The Proper Height

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 to the Kitanglad mountain range in Bukidnon, with the first stop at Mount Dulang-Dulang, the second-highest mountain in the Philippines. Dulang-Dulang is a known spot for Mindanao Serin, one of the the scarcest Mindanao endemics, as well as Goodfellow's Jungle Flycatcher, another devilishly tricky birds. It's also highest enough for the sunbird, myna, and bulfinch. All in all a great destination; it was getting there that was the most difficult part. 

As birding and hiking traffic to Kitanglad has increased, so has the related bureaucracy- and boy does the Philippines love adding extra layers of bureaucracy to their natural areas. Not a finger will be lifted to prevent illegal logging and mining activities, but you better believe the DENR will go all out to make sure that hikers pay the 1,000 pesos per day to go walking in the woods. We first had to take a disgustingly early-morning bus ride from Davao to Malaybalay City to visit the DENR office and pay the entry fee (twice the price it was last year!), fill out the necessary paperwork, and then take an uncomfortable 2-hour jeepney ride to Binahon Farms, the jumpoff point to hike Dulang-Dulang for birding.

Henry Binahon runs a very cool little agroforestry farm at the base of Mount Dulang-Dulang, where he hosts retreats and promotes sustainable agriculture practices. He's a bit familiar with the birds in the area, at least enough to tell the mountain guide where to take us, and will also help visiting birders with logistics for an extra fee (we elected to do that on our own). By the time we arrived at his farm it was afternoon and I had work things to do, so we elected to do the climb early the next morning so we could spend the night in a proper bed and reduce guiding fees.

The final step before beginning the hike was a ritual run by the Datu (chief) of the local tribe. Kitanglad is part of the ancestral domain of the Talaandig, Higaonon, and Bukidnon tribes, and Mount Dulang-Dulang is a particularly sacred area. Thus, it's necessary for all non-IP visitors to pay for a ritual to get the local deities' blessing to enter the mountain. I'm not sure if it's an established ancestral practice or just a way for the Datu to get extra beer money and a chicken for dinner, but I'm not about to risk the wrath of the mountain gods in order to find out.

Unfortunately, the Datu was unable to be found the night before we climbed the mountain, meaning we had to delay our hike in the morning until he would be awake. I ended up having to spend nearly 45 minutes sitting grumpily waiting for him to be tracked down and watching the sun grow higher in the sky before we could finally begin the ritual. The ritual itself was... not for the squeamish, as it involves the sacrifice of a live chicken. The Datu prayed over the chicken for a while, then slit its throat and drained the blood into a bowl, smearing some on my face as a blessing. He had a number of stories about the indigenous legends of the mountain to tell as well, which I could have spent hours listening to, but we'd already lost much of the morning so I had to bid farewell and climb up the mountain at long last.

The first part of the hike was a rather steep climb through farmland, with beautiful vistas of the mountains but not much in the way of nature. By the time we reached the edge of the forest, it was already nearly 1500 meters above sea level, though it was a steep and treacherous climb before we reached a flatter area where we could begin the proper birding. The mountain was fairly quiet at first, with only a few mixed flocks to keep us busy. Black-and-cinnamon Fantails, always fun to watch, were more common and quite bold, however.

Black-and-cinnamon Fantail

A bit further up, we happened upon a good flock of foraging birds including Yellow-bellied Whistler, Turquoise Flycatcher, Cinnamon Ibon, and best of all a male Apo Sunbird, my first lifer of the day.

Apo Sunbird

As we climbed, we were listening carefully for Mindanao Serin and Goodfellow's Jungle flycatcher, two mega birds known to be found very occasionally along the trail. Unfortunately, there are no recordings known of Mindanao Serin, and although I heard a call that sounded similar (if not identical) to that of the Mountain Serin found in Sulawesi, I never saw the bird so couldn't ID it with certainty. Meanwhile, the recording I had of Goodfellow's Jungle-flycatcher turned out to mostly just be the call of Rufous-headed Tailorbird, which responded enthusiastically (and unexpectedly) to the playback. Most annoying was the complete absence of Apo Myna, a bird that is supposedly incredibly common at high altitudes, but was never once seen on our day-long hike.

On the bright side, we did soon get good looks (but no good pictures) of the distinct katanglad subspecies of Island Thrush, and, even better, White-cheeked Bulfinch, a smart-looking Philippine endemic bird. Also good was a confusingly-named Mindanao White-eye, which isn't a White-eye  and doesn't have a white eye- definitely not a high point in taxonomy.

White-cheeked Bulfinch

Mindanao White-eye

The dwarf forest at high altitudes

After a few hours of sitting and waiting for a Jungle-flycatcher or a Serin to fly by, we had to head down the mountain once more on the way back. We did run into a few more mixed flocks, including one with some McGregor's Cuckooshrikes, another endemic I'm always happy to see.

McGregor's Cuckooshrike

Tachinidae sp.

Cockroach egg parasite (Evaniidae sp.)

Leaving the forest, we happened upon a flowering tree with a few Olive-capped Flowerpeckers and a Flame-breasted Flowerpecker. As the trees disappeared, the view improved, and we were able to see a spectacular vista of Mount Kalatungan, the shield volcano located just south of the Kitanglad complex.

Olive-capped Flowerpecker

There are worse real estate locations

I originally thought this might be a tarantula hawk, but it turns out it's a long-horned beetle (Cerambycidae sp.)

We arrived back at Binahon Farms just as it was getting dark, in time for a tasty dinner and a ride to the town of Lantapan for Cinchona Forest Reserve, the next stop on our trip- blog post on that soon!