Lorikeet Weekend

 

I've been back in the Philippines for over half a year by now, yet up until recently I somehow still hadn't been to Mindanao, my former home and still-favorite birding island in the country. This is even after lots of other trips to far-flung places like Tablas, and much-worse spots like Samar. Finally in July my opportunity appeared: work was sending me to do a week-long trip to Koronadal City in South Cotabato. Obviously I wasn't going to go all the way to Mindanao just to spend a week in the Albany of the Philippines, so instead I arranged to arrive a couple of days early so that I could spend a weekend birding. 

As I was already going to be in South Cotabato, the obvious choice was to head to Lake Holon, the province's prime mountain birding spot. I was the first person to bird Holon in the modern era- back in 2017 with my friend Nof- at which time we discovered the mysterious "Tboli" leaf warblers. I visited again with Pete and Irene in 2018, where we discovered that, aside from being one of the most beautiful hikes anywhere in the country, it was perhaps the best place in the world to see Mindanao Lorikeets, an incredibly rare and beautiful endemic parrot. Pete and I returned once more in 2018 guiding for the post-Philippine Bird Festival tour, once again cementing it as my favorite hiking and birding spot just about anywhere. 

In the time I've been gone, Pete and Koronadal-based birder Allan Barredo have been industriously exploring the Lake Holon area, and in the process discovered the Simedo Trail, a trail going up the opposite side of Mount Melibengoy (the mountain holding Lake Holon). While it doesn't provide easy looks at the crater lake, I'd heard that the trail is even better for birding than the usual Kule and Salacafe trails, which have apparently become clogged with hikers now that the word has gotten out about Lake Holon. Obviously I was eager to explore it. Pete, who was free that weekend, was more than happy to take me. Even better, Julius of the Davao Big Year team, which has done amazing things for spreading the good word about birding around Davao, was free to join as well, and brought along his nephew Sean, a talented young birder. 

Pete, Julius and Sean picked me up at the airport in General Santos the evening of Friday, July 8 and we headed to our hotel. We departed very early on Saturday morning to get to the Simedo trailhead. There were some beautiful views along the way of the gorgeous forested mountains of T'boli, though we couldn't stop for long as we wanted to get to a proper birding spot by dawn. Around sunrise, we arrived at a spot with a nice bit of trailside vegetation that was apparently good for mixed flocks, including the sought-after T'boli sunbird, endemic to the mountains of south-central Mindanao. As the sun rose many Stripe-breasted Rhabdornis came through and perched on the mossy branches up above us, accompanied by the more-common Coppersmith Barbets and Philippine Bulbuls. Though Philippine Bulbul is generally the least-exciting endemic you're likely to encounter in Philippine forests, the ones here are a bit more interesting: at high elevation, they have a song unlike that of any other bulbul in the country, and look a bit different, with cleaner white bellies. Interestingly enough, at lower elevations (below 1200 meters above sea level or so) they look and sound like Philippine Bulbuls everywhere else in the country. Possibly a cryptic subspecies or other form?

As the sun got higher we got a series of smaller birds coming in, including the ever-present Warbling White-eyes (easily the most common bird in Lake Holon, and very good at appearing to be something more interesting than it is), a very confiding Olive-capped Flowerpecker, a more distant Bicolored Flowerpecker, and, finally, a male T'boli Sunbird that flew in, perched in front of us, and flew off before we could get a picture. Some of the photographers who'd visited the previous weekend had gotten stupidly good shots of the T'boli Sunbird, but we never had any great looks, as apparently the flowers they favor had stopped blooming next to the trail.

Olive-capped Flowerpecker- the ones in western Mindanao are the nigriloris subspecies with a black line under the eye that others lack

Bicolored Flowerpecker

Mountain White-eyes

Some kind of hoverfly

Vagrant (vagrans sinha)

At that point we met up with Allan, who was joining for part of the morning before he had to leave for family obligations. Allan showed us one of the side trails he had been exploring, which proved to be even better for birding than the Simedo trail as a whole. We happened upon a pair of Buzzing Flowerpeckers building a nest, and right next to them a Turquoise Flycatcher carrying around nesting material. I spotted a beautiful male Flame-crowned Flowerpecker, the rarest flowerpecker in Mindanao, foraging in a flowering bush, and got some decent pictures of it before it flew off.

Male and female Buzzing Flowerpeckers visiting their nest (to the left)

Turquoise Flycatcher with nesting material

Male Flame-crowned Flowerpecker

As we were trying to get more flowerpecker pictures, we added two more people to our birding party: a pair of 13-year-old twins whose mother runs a food stand near the start of the Simedo trail. Ivin and Ivan (yes, those are their names and yes, they are identical twins) have started getting into birds after seeing Pete constantly visiting Lake Holon, so we decided to invite them along so they could bird with us and get to know bird names. Hopefully in a couple months' time birders visiting Lake Holon will have some young local bird guides to help them out. 

Up the trail further, we heard the squeaky calls of a pair of McGregor's Cuckooshrikes and were soon able to get excellent views of a male and female, with the male doing display flights. The cuckooshrikes are another uncommon Mindanao mountain endemic, and one that likely holds several cryptic species; the birds in eastern Mindanao sound nothing like the birds on Mount Kitanglad in central Mindanao, and the birds here in Western Mindanao sound a bit different from either of those, as well as being noticeably larger. At the same spot in the trail, Allan also got his lifer Yellow-breasted Fruit Doves.

Female McGregor's Cuckooshrike

Male McGregor's Cuckooshrike

Yellow-breasted Fruit Doves

Olive-capped Flowerpecker

The entire time we had been hiking, we were hearing the high-pitched calls of Long-tailed Ground Warblers, elusive ground-dwelling endemic birds of the Philippine mountains. Once we'd gotten satisfactory pics of the cuckooshrikes, we reached a point in the trail that I realized would be perfect to look for ground birds: an overhanging bit of foliage with an exposed log for cryptic birds to walk across. We sat down in the undergrowth on the opposite side of the trail (all seven of us!) and Pete placed his speaker strategically to try some playback. It worked better than we could have hoped: within 30 seconds or so we had a highly territorial Long-tailed Ground Warbler strutting through the undergrowth and hopping briefly into the open singing. By pure luck I'd managed to snag the best seat to watch it moving around, and I had the most open shots at it. So, naturally, that was the time my camera decided to run out of battery! I still got some decent pictures...

Long-tailed Ground Warbler- as soon as I took this picture my camera battery died!

Interestingly the Long-tailed Ground Warblers in Holon are yet another taxonomic mystery: their call is slightly different from the ground warblers in Mount Matutum, just a little bit to the east, and much different from the calls of birds in any other mountain range. It's all but certain they'll be split into multiple endemic species, though it's not clear what will happen with the birds in Holon. In the same spot we tried for White-browed Shortwing, another extremely cryptic ground bird (that will certainly be split to become a Mindanao mountain endemic at some point), and had a male come in briefly but as usual not wait for us to get a picture before flying off. 

We began heading slowly back down the Simedo trail so that we could get some lunch. It was mid-morning by then, which in most parts of the Philippines would mean little to no bird activity. Not in Lake Holon, however: it's easily the birdiest place I've ever been in the Philippines. It felt like every time I picked up my binoculars and scanned through a bit of forest I would find a good bird there. It's the sort of place you could spend several days in and never get bored. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's currently most likely the best birding spot in the country- and hopefully can remain so. 

On the way down, we spotted a Rufous-headed Tailorbird (actually not a tailorbird but in fact a colorful Mindanao-endemic bush warbler) calling noisily in the undergrowth, as well as another confiding Olive-capped Flowerpecker. An endangered Pinsker's Hawk-eagle flew over us giving its two-note call, and Julius spotted a Red-eared Parrotfinch in the undergrowth that the rest of us never got a good look at. 

Rufous-headed Tailorbird; not a tailorbird though in fairness that is definitely a rufous head

Olive-capped Flowerpecker

Pinkser's Hawk-eagle; one of perhaps fewer than 1,000 birds left on Mindanao

Turquoise Flycatcher

Some kind of endemic weevil (Arrhenodini sp.)

Calomera mindanaoensis, a huge endemic tiger beetle

Dendrobium rhombium, a beautiful endemic orchid

The scenery along the Simedo trail

We finally got a good look at the local Negros Leaf-warblers, which look nothing like any Negros Leaf-warbler anywhere else in the world: while the leaf-warblers in the rest of the Philippines (including other mountains in Mindanao) are varying shades of bright yellow with black eyebrows, the birds in Lake Holon are greenish-grey with eye-rings of various sizes. These have been a mystery for birders ever since Nof and I photographed them in our first visit to Lake Holon, and it was nice to see that they're just as weird as before. It's still unclear what they really are- if it's an undescribed subspecies, an undescribed species, or perhaps just a color mutation spreading around the birds in Lake Holon. Personally I like to think of it as the endemic T'boli Leaf Warbler. There's apparently some large-scale ornithological work planned for the Lake Holon area, which is a good thing considering how many mysterious birds there are there. 

The mysterious "T'boli" leaf-warbler

Back at the trailhead, we bid goodbye to Allan, who had to leave all too soon to attend to family obligations, and had lunch care of Ivin/Ivan's mother. We waited for the obligatory afternoon rainstorm to pass over, then began walking along the trail once more. There was a nice little Citrine Canary-flycatcher perched near the trail, and lots of Coppersmith Barbets were flying back and forth from a fruiting ficus tree. We heard the warbling calls of a pair of Philippine Pygmy-woodpeckers, and sent one of the twins scampering up a hillside to place a speaker to call them in. Surprisingly they turned out to be explosively responsive to playback, and we soon had excellent views of a female woodpecker coming in to check us out, with the male remaining somewhat further away. The pygmy woodpeckers in Mindanao are surprisingly brightly-colored, and these birds in Holon seem to be the most colorful of the bunch, even the usually-drab female. 

Citrine Canary-flycatcher

Coppersmith Barbet

Female Philippine Pygmy-woodpecker

Male Philippine Pygmy-woodpecker

Heptodonta nigrosericea, another endemic tiger beetle

Our young birder companions on the Simedo trail

A little bit onward Pete spotted a female Tboli Sunbird feeding in the canopy above us, giving us our only sunbird pictures of the weekend. We soon ran into a nice mixed feeding flock with Yellow-bellied Whistlers, Black-and-cinnamon Fantails, Elegant Tits, and Sulphur-billed Nuthatches, none of which felt like posing for pictures. We did have better looks at the much-more-common Philippine Hanging Parrots and Warbling White-eyes.

Female T'boli Sunbird

Philippine Hanging Parrot

Warbling White-eye, the most annoying bird of Mindanao montane forests

Some kind of little jumping spider

It was late afternoon by then, so we started heading to what Pete and Allan were tantalizingly calling "Lorikeet Valley". We had been hearing the screeching calls of Mindanao Lorikeets the whole day, and had occasionally seen them as little green bullets flying past us at about 100 miles an hour, but hadn't had any proper views of the star bird of Lake Holon. On the way towards the valley, near the lowest part of the Simedo trail, we stopped for an impressive male Mindanao Hornbill posing with some Coletos.

Mindanao Hornbill with a photobombing Coleto

Finally, we arrived at Lorikeet Valley: an overlook along the Simedo trail with a panoramic view of a stand of dead trees covered in epiphytes. These trees are the preferred roost of the local lorikeets, which fly in every evening just before sunset. While waiting for the lorikeets we had some nice distractions in the form of a male Mindanao Hornbill visiting his nest hole to feed his mate and chicks, and a pair of Buff-spotted Flamebacks feeding in the dead trees. 

Male Mindanao Hornbill

Buff-spotted Flamebacks

Coleto

Nepenthes tboli, a highly localized endemic pitcher plant

Mist-covered trees on Mount Melibengoy

About a half hour before the sun slipped below the hills behind us, the Mindanao Lorikeets started to arrive. It began with distant screeching and barely-visible flocks on the opposite side of the valley, but slowly they began flying in closer to us, even perching briefly on the nearest trees. Up until Pete, Irene and I discovered the healthy populations of Mindanao Lorikeet on Mount Melibengoy a few years ago virtually no birders had had good views of this species in decades, but suddenly here were dozens of them flying around right in front of our faces, perching on spectacular old trees covered in orchids and pitcher plants. It really is one of the top natural sights in the Philippines, up there with Philippine Eagles, the Whale Sharks of Sorsogon, and the Pied Imperial Pigeons of Ursula Island.

Mindanao Lorikeets- how's that for a habitat shot?

Mindanao Lorikeets are beautiful birds on their own, but it's the rarity that really helps make this a special sight. They're stupidly rare across most of Mindanao, and have almost completely disappeared from most mountains, including Mount Kitanglad and Mount Apo where most birders visit. It's not entirely clear why, but it almost certainly has something to do hunting and trapping for the wildlife trade, the same thing that nearly drove Philippine Cockatoo to extinction and is threatening the futures of dozens of lories and lorikeets throughout Indonesia and New Guinea. Lorikeets make bad pets and don't live long in captivity, but apparently that doesn't stop poachers from trapping them into extinction throughout their range. 

Unfortunately, while they still survive on Mount Melibengoy in astonishing numbers, their survival here is far from secure. Indeed, the forest all around Lake Holon is in peril: while it's not full of chainsaws like Samar, the signs of forest clearance are everywhere, and it seems to only be increasing with the construction and improvement of new roads around and even through the protected area. Though this is the ancestral domain of the T'boli people, outsiders are buying up land willy-nilly, preparing to cut down trees and put in resorts. It's certainly not too late, and indeed this could be a golden opportunity for the T'boli tribe and the local government to act as examples of good governance, encouraging wildlife tourism and actively enforcing laws against deforestation and hunting of endangered species. However, that doesn't appear to be the current trajectory, and I fear that the forests of Lake Holon, which may currently be the best birding site in the whole country, may soon be destroyed, and their avian treasures gone along with them. 

It soon got too dark for pictures, and we headed back to our hotel. The next morning, we started at the same spot in hopes of some good mixed flocks moving through. As always we weren't disappointed. Things started off with a pair of Philippine Tree Squirrels chasing each other around a distant tree, and soon after a male Mindanao Hornbill gave excellent views in a fruiting tree. We saw a pair of Little Pied Flycatchers and their speckled fledgling young, and had an immature Flame-crowned Flowerpecker come in briefly, though it never let us get good pictures. We did, however, get good looks at a female Buzzing Flowerpecker of the stark black-and-white western Mindanao subspecies, which is almost certainly a different species than the much-duller birds in Luzon, or indeed even in the rest of Mindanao.

Philippine Tree Squirrel

Mindanao Hornbill

Baby Little Pied Flycatcher

Male Little Pied Flycatcher

Female Buzzing Flowerpecker

A bit further up the trail we happened upon a confiding Citrine Canary Flycatcher and a noisy flock of Brown Tit-babblers skulking through the undergrowth, difficult as always to photograph. We happened upon another male Tboli Sunbird that as usual didn't feel like posing for photos, and heard an uncommon and elusive Bagobo Babbler calling from within a deep gully, obviously never coming into view as Bagobo Babblers never come into the open. We did see a family group of Flame-crowned Flowerpeckers, including a male, female, and an immature bird that I couldn't get a picture of. 

Citrine Canary-flycatcher habitat shot

Stripe-breasted Rhabdornis

Brown Tit-babbler

Male Flame-crowned Flowerpecker

Female Flame-crowned Flowerpecker

Some kind of flowering pandanus vine that was popular with the fruit-eating birds

Some kind of polka-dotted harvestman spider

Some of the best insects in the Philippines are the many different species of jewel-colored weevils, though they're quite difficult to ID. I believe these are Coptorhynchus of some sort

I could have stayed on the Simedo trail all day (and seriously, I could happily spend a whole week up there exploring and photographing all the birds and other wildlife around), but Pete, Julius and Sean had to get back to Davao and I had to start prepping for the next week of work. We headed back down the trail and then back to General Santos, where they dropped me off and continued on home. I know I'm repeating myself here, but Lake Holon really does have some of the most enjoyable birding in the Philippines: a combination of spectacular scenery, interesting endemic birds, and overall high bird density that makes me want to keep coming back- and indeed, I've already been back once and have two more return trips already planned. I can only hope that this is a site I can keep hyping up to birders for many years to come, rather than something that has to be seen now while it's still there. Fingers crossed...