19th October 2010: Danum Valley Borneo Rainforest Lodge

A few pics from last night's night drive to start with...



A Black Flying Squirrel






















And a Slow Loris performing a comical stretch!



It was worth checking the spiderhunters coming to the Indian Coral tree this morning. Yesterday's were Spectacled. Today there was Yellow-eared.



We headed back to where we'd heard the Giant Pitta yesterday, but it wasn't interested today. After some time of Wang Kong's best imitations, we gave up and headed elsewhere. This Great-billed Heron looked 'atmospheric' in the morning light.



A Purple-naped Sunbird stopped long enough to be snapped.






















It's difficult to give an impression of how small pygmy squirrels are from a photo, but they really are tiny! This is a Plain Pygmy Squirrel.






















We photographed this anglehead lizard - Gonocephalus bornensis - while waiting for a Black-throated Wren-babbler to show itself. It did, but not well enough for a photo!



Chestnut-necklaced Partridges seemed quite common once they started their loud duets. Getting a clear shot was another matter, as they were shy.


























On our way back for lunch we came across this beautiful Common Bronzeback.





We met Glenda, Maye and Eileen from MNS HQ, and they showed us a pair of Maroon-breasted Philentomas. Here's the male.



Displaying to the female.



The view from my chalet after lunch, before the skies went grey!



A Rufous-tailed Tailorbird near the restaurant.

The rainclouds gathered and the thunder rolled, but the rain didn't arrive, so we set out for our afternoon session up the main access track. We hadn't gone very long when a Giant Pitta started calling from the forest to our left. Seven of us (including two guides) made our way none too silently into the undergrowth and tried to call the bird into view. After some minutes of frustration, Wang Kong decided we should make our way uphill till we met the trail. We had circled the point where the pitta had been calling, and were now above it. However, I seriously doubted the bird would still be interested after all the noise we had made moving uphill.

To my surprise, it did respond to Wang Kong's whistled imitation, and after some time, the bird - a male, hopped onto the trail and perched motionless in full view for 20 glorious seconds! It was a bit too far away for my flash to reach, but who cares - the mythical Giant Pitta has been well and truly grilled!







The Holy Grail of the Malaysian rainforest? Well, one of them!

I don't remember much after that1 I think we turned round and headed straight back to the resort without lifting our bins to look at another bird!






















Oh yes, and we saw a Thomas's Flying Squirrel on the night drive.

15th October 2010: Borneo Bird Festival, Sepilok, Sabah

Today was the start of the Festival and RDC was a hive of activity...



The unveiling of the Borneo Bird Club logo.The BoBC has just become an officially registered society, so is now well and truly open for business. Kudos to Cede Prudente, the pro tem Chairman, and his band of merry (and hard-working!) men and women for having achieved so much in the club's young life.



The BoBC stand, and some serious Big Boys Toys on show!



The launch of the Bird Race, just before the heavens opened and everyone ran for cover!

Apart from attending the formalities, I had no other responsibilities today, so plenty of time for birding!



Our first good find of the day was a pair of Slow Lorises and a baby, apparently happily feeding at ten in the morning!

Some more bird images from my walks around the Rainforest Discovery Centre today



Banded Woodpecker



A Blue-eared Kingfisher (I didn't see the Ruddy Kingfisher which everyone else photographed by the way!)






















I'm not quite sure what this is! If it was in West Malaysia I'd have called it a Crow-billed Drongo without a second thought, but in East Malaysia the Greater Racket-tailed Drongos are heavy-billed, lack much of a crest, and have a deeper tail fork than the West Malaysia birds. I'm not familiar enough with East Malaysian GRTs to feel confident that this is or isn't one. The fact that the bird is in tail moult doesn't help - as it's difficult to be sure what the tail shape would look like in fresh plumage. Compare with this pic of a Greater Racket-tailed I shot in Kubah recently. Any ideas?






















A distant White-fronted Falconet, endemic to northern Borneo.



A small party of Rufous-winged Philentomas foraging just above the ground along the Pitta Trail was the highlight.





Perhaps it was a family group - there was one adult male and several female/juvs.

Back at the Nature Resort, the fig festival was still in full swing!



A female Black Hornbill - one of the regular crowd.



And the female of the neighbourhood Rhino family.



Streaked Bulbuls are always good to see.



Puff-backed even more so - a shame that this was such a mangy individual.




When a flock of Asian Glossy Starlings flew in I started looking for some Chestnut-cheeked, and was soon rewarded! This female/juv could easily be overlooked among Purple-backed Starlings if it was in Peninsular Malaysia. Note that it lacks the whitish lower scapulars and pale greater covert tips of Purple-backed, and is generally browner.





Males are easier to spot. This one has more extensive 'chestnut cheeks' than any illustration I've seen!

My second new bird in two days, and both in the same tree!

HCV Assessment 6th - 8th June 2010: Pahang 1

Last week I spent 6 days taking part in a rapid assessment of High Conservation Value Forest areas in Pahang and Terengganu. This is a bit like doing a bird race, in that you are trying to record the presence of as many birds, mammals, reptiles, etc, as possible in a short time, so it's not ideal for taking good photographs! Still, I appreciated the opportunity to get into some areas rarely, if ever visited by birders.



One of the first areas we visited was the south-east corner of Bukit Ibam Forest Reserve. It's home for several orang asli communities of the Jakun tribe, and an important source of timber products for them. These are strips of bertam palm, which are being dried before being used, mainly for roofing material.

























Harvesting bertam in the forest is a family activity!



Silver-rumped Needletails were numerous, and I could have happily spent an hour or so photographing them, but time to move on!



The forest was pretty 'birdy' - we recorded 87 species, which isn't bad considering there were no migrants. A family party of Red Junglefowl taken through the front windscreen!

Highlights were Large Green Pigeons, Olive-backed Woodpecker and Rail-babbler, and a number of swamp forest associates, such as Wrinkled Hornbill, Puff-backed Bulbul and Red-crowned Barbet.



Not the best picture of a Rail-babbler, but possibly the first one ever of one in flight! I just caught this as it flew across the logging trail.



Ryothemis phyllis is common and widespread, but still nice to see!



Mammals were not so easily seen, but this is a footprint of a small felid - probably a Leopard Cat.



Our night survey produced Oriental Bay Owl, Javan Frogmouth and this female Sunda Slow Loris.



She seemed equally comfortable moving around on two legs or four, a reminder that lorises are primates!





We found out that the local name for these is 'monyet duku' (lit: duku (a kind of fruit) monkey), due to their predilection for ripe fruits.



Bukit Musoh is a forested ridge that runs south-east from Bukit Ibam. Sadly about 30% of it has recently been very heavily logged, completely undermining its value for soil protection on steep slopes. Although it is now a fragment separated from the main forest area, it was still surprisingly bird-rich, with Gould's Frogmouth, Reddish Scops and Barred Eagle-owl being recorded there on our night survey.



A desperately sad sight was watching three Rhinoceros and two Great Hornbills hopping from sapling to sapling in search of food. One of the Rhinos can be seen just above the centre of this picture, with the pair of Greats bottom right.



Long-tailed Shrikes are scarce open country residents in the peninsula, so it was good to see a couple.





One of the highlights of our night surveys was coming across Blue-breasted Quails - a bird I've not see for years. This is a female.





And this is the resplendent multi-coloured male.