Nature
Tufi is surrounded by a wide range of diverse habitats including beachfront coastal, mangroves, lowland rainforest, hill rainforests, littoral forests, coconut groves, plantations and grasslands. All have their own unique flora and fauna, but of particular importance are the butterflies and birds.
Tufi is home to the world's largest butterfly, the Queen Alexandra Bird Wing, that can have a wingspan of up to 28cm, and the males have a fantastic iridescent green and yellow colouring.
The blue Ulysses butterfly and bright green Priam's Birdwing are also common visitors to the grounds of the resort, attracted in by the variety of nectar bearing colourful plants, such as Hibiscus, Poinsettia and Frangipani.
The world's largest grasshopper, longest stick insect and longest beetle also live in the Tufi area.
Whilst the mammal fauna of Papua New Guinea can be somewhat secretive, there is the opportunity to occasionally see cuscuses, wallabies, echidnas and tree kangaroos, some of which are kept as pets in local villages.
Birds
Over 120 bird species have been identified within a few hours walk of Tufi including:
- Biak Red Lorikeet
- Bird of Paradise (Raggiana)
- Black Sunbird
- Blythes Horn Bills
- Black Kite
- Brown-Headed Paradise Kingfisher
- Channel-Billed Cuckoo
- Dwarf Cassowary
- Eastern Black Capped Lorikeet
- Eastern Red Cheeked Parrot
- Eclectus Parrot
- Glossy-mantled Manucode
- Golden-headed Cisticola
- Golden Monarch
- Hooded Butcher Bird
- Long Billed Cuckoo
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- Long Tailed Buzzard (Hawk)
- Meyers Friarbird
- New Guinea Harpy Eagle
- Orange-fronted Fruit-dove
- Palm Cockatoo
- Papuan Harrier
- Queen Victoria Crowned Pigeon
- Rainbow Bee-Eater
- Spangled Drongo
- Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo
- Torresian Crow
- Torresian Imperial Pigeon
- Variable Goshawk
- White Bellied Cuckoo Shrike
- White Shouldered Fairy Wren
- Yellow Faced Minor
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There is a stand of trees just above one of Tufi’s fiords where Birds Of Paradise display at dawn and at dusk each day. Orotoaba village is a forty five minute boat ride from Tufi Resort to the sandy beaches at either Kaviana or Jebo village and then a forty five minute hike along a well-worn bush road to the hill village of Orotoaba, located immediately above the 150 meter high Jebo waterfall. An overnight tour to view the birds departs Tufi Resort immediately after lunch and returns at lunch-time the next day, with homesay accommodation in Orotoaba village.
Download our birdwatching itineraries...
Orchids
The Tufi region and surrounding areas are renowned for their diversity and abundance of orchids, with common to extremely rare species in exotic abundance.
With perhaps ten percent of all known orchid species endemic to New Guinea and many of those existing within Oro Province, keen orchidists should definitely consider placing Tufi on their holiday wish list. Within a few minutes walk of the Resort, extensive colonies of Spathoglottis papuana can be seen growing on the rock faces of the fjord.
For more information on the orchids of New Guinea, please visit the Papua New Guinea Orchid News web site.
