Borneo for Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 6 - 8th June 2025

We packed up early at the Pine Resort and headed of even before the sun had truly risen and said our temporary farewells to Kinabalu. 

It was a fairly short drive to get to Poring Springs (which apparently is quite famous!) and we stepped from the air conditioned van back into super fried air that took your breath away.  How quickly the coolness of Kinabalu was forgotten.

It was a very successful perambulation around the gardens and to be honest it actually felt far more rewarding and productive than the many hours on the mountain. Yellow-vented and Olive-winged Bulbuls were joined by Spectacled and Black-headed Bulbuls and the fantastically named Bold-striped Tit Babbler made its presence known.  They looked like chunky New World Wrens in flight.

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Bold-striped Tit Babbler

Hippobroma longiflora

Bamboo Orchid

There were two new each of Flowerpecker with dull Plain and vibrant Orange-bellied and Leafbird with Greater and Lesser Greens seen and the now usual Sunbirds and Dusky Munias foraged around the flowerbeds.  Black-winged Flycatcher-Shrikes were new too and a couple of Large Woodshrike showed nicely with black bandit masks and flashing pale rumps as they flew. 

A Yellow-bellied Warbler gave itself up at last and was, as Lee predicted, in the Bamboo thickets where Malaysian Pied Fantails replaced the higher elevation White-throated species.

Once into the trees we picked up a couple of silky black Prevost’s Squirrels with fiery orange bellies and Nevin found us a day roosting Bornean Colugo stuck like some giant flappy alien to the side of a tall trunk.  Far bigger than I imagined and it looked like it was wrapped in a lichen covered, almost green mossy velvet blanket!

Bornean Colugo 

Back at eye level we found a pair of Fulvous-chested Jungle-Flycatchers and a calling Rufous Collared Kingfisher was tracked down and scoped through a thicket.  An imposing forest species with a large orange bill and underparts, blue uppers and a long black mask.  It was one of those occasions where the height of the viewer made all the difference.  Lee is somewhat shorter than us and although we could see it in the scope none of us could pick it up in our bins until we assumed a variety of positions involving crouching, bending and standing with legs at uncomfortable angles!

Essence of Rufous Collared Kingfisher

Two species I had seen before were picked up with Asian Emerald Dove and Asian Palm Swift and Swiftlets of various species hunted around us.  I was starting to get a feel for what I thought constituted differences in the larger species…

Yet another Squirrel was seen with the truly miniscule Bornean Plain Pygmy scampering up and down a tree even speedier than the dashing Whitehead’s!  There were some good Butterflies and Dragonflies too but I am having trouble pinning down names and will add them to the images in due course.  Searching images throws up too many similar Asian species that are sometimes not even in the same genus.

Bornean Plain Pygmy

Bornean Odonata ID to come...

Lantern Bug

We must have been a bit late as Sham appeared alongside us with the van and we took the hint and re-entered the icebox and got on our way.

Not that it was too far; just a couple of miles down the road to one of the Rafflesia ‘farms’ that tend and look after this amazing flowers.  I suspect that most people will have seen the world’s biggest flower on the TV or in a book and I have to admit that it was one of those things I most wanted to see on this trip.

There was a small entrance fee for the group and we followed a trail through the trees to where each individual bloom was protected from excessive sun, light and falling branches by a screen netting.  They were at various stages with fresh buds looking like big pink cabbages through opening to in full bloom with attendant flies.  At the other end there were the black and decaying maws of older specimens.  I was unaware that there are many species of Rafflesia and the ones here are R keithii.  There were also a couple of spathes of an Amorphophallas species.  I wonder how big they got?

Rafflesia keithii from start to finish

 I have an urge to add googly eyes...

Amorphophallas

Amorphophallas

There had to be birds too of course with a family of Fulvous-chested Jungle-flycatchers at a more conducive eye level, a Little Spiderhunter attending a Banana flower and a fruiting tree that was attracting Golden Whiskered Barbets, Asian Fairy Bluebirds, Asian Red-eyed Bulbuls and Yellow-bellied Flowerpeckers.

Nepenthes

Fulvous-chested Jungle-flycatchers 

A pair of Rufous Piculets showed well by the fish ponds and there was a another good selection of Butterflies to watch before Sham got out the magic kettle and strong cup of black coffee beckoned.

Rufous Piculet

A Tiger sp I think

And an Egg...

Our 1st encounter with a local domestic cat.  They nearly all have short stumpy and almost fattened tails.

The next few hours required a variety of less that flattering adjectives and it is actually difficult to put into words leaving the rainforest edge of the Kinabalu park at Poring and entering the devastated landscape beyond.  Everyone I know who had been to Borneo had found the change from jungle to the endless hectares of Palm Oil plantations stretching to the horizon difficult to adjust too. 

Some were obviously mature but others were young with small palms poking through the endless tangle of vines that no longer had the mighty Dipterocarps to clamber up and over.  It is easy to say ‘how could they do this to their country?’ but it is also easy to forget that there is also very little left of the Wild Wood that covered much of Britain whose removal created the barren upland moorlands and the archetypal British farmland we all recognise.  Our own destruction of our natural heritage just started a long time ago.

Added to this the main Trans Borneo Highway is a joke and I should have videoed a section to be honest.  Almost dead straight through the plantations, it has been under construction for nearly ten years and yet no one piece is completed leaving you to exit the carriage way on to potholed unmade surfaces for a few hundred yards where so much dust is kicked up that you can see nothing.  Not that it stopped some of the more energetic overtaking manoeuvres!

There was very little in the way of bird life either with just opportunistic Javan Mynas, Long-tailed Shrikes, the usual Doves, Striated Grassbirds and a couple of Lesser Coucals.   Some Long-tailed Macaques were seen and single Pig-tailed Macaque was sat up in a palm tree.

Not far from our destination we stopped at a petrol station for the loos (mmm…) and I got the chance to watch the Javan Mynas at last along with some breeding Baya Weavers and Asian Glossy Starlings.

Giant Orb Weaver strung between power lines

South East Asian Box Turtle - Cuora amboinensis

It only took another half hour to get to the Kinabatangan River and un load for the short crossing across to the other bank and the lodge that would be our home for the next couple of nights.  A Jerdon’s Baza flew over our heads and the first two Oriental Pied Hornbills were feasting low down in the car park area! 

Oriental Pied Hornbills

Oriental Pied Hornbills

We unpacked and reconvened for our first boat trip out onto the mighty river.  It was a wonderful introduction with lots of Great White and the odd Medium Egret, Black-crowned Night Herons, snaky necked Purple Herons and several Striated Herons including a nest with prehistoric looking youngsters peering out.

Striated Heron

Great Egret

Great Egret

Purple Heron

Even more ancient looking were the Oriental Darters moving to and fro although I never actually saw one fishing on the river itself. A Grey Headed Fish Eagle watched us from a riverside tree and as the light fell Green Imperial and Pink-necked Green Pigeons appeared on the tops which is where I found the first Oriental Dollarbird.  I had seen one last year in Sri Lanka but only in flight so it was good to see that red Roller bill and purple hued plumage.

Oriental Darters

Grey Headed Fish Eagle

We were hoping to see some of the various Hornbill species on this first excursion and we scored with Oriental Pied again along with Black and right at the death a pair of huge Rhinoceros and the lack of light did not detract as they fed each other fruit in a bare tree.

Black Hornbill

Black Hornbill

Rhinoceros Hornbill

Rhinoceros Hornbill

Stork-billed and Blue-eared Kingfishers crossed our path and Blue Rumped Bee-eaters were seen on both sides and a couple of Sunda Crows headed off to roost.  They have a very peculiar flight profile and action.  It is almost as if they have to try very hard to remember what to do.  High pitched twittering had us looking up for Blue-crowned Hanging Parrots and ‘there its goes!’ views were the best we could do.

There were primates too and the much anticipated Proboscis Monkeys were a joy to watch.  The males may have that strangely drunk old man wobbly nose but their pelage is the best I have seen on any primate.  It almost looks like a quality Turkish barber has been shaping up all the sharp edges between the colours with a cut-throat razor although the neat white shorts did actually look like he was wearing ‘special old man pants’ to go with that nose.  The troop male was also much larger than I anticipated.

Proboscis Monkeys

Special Man Pants

The next trees held a troop of Long-tailed Macaques and not long after that we found some Silver Leaf Monkeys too.  It seemed that these troops headed to the forest edge over water to roost.

Long-tailed Macaque

Long-tailed Macaques

We made it back at dark for our dinner and the log and then a short while later headed straight back out on the boat for the night trip.  The breeze generated on the boat was a blessing in such humid conditions.  We were not the only ones out but I got the impression that most groups headed out saw ‘something’ and went back for a beer.

We stuck with it and got our rewards with three encounters with Buffy Fish Owls with their glowing yellow eyes as well as both roosting Kingfishers that we had seen earlier.  A Bornean Striped Palm Civet was clambering around at the highest point and seemed quite happy at such lofty elevations.

Another Essence of...  Buffy Fish Owl

 Buffy Fish Owl

 Blue-eared Kingfisher

A Large Frogmouth was singing and some brief encouragement brought it nearer.  It suddenly appeared and briefly hovered above us before perching up alongside.  We watched it for five minutes or so and marvelled at those huge eyes and a hint of that vast gape.  It was a privilege to be so close and we left it sitting there and puttered back the way we had come.

Large Frogmouth

Large Frogmouth

There was one more treat in store when eye shine drew us to an overhang.  It took a while but a Bornean Slow Loris was eventually found.  A protosimian and the only primate with a toxic bite.  It looked down at us with those large sad eyes and was a great way to end a long day across vastly differing landscapes.

Bornean Slow Loris