by the adult, and goes through the same motions.  Bird-of-Paradise displays are partly instinctive, but also have a learned component, and young birds spend a lot of time perfecting their moves, and seem to take it very seriously, as you can see.

“Paradise Practice” is now available for purchase in my fine art store.

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Special Recognition from the National Geographic Museum

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Dear Friends,

Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I opened an email from National Geographic  recently, and saw the banner below?  An advertisement for the re-opening of their museum with an exhibit of “The Greatest Wildlife Photographs”, and my image “Birds-of-Paradise Sunrise” was the featured image!  This image is one of my all time favorites from my long efforts pursuing the ultimate bird-of-paradise images, so it’s very satisfying to see it get some special recognition like this.

Featured image

Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise

For those of you who might be interested in collecting large-format limited edition prints, I wanted to remind you that “Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise” is one of the few in my Limited Edition Collection, and you can check it out HERE.  It is also available in smaller sizes as an open edition.  If you ever have any questions about my Limited Editions, don’t hesitate to hit to email us at Studio@TimLaman.com.
I know I have shared the story behind creating this favorite image in a previous Wildlife Diaries, so I won’t share it again here, but if you are interested in the full story, we have a 3 minute video produced with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that is now also linked via my fine art webpage HERE.
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Birds-of-Paradise and Orangutan Fundraiser is Live

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As we near the holiday season I’m reminded once again of how fortunate my family and I have been to weather this pandemic relatively unscathed.  I hope you have been as fortunate, though I’m sure some of you suffered losses of loved ones, and my heartfelt sympathies go out to you.  It’s been a tough couple years.  

As we get through this, I am feeling like I want to devote some energy and resources to helping out the people and conservation activities that I care deeply about in Indonesia, where things have been especially tough.  The best way I can come up with to do that, is to raise funds by selling my art, so I want to let you know that for all bird-of-paradise and orangutan print purchases during my Holliday Sale, which is now live, I will donate 50% of profits to the two charities that I have been supporting the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program, and Papua Konservasi dan Komunitas.

Please visit my online gallery through the link below, and consider a purchase for yourself or as a gift.  You can read more about the two organizations in the links below as well.

Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise
The Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise.  The discovery that this bird had a distinct display behavior and that I made with Ed Scholes helped to confirm that it deserved to be a distinct species.  We published this in a paper in 2018, and that has been one of the highlights of our 15 year quest to document birds-of-paradise in the wild.  The reason I share this again now, is that the realization that this was a distinct species that could only be seen in the Arfak Mountains of West Papua, helped to drive an increasing number of birdwatchers to the area.  The local people who we worked with to make the discovery, and who own the land, expanded the guesthouses in their villages, and were starting to see that they could create an economy around grass-roots ecotourism.  Protecting their forests and their birds could create more long term benefits for them then exploiting the forest in the short term.  These were great developments.  And the potential is still there for this movement to grow and expand to more villages and communities across Papua and help maintain a green future.  However the pandemic has thrown a wrench into this promising development as visitors have been unable to go to Indonesia and all birding tours have been cancelled for nearly two years now.  The small NGO I work with, Papua Konservasi, has been sending donations directly to villages to help them get by during this time.  Any purchase you make of a bird-of-paradise print during my sale will help this cause, so thanks for your consideration.  Helping support these local landowners, the guardians of the forests where birds-of-paradise live, is the most direct way I can think of to help the birds.  And of course protecting these forest in Papua is also a key to mitigating climate change.  So its a win-win all around.

Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise Performing is now available for purchase in my fine art store HERE.

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Revealing the Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise Display

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One of the most exciting things about what I do is having a chance to reveal aspects of animal behavior that haven’t been seen before.  A couple years ago, my long time bird-of-paradise collaborator Ed Scholes of the Cornell Lab and I made another expedition to the Arfak Mountains in West Papua, with the aim of documenting the Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise display from the female perspective – in other words, from above looking down at the displaying male.  We succeeded, and it’s been some time in coming out, but I’m thrilled to share that our footage now features in a brand new documentary on Netflix “LIFE IN COLOR with David Attenborough”.  Please check it out.  In the images and short video below, I share  the “reveal” of what the female sees – a perspective that we think is a first for natural history filmmaking on this species.

The Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise Display Pose
When in full display posture, the male Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise transforms himself into this unusual shape as he leans back from his small sapling perch.  His yellow cape fans out and is held over his head like a Jesus halo, and his green breast shield is spread into a broad oblong, with a striking blue banded “necktie” pattern down the middle.  Meanwhile, his two tail wires vibrate below him, adding to the spectacle.  Although we and others have photographed this species before from ground level, no-one (to our knowledge) has ever rigged a camera up above the display court looking down to catch the view the way a female sees it.  With our years of experience with birds-of-paradise, we have learned how to choose the right location and deploy hidden cameras without disturbing the birds to capture never-before-seen views like this!  After rigging our cameras in the dark, I filmed from the side, while Ed triggered the overhead camera to catch this moment.
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Wildlife Diaries 13

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My passion for photographing birds-of-paradise first grew from a desire to document some amazing birds that few people have had a chance to see in the wild, and share them with the world in the pages of National Geographic.  As I have made 30 expeditions to the region where they occur (Papua Indonesia, PNG, and N. Australia) over the past 15 years, I came to realize that they are the best ambassadors for conserving the rain forests of the New Guinea region, the third largest remaining block of rain forest in the world (after the Amazon and Congo).
 
The local people of Papua realize that protecting their forest for the birds, and hosting visiting birders and other tourists to see them, is a way for them to receive a livelihood from the forest.  So my hope is that my photography and films of these birds can contribute to greater appreciation and thus conservation of Papua’s forest.  But at the moment, international travel to Papua is on hold.  The local guest house owners and birding guides that we work with there have no income. 
 
I know you’d like to help, and so would I.  So if you’d like to help and also own a Tim Laman print to brighten your home or workplace, please visit my online store at www.timlamanfineart.com.  You will find prices and sizes for all budgets and spaces.

Village leader Aren Mandacan (foreground) leads a group of birders to see birds-of-paradise in his forest in the Arfak Mountains.  He has been a pioneer in converting his village economy to be based on protecting forest, and creating revenue from offering guiding and guest houses for visiting birders and photographers.  This kind of grass-roots conservation can have a huge impact in Papua, where local people own the forest.
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