Hijo de Pitta

One of the perks of living in a place where you're one of very, very few birders around is that it's easier to build up a reputation as the "bird person" to go to. In the case of fellow Davao-based birder Pete, the reputation is well-deserved, but in my case it probably led to being viewed as a far better birder than I really am. Whatever the truth of the matter, it does occasionally lead to some cool opportunities, even beyond our fun Philippine Eagle Center outings. One of these was at the end of last June, when we were invited to check out the birds at the Hijo Resort, a coastal getaway in Davao del Norte, just north of Davao City. 

Located in the middle of the sprawling Cavendish banana plantations that provide the backbone of much of that region's economy (and funding for many of its politicians), the Hijo Resort consists of a beach area, some fishponds, and, surprisingly, a small area of forest that the property owners managed to protect from clearing. The resort has begun to market itself as a destination for agro-eco-tourism (their term, not mine), and as such was interested in a survey of its local birds. For our part, we were interested in seeing what kind of secrets the forest area might hold, as any kind of decent lowland forest in Mindanao is a rare find at this point. 

We departed Davao at our usually stupidly early departure time in order to make the 2-hour drive up to Tagum City and arrive at the resort by sunrise. Joining us from Davao was JR, a birding enthusiast from Ateneo de Davao University, while at Hijo Resort we were met by Jhong, an employee of the resort (and outdoor enthusiast) who'd been to one of the events at the Philippine Eagle Center and managed to get us a special invitation to come look at birds. We checked in at the birding center, and found that some folks had previously done a birding survey- we were surprised but encouraged to see reports of Short-crested Monarch at the resort, an extremely rare endemic monarch that's generally only seen at the doomed PICOP forests in northeastern Mindanao. 

After meeting with the manager, we proceeded to the forest area, the part we were most interested in. As it turned out, the forest was indeed of good quality--disturbed forest certainly, with some non-native trees in the understory and not the properly huge trees you'd expect of a primary forest, but still better than most of what you'll find in the Mindanao lowlands. That was proven almost immediately when I saw a pair of Mindanao Hornbills, always the sign of a healthy forest, that flew off as soon as we got out of the car. I wasn't able to get a picture of them, though I was able to photograph this endemic White-eared Brown Dove and almost get the focus right.

White-eared Brown Dove

The forest trail started out with a canopy trail, partly to avoid the mud on the forest floor that had been created by the local population of Philippine Warty Pig (Baboy-ramo), and partly, I assume, because canopy walkways are always a good tourist attraction. Canopy walkways are always good for seeing birds that otherwise tend to be too high up to catch a glimpse of, though in this case there wasn't much to be seen besides the skittish hornbills. On the other hand, we heard lots of good birds, including difficult endemics like Black-bibbed Cuckooshrike and Amethyst Brown Dove. Alas, none were interested in coming close, perhaps due to being used to evading people and their slingshots whenever they venture out of the protected forest area. 

We descended from the walkway at a muddy river that ran through the forest. A flock of Large-billed Crows flew over us, joined, surprisingly, by a Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, certainly an escapee from a local pet owner (though probably originally smuggled in from Indonesia by the illegal bird trade that has nearly driven it to extinction in its native range). We also saw a small flock of Philippine Green Pigeons mixed in with Pink-necked Green Pigeons, though the only thing I managed a decent picture of was this impressive mudskipper.

Mudskipper

Shortly after crossing the river, we heard the double-note call of a Hooded Pitta. Hooded Pittas might be the most common pitta in the Philippines, but they're still uncommon, and any pitta is a good bird to see. We were soon able to find it perched on a log, standing in one place and calling for more than five minutes, giving us the best views we'd ever had of one despite the terrible light it was in.

Hooded Pitta

Also oddly common in the forest area were Brown Tit-babblers, which seem to have a penchant for slightly disturbed forest. 

Brown Tit-babbler

In the remainder of our walk in the forest area, we were able to add Black-faced Coucal, Brown-breasted Kingfisher, White-bellied Munia, and Black-naped Monarch to the site list, but alas, no Short-crested Monarch. It's possible that they're very uncommon or no longer present at the site, but also possible that someone saw a Black-naped Monarch and got ahead of themselves with ID. What was present was a large population of semi-tame Philippine Crested Macaques that seemed to have made friends with the local forest guards. 

Portrait shot!

I can only assume this one is a female...

Frederici Bushbrown (Mycalesis frederici)

After finishing our walk through the forest, we took a quick look at an area of fishponds and mangroves outside of the forest. While this may prove to be a good area during the winter when the interesting migrants are around, we didn't see many birds of interest besides a Black-crowned Night-heron and a heard-only Little Bronze Cuckoo. Of more interest to me was the Philippine Sailfin Lizard that ran across the water after we surprised it from the riverbank, and the local arthropod population.

Hypolycaena sipylus tharrytas- upper-wing

Hypolycaena sipylus tharrytas- underwing

Orb-weaver of some kind- just realized I forgot to get the ID

By 9 AM it was getting uncomfortably hot and bird activity was low (ah, the joys of birding in the tropics), so we headed to the Hijo Resort restaurant for an excellent breakfast. We finished the day with 45 species of bird, a more-than-respectable total for the first time at any site in the Philippines, and a count that has grown to 55 after a more recent visit Pete made after I left the country. 

On our way home, we stopped at a small marsh near a pomology (study of fruit, for people like me who didn't know what that meant until now) research center just outside of Tagum City. That was mainly because we were curious about reports from the DENR of Comb-crested Jacana from that marsh, a bird that hasn't been seen in the Philippines since the 1970s. The Jacanas were (unsurprisingly) not there, though we did see some other marsh birds like Common Moorhen, White-browed Crake, Yellow Bittern and Wandering Whistling-duck. Also interesting and a bit terrifying was a huge nest of Giant Honey-bee (Apis dorsata), an Asian bee known for its massive hives and aggressive behavior. I elected to take photos from a distance and then beat a hasty retreat.

Back... away... slowly...

After that fun outing, it was a few days of work before I headed out for another birding trip, this one an epic expedition back to Senator Ninoy Aquino, my favorite birding place in the world. More on that soon!