Today marks one year since I launched this website. I still took some time to set it all up and share it with family and friends, but having a space to share my wildlife encounters has been quite productive as it changed the scope of my field experiences for the better. I often think of watching birds as a way to connect people. So as some sort of celebration, I will share some serendipities that took place during an epic two-month trip backpacking Southeast Asia with Darío Gijón.
We birded Peninsular Malaysia during the first leg of our trip. On the morning of our first full day in Bukit Fraser, we left our hotel at night in the thickest fog and hiked down the road to The Gap — a famous midland area known for its several bird specialties, some 7.5 km away with a 400 m vertical drop. Once the gloomy sky lit, the heaviest downpour started. Without a car or an umbrella for shelter or an operational phone to try calling a cab, we put optics and camera under the raincoat and hoped for it to stop soon, or to find somebody willing to drive us back to Bukit Fraser.
We only bumped into a car, parked in the roadside. Some meters down road, three Malaysian men with massive cameras aimed at flowering bamboos. Mr. Peter Pang and his colleagues had just seen a collared babbler (Gampsorhynchus torquatus) and were looking for some pin-tailed parrotfinches (Erythrura prasina) that had been recently reported. Both birds are mega targets we were not too familiar with yet. We waited long in the rain for long to no avail. Chitchatting with them about our trip, we found out Mr. Peter Pang is the owner of a place we had booked for our next leg in Borneo — one of the stays we were most excited about, actually. Small world, we thought! After some more unproductive waiting, they drove us back to the highlands, wished good luck and said they would prepare something nice for us.
Over a week later we made it to Sandakan airport in Borneo and a taxi brought us to Sepilok Forest Edge, the lodge we had booked for our stay in the area. Just on arrival, it was not hard to imagine that the owner is a birdwatcher himself. It was late in the evening, but the faint light allowed us to see our first Bornean endemic bird, the brown barbet (Caloramphus fuliginosus), in the beautiful entrance gardens. Our first dinner was delicious, and after it we spotlit several endemic large white-lipped frogs (Chalcorana megalonesa) by the lake next to the restaurant. We were really impressed when an Oriental bay-owl (Phodilus badius) started calling from across a gully a bit further away. Our first evening in Borneo felt surreal — and we had not even left the lodge!
The reason why we chose Forest Edge beforehand was its walking distance to the wildlife hotspot in the area, Rainforest Discovery Center (RDC), lying some 25 minutes away. Unlike other lodges in the area, it offers dorms for a reasonable price, something extremely convenient for such a low-budget long trip. However, we were unaware of the impressive diversity even inside the lodge, definitely a serendipity. At some point Mr. Peter had mentioned somebody birded the place for several days few days before us, and connected with over 100 species without leaving Forest Edge.
The following day happened to be my birthday. Excited after the previous night sights, I was already around looking for birds by 06:00, well before breakfast time started. As RDC is opened from 08:00 to 17:00, this provided time for walking around the lodge. We found the roost branch of a crested serpent-eagle (Spilornis cheela) and heard the early barks of a western hooded pitta (Pitta sordida) coming from the gully where the bay-owl called. Different birds were setting off over our heads: green imperial-pigeons (Ducula aenea), pink-necked green-pigeons (Treron vernans), oriental darter (Anhinga melanogaster), long-tailed parakeets (Psittacula longicauda), blue-crowned hanging-parrots (Loriculus galgulus)…
At a certain point, the massive silhouette of a flying bird immediately caught our attention. A male black hornbill (Anthracoceros malayanus) flew into a nearby tree, where a female was silently foraging. On a tree next to it, we noticed a rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros), everything around the restaurant area. We couldn’t believe our eyes: a major target next to our dorm just after waking up. A waiter saw us and informed us about the hornbills, and we first nodded and smiled. He insisted — a pair of oriental pied-hornbills (Anthracoceros albirostris) foraged at eye level in the trees surrounding the restaurant deck.
Spirits were high while we enjoyed the views from the deck. Breakfast buffet started soon enough — the best breakfasts we had throughout the entire trip (included in the price!), and something we would miss after leaving Forest Edge. From the deck, we got incredible views of Bornean endemic dusky munia (Lonchura fuscans), ashy tailorbird (Orthotomus ruficeps), rufous-tailed tailorbird (Orthotomus sericeus), yellow-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus goiaiver), yellow-vented flowerpecker (Pachyglossa chrysorrhea) and lesser green leafbird (Chloropsis cyanopogon).
We headed back right for lunch after a productive morning at RDC and met Mr. Peter at the reception. We were excited to learn he finally got the pin-tailed parrotfinch back in Bukit Fraser. He introduced us to Mr. Roberts Suban, a friend of his who would be our guide for the afternoon and the following day back in RDC — avoiding the hassle of finding one ourselves. Besides, he always ensured that we found ourselves comfortable at all times, making sure we got along really well with the staff. I was really surprised when they invited us two for dinner, and had a birthday cake too. That made my day, it was so nice of them!
The following morning was even more surprising. The very first birds Darío and I saw on the sky at 06:30 were a male and female wreathed hornbill (Rhyticeros undulatus) being chased by a peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), all very scarce species in Sepilok. No pictures taken, but the realization that we had seen four out of the eight hornbill species in Borneo in the lodge in just few hours of birdwatching.
We came back to Forest Edge after lunch and devoted the afternoon to watching birds in the lodge. The different buildings are named after forest birds, and a camp at the very edge of the rainforest is called “Giant pitta”. Mr. Peter had build different hides in the rainforest adjacent to the lodge many years ago and eventually managed to contact with this mythical bird. Although spread across Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra, the mythical giant pitta (Hydrornis caeruleus) gathers less than 450 observations on eBird globally. We did not aim that high, but at least wanted to give it a shot — and connected with different greater racket-tailed drongos (Dicrurus paradiseus) and a beautiful northern Borneo-endemic white-crowned shama (Copsychus stricklandii).
Our times with Mr. Roberts proved productive in that we had learned the species of sounds we heard daily: plaintive cuckoo (Cacomantis merulinus), stork-billed kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis) or common hill myna (Gracula religiosa) had made it to our repertoire. Another call we heard was that of the black-crowned pitta (Erythropitta ussheri), pretty much endemic to the lowland forests of Sabah, again coming from the same gully that provided other species.
But the trees of the bungalows in the center of the lodge provided the greatest surprise. While we looked at several maroon woodpeckers (Blythipicus rubiginosus), a lone Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) showed up among the trees. Sitting on a roof and stretching for some fruits, it fed on the trees for a while before leaving as quietly as it arrived. All the tourists who were in the lodge at the time stood in awe quietly around it. The staff mentioned this is a usual sight in the afternoons at the lodge, but I did not expect a wild orangutan making it to the top of the roof.
The following was our last morning in Sepilok area, and we stayed in the lodge before departing to our next stop in Kinabatangan river. I set off early and connected with a black-eared barbet (Psilopogon duvaucelii) building its nest like a woodpecker, yet the same serpent-eagle on its roosting spot, and a female gray-and-buff woodpecker (Hemicircus concretus). A rhinoceros hornbill crossed the sky, as I scoped the grass for dusky munias, chestnut munias (Lonchura atricapilla) and yellow-bellied prinias (Prinia flaviventris).
The trees around the restaurant still proved productive. There is a convenient bird feeder with fresh fruit, often visited by Asian glossy starlings (Aplonis panayensis), close to which I had also glimpsed a crimson sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja) while we indulged at the lodge pool. But today, the African tulip tree (Spathodea campanulata) flowering in the garden was the star of the show, attracting different flower-dwellers: thick-billed spiderhunter (Arachnothera crassirostris), long-billed spiderhunter (Arachnothera robusta) and spectacled spiderhunter (Arachnothera flavigaster) were all seen together.
The dorm surroundings still provided some goodbye stunners as we paid farewell and wished the best to Mr. Peter and Mr. Roberts and all the staff who took such good care of us. Sunda pygmy woodpecker (Yungipicus moluccensis), common flameback (Dinopium javanense) and black-and-red broadbill (Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchos) were great wrap-up additions.
This whole experience still draws a smile on my face every time I think of it. The coziness at Forest Edge, the kindness of Mr. Peter and all his staff, the quirk of fate and all the new birds the whole series of events produced. This story encapsulates the motivation of this website: birders helping birders through sharing and caring. Recommending a stay in Sepilok Forest Edge is an understatement.
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