Sunday 1 August 2021

A Bali Update

Since my last update in October 2020 things have been fairly similar, in that most of my birding has been from my garden in Ubud, Bali. Though I've found a great ecolodge to visit and have done a couple of birding sessions near the coast when I've had to go down into the city to sort out my visa etc. Very little dedicated "proper" birding, but the odd bit of casual birding here and there which has actually been quite rewarding.

The spring period (March-April) here was amazing, with a really pronounced visible migration period featuring really impressive sights of Crested Honey Buzzard, Chinese Sparrowhawk, Japanese Sparrowhawk, White-throated Needletail, Pacific Swift, and Blue-tailed Bee-eater all migrating over Bali in great flocks. Most of this was documented from my swimming pool and I'll be writing some proper notes up about that soon too! I also found a really rare bird for Bali - Blue-and-white Flycatcher. After some digging in difficult to access literature, not probably as rare as first thought, but still very rare for the island and pleasing - it was a stunning male bird.

In April, after 1 year at my house in the center of Ubud I moved a kilometre or so out of town to a place with a bit more of a garden and, more importantly, some trees! The change in bird life was instantly noticeable and I've been enjoying some great birds in the garden in the 4 months that I've been here, including Bali Myna, Javan Kingfisher, Oriental Pied Hornbill, (Javan) White-crowned Forktail, Brown-cheeked Bulbul, Fulvous-chested Jungle Flycatcher, Square-tailed Drongo Cuckoo, Chestnut-breasted Malkoha, Java Sparrow, Black-naped Fruit Dove, and many more!  

Hopefully the next few months will allow for a bit of travel in Indonesia, things are not great out here at the moment so most of the year has, so far, been spent staying "out of the way". But hoping to get one or two exciting Indonesian birding trips in during the year within and outside Bali. 

Here are a few of my photos from the last few months in alphabetical order to give you a sample of what I've been enjoying...

Blue-and-white Flycatcher

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Chestnut-breasted Malkoha

Chinese Sparrowhawk

Crested Honey Buzzard

Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon

Java Sparrow

Javan Kingfisher

Javan Plover

Javan Pond Heron

Olive-backed Sunbird

Olive-backed Tailorbird

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Pacific Swift

Square-tailed Drongo Cuckoo

Striated Swallow

White-throated Needletail


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