The Bird's Head Plate is a minor tectonic plate incorporating the Bird's Head Peninsula

Bird's Head Peninsula

The Bird's Head Peninsula or Doberai Peninsula is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the Province of West Papua, Indonesia.-Location and geography:...

 at the western end of the island of New Guinea

New Guinea

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...

. Hillis & Müller consider it to be moving in unison with the Pacific Plate

Pacific Plate

The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million square kilometres, it is the largest tectonic plate....

. Bird considers it to be unconnected to the Pacific Plate.

The plate is separating from the Australian Plate and the small Maoke Plate

Maoke Plate

The Maoke Plate is a small tectonic plate located in western New Guinea underlying the Sudirman Range from which the highest mountain on the island- Puncak Jaya rises. To its east is a convergent boundary with the Woodlark Plate. To the south lies a transform boundary with the Australian Plate and...

 along a divergent boundary

Divergent boundary

In plate tectonics, a divergent boundary or divergent plate boundary is a linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other. Divergent boundaries within continents initially produce rifts which produce rift valleys...

 to the southeast. Convergent boundaries

Convergent boundary

In plate tectonics, a convergent boundary, also known as a destructive plate boundary , is an actively deforming region where two tectonic plates or fragments of lithosphere move toward one another and collide...

 exist along the north between the Bird's Head and the Caroline Plate

Caroline Plate

The Caroline Plate is a small tectonic plate located north of New Guinea. It forms a subduction zone along the border with the Bird's Head Plate and the Woodlark Plate to the south. A transform boundary forms the northern border with the Pacific Plate. Along the border with the Philippine Sea Plate...

, the Philippine Sea Plate, and the Halmahera Plate

Halmahera Plate

Halmahera Plate has recently been postulated to be a microplate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone of eastern Indonesia.-Regional tectonics:...

 to the northwest. A transform boundary exists between the Bird's Head and the Molucca Sea Collision Zone

Molucca Sea Collision Zone

The Molucca Sea Collision Zone is postulated by paleogeologists to explain the tectonics of the area based on the Molucca Sea in Indonesia, and adjacent involved areas.-Tectonics:...

 to the southwest. Another convergent boundary exists between the Bird's Head and the Banda Sea Plate

Banda Sea Plate

The Banda Sea Plate is a small tectonic plate underlying the Banda Sea in southeast Asia. This plate also carries a portion of Sulawesi Island, the entire Seram Island, and the Banda Islands. Clockwise from the east it is bounded by the Bird's Head Plate of western New Guinea, Australian Plate,...

to the south.