Blue Eyed Birder: Borneo for Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 7

Today we spent all day on the Kinabatangan river with three boat trips during the day. To be honest it all got a bit blurry around the edges as to when we saw what but it was once again great to be out on the water. I remember it beginning very well with our first Storm’s Stork perched up in distant trees as seen from the jetty and we were lucky enough to see several others during the day. It felt a bit like a Black Stork with added eye makeup. A spiral of 17 Lesser Adjutant circled over the woods and we got to see another couple were found perched up.

Storm’s Stork

Lesser Adjutants

Lesser Adjutant

There was a good assortment of herony things again and at dusk we saw Eastern Cattle Egrets heading off to roost and Black-crowned Night-Herons heading out for dinner. Wallace’s Hawk-Eagles we seen watching over the trees with vertical crests waving around and both Crested Serpent-Eagle and Crested Goshawks were seen perched up. I presume that at some stage both these raptor lineages must have had common crested ancestors as it seems a feature of so many Asian raptors.

Great Egret

Black-crowned Night-Herons

Wallace’s Hawk-Eagle

Crested Serpent-Eagle

Crested Goshawks

A White-bellied Sea-Eagle past low over us and Grey-headed Fish-Eagles kept an eye on proceedings and some of us at the back of the boat were fortunate enough to see at Bat Hawk after sundown just before we docked but it was quickly lost in the gloom.

White-bellied Sea-Eagle

Grey-headed Fish-Eagle

Green Imperial and Pink-necked Green Pigeons were noted and Blue-crowned Hanging-Parrots frustrated everyone with their erratic appearances! Bornean Ground-Cuckoo was one of the main targets but despite our best efforts we had to be content with hearing one powerfully singing of in the distance and although it came closer it was never ever going to appear next to the boat.

Euthalia merta apicalis - a rare form of the female apparently

A Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo really did look like a Drongo until you got to the front end and there was plenty of time during the day to study Swiftlets as they hawked low over the river. Higher up huge Brown-backed Needletails scythed through effortlessly and both Stork-billed and Blue-eared Kingfishers were once again seen well. A female Rufous-backed Dwarf Kingfisher rocketed past the boat like a vibrant orange dart and while in the same cutting (waiting for the Ground-Cuckoo to come closer) a female Scarlet-rumped Trogon did the same. We also saw Rufous-tailed Tailorbirds, White-chested Babblers, Crimson Sunbirds and a male White-crowned Shama whilst sitting there with our mosquito friends.

GA huge Woolly Aphid of some sort

I am calling this an Orange-throated Skink

We did very well on primates again with Long-tailed Macaques, Pro Bos and both Silver and gorgeous Red Leaf Monkeys and were just twenty minutes late in getting to where some Bornean Pygmy Elephants had been down to the river. The piles of poo were practically steaming and the smell of fresh elephant was ripe in the air but they had melted away. A solitary Salt Water Crocodile was lounging on a sandbank and was the only one we saw.

Red Leaf-Monkey

Long-tailed Macaques playing on the lodge roof at lunchtime

Saltwater Crocodile

Bornean Pygmy Elephant - almost!

Blue-rumped Bee-eaters performed much better during the day and we found a Grey & Buff Woodpecker at a nest hole and a small party of squeaky Brown Barbets and a pair of vivid Black & Red Barbets which were one of my favourites. Unsurprisingly there were Bulbuls too with Black-headed and Yellow-vented and the new Hairy-backed in olive and yellow. Gangs of Long-tailed Parakeets and the odd raucous Sunda Crow were noted but the sky scanning was mainly about trying to find Hornbills and we did exceptionally well with groups of Bushy-crested, Black, Oriental Pied, fluffy headed White-crowned and enormous Wrinkled. The pair of Rhinoceros Hornbills then reappeared in the dead trees as we headed back from the final trip of the day.