Sabah, Borneo - January 2016 (Part 1)

Here's the first instalment from a month I spent in Borneo earlier this year...

 

Present: Brandon Hewitt, Julian Teh; photography: Julian Teh

Here we were, two teenage Australian birders, awaiting our flight out of Sydney destined for Singapore, then eventually to the Malaysian state of Borneo, Sabah. Having only known each other from our facebook profiles, and with about 2,000km between us, we had only met for the first time a few months earlier and our lives couldn’t be more different. For Julian, a Canberr-ean, this was his first real taste of tropical birding but nonetheless that wouldn’t stop us from having a ripper of a trip.

After 8 hours in the air and another six hours of trying to sleep in Changi Airport, we were soon headed for Sabah’s capital, Kota Kinabalu. Birding had started before take-off with Common Myna and our first lifer for the trip, and Pacific Swallow being seen around the airfield. Upon touchdown in KK, more plane-birding – Cattle Egrets and Pacific Swallows being the only thing we could identify from the plane window.

Selamat Datang Kota Kinabalu – Welcome to Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu waterfront

 

Once we had got ourselves into the city and settled into our accommodation, we lasted about ten minutes inside doing nothing before we decided we should be out birding. After just stepping out of the backpackers we immediately noticed the Glossy Swiftlets, House Swifts and Asian Palm-Swifts gliding over the city. Walking to the waterfront and back got our lists going with most of the common birds of the city including Zebra Dove, Pacific Reef-Egret and Asian Glossy Starling. Later that afternoon we took a walk up Signal Hill, which provided a few more lifers, such as Pink-necked Green-Pigeon, Grey-streaked Flycatcher, Ashy Tailorbird and Green Imperial Pigeon. The next morning we decided that we’d had enough of KK after a visit to Tajung Aru and KK Wetland Centre. Highlights at Tajung Aru include Oriental Pied Hornbill, Common Iora, Grey Imperial Pigeon, Olive-backed Sunbird, Collared Kingfisher and Pied Triller, and at the wetland centre we picked up Brown-throated Sunbird, Common Kingfisher, Purple Heron and Orange-breasted Flowerpecker. After a day we decided we’d had enough of KK and really just wanted to go to the mountain, mainly so Julian could escape the heat, but also so we could do some real birding! So we got on the bus that afternoon. The white “Bas Mini” buses linger around the main bus terminals and operate between all the main towns in Sabah. They charge about half the price of a larger coach (RM20 each will get you to Kinabalu Park), though they don’t run on any schedule and only leave once they’re full, so you could be waiting a while.

Mt Kinabalu – Black-and-Crimson Oriole, “the commonest bird around KNP HQ” – K Phillipps

Mt Kinabalu with rainbow

The afternoon that we arrived on the mountain and the following morning was spent casually birding the common areas around KNP HQ, which allowed us to pick up a lot of the more common montane endemics, such as, Temminck’s Sunbird, Mountain Tailorbird, Bornean Flowerpecker, Chestnut-crested Yuhina, Black-capped White-eye, Chestnut-hooded Laughing-thrush, Mountain Leaf-Warbler and Indigo Flycatcher. It was also good to connect with a few of the target endemics early on, like Bornean Leafbird and Mountain Barbet which we only came across once during our time on the mountain.

Indigo Flycatcher (Eumyias indigo)

 We walked up the road to Timpohon Gate (the starting point of the summit climb) four times, while normal people would just take a car. The first time would be my most memorable. While I took a rest at the lookout about half way up, I thought “if we were to see a serpant-eagle, this is where we’d see it” so I spent at least 20 minutes staring out over the valley hoping for our first raptor of the trip. Eventually Julian got bored of this and wanted to move on. I stayed put for a while longer before too moving on, and by then Julian was some 500m up the road. Just moments after leaving the lookout, I heard something move – the kind of sound that a fairly bulky bird makes taking off from a perch and making the branch shake a little. I was expecting a Mountain Imperial-Pigeon or perhaps a Bornean Treepie, but when I look to where the sound came from I immediately locked onto three Whitehead’s Broadbills; WOW! Poor Julian. When I caught up to him at a verge in the road I told him, and while he raced back down to the lookout I stayed at the verge; “I’ll just have a look around here…” and what did I hear but the unmistakeable call of a Whitehead’s Spiderhunter! Sure enough, I had it sitting atop of a flowering vine. This time I didn’t want to seem like an asshole so, with the limited reception that I had, I messaged him with “GET BACK UP HERE NOW!” And as if that wasn’t enough, a Black Laughing-thrush turned up as well while I was waiting. So with Julian on 1 and me on 2 the mood was dire for the rest of the day, but despite what Julian thought of me at the time he didn’t want to leave my side again. Around Timpohon Gate we picked up Sunda Bush-warbler and Little Cuckoo-Dove. On the way back down, ironically back at the lookout I briefly saw a Mountain Serpent-Eagle glide across the gap of forest on the road, but the midday mist descending from the mountain and the height of the treeline meant it was long gone. That was the only sighting for the trip. After lunch we headed back to the resthouse and worked out some logistics and decided we need to up our game for the coming days. The afternoon included a relaxed walk around the lower tracks around the Liwagu River where we connected with Bornean Whistling-thrush and the local Bornean Forktails, as well as tracking down the drumming of an Orange-backed Woodpecker.

Whitehead's Broadbill (Calyptomena whiteheadi)

Whitehead's Trogon female (Harpactes whiteheadi)

The plan for the next few days went something like this: wake up at 4am, walk to Timpohon Gate in the dark, stake out Everett’s Thrush from pre-dawn, bird around the gate at first light, then return to HQ via a trail which was decided the day before, then go and have breakfast and lunch in one sitting. Every morning we’d come back having seen no thrush, but every day on the way back down we picked up some new birds. The first day we added Crimson-headed Partridge, Sunda Laughing-thrush, Bornean Stubtail (a personal favourite), White-browed Shortwing, Eyebrowed Jungle-Flycatcher and Fruithunter, the latter being completely unexpected. Julian felt a weight off his shoulders when we found a couple more Whitehead’s Broadbills after brunch that day. The next morning we came down the Liwagu trail where we picked up Eye-browed Thrush, Sunda Cuckoo, Dark Hawk-Cuckoo, Mountain Wren-babbler, Checker-throated Woodpecker and, completing the trio, Whitehead’s Trogon on the lower half of the trail. In the afternoons we spent most of the time walking along the roads, where we often encountered mixed flocks which are good to come across birds like Grey-chinned Minivet, White-browed Shrike-babbler, Mugimaki Flycatcher, Yellow-breasted Warbler, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch and sometimes Sunda Cuckoo-shrike. The next morning we decided was a rest day and went back to photograph the trogons, adding Ferruginous Flycatcher on the way back. That afternoon we headed down the Mt Kinabalu Rd and added Long-tailed Shrike, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Yellow-bellied Prinia, Dusky Munia and Bornean Spiderhunder. On our last day we returned to Timpohon Gate once more pre-dawn. We’d found out the day before from one of the guides that the Siberian Rubythroat had showed up at the power station, so we stayed at the gate for most of the morning. We were told that we could just walk into the power station as they’re pretty friendly towards birdwatchers and basically let you walk around as if you weren’t even there. Here Ashy Drongos were hawking moths still flying about the lights in the early morning, Mountain Black-eye, Blue-and-White Flycatcher and Flavescent Bulbul were also present, but no sign of the rubythroat.