Temburong

This weekend I treated my mom -who is visiting again- and myself to a small overnight trip to the Ulu Ulu resort in Temburong, the "other" part of Brunei. Temburong is only a short 2 hour journey from Bandar; a simple hop on a fast ferry to Bangar, followed by a small bus ride and another 30 minutes upstream by longboat and you'll find yourself surrounded by pristine jungle.

The last time I visited Temburong was well over 2 years ago and especially the canopy proved very rewarding then; a lot of species allowed very close views, like this velvet fronted nuthatch.

Velvet-fronted nuthatch (Sitta frontalis).

We arrived in Temburong around 4:30 PM and I spend the last hour or so of daylight around the resort. The white-rumped shama was impossible to miss.

White-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus).

During the evening we joined a short night walk up a tiny stream from the main river. 17 people on a night walk is really too crowded and I didn't have high expectations to encounter a lot of wildlife. Still I enjoyed this, as the stream proved a good place for frogs and I got a couple a great close-ups. As I am definitely not a frog specialist any correction/addition to my ID's are appreciated. I suspect the tiny fellow pictured below to be a Microhyla species.

Microhyla sp.

I think this is Hylarana megalonesa.

Hylarana megalonesa

The below frog is definitely a horned frog species!

Bornean horned frog (Megophrys nasuta).

The next morning we got up very early to be in time for sunrise at the canopy walk. Nowadays, you can only get to the start of the trail to the canopy by boat as the bridge crossing the river is in dire need of some repairs. After a half hour walk, scaling 290 meters elevation to the base and another 40+ meters to the canopy itself, you are rewarded with a wide 360 degree view over the awaking jungle. The rising fog and the morning calls of gibbons makes this almost perfect - next time I'll bring some warm coffee for a nice finishing touch!

Canopy walkway & tower, Temburong.

I spend a little over two-and-a-half hours at the canopy walk way listening to the gibbons and recording several different birds. This male black-and-yellow broadbill was seen and heard most of the time.

Black-and-yellow broadbill

A spectacled bulbul also provided some good views. Even though this is a supposedly common species of all primary forests type in Borneo, I don't see them that often closer to home and was therefore quite pleased with this individual checking me out at close range.

Spectacled bulbul (Pycnonotus erythropthalmus).

Besides the gibbons, the calls of both rhinoceros and helmeted hornbill seemed equally far carrying. A family of 4 rhinoceros hornbills flew by over the canopy, adding to the majestic scenery with the morning fog rising through the forest. One parent lead the way.

Rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros).

 And was eagerly followed by two juveniles

Rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros).

At 08:30 we decided to move down and try for some birds lower to the ground. I had expected to see and hear more babblers, but the only ones I picked up were chestnut-winged babblers, which seemed to be everywhere, and a small family group of scaly-crowned babblers.

Scaly-crowned babbler (Malacopteron cinereum).

An incessantly calling diard's trogon was already heard from the canopy-walk and at least 2 different males and one female were seen on the relatively short walk from the tower back to the river.

Male Diard's trogon (Harpactes diardii).

As my mom had not joined the trip to the canopy walk because of a weak knee I felt some social obligation to not stay out all morning and returned back to the resort close to 10 AM. Together we walked around the resort grounds looking for some resident wildlife. Fruitbats were easily seen overhead at the wooden boardwalks. I think this is the Sunda short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopteros brachyotis).

Fruitbat sp.

Flowering bushes close to the river were a good spot for both leafbirds and sunbirds. 

Male Lesser green leafbird (Chloropsis cyanopogon).

A nice surprise was this yellow-breasted flowerpecker. Just a small bummer that I failed to get a proper photo. Oh well.

Yellow-breasted flowerpecker (Prionochilus macalatus).

Just before heading back to Bandar this very bold pygmy squirrel seemed completely unbothered by our presence and I even had to stand back to get the animal properly into frame!

Plain pygmy squirrel (Exilisciurus exilis).

Plain pygmy squirrel (Exilisciurus exilis).

Around 1:30 PM we left again, back to Panaga. A great little trip and I am certain that with a little more dedicated effort some great species can be picked up in Temburong!

Folkert, 21/07/2013

KB road, again

As some of you may have picked up from previous posts, the Kuala Balai road can almost be considered as my local birding patch. A broad variety of birds, and some great mammals and reptiles have been recorded in the past along this road. Unfortunately the local bird catchers realize this too and every weekend a couple of people can be seen pulling up their cages to the treetops.

Still, the birding along this road is usually rewarding. I have lost count of the number of times I visited this road over the past 3 years, but even now I pick up new species.

Last week the weather was not too great and frankly the birding and photography was a little disappointing. Most exciting was to hear a few ruddy kingfishers and I also had brief views of one bird flying past. 

Luckily there are always some yellow-bellied prinias around to keep me entertained.

Yellow-bellied prinia (Prinia flaviventris).

This species was definitely not discovered in Brunei; most birds here only have a very faint yellow wash to the belly that gives them their name. I think the subspecies in Borneo is called p. f. latrunculus.

The male van Hasselt's sunbird can often be seen calling from an exposed branch in the top of the trees. This is a very small sunbird with some stunning colors. It was a little too early and foggy to get a proper picture of the bird below.

Van Hasselt's sunbird (Leptocoma brasiliana)

A little later I again heard the ruddy kingfishers, there were at least 3 birds calling. But again, no views...
The black-and-yellow broadbills, on the contrary, were not very shy today and a female and male were providing good views. My guess is that during the breeding period, or really just before, they seem more oblivious to their surroundings and only have eye for each other. The black breast-band shows that this is the male.

Male black-and-yellow broadbill (Eurylamus ochromalus).

There were a good number of hornbills heard and seen flying across the road. Of the four species seen this morning I only managed a quick snapshot of this female Rhinoceros hornbill.

Rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros).

A small family group of rufous woodpeckers was foraging next to the road as well. This is probably my best shot of this species so far and I was quite pleased - but it even got better!

Rufous woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus).

When I was driving further I heard a scarlet-rumped trogon (Harpactes duvaucelii) calling next to the road and soon located this fine specimen.

Male scarlet-rumped trogon (Harpactes duvaucelii).

The scarlet-rumped trogon is one of the more common lowland trogons. I really find this a very pretty species and was very happy with the images I took home today. Even more so as I never had such clear, close and prolonged views along KB road before! And maybe, just maybe, that ruddy kingfisher will show itself like this one day...

Folkert, 03/04/2013.

My garden birds II

Just been away for a week back home. The trip was excellent and got to meet up with a good number of friends and family members that I hadn't seen for a while. I came back on Monday and the jet lag seems a little harder to get over this time; luckily this blog provides me with something useful to do in the early morning hours.

I came home yesterday to find over 30 hornbills in the trees next to our house - far more than the usual numbers observed. The group was a mixed group of both adults and juveniles. I tried to capture a bird in flight for a change but failed to get a really good picture. The attempt below is just missing a little sharpness and I didn't get the entire bird in my frame. The bird is a female and may still be an adolescent bird. It shows the diagnostic tail pattern, with black inner feathers (though interestingly, there is also a bit of black on some of the outer feathers).

Oriental pied hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris)

There were some other regular visitors about yesterday as well: a family group of silver-leaf monkeys  (or silver langurs). This family is often seen in our neighborhood. Compared to the long-tailed macaques these silver langurs are really well behaved and still skittish when humans approach. The picture below is a youngster - but it's not only the youngsters that sport the semi-mohawk.

Silver langur (Trachypithecus cristatus)

Just before I left for Holland I also tried my luck again at getting some more pictures of the sunbirds that are feeding on the drain-pipe from the air-conditioning; see the previous post. Within minutes a female brown-throated sunbird (Anthreptes malacensis) flew in. As soon as she left the male crimson sunbird turned up and stayed for quite some time, allowing me to get plenty of close-ups.

Female brown-throated sunbird (Anthreptes malacensis)

Male crimson sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja)

Male crimson sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja)

Male crimson sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja)

The last pictures I will share today are from another common garden customer, the pied fantail (Rhipidura javanica). This species is not uncommon around the Panaga gardens and along the coastal shrubs. The birds are usually very active, honoring their name by fanning their tails almost constantly.

Pied fantail (Rhipidura javanica) in the garden.

This species is also commonly seen along the Kuala Balai road. There, I once saw a very agitated bird and it was only when looking closer that I noticed the center of the bird's attention: a Wagler's pitviper (Tropidolaemus wagleri). This picture was taken nearly two years ago; the snake can be seen resting on the branch.

Pied fantail & Wagler's pitviper.

Folkert, 30/08/2012

My garden birds I

The gardens in Panaga form a good habitat for a substantial number of birds and our garden is no exception. Besides a good variety of garden birds some exceptional encounters have been been made from the leisurely surroundings of our balcony and garden. Today I'll share a first short selection of our garden visitors.

One of the more colorful birds in our backyard is surely the eastern crimson sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja).  This sunbird makes good use of the flowers and insects in our garden. When we by accident noticed that both male and female appreciate the drain from our air-conditioning a makeshift hide was quickly set up for a close-up picture. It took less than an hour of patience for the below capture. This was only the first try and I will definitely have another attempt soon.

Male crimson sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja)

Besides the crimson sunbird, also the brown-throated and olive-backed sunbirds are regular visitors to the flowers and bushes in our garden. And I've once been lucky to see a copper-throated sunbird, a species that I only very rarely see on more adventurous journeys elsewhere.

A couple of months back a pair of olive-backed sunbirds tried to raise the next generation of sunbirds below our staircase. Unfortunately the nest was raided and the chicks never made it past their first few days. The below picture shows a female olive-backed sunbird posing in the late afternoon sun, one of my personal favorites.

Female olive-backed sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis)

One of the most visible garden birds in Panaga must be the oriental magpie-robin. These very active birds can be seen anytime of the day. They are very vocal and Panaga would not be the same without their tuneful songs and chatter. The fence around our garden is a preferred spot for the magpie-robins to share their early morning compositions.

Female oriental magpie robin (Copsychus saularis)

Our garden has also had some more unexpected visitors. Quite recently, a male jambu fruit dove (Ptilinopus jambu) was lying lifeless on our driveway after evidently having flown into the kitchen window. This is a scarce bird of the forest that I really would not expect in Panaga. My wife didn't fail to notice the almost ironic location of the bird's demise when she mockingly questioned the number of persons in Panaga that would be able to identify this bird on a mere glance. I guess the bird's encounter with our window is testament to the fact that Panaga is not it's usual habitat.

Male jambu fruit dove (Ptilinopus jambu), a quick smartphone capture.

Another unusual visitor that I share here is the pied imperial pigeon (Ducula bicolor). I noticed this bird one late afternoon high up in one of our trees. This pigeon is associated with offshore islands and not typically found in mainland Borneo. This bird was seen one late afternoon next to a couple of green imperial pigeons, which are quite common. As there are no obvious small islands close to Panaga I can only speculate to what it's normal roosting ground would be: I suspect this individual to be a local wanderer from Pelong rocks of the Bandar coast.

Pied imperial pigeon (Ducula bicolor)

Pied imperial pigeon (Ducula bicolor)

I'll finish this post with a Panaga specialty: the oriental pied hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris). Panaga is unique in the fact that this residential area is home to a group of roughly 80 hornbills. Late in the afternoon the birds usually be found close to our house, when they pick the large casuarina's for their nightly roost.

Male oriental pied hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris)

Folkert, 13/08/2012