Blue-capped Wood-Kingfisher - female (28cm).
The Blue-capped Wood-Kingfisher is an uncommon mountain forest species endemic to the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
I spent four days searching for this species in the Kitanglad Mountains. I heard the call several times but that was it. I finally came across a pair in the mountains in PICOP, Bislig. I had some good views of the male in the thick canopy but couldn't get a photo. The female was more cooperative and spent a minute on an "open" perch and I was able to get a few shots in.
The Philippines has the worst forest protection record in SE Asia with less than 3% of its original forest remaining. Some of the largest areas of virgin rain forest can be found on the island of Mindanao. Some of the last strongholds of the critically endangered Great Philippine Monkey-eating Eagle, said to be the world's second largest eagle, can be found on Mindanao. The Philippines is one of the world's most important endemic bird areas. 51 bird species are endemic to Mindanao and the neighbouring Eastern Visayas Islands.
Mindanao has the reputation of being a "no-go" area because of it being a stronghold for terror groups such as Abu Sayyaf. While the people of the Philippines are largely Catholic, the people of the southern islands tend to be Islamic. Much of southern and western Mindanao is indeed a no-go area but the north and north east of the island still have a Catholic majority and rebel groups enjoy very little support amongst the locals. In reality, Manila is probably more dangerous than northern and north eastern Mindanao.
Much of Mindanao's forest has disappeared as a result of slash and burn agriculture but in more recent times Mindanao's no-go reputation has left much of northern and north eastern Mindanoa's remaining forest open to exploitation and illegal logging is rampant (I hear that forests within the rebel areas tend to be in better shape as the rebels need them intact to hide in them). The rain forest is openly being logged and corrupt government officials, law enforcement and politicians are just turning a blind eye to the situation.
The lucrative furniture and timber trade are using the no-go vacuum to illegally log. People who have been displaced through violence and other social issues, typhoons, and floods are encouraged by corrupt officials to settle in the remaining rain forest and log to make a living. Unscrupulous operators in the timber and furniture industry then buy the timber at very low costs. Much of the timber is transported on owner-driver operated trucks to timber yards so it is very difficult to actually connect the kingpins in the timber and furniture industry to the illegal logging.
If logging continues at its present rate it is believed that northern and north eastern Mindanao's forests may be gone by late 2010 and the remaining Philippine rain forest gone by 2014.