Palawan Cleanup

 

After my time vacationing in El Nido with my family, the next stop was central Palawan, where we would be re-joining with Nikki and my uncle Kevin. We had a couple nights booked in resort areas north of Puerto Princesa City, and then Nikki, Kevin and I had a few more days in Puerto Princesa to dedicate to birding. Kevin and I had been to Palawan once before, on his last visit, but had missed a few birds, and of course Kevin was happy to get another chance to see the local Philippine Cockatoos.

We departed El Nido on the morning of October 19, taking a van we'd arranged through my parents' hotel. Long van rides in the Philippines are never a pleasant experience, and true to form this was 5 nauseating hours of breakneck driving and bad roads, with the driver stopping only for cigarette breaks. Our hotels were in Sabang, which is a little beach town an hour or so north of Puerto Princesa. This meant that the way to the hotel didn't go into the city, where I had to pick up a rental car and meet Kevin and Nikki at the airport. In order to save everyone even more misery on the van, I got out at an intersection in the middle of nowhere, and took a public van the rest of the way into Puerto Princesa. 

It took me long enough to get into the city that Kevin and Nikki had already arrived at the airport and picked up the rental car themselves, so we met at the local mall and had lunch before doing some last-minute shopping in Puerto Princesa and driving to Sabang. While the rest of my family was staying right on Sabang Beach, Nikki and I booked the Atremaru Jungle Resort, which was about 15 minutes away from the beach but was cheaper and had good reviews from some birder friends. It was almost sunset by the time we arrived, but we still managed some good birds: a family group of Great Slaty Woodpeckers chasing each other around the hotel grounds! Great Slaties are the largest extant woodpeckers in the world and I'd previously only managed flyby views of them, so it was great fun watching them chasing each other around tree trunks, screaming and spreading their wings.

Great Slaty Woodpecker

As night fell we had many Large-tailed Nightjars flying around and perching on exposed snags, and we heard a Palawan Frogmouth calling from deep within the forest. Both were Philippines lifers for me so I was happy, even though my external flash wasn't working so I wasn't able to get good pictures.

Large-tailed Nightjar

That evening we had dinner at my family's hotel in Sabang, which turned out to be very nice indeed, and then returned to the Atremaru to sleep. While Atremaru is in an excellent location for birding, it's remote enough that the electricity wasn't strong enough for luxuries like air conditioning, hot water, or good internet. That was a little bit annoying for a place that cost over $60 a night, and the weather was hot enough we struggled to get a good night's sleep even with two electric fans blowing on us. On the bright side, there was some nice nighttime wildlife around our room.

Philippine Toad (Ingerophrynus philippinicus)

Some kind of fuzzy tussock moth

One of the many species of green geometer moths in the Philippines (Pelagodes sp.)

Some kind of cool longhorn beetle

That morning I did some birding around the grounds of the Atremaru before heading to Sabang to spend time with family. The family of Great Slaty Woodpeckers was still there and they put on a fantastic show once again- certainly one of the best woodpeckers in the world, although there's competition even in the Philippines! The best bird of the morning was an enormous Large Hawk-cuckoo, a rare migrant to the with only a couple dozen records in the country. It was also a lifer for me, the first proper one of the trip. There were lots of other birds as well, including a very noisy Palawan Fairy-bluebird, a single gorgeous male Fiery Minivet, a Blue-naped Parrot perched outside our hotel room, and close encounters with a Pale Spiderhunter and a Rufous-tailed Tailorbird. Sulphur-bellied Bulbuls, the rarest of the Palawan bulbuls, were another nice sight and a photo-lifer for me. Just before we checked out we saw a Palawan Hornbill perched near the restaurant.

Large Hawk-cuckoo, a rare migrant to the Philippines, with most records being from Palawan

Great Slaty Woodpecker with a Palawan Crow

Sulphur-bellied Bulbul

Palawan Fairy-bluebird, sometimes still lumped with Asian Fairy-bluebird

Fiery Minivet

Blue-naped Parrot- trapped to extinction in most of the Philippines but still fairly common in Palawan.

Pale Spiderhunter, one of the weirder Palawan endemics

Rufous-tailed Tailorbird

Ameline Swiftlet, sometimes split as Palawan Swiftlet

Palawan Hornbill

Yellow-banded Awl (Hasora schoenherr)

Black Planthopper (Ricania speculum)

Ptilocera continua

Short-banded Viscount (Tanaecia aruna)

Mid-morning we checked out early from Atremaru and headed to my family's hotel along Sabang beach. In the pre-pandemic days, Sabang was one of the busiest tourism spots in Palawan, with a mix of gorgeous beaches, good hiking, and access to the famous underground river. Unfortunately, the one-two punch of Covid and Typhoon Odette, which made landfall in December 2021, has managed to really do a number on Sabang; hotels are short-staffed after two years of no business, restaurants have closed, and many of the attractions are still inaccessible. Birding-wise it's also suffered greatly, as the typhoon has downed trees over the usual trails, and bird life in general is much quieter and sparser than it was in years past. Thankfully there are new birding sites that have since opened up closer to Puerto Princesa where all of the usual birds can be seen, but it's a shame to see a once-great site decimated like this.

The original plan for the day had been to visit the subterranean river, but strong surf meant that all boat trips were canceled. Meanwhile, the trail that formerly provided access to the park by land was completely also inaccessible thanks to downed trees and landslides. Instead we decided to just have a quiet day of walking around the area. That was fine, as the Sabang area is beautiful even close to the hotel. Along with my parents and a couple of friendly stray dogs, Nikki and I enjoyed a nice walk along the beach to a rocky headland. 

Sabang Beach

We then hiked across a muddy field to a secluded lagoon, dodging carabaos along the way. This proved to be an excellent idea, as the lagoon had some surprisingly good wildlife. The first surprise was a few enormous and gorgeous Palawan Birdwings, endangered endemic butterflies that have greatly declined in number thanks to trapping by insect collectors. The second was a tiny and adorable Malaysian Plover, an uncommon Southeast Asian resident of secluded beaches that I've been looking for for years. It spent the whole time chasing around the migratory Kentish Plovers even though it was about half their size, displaying that feisty plover energy we all know and love. There were also some Barn Swallows flying low over the lagoon allowing for good photo ops, and other butterflies collecting salt from the beach along with the birdwings.

Palawan Birdwing!

Malaysian Plover on its way in to harass a Kentish Plover

(imagine this picture with screeching break sound effects)

A very feisty male Malaysian Plover

Barn Swallow

Orange Albatross (Appias nero)

Common Bluebottle (Graphium sarpedon)

Common Jay (Graphium doson)

Paper Kite (Idea leuconoe)

Female Palawan Birdwing

Some kind of well-camouflaged wolf spider

Our nice little lagoon

The rest of the day was mostly spent relaxing around Sabang. Kevin and I saw a Blue-headed Racket-tail fly over the hotel, and there was a cool Palawan Monitor and some frogs hanging out in the hotel pond. Near sunset we drove to the famous "Cockatoo Viewpoint" near Sabang, which was the best spot to see Philippine Cockatoo back in the day. Unfortunately just like the rest of the Sabang area it was totally wrecked- the trail unmaintained and trees down, with barely a view over its little valley. There were also no cockatoos to be seen or heard. It was a bit of a disappointing end to the day, although the sunset was still beautiful.

Palawan Monitor

Rice Paddy Frog

Dark-eared Tree Frog (Polypedates macrotis)

A Green Crested Lizard I assume

Sunset from the "Cockatoo" "viewpoint"

That Friday was our last day in Sabang, and most of my family's last day in the Philippines. We had a quiet morning, and then drove back to Puerto Princesa before lunchtime. We had a delicious lunch at the Kahlui Restaurant, easily one of Palawan's best restaurants, and then bid a tearful goodbye to most of my family as they flew onward to Manila, and then back to the US. Kevin and Nikki, however, stayed behind, and we had a full weekend of birding ahead of us. 

That evening we headed to the beach of Puerto Princesa City, to a site that was known for having Philippine Cockatoos. We arrived to the beach just before sunset, where a local woman informed us regretfully that this was the wrong time to see them- sunrise was apparently a much better time to do so. Just as she said that a Philippine Cockatoo flew directly over us! Walking a little bit down the beach, we happened across a huge group of them roosting in the trees by a fancy hotel, putting up a huge ruckus in the process. It was a truly amazing site, particularly given the situation of the cockatoos: once common throughout the Philippines, they were trapped into near-extinction by the wildlife trade, and have been extirpated from almost all of their former range. Palawan is the exception, though even there the population was nearly extirpated. They have since rebounded somewhat, mostly thanks to the efforts of the Katala Foundation which works with local communities to protect roosting areas and prevent wildlife trading. Though the species is still considered critically endangered, the population seems to be stable for now, and there are even efforts to reintroduce them to other parts of the country. It's a tremendous conservation success story, one of the few of its kind in the Philippines.

Philippine Cockatoos!

It was a beautiful end to our day, and it left us excited for what was to come. While Kevin and I had been to Palawan before on his previous visit to the Philippines in 2017, we had missed a few target species, mostly because of my lack of skills as a newbie birder. This time I decided to arrange a guide for our visit, since even though I'm much more confident in my birding abilities these days, it's nice to have a local along who knows the sites for some difficult species. We ended up hiring Randy Tibor, who some of my birding friends had gone out with before and recommended. The recommendations proved to be accurate: Randy is a really excellent guide, familiar with the calls of all the resident and endemic birds, as well as their usual habits. Most impressive is his ability to perfectly mimic the calls of most of the birds through whistling, a skill I've never encountered before in a guide and which served us very well that day.

We met Randy at our hotel before sunrise on Saturday, and proceeded to the Napsan road, our primary destination for the day. The Napsan road is a relatively new birding site, having been opened a few years before the pandemic as a route from Puerto Princesa to the little town of Napsan on Palawan's sparsely-populated northwestern coast. It goes through a beautiful area of forest, and is increasingly popular among visiting birders. Our first stop was a small clearing in scrubby forest near the start of the road, where Randy had recently had one of our primary targets, Falcated Wren-babbler. There were no babblers, despite Randy's hard work in searching, but we had a few other good birds, including a Blue-naped Parrot, a beautiful Spot-throated Flameback, our only Chestnut-breasted Malkoha of the day, an Ashy Drongo, a couple of Bar-bellied Cuckooshrikes, and great looks at an endemic Yellow-throated Leafbird, much more common and showy than its cousin in Mindanao. 

Spot-throated Flameback, the much more common of the two Palawan-endemic flamebacks

Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike, found throughout the Philippines although likely to be split into a few different species

Ashy Drongo, resident only in Palawan and a vagrant to the rest of the Philippines

Plaintive Cuckoo- usually only heard and rarely seen out in the open up close.

Yellow-throated Leafbird, one of the best-looking Palawan endemics

Preening Yellow-throated Leafbird

A kilometer or so down the road, we got to an area of deeper forest next to a small village of indigenous peoples. This was the best spot Randy knew of for Mangrove Whistler and Falcated Wren-babbler, two of our biggest targets, and sure enough just about as soon as we got out of the car and into the forest we could hear both of them calling. Randy was able to whistle in a Mangrove Whistler, which showed and gave us brief views, and we then went a little further into try for the wren-babbler. The babblers are famous for having extremely aggressive responses to calls, so Randy had us sit a little bit back from the trail while he arranged some branches for the bird to perch on. Sure enough, shortly after he started whistling a Falcated Wren-babbler popped out of the bushes and onto the branch. Annoyingly, it flew off before we could get a picture. We spent the next half hour trying to get a look at the wren-babblers, and while we had multiple singing birds they never perched properly for a picture, and only Nikki was able to get a record shot. I was a little disappointed as everyone else who tries for them seems to get amazing photos, but I was still happy to finally see this bird, which I had tried for very hard on my last visit to Palawan and never even heard. We also saw Blue Paradise-flycatchers and several Palawan Blue Flycatchers, but never managed decent photos. 

The Napsan road

Further down the road, we stopped at a little hot spring resort, where there was a small flock of Palawan Hornbills. We got out and walked around outside the resort, which was full of birdlife despite being unimpressive scrubby forest. Aside from the hornbills we had several Grey-streaked Flycatchers, one of the most common migrant birds to the Philippines, and more surprisingly a pair of Blue-and-white Flycatchers, which was an unexpected Philippines lifer for me. There were also a few beautiful Common Hill Mynas and a pretty little Palawan Flowerpecker.

Grey-streaked Flycatcher

Female Blue-and-white Flycatcher

Male Blue-and-white Flycatcher; annoyed not to have gotten better pictures since he was beautiful

Common Hill Myna

Palawan Flowerpecker

Palawan Hornbill

The road went uphill from the resort, and we entered another area of deep forest, which proved to have the best birds of the day. Soon after getting out of the car we saw a very distant soaring Crested Serpent Eagle, and later a Changeable Hawk-eagle, both of which are uncommon Palawan residents. We had great looks at a flock of beautiful Fiery Minivets, and quicker looks at a Velvet-fronted Nuthatch and Palawan Fairy-bluebird. 

Fiery Minivet

Glipa malaccana, a cool flower beetle

Napsan Road scenery

It was here that we saw the best bird of the day. As I was trying to get a picture of an Asian Brown Flycatcher, a rare (but boring) migrant to the Philippines, I heard wingbeats behind me and looked back to see a group of Red-headed Flamebacks in a tree across the road! Palawan is unique in the Philippines for having not one but two species of endemic flamebacks, and Red-headed is by far the best-looking and rarest of them, being a frequent miss by visiting birders. I'd heard it before but never seen it, so this felt like a lifer all over again, especially as we ended up getting spectacular views of multiple birds at the same time. Certainly one of the best woodpeckers in the Philippines, second only to Yellow-faced Flameback.

Female Red-headed Flameback

Male Red-headed Flameback

As we were photographing the flamebacks, Randy pointed out to us a pair of Blue-headed Racket-tails in a nearby tree, which I was able to get a record shot of before they disappeared into the foliage; this can be another tough bird to see properly, and it was my first time to photograph it. As we walked back to the car, Randy mentioned that two of the birds that he hadn't found yet on the Napsan road were Melodious Babbler and Palawan Flycatcher, two more difficult endemics. He experimentally whistled the song of both of them, and to all of our surprise a Melodious Babbler instantly responded, shooting out of the foliage and displaying in a bush next to us. It was another photo-lifer for me, and a new site for the bird which Randy was excited about.

Blue-headed Racket-tail

Melodious Babbler- true to its name it has a beautiful, lilting song

Jungle Jade Swallowtail (Papilio karna)

We got back in the car and started heading back down the road. We stopped along the way for a couple of Palawan Hornbills perched next to the road, and again for a perched Stork-billed Kingfisher, which I annoyingly didn't manage to photograph. We stopped once again at the Falcated Wren-babbler spot to try again for pictures, which we still annoyingly failed at. We did on the other hand get great looks at a Mangrove Whistler, some of the only pictures of the Palawan subspecies of this bird, which might eventually be split to become yet another endemic species. There was also another flock of Fiery Minivets, lots of gorgeous butterflies, and a cool little scorpion we narrowly avoided sitting on.

Palawan Hornbill

Mangrove Whistler, perhaps eventually to be known as Palawan Whistler

Blue Paradise-flycatcher, another great Palawan endemic

Dwarf Wood Scorpion (Liocheles australasiae)

Clipper (Parthenos sylvia)

Common Posy (Drupadia ravindra)

Harlequin (Taxila haquinus)

Knight (Labadea martha)

Napsan had been a roaring success, but we still had a few targets that were difficult or unknown from there. For that Randy brought us to the Zigzag road, a nice and (obviously) twisty road winding its way through a good bit of forest south of the Napsan road. This had been one of my favorite birding spots in my last visit, so I was excited to go back even if it was late afternoon by then, and thus hot and quiet. At the highest point of the road we spent some time peering into deep tangles of bamboo, and were eventually rewarded with good but brief looks at Palawan Flycatcher, another tricky endemic. Kevin and I had gotten great looks at it on our first visit, but it was nice to see it again and add it to my year list.

Further down the Zigzag road we had amazing looks at a flock of Palawan Tits, as well as a feeding Sulphur-bellied Bulbul, a showy Blue-naped Parrot, an immature Blue Rock Thrush, and a distant Square-tailed Drongo-cuckoo. Just before sunset we saw a Philippine Cuckoo-dove and a perched Black-chinned Fruit Dove.

Sulphur-bellied Bulbul

Blue Rock Thrush

Square-tailed Drongo-cuckoo, which is replaced by Philippine Drongo-cuckoo in the rest of the Philippines

Palawan Tit

Blue-naped Parrot

Black-chinned Fruit Dove, the least interesting fruit dove in the Philippines.

After the sun set, we started to look for night birds. The first bird calling was a Palawan Frogmouth, which we never managed to get a look at. Spotted Wood Owl also called, but was also still a heard only bird. With a bit of work we managed to get great looks at a Palawan Scops-owl, my second-to-last remaining Palawan endemic and one I was especially happy to get a good look at. However, the best bird was totally unexpected: a roosting Red-legged Crake I spotted with my thermal scope. These are extremely rare resident birds, and definitely not something I expected to see on this trip, if ever.

Palawan Scops-owl

Red-legged Crake!

Our last stop of the day was the Puerto Princesa City Hall, where Randy knew a reliable spot for Palawan Frogmouth. Sure enough he was soon able to spotlight one and we got great looks at this extremely weird endemic, one that had been on my wants list for a long time. We bid our goodbyes to Randy with profuse thanks, and finally returned to the hotel after more than 12 straight hours of birding.

Palawan Frogmouth

We had another half day in Palawan after this before Nikki and I had to go back to Manila for work, so we decided to spend our Sunday morning trying for the few targets we didn't have yet. First, though, Kevin wanted some more cockatoo time (understandably), so we headed to the beach at sunrise and were treated to yet another great show of dozens of Philippine Cockatoos on the mangroves, squawking and chasing each other around. Surprisingly there was also a single Pied Imperial-Pigeon mixed in with the cockatoos, one of my favorite pigeons and great to get another look at.

Philippine Cockatoos

Pied Imperial Pigeon

The mangroves

Our next stop was the Puerto Princesa Crocodile Farm, a weird little local government-run facility that's a mix of crocodile farm, wildlife rescue, and small forest park. For birders it's most notable as the only currently reliable spot for Palawan Peacock-pheasant, after the famous male bird that hung out in the Underground River passed away a few years back. Nowadays, another male bird has started hanging out in the wildlife rescue, preferring to hang out around the enclosures of rescued birds (presumably to taunt them). That male is of dubious origin and may not be tickable, but he has paired off with a local female bird and now has some wild-hatched chicks, meaning that the birds there can still be considered marginally "wild". Still not the most satisfying way to see a rare and endangered endemic, but an eBird tick is an eBird tick.

We arrived at the crocodile farm before 7AM, but the guards were happy to let us in once we told them we were birdwatchers. Unfortunately the male bird was nowhere to be seen, but we did have good looks at a few female Palawan Peacock-pheasants in the small forest area. There were also a few Palawan Hornbills hanging out in the area, perhaps also released rescue birds but still nice to see.

Palawan Peacock-pheasant- surely this is a wild bird!

Palawan Hornbill

Great Yellow Mormon Swallowtail (Papilio lowii)

Our final stop before we needed to check out of our hotel and head to the airport was the Badjao Seafront Restaurant, a cool place located at the end of a boardwalk through mangrove forest. Though I've eaten at the restaurant many times before (highly recommended), the purpose this time was birding, specifically the Copper-throated Sunbird that is resident in the mangroves by the restaurant. It took a bit of searching but we finally had excellent views at a gorgeous male.

Copper-throated Sunbird, another Southeast Asian bird whose range stops in Palawan.

With that successful end to a very, very successful birding trip in Palawan, Nikki and I bid goodbye to Kevin and headed to the airport to fly back to Manila. I'd managed to see all of my remaining Palawan endemics (with the exception of Palawan Striped Babbler, which requires a multi-day hike to see), and to add a few other unexpected lifers along the way. It was a reminder of how much fun birding in Palawan was as well- a mix of friendly birds, gorgeous endemics, and easily-accessible birding sites. I'm already looking forward to my return trip, when a camping trip for a certain babbler will likely be in order...