Borneo for Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 3 - 5th June 2025

We left KK after an early breakfast and got out of town before the worse of the rush hour traffic and wended our way towards Kinabalu and up into the famous Crocker Range. We came off of a main road and wiggled up and up to a huge radio mast projecting through the trees an into the lower cloud.  It was warming up and once out we were immediately into the birds and spent the next couple of hours (it seemed) watching the comings and goings around the little hut where we had our al fresco breakfast.

Large Barbets were coming to some fruiting trees with both vibrant Golden-naped and slightly more subdued Mountain and after that it felt like almost every bird was a new one.  A baited log brought in spectacled Sunda and Chestnut Hooded Laughing Thrushes and dapper Little Pied Flycatchers while the trees held Grey Chinned Minivets, yellow Bornean Whistlers, White-throated Fantails, gangs of Chestnut crested Yuhinas, Bornean Leafbirds, a brief Mountain Blackeye (although it was heard singing), Bornean Treepies, Sunda Ashy Drongos, red and white Temminck’s Sunbirds and gleaming Indigo Flycatchers.

Little Pied Flycatcher

Chestnut Hooded Laughing Thrushes - they are full of character

Indigo Flycatcher

Mountain Barbet

Grey Chinned Minivet - female

White-throated Fantail

Sunda Bush-Warblers were singing and one appeared at our feet quite unaided during breakfast and put on a great show for a classic LBJ.  Meanwhile we were all distracted by the plethora of mind boggling moths that adorned the hut walls and ceiling!

Our breakfast buddies

Sunda Bush-Warbler

Sunda Bush-Warbler

A very battered Anthera celebensis

Asota producta

Erebidae & Cleora sp

Eumelea ludovicata 

Glyphides caesalis 

Krananda semihyalina & Stictoptera sp

L-R Naceolia sp; Maxates marculenta; Blenina chlorophila; then Cleora sp (top) and Maxates variegata

Oenospila altistrix

Plutodes argentilauta 

Sinna calospila 

A call from Nevin saw us scuttling down the road a short way to a hidden screen where a large family of Red-breasted Partridge were contentedly coming in to feed, making happy little clucking noises.  There are a beautifully marked species and it was a privilege to see then so close.  Whenever they left us the male would start singing out of sight.  Bornean Mountain Ground Squirrels dashed energetically around the Partridges.

Red-breasted Partridge

Red-breasted Partridge - Mr Lee

Bornean Mountain Ground Squirrel

Bornean Mountain Ground Squirrel

Crimson-headed Partridges were equally vocal but at this point somewhat invisible but there were other birds to watch while we waited with a stunning Orange Headed Thrush (a good get back from Sri Lanka!) and a pair of Snowy Browed Flycatchers while Yellow-bellied Warblers sung high in the Bamboo.

Orange Headed Thrush

Back out on the road we saw a fine Peregrine perched up on the tower and Plume-toed Swiftlets were nesting in the tower buildings.  We walked down the road a way seeing some puffy throated Penan Bulbuls and more by luck than judgement a male Crimson-headed Partridge that popped up on a roadside bank shouted at us and then walked back out of view.  Fortunately we were all sharp and got on it.

Bidens pilosa

Medinilla speciosa

Peregrine

A species of Elderberry

Melastoma affine

Cheiropleuria bicuspis

We stopped back at the entrance toilet block where some quality bog moffs were discovered (Antony would be proud!) and we left the doors all open afterwards so that a pair of Plume-toed Swiftlets could get to their nests.  There were some fine Nepenthes Pitcher Plants at the roadside and a couple had climbed over 10m up through the trees.  Any stop produces birds and a pair of brightly coloured Mountain Tailorbirds were found although they are actually a warbler and not a tailorbird and a Black-sided Flowerpecker was seen briefly but we would have to wait to see the colours properly.

A quality wildlife moment...

Agathia succedanea 

Banisia intonsa

Diplurodes sp 

Glyphodes quadrimaculalis

Hypomecis cineracea  look at that little Yeti face!

Lemyra ypsilon

Palpita sp

Thyatira batis - I and it looks like a Peach Blossom because it is one...
I am indebted to a human being rather than AI for the moth ids, so thank you Dom F for stepping up to the task and using brain and book for me from your north Australia home! 

A large and persistent Horse Fly

Plume-toed Swiftlet nest

Katydid

Nepenthes 

Nepenthes 

Nepenthes 

Nepenthes 

Nepenthes - way up in the trees

Sham The Man - navigator of Bornean highways and provider of impromptu but perfectly timed coffee

A final stop on the road down immediately provided us with the anticipated Bornean Shortwing with a male singing just a few feet away from us while a rusty and grey female came in to some proffered mealworms.  Another very accommodating little chat.  A Tree Shrew which I think is Mountain had obviously encountered Lee and his mealworms before and was out and stealing them within seconds at this seemingly random roadside stop.  Lee kept trying to get it to scram so that the Shortwings would come down but we were all equally enamoured by Mr Whiffle-Nose.  It reminded me of Scrat from Ice Age…

Bornean Shortwing - Mr Lee

Bornean Shortwing - female

Micronanas

Mountain Tree Shrew unless someone cares to suggest otherwise!

Lunch was taken at a roadside restaurant where pau buns were consumed and Plume-toed Swiftlets clustered under eaves at their weird dark lichen and spittle nests – not edible by the way. 

Jane Swiftlet watching

Plume-toed Swiftlets 

Plume-toed Swiftlets 

On again and we birded our way on and off down the main road as we made our way towards our next base in Kundasang in the shadow of Mount Kinabalu.  It was productive and our various stops netted us a wealth of new birds although Golden Whiskered and Bornean Barbets were making themselves difficult to see.  We did see one of the former clinging to a trunk like a woodpecker from the bus! One stop held a large roving flock of birds and we picked up punky Bornean and Cinereous Bulbuls, Black-capped White-eyes, Velvet Fronted Nuthatches, Bornean Leafbirds, Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrikes, Black & Crimson Orioles and Grey Chinned Minivets. It was ten minutes of madness!

Cricket

A large Blowfly...

Malaysian Crow - Euploea camaralzeman or similar

Mycalesis pitana or similar - as you may have noticed it was easier to get invert pics!

Another spot gave us Sunda Ashy Drongos on the wires and a gang of Pygmy Heleia, White-throated Fantails, Dusaky Munias and Golden Bellied Gerygone in the trees. There were always birds but seeing them was as ever quite tricky. We tried for the Falconet but it eluded us but an Asian Fairy Bluebird flew through and we got a good look at the preposterous Crested Jay-Shrike with its vertical flared crest.  How on earth did that evolve?

Sunda Ashy Drongo

Our final break was at the Mahua Waterfall (although we did not actually see it) and a Bornean Whistling Thrush was rock hopping by the river and a Little Cuckoo Dove flew through while we were looking for the calling Long-tailed Broadbills that refused to show themselves.  Another very strange sound.  It was time to head for our next lodge and dozing may have occurred although I did remember seeing a Long-tailed Macaque holding a crisp packet and a Yellow-throated Marten dash across the road in the lights.

We arrived at the Pine Resort just after sundown with Kinabalu looming on the horizon.