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

Ultimate Indonesia: 4 month search for endemics (2 Viewers)

andyadcock said:
As did I in 2000, it was pretty much THE place back then

Just for curiosity, how are independent birders doing Komodo these days and at what cost?


A
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If all you wanted to do was hire a boat for a long day (0400 start) to Komodo and back it will run around 1.5 million ($110ish). My friend did an overnight trip similar to what you described last year and I think it cost him around $350 for two people. We did things a bit different as we wanted to dive as well. Our private overnight trip with 6 dives each was quoted at about $750, but in the end we ended up paying a good bit less, as we had some boat issues and didn't get in as many dives as expected. We also had to visit both Rinca and Komodo (originally plan was only Komodo) as we dipped the dragon on Komodo! More on all that in the next blog post though which should hopefully be up somewhat soon. Haven't had much wifi lately as last three island visited were Morotai, Obi, and Talaud!

Best,

Ross
 
Dragons and Cockatoos

Hi all,

Well as stated above, after birding central Flores, we headed west in order to pick up the last remaining endemic (Flores Monarch) as well as visit the Komodo Islands to see Yellow-crested Cockatoo and Komodo Dragon. Although everything didn't go exactly as planned, in the end, everything worked out and we were able to finish cleaning up on Flores as well as see some dragons.

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/07/24/komodo-indonesia-cockatoos-dragons-and-diving-oh-my/

This also concluded the first section of our big trip "Lesser Sundas & Bali/East Java Extension". This section of the trip lasted from June 8- July 6th and cost a total of $1412 for two people. This does not include the internal airfare or our Komodo trips (~$700) since it was also a diving trip. Internal airfare was $900 for two people, starting in Sumba and ending in Flores. This price was quite inflated though as our mid-trip extension from Timor to Bali and back cost nearly $450 of that $900. A more well thought out plan could have easily eliminated that cost entirely. Still even with all the costs of the extension, $1150 per person for 29 days ($40 per day per person) isn't too bad!

Best,

Ross
 
Rgallardy said:
This also concluded the first section of our big trip "Lesser Sundas & Bali/East Java Extension". This section of the trip lasted from June 8- July 6th and cost a total of $1412 for two people. This does not include the internal airfare or our Komodo trips (~$700) since it was also a diving trip. Internal airfare was $900 for two people, starting in Sumba and ending in Flores. This price was quite inflated though as our mid-trip extension from Timor to Bali and back cost nearly $450 of that $900. A more well thought out plan could have easily eliminated that cost entirely. Still even with all the costs of the extension, $1150 per person for 29 days ($40 per day per person) isn't too bad!

Best,

Ross
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Hi Ross,
I'm keen at some point to return to Komodo with my wife and daughter, did you organise a boat locally at the waterfront as I did back then or did you use an intermediary?

A

Edit: Just read your blog, looks like it's all changed a great deal since I was there, I'm sure there were no dive shops?

I guess you paid a premium for diving and I wonder what they charge now just for a straight up cruise to the islands without diving. I remember the boatman asked me if I wanted a swim at a particular place, I said yes and dove overboard at the recommended spot. I had a snorkel on and had my face in the water for less than a minute. When I looked up, I was about 200m away from the boat! Luckily I'm a strong swimmer but it was quite a battle against the current to make to distance back to the boat.
 
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Last year we paid Rp 1,250,000 to charter a boat for a day trip to Komodo. We organised this at the harbour through the uniformed guy at the main entrance gate, who helped us find a boat and make arrangements the evening before. I'm sure he got a cut, so it might be possible to get a cheaper price talking directly to a boatman, but the arrangement worked well.
 
DMW said:
Last year we paid Rp 1,250,000 to charter a boat for a day trip to Komodo. We organised this at the harbour through the uniformed guy at the main entrance gate, who helped us find a boat and make arrangements the evening before. I'm sure he got a cut, so it might be possible to get a cheaper price talking directly to a boatman, but the arrangement worked well.
Click to expand...

Thanks,
can't remember they're being any kind of gate or guard either?

As I recall, I walked between some rickety buildings and just emerged at the waters edge.

Wasn't it a bit rushed doing it as a day trip and it would be a pretty long day?


A
 
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Birding Halmahera, the start of the Northern Moluccas

Hi all,

After the Lesser Sundas, it was off to Halmahera for a few days. We visited Foli, the Subaim/Buli Road, and Bingara area. Halmahera was a fantastic and easy island to bird and was probably one of the more enjoyable islands we've visited so far.

Foli was exceptional with large number of parrots (Violet-necked, Red-flanked, and Chattering Lory, White Cockatoo, etc) as well as the Standardwing lek! We also had a number of other goodies like Azure Dollarbird, White-naped Monarch, Moluccan Owlet-Nightjar, and Scarlet-breasted Fruit-Dove.

The Subaim/Buli Road provides access to higher elevation (530m) and in a single morning we added a few more birds including North Moluccan Pitta, Moluccan Cuckooshrike, Moluccan King-Parrot , and Moluccan Goshawk. Sadly our main target of Halmahera Leaf-warbler was not found.

Visiting Bingara for the Invisible Rail was fun, but a bit difficult as when we arrived the water level in the river was extremely high. Luckily overnight the water receded about 1.5 meters which made getting around a bit easier. Despite 1 1/2 days of searching, the Invisible Rail was only heard calling once. A very nice consolation (better?) prize was great views of a Bare-eyed Rail. Other highlights included Sombre Kingfisher and Moluccan Dwarf-Kingfisher.

Read more about Halmahera on the blog!

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/08/03/halmahera-indonesia-everybody-gets-their-picture-taken/

Best,

Ross
 
Ross - sounds like a great few days on Halmahera. I went to Foli with a crew in 2003 and had a great time. We searched very hard for Purple Dollarbird without success - but did see quire a few Common Dollarbirds. I'm just interested in whether you saw Common Dollarbirds as I sometimes think we may have written off young Purple Dollarbirds ? Cheers G
 
Gavin Mac said:
Ross - sounds like a great few days on Halmahera. I went to Foli with a crew in 2003 and had a great time. We searched very hard for Purple Dollarbird without success - but did see quire a few Common Dollarbirds. I'm just interested in whether you saw Common Dollarbirds as I sometimes think we may have written off young Purple Dollarbirds ? Cheers G
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Gavin, I spent a week on Halmahera last September and saw lots of Oriental Dollarbirds but only a single Azure Dollarbird.
 
Gavin Mac said:
Ross - sounds like a great few days on Halmahera. I went to Foli with a crew in 2003 and had a great time. We searched very hard for Purple Dollarbird without success - but did see quire a few Common Dollarbirds. I'm just interested in whether you saw Common Dollarbirds as I sometimes think we may have written off young Purple Dollarbirds ? Cheers G
Click to expand...

We didn't have any Commons and only two Purples. I actually found that fairly surprisingly since I assume there should actually be an influx of Commons from Australia at this time of year.
 
Morotai

Hi all,

After the very successful trip to Halmahera, our next stop was the little visited island of Morotai. Despite its close proximity to Halmahera, most birders have neglected this island until recently. Luckily, Marc Thibault was able to give me some great info from his trip a few years back and therefore our trip went fairly smoothly.

We spent 2 1/2 days birding the island and managed to track down all of our targets. The main draw, Dusky Friarbird, is quite common as is a majority of the other soon to be splits including Morotai White-eye, Morotai Drongo, and Morotai Paradise Kingfisher. Since we had dipped the leaf-warbler on Halmahera, I was set on getting it on Morotai, so instead of some casual birding in the plantations near the coast, we did a brutal two day hike up and down the mountain so that we could get the warbler. Although the information Marc gave us was great, I somehow screwed up the distance calculation and figured we'd be hiking about 11km up to where the bird would be (600m). Instead it was about 17km up to the spot and then we had to hike 3 back down to our camp. Add in that it was raining for the majority of the day and it made for quite the adventure!

Read more about our short, but very rewarding time on Morotai on the blog.

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/08/07/morotai-indonesia-more-than-we-bargained-for/

Best,

Ross
 
Rgallardy said:
Hi all,

After the very successful trip to Halmahera, our next stop was the little visited island of Morotai. Despite its close proximity to Halmahera, most birders have neglected this island until recently. Luckily, Marc Thibault was able to give me some great info from his trip a few years back and therefore our trip went fairly smoothly.

We spent 2 1/2 days birding the island and managed to track down all of our targets. The main draw, Dusky Friarbird, is quite common as is a majority of the other soon to be splits including Morotai White-eye, Morotai Drongo, and Morotai Paradise Kingfisher. Since we had dipped the leaf-warbler on Halmahera, I was set on getting it on Morotai, so instead of some casual birding in the plantations near the coast, we did a brutal two day hike up and down the mountain so that we could get the warbler. Although the information Marc gave us was great, I somehow screwed up the distance calculation and figured we'd be hiking about 11km up to where the bird would be (600m). Instead it was about 17km up to the spot and then we had to hike 3 back down to our camp. Add in that it was raining for the majority of the day and it made for quite the adventure!

Read more about our short, but very rewarding time on Morotai on the blog.

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/08/07/morotai-indonesia-more-than-we-bargained-for/

Best,

Ross
Click to expand...

Is the Morotai Leaf-warbler the same species as the one on Halmahera? I've not seen either but given everything else has been / will be split, wonder why this would be an exception, especially given that it is (here) a montane group. I haven't looked at James's book, so it might well be considered in there. I might wait until they build a road up there ;)

cheers, alan
 
lewis20126 said:
Is the Morotai Leaf-warbler the same species as the one on Halmahera? I've not seen either but given everything else has been / will be split, wonder why this would be an exception, especially given that it is (here) a montane group. I haven't looked at James's book, so it might well be considered in there. I might wait until they build a road up there ;)

cheers, alan
Click to expand...

Alan,

The leaf-warbler is considered henrietta, the same ssp as Halmahera. It actually was just discovered to occur on Morotai by Marc Thibault a few years ago. Although I only saw one bird (and didn't see any on Halmahera) it doesn't seem to differ much vocally/plumage wise. So I doubt it'll be split anytime soon.

I'm more interested in the Moluccan Scops-owls found on Morotai as well as a few of the other islands. Ssp Morotensis sounded significantly lower pitched to me compared to leucospilus and the alarm calls I heard from albiventris were quite different than the other birds in the Moluccas. Of course my sample size is limited to a few observations of each ssp (so there's plenty of wishful thinking), but I'm a big fan of more scops-owl splits. ;-)
 
Obi Obi Obi

Hi all,

Finally had time to get another post uploaded. To be honest, a few posts are finished and in the queue, but we just haven't had much internet the past week or so (too much birding I guess!).

Anyways, our adventure to Obi was exactly that, an adventure. Although we had some decent information on areas to check, navigating the birding spots seemed to be quite difficult. I'm still at a loss on how exactly to get above 600m from the north. Although we had some difficulties (and lots of rain!) it was still a very interesting island to bird. Most of the endemics were fairly common and we managed great looks at both Carunculated Fruit-dove and Moluccan Woodcock. Unfortunately, we did have a few dips as well (Gilolo Fantail, Obi Leaf Warbler, Obi White-eye) because I only briefly got above 500m once and when I tried to get back to the spot the road was washed away!

Oh yea, and Melissa's binoculars were stolen....

Read more about it on the blog!

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/08/16/obi-indonesia-the-best-of-times-the-worst-of-times/

Best,

Ross
 
Talaud

Hey all,

Well after wrapping up our tour of the north Moluccas, the next stop was Talaud, Indonesia's furthest island to the north (well not including Sumatra).

We only spent a few days on the island, but things went surprisingly well. I don't have too much time to elaborate (early morning wake up tomorrow!). But you can read more about our adventure on the blog. The biggest highlight of course was Talaud Rail, but having a Talaud Bush-hen charge me after playing tape was pretty crazy as well!

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/08/23/talaud-indonesia-better-than-expected/


Best,

Ross
 
Sangihe: Megas, Megas, and more Megas

Hi all,

I feel like this thread has been going on for months (but I guess that's because it has....)

Sorry it's been a while since there's been an update. I just got done with visiting more off beaten parts of Buru and Seram, both of which were very successful, but you'll have to wait a bit for those blog posts. ;-)

In the mean time, after Talaud, we did a quick visit to Sangihe. Although we had high hopes to see Cerulean Paradise Flycatcher and a few other endemics like the scops-owl, it was absolutely amazing to also pick up Sangihe Whistler and a pair of Sangihe Golden Bulbuls. Two birds that are barely hanging on by a thread!

Read more about our amazing day and a half of birding on Sangihe on the blog...

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/09/03/sangihe-indonesia-mega-mega-and-another-mega/

Best,

Ross
 
Sulawesi

Hi all,

The next stop on our trip through Indonesia was Sulawesi. Although we didn't have time to explore the whole island, we did decided that birding the north would still be worth while. Overall our time on Sulawesi was very successful, but also very very tiring. I almost lost my mind trying to find Minahasa Masked Owl, but in the end it all worked out!

Check out more about our time in northern Sulawesi plus the crazy experience of finally finding a Minahasa Masked Owl on the blog.

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/09/24/sulawesi-indonesia-ross-gallardy-does-not-dip-owls/

Best,

Ross
 
Tabimbar

Hi all,

Our second 60 day visa started out with a visit to Tanimabr. Our few day visit to the island was extremely successful and we were able to find all of the endemics/ endemic subspecies including Tanimbar Masked Owl, Tanimbar Scrubfowl, and "violet-hooded" starling. Along with the great birds, we "discovered" a fantastic new place to stay that is very close to the birding site and is run but a great Indonesian family. Check out the "Goffin Lab" and the rest of the bird report on the blog. I highly recommend getting in touch with Mark and Berneika of you decide I visit Tanimbar.

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/10/10/tanimbar-indonesia-an-unlikely-encounter/#more-3876

Best,

Ross
 
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