Mindanao, At Last

Ever since I decided to spend time in the Philippines after my summer work in Ethiopia and my trip to Indonesia, it was pretty obvious that some of that time would be in Mindanao- I certainly wasn't going to be in the country for two and a half weeks without visiting my former home. I unfortunately only had limited time due to work and other commitments, so the main question was where to go. Ultimately, it wasn't a difficult decision: of course I was going back to my old haunts in Senator Ninoy Aquino, still my favorite birding spot in the Philippines and possibly in the world. 

Shortly after we returned to the Philippines from our trip to Indonesia, I hopped on a flight to General Santos on the morning of August 18. From GenSan, it was a bus ride to Tacurong City, where I met up with some of my old birding friends from Sultan Kudarat then got on the van to SNA. There's unfortunately still no such thing as a "nice" drive to SNA (unless perhaps you have a private car), and this one was no exception, cooped up in an old van hurtling around hairpin turns on the mountain road and narrowly avoiding the sections of pavement caved in due to earthquakes and subsidence. This was before the late 2019 earthquake storm in the area, and I can't imagine the roads are any better now. 

I arrived at my usual spot at Dannah's Inn in the late afternoon, where I checked in and met Roy Cablas, my guide for the rest of my trip. I'm of course perfectly capable of finding my way around SNA at this point, but it's good form to coordinate with the municipal office and barangay, and having Roy along was helpful for that- as well as for motorcycle driving, which meant I didn't have to search out another driver. As it turns out, Roy was helpful for much more than that- he worked for years with the local indigenous communities doing work with an NGO, which meant he knew most of the villagers of barangay Kuden, the birding site. He suggested I spend a night in the village nearer the birding site, which I was eager to do- in fact it was something I'd been hoping to do ever since my first visit there. 

I said goodbye to Roy, and then spent the remainder of the day doing some work and looking around the area. Roy picked me up the next morning at 4:30 AM, and we proceeded immediately to the birding site in Barangay Kuden. We stopped just as the sun was rising in one of my usual spots, and immediately birds were calling, although mostly remained unseen. The first bird I saw was a beautiful male Philippine Trogon, one of my favorite Philippine birds. It was shortly followed by a small flock of Mindanao Pygmy Babblers and a flyover from a group of raucous Rufous Hornbills, although I didn't get a good look at them. 

Philippine Trogon

Striped Ringlets (Ragadia melindena), a beautiful butterfly endemic to Mindanao

The sunrise showed some hints of blue skies, but soon after a heavy fog descended over the jungle. It remained foggy for nearly an hour during the peak birding time, which was frustrating since it was nearly impossible to see more than a few meters in front of us. Many good birds were calling and vaguely seen, including a flock of raucous Rufous Hornbills, a Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove, Philippine Leafbird, an Olive-backed Flowerpecker, and an endemic Buzzing Flowerpecker building a nest. I saw a squirrel of some sort- too big to be the Philippine Pygmy Squirrel I'd previously seen and possibly one of the little-known Mindanao endemic species, but it was too foggy to get good pictures of it. 

Rufous Hornbills in the fog

Olive-backed Flowerpecker

The mystery squirrel

After an hour or so the fog finally began to lift, and the day slowly became hot and sunny- also not great for birding, but at least easier for visibility. The flock of Rufous Hornbills stopped by once more giving me some proper looks this time, and I spotted an Oriental Dollarbird perched near the road. In the tall trees was a flock of Philippine Green Pigeons, while a strange endemic Coleto was seen investigating a nest hole. A cool sight was a pair of Colasisis, the Philippines' smallest parrot, sharing a palm stalk with a pair of the Philippines' smallest raptor- Philippine Falconets.

Juvenile female Rufous Hornbill

Adult and immature male Rufous Hornbills

Oriental Dollarbird

Philippine Green Pigeons

A pair of Colasisis and Philippine Falconets in the same tree!

Coleto

Some kind of froghopper (Cosmocarta sp. I think)

We decided to explore a side trail at the urging of two of my local guides. It was quite nice at first, a well-trodden trail going over some of the limestone ridges of the area, giving me some nice views of the landscape. I saw a pair of Philippine Orioles, a Bicolored Flowerpecker, and soon after a flock of Green Imperial Pigeons in a dead tree, but the highlight was a Naked-faced Spiderhunter, a huge, strange-looking endemic sunbird that sat patiently for me as I took lots of pictures of it, certainly the best looks I've ever had of this species. A bit after that I saw a male Mindanao Hornbill delivering food to a nest cavity, where I assume its mate and possibly chicks were sealed inside safe from harm.

Green Imperial Pigeons

Naked-faced Spiderhunter

Mindanao Hornbill delivering food to a nest cavity

Common Jester (Symbrenthia lilea)

Smooth-eyed Bushbrown (Orsotriaena medus)

A tiny soldier beetle (Polemiosilis sp.)

Kalophrynus sinensis, a very rotund little frog

The Kuden landscape, complete with slash-and-burn agriculture

We entered a patch of forest with low-hanging branches, and I heard the trilling call of a White-eared Tailorbird, endemic to just a small section of western Mindanao, just off the trail. It took a bit of searching, but I was finally able to get good views and even some pictures of one of the most rarely-photographed Philippine endemics, one of the highlights of the day. I also heard a Mindanao Bleeding-heart (my favorite Philippine bird) calling, but it was so far off the trail that I didn't even bother trying to find it.

White-eared Tailorbird!

Vestalis melania

The trail eventually topped off at a small family farm, and for some godforsaken reason my local minders decided that the best way back to the main road was on a tiny, narrow hunter's path, so steep and ill-maintained it was essentially bushwhacking through the jungle. It was a long, uncomfortable slog up steep limestone slopes narrowly avoiding spiny branches and unstable rocks, and I was so busy trying not to tumble down the hill I couldn't really look for birds either, though we did happen across a pair of nice Whiskered Treeswifts and some cool bugs when we got back to the road.

Whiskered Treeswift

Lorquin's Satyr (Ptychandra lorquiini)

Some kind of lady beetle (Henosepilachna sp.) 

Eurema sarilata

A very cute leaf beetle (Aulacophora sp.)

By the time we got back to the road it was nearly noon, so I headed back to the town to get some lunch and a nap. For reasons I don't fully understand, Dannah's Inn is an absolute moth magnet, and as always there were dozens of species of moths every time I looked, including some huge, weird and beautiful ones. A small sampler of the moths and other bugs seen my first night and that afternoon is below (and trust me, it's just a small fraction of the insect diversity seen).

Barsine sp.

Calliteara sp.

Cyme sp., I think

Acosmeryx anceus

Eugoa sp.

A huge fruit-piercing moth (Phyllodes staudingeri) nearly the size of my hand

Close-up of a fuzzy moth face

A massive katydid (Rectimarginalis sp.)

Nevrina procopia

Barsine sp.

Dudusa minor

Hypena sp.

Anomis flava

Ischija sp.

Amata hirayamae

Atlas beetle (Chalcosoma atlas)

After I'd had a nap and finished searching out the local bugs, I headed back into Kuden with Roy to the village of Sitio Tamangan, where I was to spend the night. The local tribal leader was a friend of Roy's, and agreed to let me stay in his house. I dropped my bags at his house, and he took us out for a tour of the forest and farmland behind the village, including his own farm. It was a walk through degraded forest in the hot afternoon sun, so the bird density and diversity wasn't as high as it had been that afternoon. I did still see a few good birds, including a Philippine Drongo-cuckoo, a Mindanao-endemic Rufous-fronted Tailorbird, and a flock of endemic Pygmy Swiftlets- as well as, once again, lots of cool bugs.

Philippine Drongo-cuckoo

Rufous-fronted Tailorbird

Pygmy Swiftlet

Green Skimmer (Orthetrum plagiata)

Chalky Percher (Diplacodes trivialis)

Euagoras plagiatus, a kind of assassin bug

Green Crested Lizard

This looks like a wasp, but it's actually a kind of Velvet Ant (Trogaspidiini sp.)!

Pseudagrion pilidorsum

As we were on our way back to the village just before sunset, I heard a rustling in the undergrowth next to the trail. When I finally found the source, I realized it was a Striated Wren-babbler, an endemic bird I'd heard many times but never gotten a good look at. I played a short burst of its song, and to my surprise, it was soon perched on a log in the open singing loudly, giving unusually good views and allowing me to get some of the only good pictures ever taken of this species- another highlight of the day!

Striated Wren-babbler!

The night that I spent in Sitio Tamangan was one of the most memorable experiences of the summer, as I spent hours talking with the locals in a mix of Tagalog and Bisaya about tribal customs, music and history and showing them my pictures from the Philippines and elsewhere. I'm unfortunately not a very good interviewer or journalist, especially when speaking in my fifth and sixth languages with people who are speaking their second and third languages, so the published travelogue on my time in the Philippines will have to wait until I improve that. Still, I learned more about the Dulangan Manobo tribe that night than I learned over two years of actually living in Mindanao.

I spent the night on a bamboo mat on the floor of the tribal leader's house, and awoke at 4AM to a Giant Scops-owl calling nearby. We left the village soon after, heading deeper into the forest to one of my favorite birding spots, a clearing where I've had many good species before. This was the first time I'd had a chance to go owling in SNA since my visit with Pete and Irene all the way back in 2018, which feels like 10 years ago now, so I was excited to do it a more. Almost as soon as I got off the motorcycle, a Chocolate Boobook was calling, a new bird for the site for me. I was soon able to spotlight it and get some halfway decent pictures- the first time I'd actually seen one, so in some ways a lifer for me!

Chocolate Boobook

Just after the boobook stopped calling, and just before sunrise, I heard the hooting of a Mindanao Hawk-owl right behind me. I played its call briefly, and almost immediately one flew within five feet of my face! It was so close I had to step back to photograph it properly, and I only got a quick record shot of it before it flew off again.

Mindanao Hawk-owl

The sun rose, and more birds started calling and showing themselves, mostly in bad light. A Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove showed itself for a bit, and a pair of Blue-crowned Racket-tails perched briefly nearby before flying off. In a distant tree was a group of Spotted Imperial Pigeons, rarely-seen endemics giving their even-more-rarely-heard call.

Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove

Blue-crowned Racket-tails

Spotted Imperial Pigeons

I continued down the birding road, hoping for some of my long-shot targets like pittas, bleeding-hearts, or tits. As if on cue, as soon as I asked myself if there were any pittas in the vicinity, I heard the call of an Azure-breasted Pitta! This is one of the top 5 Mindanao targets for most visiting birders, and one of the worst birds on my "heard only" life list. I'd heard it several times before, including once in SNA, but never managed to actually see it before, making it possibly my biggest target for this trip. It took a long time of walking along the road before I could properly triangulate where the bird was calling from, but I finally found a good spot, and walked a little bit into the woods. After 15 minutes or so of waiting, a beautiful pitta flew into view a ways down a rocky slope. I was able to watch it for a while after I came, happy to have finally seen one of the most charismatic (greater) Mindanao endemics.

Azure-breasted Pitta

It was after 8 by the time I'd finally seen the pitta, and the day was getting warmer and the birds less frequent. I heard a Pink-bellied Imperial Pigeon in the tree above me but wasn't able to get a picture, while I also saw a distant flock of Stripe-headed Rhabdornises (rhabdorni?). The birds weren't showing well, but the bugs sure were, including a very impressive praying mantis of some kind. There are many things I like about birding in Senator Ninoy Aquino, but two of them (besides the great birds) are that it can mostly be done walking along a fairly flat but little-trafficked road, and that there are always cool insects of various kinds to keep me occupied when the birds aren't showing. That makes it a wholly enjoyable and relaxing experience at all times of day- I could probably spend a week walking up and down and exploring the various roads winding through forests and farmland.

Huge spirally moth (Spirama sp.)

Very cool small preying mantis (Acromantis sp.)

An as-yet unidentified caterpillar

I continued down the road for a kilometer or so, adding some more new birds and lots of cool bugs to the day list. A pair of Rufous Paradise-flycatchers was calling near the road, and I saw one of the rarer babblers of SNA, a Rusty-crowned Babbler. Another highlight was a calling Philippine Faiy-bluebird of the extremely rare Mindanao subspecies. I saw a Citrine Canary-flycatcher and a few more Mindanao Pygmy-babblers in a mixed flock, and incredibly got more good views and pictures of a pair of Striated Wren-babblers- it was unusual to see them well twice in a row.

Rufous Paradise-flycatcher

Philippine Fairy-bluebird

Citrine Canary-flycatcher

Striated Wren-babbler

Common Banded Demon (Notocrypta paralysos)

Malayan Yamfly (Loxura cassiopeia) 

Halpe luteisquama

Courtesan (Euripus nyctelius), a very rare nymphalid butterfly

Some kind of colorful weevil (Metapocyrtus sp.)

Calomera mindanaoensis

Aulacophora sp.

Some kind of large bess beetle (Passalidae sp.)

Another colorful beetle (Erotylinae sp.)

A strange-looking pygmy grasshopper (Hymenotes sp.)

An even stranger pygmy grasshopper (Misythus hymenotus)

Pachnepteryx palidicollis, an extremely colorful cockroach

We turned around late in the morning, and started walking back toward the motorcycles. We had to stop for a while for a brief but intense tropical rainstorm, but just after the rain ended a flock of Rufous Hornbills graced us with their presence once more, including many yellowish juveniles. The insect life was out in force after the rain, and I saw even more cool wildlife, including a beautiful Green Dragontail butterfly and a couple species of spectacular-looking stick insect.

Male Rufous Hornbill drying himself after the rainstorm

Juvenile Rufous Hornbill

Immature Rufous Hornbill

White-eared Brown Dove

Buzzing Flowerpecker

Formosan Swift (Borbo cynnara)

Ita Bushbrown (Mycalesis ita)

Green Dragontail (Lamproptera meges)!

Zethera hestioides

Potanthus mingo

Ropalidia flavobrunnea, an endemic wasp

A stick insect that's literally a rainbow (Ophicrania sp.)!

Coloratobistus dilawitimpakpak, a spectacular stick insect with a name nearly as long as the bug itself

Just before we got onto the motorcycles, I ran into one last mixed flock of birds, including a Yellow-bellied Whistler and a few beautiful Mindanao Blue Fantails.

Mindanao Blue Fantail

Yellow-bellied Whistler

Satisfied and tired, I got back onto the bike and we headed back into town, where I made a quick courtesy call at the municipal office to see my friend Prinz, then headed to the bike terminal to catch a motorbike back to Tacurong City. From Tacurong it was another bus back to GenSan, where I spent the night so I could do some more birding the following morning before returning to Manila.

It was yet another successful trip to SNA (I've never had a bad one, really), that just left me wanting more. It was a good reminder of everything I love about birding in Mindanao- the amazing wildlife, beautiful landscape, and fascinating cultures all in one place. Really, it can't be stressed how cool and unique the wildlife is- of the 32 species of birds I photographed in this blog entry, all but five of them are endemic to the Philippines, and around 11 (depending on which checklist you use) are endemic to Mindanao or the greater Mindanao area. You really can't get that almost anywhere else in the world- a good reminder I need to get myself back to Mindanao again soon.