Pajareo sin fronteras

Oh, where to begin about the best bird. It's the world's largest eagle, with a wingspan of over 7 feet, and its scientific name, Pithecophaga Jeffreyi, refers to its penchant for eating monkeys as a staple of its diet. It's found only in the Philippines, or more specifically three or four islands in the Philippines, and even there only in areas with large expanses of primary forest. It's nearly extinct, with a total population of less than 500 birds in the wild. It is, of course, the Philippine Eagle , the national bird of the Philippines, and if there's a better bird in the world I have yet to hear about.  Oh, and as of May 2018, I'd still never seen the damn thing, despite living for two years in Mindanao, the last stronghold of the Philippine Eagle, and living in Davao, where it's somewhat of an emblem of the city. It was really quite embarrassing. In my defense, Philippine Eagles are incredibly difficult to find, especially for independent, bu...

In the Philippines, endemic birds can roughly be separated into two sets: those found in the lowlands (generally sea level up to about 1,000 meters), and those found in the mountains (elevations above 1,000 meters). There are some species that are just fine at any altitude, such as the Philippine Bulbul, or others that have even more restricted ranges, including those that are only found above 1,500 meters above sea level (or sometimes even higher!). In Mindanao, those birds are Apo Sunbird, White-cheeked Bulfinch, Apo Myna, and Mindanao Serin, all of which are endemic birds. As of the middle of this year, I'd never been at the proper altitude to see any of those birds, meaning that there were some gaping holes in my Mindanao list.  Thankfully, in May of this year I finally had the chance to get to the proper spot to (hopefully) fill those holes. Along with Brendan Sloan, who'd accompanied me on my trips to  SNA  and  Lake Holon , I decided to do a weekend trip ...

Following our epic climb up to Lake Holon,  the trip was over for most international delegates from the Philippine Bird Festival. A few of us, however, got into a different van and headed back north towards Tacurong City, then west into the seldom-traveled mountains of western Sultan Kudarat. It was a long, winding road through limestone mountains, on a road that seemed to collapse regularly, perhaps due to being built on soft, porous limestone- not the proper material for road building. Joining us also was Emelie Jamorabon from the tourism department in Tacurong City, who's done wonders for promoting birding and the environment in Region XII. Once we reached Senator Ninoy Aquino town, the mayor picked us up from our hotel and treated us to dinner at his house. The food was delicious, and symbolic of the diverse cultural heritage of SNA and Mindanao in general; fern salad (known locally as “fako-fako"), a delicacy of the local Manobo tribes, and inasal-s...