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

Birding Rote, Indonesia - October 2021

During October 2021 I made an exciting birding trip through Timor, Rote, and Sumba islands, part of the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. Each of these islands has a range of endemic birds (species and subspecies) and seeing as many of these as possible was my aim. 

First up was the baking hot island of Rote. I arrived at lunch time and had approximately 24 hours on the island and it was great birding. The top targets seen here included Rote Boobook, Rote Myzomela, Rote Leaf Warbler, and Northern (Rote) Fantail, along with others such as "Timor Nightjar", a currently undescribed species known from Timor and Rote, Wallacean (Timor) Cuckooshrike, Orange-sided (Orange-banded) Thrush, Timor Blue Flycatcher, Green (Timor) Figbird, Timor Oriole, and White-bellied (Timor) Bush Chat.

I concentrated my birding in the northeast of the island in the scrub and woodland for the above birds and here there was also a huge lake that was packed full of waterbirds and shorebirds, such as Australian Pelican, Masked Lapwing, Red-capped Plover, Pied Stilt, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Long-toed Stilt, Hardhead, Wandering Whistling Duck, White-browed Crake, and Tricolored Grebe. Here too were hundreds of egrets, cormorants, and terns. 

A few other interesting birds seen included (Lesser Sunda) Zebra Finch, Pied Bush Chat (just for how abundant this species was), Drab Swiftlet, Black Cuckoo-Dove (Timor Black Pigeon), Rose-crowned Fruit Dove, Red-backed Buttonquail, Plain (Timor) Gerygone, Arafura (Supertramp) Fantail, Broad-billed Flycatcher, Ashy-bellied White-eye, and Tricolored Parrotfinch.

Next stop Timor... 

Rote Boobook

Rote Leaf Warbler

Rote Myzomela

Northern (Rote) Fantail

Orange-sided  (Orange-banded) Thrush

White-bellied (Timor) Bush Chat

Halmahera Birding Trip Report - September 2020

After a great few days birding in Sulawesi in early September (details here) I took a short flight from Manado to Ternate in the North Moluccas. Ternate is a small island dominated by a huge volcano, it's really impressive, as are the adjacent volcanoes when flying in to the island (the ones around Manado are good to be fair too!). After getting bags I took a short (c10 minute) ride to Ternate Port and boarded a speedboat for c30 minutes to Sofifi on the island of Halhamera. After catching up with my driver and local guide we commenced the c4/5 hour 4x4 drive to our accommodation in Weda Bay (it was a slow ride as we did stop to check out a few birds along the way - the best being a really photogenic pair of Blyth's Hornbills). We didn't stop to bird on the way back a few days later and did the journey in about 3 hours. 

I had a few birds I really wanted to see in Halmahera, those being Wallace's Standardwing, a restricted-range bird-of-paradise, Ivory-breasted Pitta, and North Moluccan Pitta. All three dropped into place rather nicely and I had great views of all three and even managed to get some photos. 

I only did two morning birding sessions and one one-hour evening session to look for owls (which was very successful before the rain came down). Full sighting details can be found on my eBird profile here.

There were plenty of other great birds around the area too, such as (Halmahera) Paradise-crow (another bird-of-paradise), Goliath Coucal, Invisible Rail, Blue-and-white Kingfisher, Sombre Kingfisher, Common Paradise Kingfisher, Beach Kingfisher, Halmahera Boobook, Moluccan Scops Owl, Moluccan Owlet-nightjar, Cream-throated (Halmahera) White-eye, Gurney's Eagle, Halmahera Flowerpecker, Halmahera Swiftlet, and lots more. Several fruit doves, cuckooshirkes, and other great birds too. 

Can't wait to go back and spend longer here on my tour in July next year. Details here.

Here are some photos of the one I managed to get shots of!

Ivory-breasted Pitta

(Wallace's) Standardwing

(Wallace's) Standardwing

North Moluccan Pitta

Halmahera Boobook

Beach Kingfisher

Blue-and-white Kingfisher

Blue-capped Fruit Dove

Blyth's Hornbill

Common Paradise Kingfisher

Cream-throated (Halmahera) White-eye

Grey-headed Fruit Dove

Halmahera Flowerpecker

Long-billed Crow

Moluccan Scops Owl

Moluccan Starling

Oriental Dollarbird

Red-flanked Lorikeet

Sombre Kingfisher

Variable Goshawk

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...