Two Spanish biologists embarked on an exciting two-month backpacking trip to get to know the wildlife of southeast Asia. A limited budget and a long bucket list were the main forces shaping the itineraries. Our main focus was to get to know places and the intricacies of nature watching in the region, so we focused on visiting essential places in different ecoregions and countries, rather than on getting extremely long lists or looking for tough mega species. We planned most of the itinerary and accommodation in advance and mostly looked for birds by our own means, without guides or rental cars.

This is the second of a series of reports trip and field notes about our time birding in Singapore and West Malaysia in the Malay Peninsula; Sabah (Malaysia) and Brunei in Borneo; Palawan and Manila in the Philippines; Vietnam; Cambodia, and Thailand.

Borneo is the second largest island on the planet and boosts an astonishing biodiversity with extremely high levels of endemicity — terrific sights of unique animals and plants are guaranteed. For our trip, a domestic flight from Kuala Lumpur dropped us in Sandakan airport, and after traveling through the Malaysian state of Sabah in northern Borneo we planned to leave Borneo to Palawan via Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei). Despite Sabah holding extensive forested cover, Borneo rainforests are extremely threatened by logging and raw material production, with rampant deforestation rates that heavily threaten the unique local wildlife.

The first part of our time in Borneo took place along the lowland dipterocarp forests of Sepilok, in northeastern Sabah. Rainforest Discovery Center provided great access to these vast woodlands, and we got terrific views of Sabah endemics such as black-crowned pitta or Sabah partridge and other bonus birds as jambu fruit-dove, rufous-backed dwarf-kingfisher and ventriloquial oriole.

A private car transfer took us to Kinabatangan river, where our stay in a humble, isolated homestay did not prevent us from connecting with some of our most-awaited targets: great slaty woodpecker, Storm’s stork and the legendary helmeted hornbill, as well as bat hawk in nearby Gomantong caves.

We moved on to mythical Mount Kinabalu, which provided awesome views of striking range-restricted endemics. Whitehead’s trogon, Bornean green magpie, Everett’s thrush and fruithunter are some of the highlights of our hikes between Timpohon gate and Kinabalu Park entrance, while we also successfully found a stakeout of Bornean island-thrush out of its usual altitudinal range. A quick hitchhike visit to Poring Hot Springs additionally provided great argus and a cracking Sunda frogmouth found on roost.

The end of our time in Borneo took place along the northwest coast. Kota Kinabalu offered good numbers of nankeen night-heron and introduced blue-naped parrot, while our time in Brunei offered some close-up views of mangrove-dwelling birds.

Our time in Borneo resulted in 171 bird species — including seven out of eight Bornean hornbill species — and many other herps, butterflies and mammals, including numerous world-class encounters with wild Bornean orangutans and other highlights such as Philippine slow loris. The stories of some locals about what Bornean wildlife used to be and is today resonate in our minds, but I am glad to experience that a growing network of ecotourism workers might be pushing for a change in the wildlife loss trends in the upcoming years.