Blue Eyed Birder: Borneo for Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 4

It was a far cooler start at Pine Resort in Kundasang as we prepared for our first day on Mount Kinabalu and after weaving our way through the chaotic market traffic we soon turned off and through the gates of the Mount Kinabalu Park UNESCO World Heritage Site. The bulk of the day was spent birding from the road up to the point where most people begin their two day ascent of the imposing mountain. We were in the trees for much of the time and picking up any birds at all was challenging and patience was required.

It began well with Temminck’s Babblers fossicking around at ground level while a Sunda Cuckoo did its thing in the canopy above sounding like a slightly off Hoopoe and over the course of the day we managed to find little pockets of birds that vivid Yellow-breasted Warblers, Mountain Tailorbirds, Velvet Fronted Nuthatches, Chestnut Crested Yuhinas, Black-capped White-eyes and miniscule Pygmy Blue Flycatchers. The latter were so bouncy that they were difficult to keep tabs on. Bornean Spiderhunters were vocal and a pair of Whitehead’s Spiderhunters moved above us over the road but did not linger. Spiderhunter was a new family for me and they cut a distinctive shape with rounded wings, short tail and long bill – almost a green Wallcreeper shape.

Yellow-breasted Warbler

Homalanthus populifolius

Wiggly fly mines

Sonerila erecta or very similar

Better encounters were had with Bornean Whistler and Bornean Whistling Thrush and Penan Bulbuls perched up on some wires with Little Pied Flycatchers, Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrikes and Temminck’s Sunbird for loose company.

Penan Bulbul

Bornean Whistling Thrush adopting Pitta-pose

Little Cuckoo Doves gave themselves away by clumsy exits and Hair-crested Drongos were tropically singing but trickier to see within the canopy where Grey-chinned Minivets and Black & Crimson Orioles fed. It may sound like there were a lot of birds but like all jungle work there were times when the trees felt birdless with just the odd random call. A male Black-sided Flowerpecker came down to a berry bush at the roadside and performed very well and we could hear the up-down ‘song’ of Crimson-headed Partridges.

Little Cuckoo Dove

Black-sided Flowerpecker

Up at the top we spent some time on the platform overlooking the sea to our far west and the cloud clad mountain above us which periodically came into view. Hoards of trekkers headed off on their two day adventure while porters loaded themselves up with towering packs of eggs and other comestibles to service the overnight lodge half way up.

Happy Porters - Helen Stedman

The cloud was whipping up the forested slopes but we were sheltered and stood there watching Yellow-naped Barbets, White-throated Fantails, Indigo Flycatchers and White-breasted Woodswallows while a couple of supersonic tiny Bornean Swiftlets hurtled through; identified by location and altitude rather than anything else. A chance glance up saw four huge Wreathed Hornbills glide across the valley but you had to be quick and some of the group would have to wait a few days to reconnect.

Yellow-naped Barbet - Helen Stedman

Yellow-naped Barbet

Indigo Flycatcher

The rubbish bin was being staked out by a Bornean Black-Banded Squirrel (he had chewed an entrance hole in the lid) and his Tree Shrew buddy which we thought was a different species to the Crocker one but I can’t figure out what it might be if it is indeed different!

Bornean Black-Banded Squirrel

Bornean Black-Banded Squirrel - Helen Stedman

Tree Shrew - help on species please!

The start of the walk back down added two ‘heard well’ species with Pale-faced Bulbuls which sound like odd Great Reed Warblers and Blyth’s Shrike-Babbler and in the short Bamboo behind us we got outrageous views of a singing Bornean Stubtail.

Bornean Stubtail

Platerodrilus paradoxus

There were other Squirrels everywhere with Bornean Mountain Ground, large Kinabalu, zippy Jentink’s Pygmy and the quite delightful Whitehead’s Tufted Pygmy with its oversized head and white ear tufts. It really does behave like one of those fluffy ‘sausage’ toys we had as kids in the ‘80s that you dragged round on a piece of fishing line making it look like it had a life of its own. They were called Squirmles just in case you were wondering! We stopped at a babbling stream and could hear Bornean Forktail but it was a no show at that point.

Whitehead’s Tufted Pygmy Squirmle

Whitehead’s Tufted Pygmy Squirmle - every pic I took is going down a tree - not up

A final treat before a lunch was a vivid scarlet male Whitehead’s Trogon that did that staring at us thing that the family seems so good at before simply melting back into the jungle. John Whitehead was having a good day on the mountain and in fact in 1888 he was the first documented person to reach the summit of Mount Kinabalu after annual attempts from 1885. The Stubtail is also one of his discoveries as is the Corsican Nuthatch back in Europe.

Whitehead’s Trogon

Malay red Harlequin Paralaxita damajanti - Helen Stedman

We all roosted after lunch and headed back out into threatening skies. It started to rain and the plan changed and we looped around to a river in the foothills where the locals were out doing selfie photoshoots in their huge pimped up off road trucks which was all a bit weird but it did not affect the birding as there was almost nothing to see. It was all quite odd and we just about got to ten species in two hours of searching! However, I did find a stunning Blyth’s Hawk-Eagle circling over the wooded slopes. I suspect that the paucity of birds of prey is due to most being forest and canopy specialists.

Blyth’s Hawk-Eagle

Back at ground level a trio of vocal Grey-throated Babblers came to say hello and inquisitively foraged alongside us. The low cloud kept scudding up the valley and Kinabalu would periodically appear from the mists but with rain imminent and reserves flagging we called it a day.