Birding North Sulawesi, Indonesia - November 2021

Following on from my previous post on Central Sulawesi, which you can read all about here (feat. Purple-bearded Bee-eater, Sulawesi Woodcock, Hylocitrea etc.), this post covers my couple of days birding in North Sulawesi, or more specifically, at the incredible Tangkoko National Park. I'd covered this site last year, but since I was so close with my trip to Palu and Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi I couldn't resist another trip north...

The always spectacular Knobbed Hornbill put on a great show, as too did their smaller cousins, the Sulawesi Hornbill. Parrots were very obvious with Yellow-breasted (Minahassa) Racket-tail, Blue-backed (Azure-rumped) Parrot, Ornate Lorikeet, and Pygmy (Small Sulawesi) Hanging Parrot all seen. The area is full of kingfishers and I enjoyed close views of Green-backed Kingfisher, (Sulawesi) Lilac Kingfisher, and Ruddy Kingfisher, along with excellent looks at Purple-winged (Sulawesi) Roller, Ashy Woodpecker, and Sulawesi Pitta, (Sulawesi) Crimson Sunbird, and excellent Spot-tailed Sparrowhawk.

Philippine Megapode (Tabon Scrubfowl), Bay Coucal, Hair-crested (White-eyed Spangled) Drongo, Slender-billed (Sulawesi) Crow, Red-backed Thrush, Yellow-billed (Sulawesi) Malkoha, Black-billed Koel, and Grosbeak Starling (Finch-billed Myna) were all seen too, as were a pair of Pied Cuckooshrike. Doves and pigeons are always plentiful here and I enjoyed watching Sultan's (Sulawesi) Cuckoo-Dove, White-faced Cuckoo-Dove (Sulawesi Black Pigeon), Black-naped Fruit Dove, Green (Paulina's) Imperial Pigeon, and Silver-tipped Imperial Pigeon. One of the highlights was how well Isabelline (Sulawesi) Bush-hen showed as it called out in the open.

A bit of birding at night yielded Minahassa Masked Owl, Sulaswesi Scops Owl, and Great Eared Nightjar, while during the day Ochre-bellied Boobook and Sulawesi Nightjar were both seen.

Interestingly while driving in towards Tangkoko from Manado in the evening, a random stop for a bakery resulted in the finding of a roost or probably 5,000 Barn Swallows right in a town center along the main road, all on the power lines, a pretty spectacular sight!

You can see more specifics about this trip on my eBird account where I've used the new "Trip Report" tool to put some details together,  see that here. 

Knobbed Hornbill

Knobbed Hornbill

Ashy Woodpecker

Green-backed Kingfisher

Hair-crested (White-eyed Spangled) Drongo

Isabelline (Sulawesi) Bush-hen

(Sulawesi) Lilac Kingfisher

Ochre-bellied Boobook

Pied Cuckooshrike

Purple-winged (Sulawesi) Roller

Spot-tailed Sparrowhawk

Spot-tailed Sparrowhawk

Sulawesi Hornbill (male)

Sulawesi Hornbill (female)

(Sulawesi) Crimson Sunbird

Sulawesi Birding Trip Report - September 2020

In early-September 2020 I took a flight from Denpasar, Bali to Manado, North Sulawesi (via Makassar, South Sulawesi). Nice easy and fairly quick journey of about 4 hours including the stops with a bit of faff for Covid-screening etc. 

The plan was for 3 nights at Tangkoko with 1 night at Tomohon (for birding at Mt Mahawu) on the tip on the Minahassa Peninsula. I think I was the first western person to have gone birding around Tangkoko National Park/Nature Reserve since Covid happened and everything shut down, as a result the usual known stakeouts for many of the birds were not currently known as the local guides hadn't been into the park for many months. I had two mornings in Tangkoko Nature Reserve, one afternoon session there and one session at nearby Temboan Hill, and one morning on the mangrove boat ride. Weather at Tangkoko was hot and dry. Over near Tomohon I had one wet morning birding session of a couple of hours at Mt Mahawu. The birding at Tangkoko was really enjoyable. Quiet at times with lots of walking to cover the distance but I got a lot of the targets I was after. Birding at Mt Mahawu was not very successful due to the poor weather conditions. Full sighting details on my eBird profile here. It was a useful trip to go and check out a few spots that we visit on our July Sulawesi and Halmahera tour - details of which can be found here. 

Here are a few of the highlight birds that I managed to photograph during the trip:

Green-backed Kingfisher - front view!

Green-backed Kingfisher - back view!

Lilac Kingfisher

Great-billed Kingfisher (Black-billed Kingfisher)

Knobbed Hornbill

Knobbed Hornbill

Ochre-bellied Boobook

Ashy Woodpecker

Yellow-billed Malkoha

Bay Coucal

Isabelline Bush-hen

Red-backed Thrush

Sacred Kingfisher

Snowy-browed Flycatcher

Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher

Citrine Canary-flycatcher

Uniform Swiftlet

Warbling (Mountain) White-eye

White-faced Cuckoo-Dove

White-necked Myna

Yellow-sided Flowerpecker

Lesser Frigatebird

Sulawesi Black Macaque

Spectral Tarsier

Sulawesi Bear Cuscus

Sulawesi Lined Gliding Lizard

After these few days in North Sulawesi I flew across to Halmahera where I had some amazing birds. I will post details of that trip soon...

Malaysia Birding March 2013: Summary

Just back from a 3 week birding trip to a few sites on Peninsula Malaysia: Kuala Selengor (KS), Fraser's Hill  (FH) and Taman Negara (TN). I've wanted to go to Taman Negara for years and it certainly lived up to it's reputation (199 species in 10 days).  There were many varied highlights from the trip from all locations.  I'll put a proper Trip Report together when I have time... but for now, some of the highlights included:

Rusty-naped Pitta: 2 heard FH (1 of these seen Bishop's Trail, FH) - note 3 Dutch birders and 1 Danish birder also had sighting of a RNP on the Maxwell Trail at FH either side of my sighting.
Garnet Pitta: 3 heard TN (2 of these seen TN)
Banded Pitta: 1 heard TN (not seen unfortunately)
Hooded Pitta: 4 heard TN (3 of these seen TN)
Blue-winged Pitta: 4 recorded. 1 heard KS, 1 heard TN and 2 others seen TN

Rail-Babbler: 3 heard TN (1 of these seen TN)
Goulds Frogmouth: 2 seen TN, one during daylight (+ 1 other heard at TN)

Malaysian Partridge: 3 seen FH
Malaysian Peacock-Pheasant: 3/4 heard/seen in TN
Malaysian Laughingthrush: several seen at FH

Rufous-collared Kingfisher: 3 seen TN
Banded Kingfisher: 1 seen TN (+ 1/2 others heard TN) and 1 seen near Kuala Lumpur
Blue-banded Kingfisher: 2 pairs seen along Tahan River TN

Green Broadbill: 2/3 pairs seen at TN
Banded Broadbill: 1 male seen at TN (+ others heard TN)
Black-and-Yellow Broadbill: 3/4 seen at TN (+ others heard TN) and 1 seen near Kuala Lumpur
Long-tailed Broadbill: 4/5 pairs seen at FH including 2 pairs found nesting FH
Black-and-Red Broadbill: Very common TN

A massive range of other species including 19 species of Woodpecker (including Bamboo at the Gap FH), 4 Trogons, 23 species of Flycatcher, 21 species of Bulbul (including Black-and-White and Finch's), 32 species of Babblers and a really good mix of migrants including Oriental Honey Buzzard (one flock of 126 was quite impressive over FH), Black Baza (KS), Siberian, Eye-browed and Orange-headed Thrushes, Tiger and Brown Shrikes, Asian Brown, Yellow-rumped and Mugimaki Flycatchers, Arctic, Eastern Crowned and Yellow-browed Warblers.

Plenty of other birds too.. sunbirds, flowerpeckers, spiderhunters, warblers, bee-eaters, raptors, owls, nightjars, cuckoos, barbets, hornbills, orioles, herons, kingfishers, swifts (inc Whiskred and Grey-rumped Treeswifts), forktails, leafbirds, pigeons etc... the list goes on.

I think I recorded in the region of 320 species in 3 weeks - note I didn't do the rice paddies/estuaries while near the coast which would have upped the 'trip-list' considerably by providing a large range of waders (most of which I've already seen so not that fussed)... I got around via taxi mainly which worked out a lot cheaper than hiring a car and was generally not a problem.

An interesting range of animals also seen including several snakes (almost stood on a 10ft long Black Cobra!), Tapir, White-handed Gibbon, Siamang, Langurs, Macaques, Orb-spiders, Bird-eating spiders (all spiders huge and hideous!), giant millipedes, tonnes of butterflies - some huge, some tiny, many incredibly colourful, plenty of moths - some big ones!, lizards - some flying, geckos, huge Monitor Lizards, bats, squirrels - tiny to giant, rats, tree shrews, deer (Sambar and Mouse), ants etc and the odd Mosquito and Leech!

A few pictures of some birds below: lots more photos of birds/animals/landscapes etc to sort through and will follow as and when I have time to go through them! Due to the conditions (e.g. dark forests etc many pics are taken on very high ISO, hence why they may be grainy, but in the most part I was just happy to get a record shot!)

I met some really nice visiting birders while in Malaysia (and a few local guides), all of who helped massively in finding birds, passing on gen etc and generally making the whole trip really enjoyable. Looking forward to heading back over there... Pittas are addictive!

Garnet Pitta - Taman Negara

Garnet Pitta - Taman Negara

Gould's Frogmouth - Taman Negara

  

Hooded Pitta - Taman Negara

Rail-Babbler - Taman Negara

Rufous-collared Kingfisher - Taman Negara

Malaysian Peacock-Pheasant - Taman Negara