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

Bali Lockdown Birding - Garden List Hits 50!

There's been another shift in the winds recently in Bali along with several severe thunderstorms and I've had a few garden ticks in the last couple of weeks too (I'm in Ubud) - such as Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Pacific Swift, White-breasted Woodswallow, White-throated Needletail, Common Myna, and Javan Myna. 

Today, after a huge storm that lasted most of the night and all morning I got two ticks in two minutes once it stopped - firstly a flock of three Wood Sandpipers, followed by a single Grey Heron, happy days! 

Grey Heron actually took my garden list to 50 species! I've been here almost 7 months now. 

1. Olive-backed Sunbird
2. Yellow-vented Bulbul
3. Javan Pond Heron
4. Cave Swiftlet
5. Plaintive Cuckoo
6. Collared Kingfisher
7. Eastern Cattle Egret
8. Edible-nest Swiftlet
9. Zebra Dove
10. Spotted Dove
11. Javan Munia
12. Eurasian Tree Sparrow
13. Javan Kingfisher
14. Large-billed Crow
15. Striated Swallow
16. Chinese Sparrowhawk
17. Scaly-breasted Munia
18. Pacific Swallow
19. Intermediate Egret
20. Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon
21. Pied Bush Chat
22. Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
23. Black-naped Fruit Dove
24. Black-crowned Night Heron
25. Savanna Nightjar
26. Olive-backed Tailorbird
27. Rock Dove (Feral Pigeon)
28. White-headed Munia
29. Rusty-breasted Whistler
30. Asian Glossy Starling
31. Pink-necked Green Pigeon
32. Little Spiderhunter
33. Scarlet-headed Flowerpecker
34. House Swift
35. Common Iora
36. Java Sparrow
37. Sunda Scops Owl
38. Barn Swallow
39. Short-tailed Starling
40. Little Egret
41. White-throated Needletail
42. Brown-backed Needletail
43. Zitting Cisticola
44. Javan Myna
45. Blue-tailed Bee-eater
46. White-breasted Woodswallow
47. Pacific Swift
48. Common Myna
49. Wood Sandpiper
50. Grey Heron

Here are a few photos of some of the birds from the garden, my camera has been packed away for the most part so I've missed some very good photo ops.. such as the only time I've seen the Java Sparrow perched... about 10ft away from me at eye-level - DOH! Happy with the ones below though...

Javan Kingfisher

Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon

Pied Bush Chat

Scaly-breasted Munia

(Eastern) Spotted Dove

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Zebra Dove

Lockdown Birding in Bali - LOCKDOWN LIFER!!!

Amazing week on lockdown in Ubud, Bali when I got an unexpected LIFER! I was sat at my desk working on a range of new and exciting tours when all of a sudden I noticed a shape on the next door villas roof, this wasn't the usual Javan Munia or Eurasian Tree Sparrow, this was bigger, more colourful... I leaned back so I could see round the blind and almost fell off my chair when I realised I was watching a stunning JAVA SPARROW! Too quickly it dropped out of view into a garden and as I tried to get in a position to photograph it two birds were flushed by a motorbike and flew off high calling. Hopefully they will be back, but pretty amazing to get this very cool tick!

Also this week I finally (after 62 days) got a photo opportunity for the Javan Kingfisher. Each morning they are very vocal flying back and forth over this part of Ubud, often quite high and sometimes doing a bit of a display flight which has been cool to watch but frustrating in terms of trying to get a photo. Well, yesterday one finally landed close by. After a bit of work I was able to get myself into a position to take the following photo on my neighbours roof. What a stunning bird.

Javan Kingfisher

I've had a couple of 'new' lockdown ticks this week such as Barn Swallow, and the Java Sparrow, but also pretty high up there was Sunda Scops Owl that appeared outside the villa in the rain one evening while I was waiting for my pizza delivery! Not new but always nice to hear/see Savanna Nightjar and Black-crowned Night Herons going over at night too.

At 37 species now I think for my lockdown list!