Birding in Borneo

Sepilok

February, 2012

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We left Mt. Kinabalu in the morning, and in short order we were down to the low-lands. And out of the forest, the jungle, and anything that remotely resembled the wild Borneo we had come to see. We were surrounded by hectares and hectares, thousands of square kilometers, of monoculture oil palms. We drove for literally hours where the only relief was an occasional tree or two that wasn't oil palm.

The Bornean jungle and forest is being decimated by the oil palm industry. There is absolutely no environmental responsibility in any of this activity. Everything is stripped, from the top of the hills to the bottom of every ravine. Not a tree, not a shrub, not a bush is left. Everything is replaced with oil palms, spaced at precise intervals, like the march of some huge machine that scours the land and plops oil-palms in its wake. Even the understory is mostly sterile, with little in the way of usable forage plants. It is hugely profitable.


Oil Palms on the way to Sepilok	Oil Palms on the way to Sepilok literally everything you see above waist high is an oil palm, even the far hillside

Oil Palms


Oil Palms	Oil Palms

About three times in a six hour, mind-numbing trip through oil palm monoculture, we came across an isolated island of remnant jungle forest, at most an acre or two in size. We stopped at one of these tiny patches, where we saw a few birds. Not surprising, as it was the only usable habitat for miles around.

Remnant Jungle Forest

The place we stayed at in Sepilok was pretty spiffy. Nice bungalows with overhead fans. As I recall they also had air conditioning, although I didn't turn mine on. It seems to me that using the air conditioning just makes being outside without it more uncomfortable. Besides, in a properly built structure with trees around it's generally quite comfortable without it. A bath or shower, however, is a really good thing...

We had owls outside out bungalows in the evening; on the last evening I managed to find them, but only because they were literally right outside, about 20 feet from my door. It was a treat going to sleep with the windows down and owls right outside your door.

Sepilok


Sepilok Bungalow	Sepilok Bungalow


Gecko	Black Hornbill


Lesser Green Leafbird F	Lesser Green Leafbird F


Greater Green Leafbird F	Greater Green Leafbird F	Greater Green Leafbird


Orange Bellied Flowerpecker	Orange Bellied Flowerpecker

When you are in the Sepilok Forest Reserve, it feels like real jungle; but in actuality, it is just a recovering remnant. You realize just how decimated the forest is when you see the isolated trees left from past logging operations -- they are literally twice as tall as the remaining forest which surrounds them -- which is twice about three times as tall as the oil palms outside the reserve. There is one kind of tree which was generally left by the logging operations, because they were rotten or hollow inside and not of much value.


Isolated Remnant Forest Giant	Remnant Forest

Sepilok is being developed as a bird-watching destination, and tall steel towers with connecting canopy walks are being built. They're a great vantage point, and will serve the industry well. But it's not as fun as a more organic structure built of natural materials. From one of the towers late in the evening you can watch flying squirrels as they glide from the treetops down to the lower trees in the forest below.


Canopy Walk Tower, Remnant Tree behind	Tower	Tower Walkway


Scarlet Minivet	Scarlet Minivet	Scarlet Minivet F


Black Winged Flycatcher Shrike	Black Winged Flycatcher Shrike

Brown Barbet F

My favorite Borneo bird, at least on this, my first trip, the Black and Yellow Broadbill, was present and posed obligingly for photos from one of the towers. They're not particularly rare, but they are outlandishly colorful and seem to have a bit of a personality as well.


Black And Yellow Broadbill	Black And Yellow Broadbill	Black And Yellow Broadbill


Green Iora	Xxx Sunbird

Besides lots of birds, there were a few squirrels and plenty of bugs. There did not seem to be as many squirrels and small rodents as I expected, but maybe most of them are nocturnal and we just didn't see them. There is an abundance of food around so you would think there would be a lot of small mammals.


Squirrel	Beetle

There was a great little kingfisher that always hung out at the same spot. C.K. was clearly familiar with it. It was a little shy but with patience, and not too much traffic of other people hurrying by, we got some good views.


Rufous Backed Kingfisher	Rufous Backed Kingfisher


Rufous Tailed Tailorbird	Rufous Tailed Tailorbird	Rufous Tailed Tailorbird

At times you didn't know whether to look up or down. We would be focused on a bird, and then a cool skink or a monitor lizard would show up. It would be handy to have two sets of eyes. Why hasn't evolution favored us that way yet?


Xxx Skink	Xxx Skink

Xxx Skink

We found some trogons, but they were pretty elusive on this part of the trip. They were hiding in fairly dark, dense forest, and it was difficult to get a picture.


Red Naped Trogon	Scarlet Rumped Trogon	White Crowned Shama

Monitor Lizard

One of the big attractions near the Sepilok Forest Reserve is an Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. We hadn't seen any orangutans, and were not certain we would, so this was an opportunity to try to see some. They treat injured and orphaned orangutans with the goal of returning them to the wild. In general, you aren't guaranteed of seeing any. The rehab center folks put out food for them at fixed times twice a day. orangutans which have been released to the wild still come back to partake of the food, and do so fairly reliably.

The first orangutans we saw was a mother with a young one, and he was a real cutie. I was fascinated at how the orangutans could just hang by one arm, seemingly forever. What a great stretch! The kid just seemed to crawl around on mom to whatever place seemed to be the most secure, and she didn't seem to worry too much about him falling off.


Orangutan with Baby	Orangutan with Baby


Orangutan with Baby	Orangutan with Baby


Orangutan Juvenile	Orangutan Juvenile	Orangutan Juvenile

While everyone else was watching the orangutans, we were constantly noticing small movements in the trees surrounding us, and soon focused our attention and cameras in a different direction. We had to switch back and forth, because there was a great variety of birds around.


Rhinoceros Hornbill Looking for a Meal ...	Rhinoceros Hornbill Found one ...


Rhinoceros Hornbill Now to Get it Out ...	Rhinoceros Hornbill Ah ... Yum!

There was a cool Racket-Tailed Drongo, with a tail similar to that of the Racket-Tailed Hummingbirds we saw in Ecuador the year before. According to Wikipedia, the Racket-Tailed Drongo is a mimic, sort of like our Stellar's Jay here at home. There was also a Drongo Cuckoo. It seems a bit odd to have the word "drongo" used both as a family name and an adjective, so I did a tiny bit of research and discovered that "drongo" is a somewhat derogatory term used in Australia, similar to the way we Americans might use the word "idiot".


Greater Racket Tailed Drongo	Drongo Cuckoo

The orangutans are apparently top primate in the jungle food chain, or at least among the primates in this part of the forest. When they were done eating and left, others came in to clean up -- in this case, pig-tailed macaques.


Pig Tailed Macaque	Pig Tailed Macaque


Pig Tailed Macaque Youngster	Pig Tailed Macaque Youngster


Pig Tailed Macaque Mom And Kid	Pig Tailed Macaque Mom And Kid

Vine

Our guide for this trip was C.K. Leong. If you're looking for someone to guide you looking for birds in Borneo, look him up. He's a great guide, and a great bird photographer. He went above and beyond everything we expected. He spent long periods of time calling in a Pita because he knew Ram and Dawn really liked them. He was a great help to me, a bumbling novice birder, even while accompanied by accomplished birders such as Ram and Dawn. He was never too tired or bored or sick to offer advice or point something out, and he tolerated the same mistakes over and over. I found his knowledge of Bornean birds astounding, and his ability to identify them at a glance inspiring. He was also not afraid to say he was unsure of something, and wait until he could definitively identify it.

C.K. Leong


Black And Yellow Broadbill	Black And Yellow Broadbill


Black And Yellow Broadbill	Black And Yellow Broadbill


Xxx Gecko	Xxx Gecko


Red Eyed Bulbul WBaby	Xxx Baby

One of the most fun things about this whole trip was sitting on a platform up high in a tree and watching the day awaken -- the sun coming up, the mist slowly dispersing, the birds and animals starting to move. The light is outstanding as the day awakens, and it makes you realize how fortunate we are to have this amazingly diverse world to live in.