Borneo Part 3: Mountain Gems

Driving across Sabah from the Rainforest Discovery Centre toward Mount Kinabalu was a sobering experience. From the remnant primary forest of the RDC, we almost immediately entered an endless expanse of plantations, with squat oil palms covering the low hills as far as the eye can see. Palm oil has lifted thousands of people in Southeast Asia out of poverty, but it's also responsible for the loss of huge swaths of lowland forest and the associated loss of wildlife throughout the region. The giant palm oil corporations attempt to greenwash themselves by funding small conservation projects like the RDC, but seeing what it's done to the landscape in Malaysia is truly depressing. 

The traffic going westwards wasn't nearly as bad as it had been on the way there, and after four hours or so of negotiating the bad roads we saw Mount Kinabalu towering over us, filling the entire horizon. Kinabalu is basically a huge block of granite that was uplifted over the surrounding low mountains by the Philippine Plate sliding underneath Borneo, and is several thousand meters higher than any other mountain in its area, the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea. That makes it an island of unique habitat on an already-biodiverse island, and it holds hundreds of species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. It's the site of a well-managed national part, with a number of drivable roads and easily hiked trails that are ideal for birding. 

The construction that had rerouted us on our way eastwards was still blocking the main road to Mount Kinabalu, forcing us onto a treacherous detour route on steep, narrow back-country roads with precipices on both sides. I wasn't sure if our tinfoil bucket of a rental car would make it, but we were able to get to our place with a minimum of incidents. It was just before sunset by the time we arrived, so there wasn't any time for birding. It was, however, the perfect time for the other primary nature attraction of Mount Kinabalu: the moths. For whatever reason, the Kinabalu area is an absolute hotspot of moth biodiversity, with thousands of species of moths recorded there, including many that are endemic to that mountain. I unfortunately didn't have a UV light with me, but the lights of our hotel still seemed to attract some good lepidoptera.

Cyana malayensis

Lemyra sp.

Dura pseudalba

Padena obliquifasciata

Comostola chlorargyra

We had dinner at the bare-bones restaurant next to our hotel then went to sleep, since at least one of us had an early morning ahead. I woke up before sunrise the next morning and headed for the park entrance. Kinabalu National Park is a rather well-run outfit that caters to solo birders, and I was able to get in even before the office was open as long as I promised to come back and pay later. I started driving slowly up the Power Station Road, the main birding road in Kinabalu, looking for the elusive local thrushes. The Everett's Thrushes remained hidden unfortunately, but I did get a good look at a gaudy Orange-headed Thrush as it hopped along the road, as well as a Blue-and-white Flycatcher in the roadside trees.

Orange-headed Thrush

I continued up Power Station Road until I arrived at the Timpohon Gate, where only those who have paid the stupidly expensive fee to climb Mount Kinabalu are allowed to pass further. There are a few birds that can be seen only further up the Kinabalu trail, especially the endemic Friendly Bush-warbler, but they'll have to wait for our next visit when we actually climb the mountain. There are also a number of species that can only be seen around Timpohon Gate and not further down, and I set out to find those. 

It was a busy morning in the mountain forest, with lots of small birds hopping around in the trees around me and calling from the bushes. The two endemic species of partridge, Crimson-headed Partridge and Red-breasted Partridge, called from less than 5 meters off the trail, but as per usual remained completely invisible to me. Near the gate itself I got good looks at a few of the more common mountain birds, including a flock of Grey-chinned Minivets, a confiding Indigo Flycatcher, a few noisy Ochraceous Bulbuls (possibly a Bornean endemic species), a beautiful male Blyth's Shrike-babbler, and an equally beautiful but difficult to photograph Temminck's Sunbird. 

Indigo Flycatcher

Ochraceous Bulbul

Blyth's Shrike-babbler

Temminck's Sunbird

Grey-chinned Minivet

Walking back towards my car, I saw a group of noisy endemic Bornean Treepies, including some awkward-looking juveniles. I heard the call of a Bornean Shortwing from the bushes, and was able to lure the male and female out with a burst of tape. Sunda Bush-warblers, another incredibly cute denizen of the deep vegetation, were out as well, and gave me good looks. The ubiquitous endemic Golden-naped Barbets were calling all over, and I managed to get an open view of one. The best bird of that morning was a Pale-faced Bulbul, usually found much higher up on the mountain in the inaccessible area, that perched right above my car. 

Baby Bornean Treepie

Male Bornean Shortwing

Female Bornean Shortwing

Sunda Bush-warbler

Golden-naped Barbet- guaranteed to be heard at Mount Kinabalu, but much harder to see!

Pale-faced Bulbul!

I drove back to our hotel to pick up Nikki, who had been feeling less enthusiastic about getting up at 5 to look for nocturnal thrushes. We had breakfast (is there a more perfect breakfast food than mee goreng with egg?) then headed back to the park. We stopped at the Silau-Silau junction, another well-known birding spot along Power Station Road, and almost immediately happened upon a mixed flock of lots of passerines. Highlights were an endemic Bornean Whistler, an immature Black-and-crimson Oriole (not nearly as spectacular as the adult unfortunately), Velvet-fronted Nuthatches, White-throated Fantails, Grey-throated Babblers, and a Yellow-breasted Warbler, one of the only good-looking phylloscopus warblers.

Bornean Whistler

Yellow-breasted Warbler

White-throated FantailAdd caption

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

Kinabalu Ringlet (Ragadia annulata), an endemic butterfly

We walked for a bit up the Kiau View Trail (the view isn't as impressive as one might think), and mostly saw some cool bugs, although we did run into a flock of friendly Grey-throated Babblers, most of which were sporting colorful leg bands from the local ornithologists. As we were heading back, I heard an unusual song from a bird in front of us that I eventually realized was a Whitehead's Spiderhunter, one of the most sought-after Kinabalu birds and part of the famous "Whitehead's trinity" (the others of which are the Whitehead's Trogon and Whitehead's Broadbill). I only got a halfway-decent view and no picture, but it was still one of the best lifers of the day. Back at the car park I heard a drumming I thought was a woodpecker, but it turned out to be a Golden-naped Barbet excavating a nest hole!

Grey-throated Babbler

Golden-naped Barbet excavating a nest hole

Kuhl's Creek Frog

Blue Admiral (Kaniska canace) caterpillar

Some kind of strange planthopper

A curved-horn moth of some kind

A cool net-winged beetle (Lycidae sp.)

Bulbophyllum lobbii, a rare orchid

We had a quick lunch, then headed back up to the Timpohon Gate to see if there was anything interesting to be found, but the only new bird was a good-looking male Mugimaki Flycatcher. Driving back down, we happened upon a mixed flock of big birds, including a couple of female Whitehead's Trogons, some Bornean Treepies, and, best of all, some Bare-headed Laughingthrushes, another highly sought-after Bornean endemic. I unfortunately wasn't able to get a good picture before they had disappeared further down the mountain slope. We had dinner at the good but grievously overpriced Liwagu Restaurant within the park, and walking around the restaurant grounds happened upon a very tame Eyebrowed Jungle-flycatcher and an equally tame Little Pied Flycatcher.

Mugimaki Flycatcher

Little Pied Flycatchers

Male Little Pied Flycatcher

Eyebrowed Jungle Flycatcher

Borneo Black-banded Squirrel

Nisitrus musicus

Tetragonula sarawakensis, a tiny endemic bee

 

Cross-lined Wave Moth (Traminda aventiaria)

We woke up early again the next morning and drove out to the park to catch the sunrise. We were rewarded with a spectacular panorama of Mount Kinabalu in the early morning light, a view that's almost always covered in clouds. 

Gunung Kinabalu in all its glory

The view towards the coast- Kota Kinabalu is semi-visible

The Timpohon Gate area wasn't quite as active as it had been the previous morning, but there was a nice mixed flock of some larger birds, including Sunda Laughingthrush, Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush, and some brilliant green Bornean Green Magpies. An Ashy Drongo of the endemic subspecies with its bright white goggles posed on the fence eating a bug.

Sunda Laughingthrush

Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush

Bornean Green Magpie

Ashy Drongo

Hasora borneensis, an endemic skipper

Another Kinabalu Ringlets

We headed down to the Silau-Silau trail, generally considered the best spot for Whitehead's Trogon and Whitehead's Broadbill. It was fairly quiet at first, and we were about to start back when suddenly a brilliant male Whitehead's Trogon popped out of the forest right in front of our faces! We spent the next 20 minutes watching it as it sat patiently just a few meters away from us, letting us take all the pictures we wanted of it. Whitehead's is certainly one of the best-looking trogons in the world, and it was amazing to get this good of a look at it- I haven't found many better pictures of it online. In the same area were a male and female Pygmy Flycatcher, a very uncommon Southeast Asian flycatcher, and a silent Mountain Wren-babbler, another Kinabalu endemic bird. We took another short hike on the Mempening trail after lunch, and didn't see much new except for a small group of distant Pygmy White-eyes. 

Male Whitehead's TrogonAdd caption

Male Pygmy Flycatcher

Mountain Wren-babbler

Yellow-breasted Warbler

Some kind of long-horned moth

Lethe darena

Some kind of tussock moth caterpillar

Goniopteroloba biconjuncta, a tiny but impressive geometrid moth

Coeliccia nemoricola

I easily could have spent another couple of days on the mountain (especially since I still hadn't seen the damn Whitehead's Broadbill), but unfortunately our flight was that evening, so we had to return to Kota Kinabalu. It was certainly a successful, albeit too short, trip, and I expect I'll be back to Sabah several more times in the future, once traveling is a thing we're allowed to do again. For now, though, it's nice to just look at my pictures and reminisce about when times were different. 

I expect this is my last blog post for a while, as I've been doing essentially no travel since January, and stationary birding is perhaps easier to share over Facebook than through a blog. I think most of the people reading this are already friends with me on Facebook, but those who aren't are encouraged to add me! I accept everyone who seems like they're in the birding community, since sharing nature pics is about all that platform is good for now anyway...