A.W.Birder: Always on the lookout for fine birds...: 2022

Sunday 2 January 2022

Birding Indonesia 2021 - A Summary

I ended up recording exactly 400 species in Indonesia and 164 species in Bali during 2021 (following eBird/Clements taxonomy) - 82 of those on my local patch in Ubud (Campuhan Ridge).

The first half of the year was spent entirely within Bali (and didn't really involve that much birding until April). Most of my birding was undertaken from my town center garden, then from my new, much better garden a kilometre or so out of town and then the local area from April onwards. When in my new spot I did a spell of early morning and late afternoon birding sessions from my balcony (mainly during the passage periods) which gave some great species - in fact I got 74 species from my new garden between April-December 2021. See the blog posts here: Bali early 2021 and Bali late 2021 for some of the Bali birding highlights.

During the second half of the year, mainly in the last quarter of the year, I managed to get to a few other islands for some high quality Indonesian birding. I visited the following islands (click the name to see the specific blog/trip report and lots of photos):

There were loads of birding highlights during the year, I found some great birds, a few rarities in the form of Blue-and-white Flycatcher in Bali, Grey-streaked Flycatcher in Timor, and Pectoral Sandpiper in Sumba as well as witnessing a really pronounced and impressive spring migration of raptors passing over Bali. The off-Bali trips yielded a load of range-restricted and highly prized endemics, some of them rarely seen and/or photographed (see the linked trip reports above for loads more details).

With a bit of luck I'll get to explore some more areas of Indonesia during 2022 (and hopefully a little further afield too, as I've got loads of amazing tours all lined up if the Covid-19 situation allows...). In Indonesia I'm planning on some birding in Java, Sumatra, Borneo (Kalimantan) and then thinking of Seram, Buru, Tanimbar, Kai Islands, and probably some more in Sulawesi too... still loads of incredible birds to look for! Let's see what happens.

Indonesia 2021 Totals....

Bali 2021 Totals

Bali Update (2nd half of 2021)

During the second half of 2021 I managed to get a few great birding trips in around a few different parts of Indonesia (see my recent posts below for details of those). I also saw a few good birds in Bali during this period, most of the birding was carried out in my garden in early morning or late afternoon sessions and I did manage a couple of brief trips to the coast. See also here for some information on the first half of 2021 in Bali.

Some of the highlights of this second half of 2021 in Bali included Brown Booby, Lesser Frigatebird, Bulwer's Petrel, Wilson's Storm Petrel, Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Streaked Shearwater, and Black-naped Tern all from the ferry between Bali and Lombok (in Bali waters).

Garden birding in this period gave me Bali Myna, Javan Myna, Eastern Barn Owl, Black-winged Kite, Marsh Sandpiper, Peregrine Falcon, Japanese Sparrowhawk, Chinese Sparrowhawk, Crested Honey Buzzard, Blue-eared Kingfisher, Blue-tailed Bee-eater, White-throated Needletail, Pacific Swift, Green Junglefowl, Common Flameback, Oriental Magpie Robin, (Javan) White-crowned Forktail, and an Oriental/Himalayan Cuckoo.

A couple of trips to the coast nearest my house resulted in Barred Buttonquail, Savanna Nightjar, Sacred Kingfisher, Brahminy Kite, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Little Tern, Great Crested Tern, Whiskered Tern, Little Ringed Plover, Javan Plover, Pacific Golden Plover, and Sanderling.