New Guinea Birds aim to collect information about all birds occurring on mainland of New Guinea, surrounding islands of New Guinea and Solomon Islands. Therefore I provide maps for better orientation.
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago. Geologically it is a part of the same tectonic plate as Australia. When world sea levels were low, the two shared shorelines (which now lie 100 to 140 metres below sea level), combining with lands now inundated into the tectonic continent of Sahul, also known as Greater Australia. The two landmasses became separated when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the end of the last glacial period. Anthropologically, New Guinea is considered part of Melanesia. Politically, the western half of the island comprises two Indonesian provinces: Papua and West Papua. The eastern half forms the mainland of the country of Papua New Guinea
The island of New Guinea is divided politically into roughly equal halves across a north-south line:
The western portion of the island located west of 141°E longitude, (except for a small section of territory to the east of the Fly River which belongs to Papua New Guinea) was formerly a Dutch colony, the Dutch East Indies, and after the Dutch New Guinea Dispute is now two Indonesian provinces:
• West Papua with Manokwari as its capital.
• Papua with the city of Jayapura as its capital.
New Guinea Birds do not include birds occurring solely in Malaysia, and Indonesia outside of New Guinea mainland. Only birds breeding and migrating in Irian Jaya are included.
The eastern part forms the mainland of Papua New Guinea, which has been an independent country since 1975. It was formerly the Territory of Papua and New Guinea governed by Australia, consisting of the Trust Territory of New Guinea (northeastern quarter, formerly German New Guinea), and the Territory of Papua (southeastern quarter). The country consists of four regions:
• Papua, consisting of Western, Gulf, Central, Oro (Northern) and Milne Bay provinces.
• Highlands, consisting of Southern Highlands, Hela Province, Jiwaka Province, Enga Province, Western Highlands, Simbu and Eastern Highlands provinces.
• Momase, consisting of Morobe, Madang, East Sepik and Sandaun (West Sepik) provinces.
• Islands, consisting of Manus, West New Britain, East New Britain and New Ireland provinces, and the Bougainville Autonomous Province.
New Guinea Birds includes all birds occurring in mainland and island of Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands.
The Solomon Islands are a collection of nearly one thousand islands in Oceania that form a sovereign country. They lie to the east of Papua New Guinea in Melanesia and cover a land area of 28,400 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi).