The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai''), is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

, comprising the

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

provinces of

Southwest Papua Southwest Papua ( id, Papua Barat Daya) is a province of Indonesia, and is a fraction of Western New Guinea. Despite being named southwest, it is a misnomer and this province is actually located in the northwest edge of Papua. The area that belo ...

and West Papua. The peninsula just to the south is called the

Bomberai Peninsula Bomberai Peninsula ( id, Semenanjung Bomberai), otherwise known as the Bird's Beak Peninsula ( id, Semenanjung Paruh Burung), is located in the Western New Guinea region, opposite to and to the south of the Bird's Head Peninsula. To the west lies ...

, while the peninsula at the opposite end of the island (in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

) is called the

Bird's Tail Peninsula The Papuan Peninsula, also known as the Bird's Tail Peninsula, is a large peninsula in Papua New Guinea, southeast of the city of Lae, that makes up the southeastern portion of the island of New Guinea. The peninsula is the easternmost extent of ...

Location and geography

The Bird's Head Peninsula is at the northwestern end of the island of

. It is bounded by

Cenderawasih Bay Cenderawasih Bay ( id, Teluk Cenderawasih, "Bird of Paradise Bay"), also known as Sarera Bay ( id, Teluk Sarera) and formerly Geelvink Bay ( nl, Geelvinkbaai), is a large bay in northern Province of Papua, Central Papua and West Papua, New Guine ...

to the east,

Bintuni Bay Bintuni Bay ( id, Teluk Bintuni) is the eastward extension or inner bay of Berau Gulf off Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island wi ...

to the south, and the Dampier Strait to the west. Across the strait is

Waigeo Waigeo is an island in Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi, or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat, or the ''Four Kings'', is an archipelago loc ...

, an island in the

Raja Ampat ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested fr ...

archipelago.

Batanta Batanta is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. Its area is 453 km² and its highest point is 1184 m. The Pitt Strait separates it from Salawati, while the Dampier Strait separate ...

island lies just off the peninsula’s northwest tip. Another peninsula,

, lies to the south, across Bintuni Bay. The peninsula is around 200 by 300 kilometers, and is bio-geographically diverse, containing coastal plains to the south. The

Arfak Mountains The Arfak Mountains is a mountain range found on the Bird's Head Peninsula in the Province of West Papua, Indonesia. The term "arfak" came from the language of the coastal Biak people, meaning "inferior." This is due to how big the mountains are ...

are a 2900-meter-high mountain range that is found in the east. Slightly lower than the Arfak Mountains, the

Tamrau Mountains The Tamrau Mountains, also known as the Tambrauw Mountains or the Tamarau Mountains, is a mountain range located in the north central region of the Bird's Head Peninsula in the province of West Papua (province), West Papua. It is made up of an isol ...

are found in the north.

Bon Irau Bon Irau, with an elevation of , is the highest peak in the Tamrau Mountains and the highest point in the province of West Papua outside of the Arfak Mountains. It is located in the north central region of the Bird's Head Peninsula and located ar ...

is the highest mountain in the Tamrau Mountains, at . The highest mountain on the Bird's Head Peninsula is

Mount Arfak Mount Arfak is the highest point in the province of West Papua (province), West Papua. It is located on north-east side of the Bird's Head Peninsula. It is a popular hiking area and is the highest peak of the Arfak Mountains. From the summit, Mano ...

. It is high and is located 21 miles southwest of Manokwari. Both of the mountain ranges have a diverse mix of sandstone, limestone, and volcanic rock. A large basin called the

Kebar Valley The Kebar Valley ( Indonesian: ''Lembah Kebar'') is a large pleistocene/holocene intermontane valley found in the north central region of the Bird's Head Peninsula in the province of Southwest Papua. The valley is enclosed by the fault-bounded Tam ...

divides the two mountain ranges.Flip van Helden: ''A bird’s eye view of the Bird’s Head Peninsula'', in Irian Jaya Studies Programme for Interdisciplinary Research (IIAS) Newsletter nr.37, June 2005
, retrieved 11 May 2010

Flora and fauna

The peninsula is part of three

ecoregions An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

. The lowlands and foothills are in the Vogelkop-Aru lowland rain forests ecoregion. The

New Guinea mangroves The New Guinea mangroves is a mangrove ecoregion that covers extensive areas of the coastline New Guinea, the large island in the western Pacific Ocean north of Australia. Location and description The New Guinea mangroves cover an area of , ...

ecoregion includes coastal mangrove forests. The mountains of the peninsula above 1000 meters elevation constitute the

Vogelkop montane rain forests The Vogelkop montane rain forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion in western New Guinea. The ecoregion covers the mountains of western New Guinea's Bird's Head and Bomberai peninsulas. Geography The ecoregion includes the montane forest ...

ecoregion. The montane rain forests include an area of more than 22,000 km². Over 50% of the montane forests are located within protected areas. There are over 300 bird species on the peninsula, of which at least 20 are unique to the ecoregion, and some live only in very restricted areas. These include the

grey-banded munia The grey-banded mannikin (''Lonchura vana''), or grey-banded munia, is a species of estrildid finch known to be found in Anggi Gigi, Tamrau Mountains, and Arfak Mountains in the Vogelkop Peninsula in north-western Papua, Indonesia. This species ...

Vogelkop bowerbird The Vogelkop bowerbird (''Amblyornis inornata''), also known as the Vogelkop gardener bowerbird, is a medium-sized, bowerbird of the mountains of West Papua (New Guinea). Description The birds are about 21–35 cm in length, with the femal ...

, and the

king bird-of-paradise The king bird-of-paradise (''Cicinnurus regius'') is a passerine bird of the Paradisaeidae (bird-of-paradise) family. It is considered by the IOC checklist to be the only member of the genus ''Cicinnurus'', although the genus ''Diphyllodes'' is c ...

.WWF: Bird wonders of New Guinea’s western-most province
retrieved 11 May 2010 Road construction,

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a pro ...

, commercial

agricultural expansion Agricultural expansion describes the growth of agricultural land (arable land, pastures, etc.) especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. The agricultural expansion is often explained as a direct consequence of the global increase in food and ene ...

and ranching potentially threaten the integrity of the ecoregion. The south-eastern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula forms part of the

Teluk Cenderawasih National Park Teluk Cenderawasih National Park is the largest marine national park of Indonesia, located in Cenderawasih Bay, south-east of Bird's Head Peninsula. It includes the islands of Mioswaar, Nusrowi Island, Roon, Rumberpon, Anggrameos and Yoop.

.Ministry of Forestry: Teluk Cenderawasih NP
, retrieved 11 May 2010 Cicinnurus regius-20031005

Culture

Archaeological findings indicate that local settlement dates back at least 26,000 years BP. Today, most people live in villages along the coast, with small concentrations inland. Villagers practise

subsistence farming Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

shifting cultivation Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cul ...

copra Copra (from ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from copr ...

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

and

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...

s, as well as hunting. There are more than 80 villages scattered around the peninsula. There are about 18 main settlements that are the principal towns of the five regencies found on the peninsula. These cities include Bintuni,

Teminabuan Teminabuan is a small town in South Sorong Regency, Southwest Papua, Indonesia. The town serves as the administrative capital of South Sorong Regency. It had a population of 11,627 at the 2010 Census and 19,491 at the 2020 Census. The town is loc ...

Sorong Sorong is the largest city and the capital of the Indonesian province of Southwest Papua. The city is located on the western tip of the island of New Guinea with its only land borders being with Sorong Regency. It is the gateway to Indonesia's ...

, Aimas, and

Manokwari Manokwari is a coastal town and the capital of the Indonesian province of West Papua. It is one of only seven provincial capitals of Indonesia without a city status. It is also the administrative seat of Manokwari Regency. However, under pro ...

. The largest settlements are the city of

on the west coast and

on the east coast. Manokwari is the largest city with as of 2010 a population of 135,000 and, within the metropolitan area, a population of 155,000. The city of Sorong has a population of 125,000 and, within the metropolitan area, a population of 170,000. This city also has the largest metropolitan area.

Languages

Papuan Malay Papuan Malay or Irian Malay is a Malay-based creole language spoken in the Indonesian part of New Guinea. It emerged as a contact language among tribes in Indonesian New Guinea (now Papua, Central Papua, Highland Papua, South Papua, and West ...

is the local

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

spoken in the Bird's Head Peninsula. The official language is

. The Austronesian languages spoken on the Bird's Head Peninsula mostly belong to the South Halmahera–West New Guinea (SHWNG) group. There are various non-Austronesian

Papuan languages The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogra ...

native to the peninsula, which are classified as

South Bird's Head languages The South Bird's Head or South Doberai languages are three families of Papuan languages. They form part of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Malcolm Ross (2005) and Timothy Usher (2020), though Pawley and Hammarström (2 ...

East Bird's Head languages East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

, West Bird's Head, or

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...

s. Papuan language families: *

South Bird's Head The South Bird's Head or South Doberai languages are three families of Papuan languages. They form part of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Malcolm Ross (2005) and Timothy Usher (2020), though Pawley and Hammarström (2 ...

** Nuclear South Bird's Head ** Inanwatan–Duriankere ** Konda–Yahadian * East Bird's Head ** Nuclear East Bird's Head ** Hatam–Mansim * West Bird's Head

Language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...

s: *'' Abun'' *'' Mpur'' *'' Maybrat''

References

{{Authority control Peninsulas of Indonesia Landforms of Western New Guinea Landforms of West Papua (province)

Location and geography

Flora and fauna

Culture

Languages

See also

References