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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

North Sumatra, Sabah & Central Visayas 8th – 30th December 2015 (1 Viewer)

Cheers Ken, very kind. It's a Black and red broadbill, quite a showy individual too. Sumatran orang-utan was certainly the non-avian highlight, and arguably the overall highlight, with Hooded pitta & the male Blue and white flycatcher coming a very close joint second.
 
Thank you Florian & Jos, I can't recommend it highly enough. Thinking of heading back there this winter dependent upon our situation in a few months, maybe check out the Northern parts of the Philippines as well as Danum valley and a return to Kinabatangan will certainly be on the cards!
 
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Philippines & Kuala Lumpur

The Philippines feels a very long way away indeed as I write this in a cold UK, but that was exactly where we were headed next.

Our first port of call was Manila, as flights from KK to Cebu had been cancelled earlier in the year. This basically resulted in two wasted days, as we had to overnight in Manila before making our way from Cebu to Bohol via ferry. The travel days were not without new birds for the trip however; Black headed gull, Whiskered tern and a Pond heron spp were all seen over the course of the two days.

Our plan for the Philippines was a few days on Bohol, before hopping over to Pamilican for the festive period, then a few days at Alona beach before heading back to KL and then home. In the end we spent just a single night at Alona – it was that dreadful – and headed back to Bohol.

Our base for Bohol was at Loboc, which seemed like a good option to explore the island. The birds came thick and fast from our new base, with Grey streaked flycatcher, Striated heron, Pink necked green pigeon, Collared kingfisher, Brown shrike and Black napped oriole being very obvious species within the immediate vicinity of the hotel. Early next morning saw a few Philippino endemics added to the list, with Pygmy and Red keeled flowerpecker, Philippine bulbul, Colasisi, Philippine Pied fantail and Island swift being rather obvious, with a few other new species; Wandering whistling duck, Striated swallow, Eastern yellow wagtail and Black crowned night-heron.

We decided that we would rent a moped and head north, taking in the Chocolate Hills, Man-made forest and Tarsier sanctuary. It was a very pleasant journey, and I thoroughly recommend taking in the rice paddies and lush forested hills by scooter. The Chocolate hills and Tarsier sanctuary didn’t disappoint, but to be honest I didn’t really get much chance to look for birds, as I had promised to take it easy.

Most mornings I managed to bird for an hour or so, and saw much the same species, though there appeared to be good numbers of herons and egrets in the paddies. A few other interesting species were noted, with a small party of Red necked stint in one muddy area, Long tailed shrike in the scrubby areas, and Pied triller in the woodland behind our hotel. One of the more surprising birds was a pair of Red Turtle dove which were seen throughout, and though not a rare bird do not appear to be known from Bohol – I’d be interested to know either way if anybody could comment.

The main highlight from Bohol came with an evening canoe river up the Loboc river, which produced three new species; Purple throated sunbird, Amethyst brown dove and best of all a cracking Silvery kingfisher. This was a great bird to see, and had been my main target bird for the area. I managed a very poor, distant record shot (see below) but for those brave enough to take a decent camera on a canoe, I imagine you could get some great photos.

Soon enough we were leaving Bohol for 4 days on Pamilican. This is a speck of an island to the south of Bohol, and is renowned for it’s excellent coral reef ecosystem. The island is still rather undeveloped, but there are signs that this is on the turn – again I recommend a visit, probably sooner rather than later!

The island provided us with some memorable wildlife encounters; swimming with both Green turtle and Sea snake (very placid animals and beautiful to watch as they swam amongst the corals). On Christmas day we headed out to sea early and spent the morning watching acrobatic Spinner dolphin, sadly there was no sign of any Humpback whale though a few had apparently been seen within the last week. The coral gardens just offshore didn’t disappoint, with a multitude of fish and a dazzling array of corals.

On the avian front, it was rather slim pickings with just 3 new species seen; Grey tailed tattler (which was a lifer for me), Blue rock thrush and Gull billed tern. I did enjoy some great views of Brown shrike, with one particularly tame individual happily perching on our balcony whilst feeding on scraps.

We had an excellent time nonetheless, though we were once again on the move after a few days. After a (very brief) night in Panglao, we headed back to Bohol. We spent a few more days based in Loboc and pottered around the general area. I saw more or less the same species as previously, and unfortunately didn’t find the time to visit Rajah Sikatuna National Park – another one for the “next time” list!

That was more or less the trip at a close, but there was still one birding opportunity on the horizon in the unlikely form of Kuala Lumpur.
I awoke pre-dawn on our last morning in Asia, and opted for a mad dash around the hotel complex before we headed into the city. Classic species were very much in evidence; Asian koel, Coppersmith barbet, Plain prinia, Brown shrike, Brown flycatcher, Yellow browed warbler, White breasted kingfisher and Zebra dove all making an appearance in the soft morning sun. After breakfast we boarded the express train into the city in order to take in some of the tourist hot-spots. China-town and the Indoor market were great fun and a real assault on the senses in the best possible ways. I’ve no idea what we ate in the back streets of China-town, but it wasn’t half tasty!
My final opportunity for some birding came in the parks, where we wandered around for a few hours in the afternoon. I was surprised by how different the experience was to birding in Lumphini park in Bangkok – we saw probably 20 people in the entire area.
There were no great surprises save for the 20 odd Daurian starling feeding in a frenzied fashion in the canopy. I noted Chinese pond and Black crowned night heron around the fringes of the lake, whilst more Arctic and Yellow browed warblers, Brown flycatchers, Black napped oriole and Yellow vented bulbul frequented the trees.

That ended the trip, and what an experience it had been. There had been many highs, and with the exception of delayed/missed flights, very few lows indeed. This was only my second visit to South East Asia, but it had really made an impact. In fact we are already looking at flights for this December!

I hope you have enjoyed reading, and if you have any questions please feel free to drop me a message.
 

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Species observed on the trip

The following is a list of species seen or heard on the trip. There may be a few additions to this as I have some recordings that I'm still working through!

Species Location

Great argus Gunung Leuser NP
Wandering whistling duck Bohol
Storm's stork Kinabatangan basin
Yellow bittern Kinabatangan basin
Striated heron Throughout
Black crowned night-heron Kuala Lumpur
Chinese pond-heron Kuala Lumpur
Eastern Cattle egret
Grey heron Kinabatangan basin
Great billed heron Kinabatangan basin
Purple heron
Great egret
Intermediate egret
Little egret
Pacific reef-heron Bohol
Oriental darter Sabah
Osprey Kota Kinabalu
Oriental Honey buzzard
Black shouldered kite Indonesia
Brahminy kite
White bellied sea-eagle
Crested serpent eagle
Eastern Marsh harrier Bohol
Crested goshawk Sabah
Japanese sparrowhawk Bohol
Changeable hawk-eagle
Blyth's hawk-eagle Gunung Leuser NP
Rufous bellied eagle Sepilok
Moorhen Bohol
White breasted waterhen Bohol
Grey tailed tattler Bohol
Red necked stint Bohol
Common sandpiper
Black headed gull Cebu
Gull billed tern Bohol
Whiskered tern Bohol
White winged tern Bohol
Ruddy cuckoo dove
Little cuckoo dove
Spotted dove
Red turtle dove Bohol
Zebra dove
Little green pigeon Sepilok
Pink necked green pigeon Bohol
Green imperial pigeon
Mountain imperial pigeon
Amethyst brown dove Bohol
Blue crowned hanging parrot Sepilok
Colasisi Bohol
Long tailed parakeet
Black bellied Malkoha Mount Kinabalu
Raffle's Malkoha Sepilok
Greater coucal Kinabatangan basin
Lesser coucal
Asian koel Kuala Lumpur
Buffy fish owl Kinabatangan basin
Malaysian eared nightjar Sepilok
Island swiftlet Bohol
Glossy swiftlet
Edible nest-swiftlet
Mossy nest-swiftlet
Black nest-swiftlet
Asian palm swift Bohol
Silver rumped needletail
Brown backed needletail
House swift
Fork tailed swift
Whiskered tree swift Gunung Leuser NP
Whitehead's trogon Mount Kinabalu
Scarlet rumped trogon Kinabatangan basin
Dollarbird
White breasted kingfisher
Stork billed kingfisher
Ruddy kingfisher Kinabatangan basin
Collared kingfisher Bohol
Blue eared kingfisher Kinabatangan basin
Common kingfisher Kinabatangan basin
Silvery kingfisher Bohol
Blue tailed Bee-eater
Blue throated bee-eater
Oriental pied hornbill
Black hornbill
Rhinoceros hornbill
Wrinkled hornbill
Wreathed hornbill
Coppersmith barbet Bohol, Kuala Lumpur
Yellow crowned barbet Sepilok
Golden naped barbet Mount Kinabalu
Brown barbet Sepilok
Rufous piculet Kinabatangan basin
Maroon woodpecker Mount Kinabalu
Black and Red broadbill Sabah
Black and Yellow broadbill Kinabatangan basin
Hooded pitta
Golden bellied gerygone Mount Kinabalu
Bornean whistler Mount Kinabalu
Pied triller Bohol
Grey chinned Minivet Mount Kinabalu
Scarlet Minivet Mount Kinabalu
Black naped oriole Bohol
Black winged flycatcher-shrike Sepilok
White breasted woodswallow
Green Iora Sepilok
Pied fantail
Philippine fantail Bohol
White throated fantail Mount Kinabalu
Black naped monarch
Ashy drongo Mount Kinabalu
Hair-crested drongo Mount Kinabalu
Greater racket-tailed drongo Kinabatangan basin
Large billed crow Bohol
Slender billed crow
Short tailed green-magpie Mount Kinabalu
Bornean treepie Mount Kinabalu
Brown shrike
Long tailed shrike Medan
Brown throated sunbird Sepilok
Olive backed sunbird
Crimson sunbird Sepilok
Temminck's sunbird Mount Kinabalu
Plain throated sunbird Bohol
Purple throated sunbird Bohol
Thick billed spiderhunter Sepilok
Little spiderhunter Sepilok
Yellow eared spiderhunter Sepilok
Yellow rumped flowerpecker Sepilok
Orange bellied flowerpecker
Black sided flowerpecker Mount Kinabalu
Scarlet backed flowerpecker
Red keeled flowerpecker Bohol
Pygmy flowerpecker Bohol
Greater green leafbird Sepilok
Lesser green leafbird Sepilok
Dusky Munia Kinabatangan basin
Scaly breasted munia Gunung Leuser NP
Chestnut munia Sepilok
White bellied munia Bohol
Tree sparrow
Grey wagtail
Eastern yellow wagtail Bohol
Crested myna Sepilok
Common myna Kuala Lumpur
Common hill myna Kinabatangan basin
Asian glossy starling
Daurian starling Kuala Lumpur
Eyebrowed thrush Mount Kinabalu
Bornean whistling thrush Mount Kinabalu
Blue rock thrush Bohol
Siberian blue robin Mount Kinabalu
Oriental magpie robin
White crowned shama Kinabatangan basin
Malaysian blue flycatcher Kinabatangan basin
Blue and white flycatcher Mount Kinabalu
Indigo flycatcher Mount Kinabalu
Rufous chested flycatcher Mount Kinabalu
Snowy browed flycatcher Mount Kinabalu
Mugimaki flycatcher Mount Kinabalu
Little pied flycatcher Mount Kinabalu
Grey streaked flycatcher Bohol
Brown flycatcher Mount Kinabalu
Ferrugunous flycatcher Mount Kinabalu
Black headed bulbul Sabah
Pale faced bulbul Mount Kinabalu
Yellow vented bulbul Mount Kinabalu
Olive winged bulbul Sepilok
Cream vented bulbul Sepilok
Red eyed bulbul Sepilok
Ochracerous bulbul Mount Kinabalu
Philippine bulbul Bohol
Striated swallow Bohol
Barn swallow
Pacific swallow
Yellow bellied warbler Mount Kinabalu
Mountain tailorbird Mount Kinabalu
Sunda bush warbler Mount Kinabalu
Yellow breasted warbler Mount Kinabalu
Mountain leaf warbler Mount Kinabalu
Arctic warbler Mount Kinabalu, Gunung Leuser NP, Kuala Lumpur
Yellow browed warbler Gunung Leuser NP, Kuala Lumpur
Chestnut capped Yuhina Mount Kinabalu
Black capped white-eye Mount Kinabalu
Grey throated babbler Mount Kinabalu
Chestnut rumped babbler
Bold striped tit-babbler Sepilok
Sooty capped babbler
Rufous crowned babbler Gunung Leuser NP
White chested babbler Kinabatangan basin
Sunda laughing-thrush Mount Kinabalu
Chestnut hooded laughing-thrush Mount Kinabalu
Ashy tailorbird Sepilok
Philippine tailorbird Bohol
Rufous tailed tailorbird Sepilok
Dark necked tailorbird Sepilok
Plain prinia Kuala Lumpur
 
Thanks Mike, will try and put some more photos up at some point. On another note, I just noticed that I didn't upload part 3 from my Central American trip report way back in 2013... think a bit too much time has elapsed to post it now!
 
Nice report

You did pretty well for a non birding trip. Despite two trips to Sabah and Kinabalu there are still birds that we may go back for
 
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