Sunday 19 December 2021

Birding Sumba, Indonesia - October 2021

The third leg of my October 2021 Lesser Sunda Islands trip was to Sumba, located south of the island of Flores (where I'd been birding in September 2021 - trip report here) and followed straight on from my birding in Timor and Rote

Sumba has almost a dozen IOC recognized endemics and these were my targets, along with any interesting local subspecies on offer. It was a great visit and not only did I find all my endemic targets I got a great selection of the endemic subspecies and even ended up finding an Indonesian rarity...

I started off in Waingapu in the east of the island, did some birding around there, birded mainly at the excellent Billa Forest and then headed west to Tambolaka where I flew back home to Bali. 

Birding in Billa Forest gave most of the endemics, and included Sumba Hornbill, Red-naped Fruit Dove, Sumba Green Pigeon, (Great) Sumba Boobook, Little Sumba (Boobook) Hawk-Owl, Sumba Brown Flycatcher, Sumba Jungle Flycatcher (Sumba Warbling-flycatcher), and Sumba Flycatcher, along with other targets such as Yellow-crested (Orange-crested) Cockatoo, Cinnamon-banded Kingfisher, Marigold Lorikeet, Elegant Pitta, Little (Eucalypt) Cuckoo-Dove, Brown Goshawk, Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher, Rusty-breasted (Tenggara/Sumba) Whistler, Wallacean (Sumba Spangled) Drongo, Tenggara Paradise Flycatcher, Blood-breasted (Sumba) Flowerpecker, Eclectus Parrot, and Great-billed Parrot.   

Birding around Waingapu was great and not only did I get some good views (but not photos!) of Sumba Buttonquail, but a wetland near the coast was packed full of shorebirds and included Australian Pratincole and Oriental Plover, but the pick of the lot was a Pectoral Sandpiper!!! This appears to be the first record for Sumba, and possible something like the 6th-8th record for Indonesia! Photos below...   

The drive across the island included a few stops where I got excellent looks at Elegant Pitta, Sumba Myzomela, Apricot-breasted Sunbird, and Spotted Harrier. I really enjoyed the birding in Sumba, and can't wait to get back for more in 2022.  


Sumba Hornbill

Red-naped Fruit Dove

Sumba Brown Flycatcher

Sumba Flycatcher

Sumba Green Pigeon

Sumba Myzomela

Yellow-crested (Orange-crested) Cockatoo

Cinnamon-banded Kingfisher

Elegant Pitta

Marigold Lorikeet

Wallacean (Sumba Spangled) Drongo

Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher

Spotted Harrier

Pectoral Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

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