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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 (1 Viewer)

Kai Islands

After finishing up our time on Tanimbar we flew via Ambon to the islands of Kai Kecil (small) and Kai Besar (large). The majority of endemics can easily be found on the island of Kai Kecil, but a visit to Kai Besar is also necessary to pick up an endemic leaf-warbler and white-eye as well as an interesting owl.

Overall our trip to the Kai islands was a success, but not without a few logistical snafus. Read more about successes and failures of the Kai Islands on the blog!

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/10/27/kai-islands-kecil-besar-indonesia-what-the-fako/

Best,

Ross
 
Great persistence

Rgallardy said:
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
Click to expand...

Great persistence to get the Owl - when I suggested to Sarah we may need to do the same when we are there in a couple of weeks her reply was unprintable ;).
 
Madanga!

After finishing up with Kai Kecil and Kai Besar, it was time to get serious about Moluccan birding and visit Buru and Seram. Both islands are home to a number of endemic species with each island having some truly difficult species. First on the docket was Buru. Although most species can be seen from the old logging road heading inland to the center of the island, a few species (particularly Madanga, Black-lored Parrot, and Blue-fronted Lorikeet) remain extremely hard and difficult to see.

The Madanga hadn't been seen for years until a Birdquest group discovered a single bird along the highest point of the logging road a few years ago. Although this spot has now produced a few sightings, it is far from reliable there as the ridge is isolated and barely reaching 1600m. Given the unpredictability of Madanga at this site (and not having any info as to where the trail actually is....still a "bird tour secret" as far as I know), Melissa and I decided to do things a bit different and head to the center of the island and attempt to access the higher ridges from there.

Rob Hutchinson had done a similar trip more than a decade ago and seemed reasonably sure that if we were able to get access from that area, we would surely get the Madanga. He was right, but what we didn't know is that we were in for a bit more of an adventure than we originally planned. Read more about it on the blog!

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/10/31/buru-indonesia-ohhhhhhhhhhhh-buru-hantu/


Best,

Ross
 
Rgallardy said:
After finishing up with Kai Kecil and Kai Besar, it was time to get serious about Moluccan birding and visit Buru and Seram. Both islands are home to a number of endemic species with each island having some truly difficult species. First on the docket was Buru. Although most species can be seen from the old logging road heading inland to the center of the island, a few species (particularly Madanga, Black-lored Parrot, and Blue-fronted Lorikeet) remain extremely hard and difficult to see.

The Madanga hadn't been seen for years until a Birdquest group discovered a single bird along the highest point of the logging road a few years ago. Although this spot has now produced a few sightings, it is far from reliable there as the ridge is isolated and barely reaching 1600m. Given the unpredictability of Madanga at this site (and not having any info as to where the trail actually is....still a "bird tour secret" as far as I know), Melissa and I decided to do things a bit different and head to the center of the island and attempt to access the higher ridges from there.

Rob Hutchinson had done a similar trip more than a decade ago and seemed reasonably sure that if we were able to get access from that area, we would surely get the Madanga. He was right, but what we didn't know is that we were in for a bit more of an adventure than we originally planned. Read more about it on the blog!

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/10/31/buru-indonesia-ohhhhhhhhhhhh-buru-hantu/


Best,

Ross
Click to expand...

The Madanga was also photographed and sound-recorded by two Dutch birders, Sander Lagerveld and Leon Edelaar in december 2013 in a private expedition:
https://www.dutchbirding.nl/gallery/detail/12169?page=0#navbar-collapse

Way before Birdquest was bragging they had rediscovered it after the sighting of Rob Hutchinson.
 
Very cool. Any idea if they published any details of their trip or if the recording is available anywhere? It's be great to see which ridge they hiked up and I still haven't heard it so would be nice to hear the recording.
 
Rgallardy said:
Very cool. Any idea if they published any details of their trip or if the recording is available anywhere? It's be great to see which ridge they hiked up and I still haven't heard it so would be nice to hear the recording.
Click to expand...

Hi Ross & Melissa,

At least in observado, Sander stores his records. Note several records of the Hantu Boobook.

I enjoyed your blog very much, and thanks for sharing it! happy birding and save trip home!
 
Last edited:
Jan van der Laan said:
Hi Ross & Melissa,

At least in observado, Sander stores his records. Note several records of the Hantu Boobook.

I enjoyed your blog very much, and thanks for sharing it! happy birding and save trip home!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I need to be better at checking more sources than eBird. Would have been nice to have some of those GPS points! I still can't seem to find any links to any of his recordings (if they are even there?).

Best,

Ross
 
Boano Monarch

Hi all,

After Buru it was time to head to Seram, but not before a quick detour to Boano to pick up the endemic monarch that calls the island home. Unfortunately the day trip turned into a bit of a disaster, but luckily we still managed to find the bird! Logistically I definitely would recommend starting the day from Seram so that you could visit Boano in the morning. We started from Ambon and by the time we made it to Seram and up to the village of Masika it was already midday and the ocean crossing was very rough. It also left us very little time to track down the monarch once we arrived.

Read more about this "successful shit show" on the blog!

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/11/16/boano-indonesia-the-successful-shit-show/

Best,

Ross
 
Conquering Seram

Hi all,

Well about six months later, we have finally made it to our last island of this thread, Seram! Our original game plan for Seram was like most other birders. Go and bird the Trans Seram highway and stay in Sawai. That all changed when I decided to read a Forktail article that Gareth Knass had sent me during the drive across the island. The 2014 article detailed an expedition to Mount Binaiya that resulted in two truly remarkable birds, Seram Thrush and Seram Masked Owl. Based on the info in the article, it seemed like putting together a last minute trek to Mt Binaiya would be pretty straight forward. Well spoiler alert, it wasn't. 6 days and over 70 kms of muddy trails later and we found ourselves back in Sawai after a very successful twitch of both the thrush and the owl!

Check out the blog for more details on the trek and the first pics of Seram Thrush in the wild!

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/11/22/seram-indonesia-the-perfect-storm-and-people-live-out-here/

Best,

Ross
 
Seram Part two

Hi all,

Well six months after starting this thread, I'm finally done with it! After finishing up our trek on Mt Binaya, we still had a few target endemics to see along the Trans Seram Highway. We also visit a nearby small island to see the range restricted small island specialist, Olive Honeyeater. Overall the trip to our last island Seram, went extremely well and we only dipped one endemic, Seram Dwarf-Kingfisher.

Check out the blog for more info on our last few days in Seram

https://budgetbirders.com/2017/11/28/seram-part-2-indonesia-well-that-ended-on-a-happy-note/

Also, that officially ends out first 3 months in Indonesia. From here we headed to West Papua which i'll start in a new thread to keep this one from getting any longer than it already is. By this time we had seen 536 species.

Best,

Ross

p.s. I'll try to get around to posting some cost/budget data, but to be honest, it might be awhile! If you have any specific questions, just send me a message.
 
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