WEWAK, PNG — I heard deep hoots overhead, and something was flopping around in the trees. I looked up to see gigantic white pigeons in the treetops. I stood staring for a few moments and then returned to my room to grab my binocs and check “Birds of New Guinea.”

With the binoculars, I could see black spotting on the birds’ undertail coverts. Their bills were yellow, and their flight feathers were black. They fed on small berries high in the tree, and they were very acrobatic about it, even hanging upside-down to reach the little morsels. Their wings whooshed and wheezed in flight, and they called with a deep, two-syllable hoot.

Later in the day, I saw another life dove — an Orange-fronted Fruit-Dove. The bird perched high in a tree across the road and called intermittently. I had to position myself just right to see it through the branches. The bird was largely green with a reddish-orange forehead and a gray breast.

Several people flew out to Wuvulu Island this morning, but I have to wait here until Saturday. Hopefully the good birding will continue.

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