Good Old Subic

 

After a whirlwind two days in the Sierra Madre, the next stop of the mega Philippines trip with Doug and Andrew was another Luzon classic: the rainforests of Subic Bay. While all these spots are theoretically the same habitat (Luzon lowland forest), the suite of birds is surprisingly different, with only a few species being found in both spots. As if there wasn't enough endemism in the Philippines already, there are surprisingly stark differences between the wet, hilly forests of eastern Luzon and the flatter, drier forests of the west. Thus, it made sense to add this to our packed itinerary as the second (and last) stop in Luzon.

I'd been to Subic several times before, most recently in December of 2022, so I was pretty familiar with the area, and how to find the major targets. I also knew the best spots to eat and, even more importantly, where the annoying Subic cops hang out trying to extort bribes from unsuspecting tourists. Between accessible roads, relatively plentiful birds, and good habitat Subic is one of the easiest places in the Philippines to bird, annoying cops aside, so I was optimistic.

We didn't arrive until late in the evening of February 5, and had time for nothing except checking into our hotel in the Cubi neighborhood. Since there were three of us this time, I had opted to reserve at the Emerald Manor hotel. This allowed us easy access to the otherwise-restricted neighborhood, and also the best chance at Philippine Eagle-Owl. The latter proved to be unnecessary as we had crushing views of one just that evening in Rizal, but it was also the hotel nearest to the real birding site, so I was glad to have ended up there. 

The morning of March 6, we ventured out to the Nabasan Trail, which had held the most productive birding of my last visit. It started out a bit quiet, with only a distant White-bellied Woodpecker, but things got more interesting with good looks at a female Northern Sooty Woodpecker, flybys from Luzon Flameback and Green Racket-tail, a nicely perched Blue-naped Parrot, a vocal but typically skulking flock of Rufous Coucals with a single Rough-crested Malkoha mixed in, and after a bit of searching a displaying male Blackish Cuckooshrike. And just like that we had seen all of the Subic targets!

Female Northern Sooty Woodpecker

Blue-naped Parrot

Blackish Cuckooshrike

Some kind of cute jumping spider (Chalcotropis sp.)

We kept birding, of course; even with no more realistic targets, Subic is just a very enjoyable spot to bird. It continued to deliver, with a nice look at a Coleto bringing sticks into its nest cavity, much better looks at Luzon Flameback and Philippine Falconet than we'd had earlier, and the same flock of Rufous Coucals crossing the road, allowing me to squeeze off a single clear record shot. Doug and Andrew got their first looks at hornbills in the form of a few Luzon Hornbills, and I amused myself with the local butterflies and other bugs, including some lifers. 

Coleto nest building

Luzon Flameback

Philippine Falconet, consistently the cutest raptor in the Philippines

Record shot of a Rufous Coucal

Arhopala eridanus, a beautiful endemic hairstreak

Smooth-eyed Bushbrown

Southern Sunbeam (Curetis tagalica), another rare endemic

Chalky Percher

Grey Glassy Tiger

Common Tit isn't rare and isn't endemic, but it is very good looking

Some kind of cool planthopper on our rental car

The Nabasan Trail

That afternoon, Andrew and Doug did some birding around Cubi while I had to stay back at the hotel and work. Just before sunset I picked them up at the very impressive fruit bat colony and we headed back to the Nabasan Trail for some owling. If you count heard-only birds it was an excellent night, with calling Philippine Scops Owl, Luzon Hawk-owl, Chocolate Boobook, Philippine Nightjar, and Great Eared Nightjar. If you don't then it was an almost complete bust, with the only seen owl being a quick glimpse of a Chocolate Boobook. Thankfully it wasn't our last chance for most of these except the scops, which is easy in other places for Andrew and Doug's inevitable next visit. 

Tuesday morning we only had a few hours of birding before we had to be on our way to Manila for our flight to the next island. We headed to the Hill 395 road, which had previously been the only spot in Subic where White-fronted Tit and White-lored Oriole could be seen. Unfortunately both the tit and the oriole have become extremely rare in Subic these days at the same time that access to the restricted area of Hill 395 has become virtually impossible for birders. There haven't been records of either since 2018 outside the restricted area, but the publicly accessible road still has great birding. That was still the case this time, and it proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable morning. 

The morning was defined by good birds flying across the road, and indeed that's how we saw most everything of interest. It started with a pair of perched Philippine Green Pigeons and many flyover Green Imperial Pigeons and Rufous-crowned Bee-eaters, then got spicier with Blue-naped Parrots, Blackish Cuckooshrikes, and Bar-bellied Cuckooshrikes. A Green Racket-tail ended up perching right next to the road, giving us unusually good views of this very rare and localized endemic. 

Philippine Green Pigeon

Green Imperial Pigeon

Blue-naped Parrot

Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike

Green Racket-tail

The highlight of the morning, however, was an enormous flock of at least 30 Rough-crested Malkohas (along with a couple of Rufous Coucals) that spent an hour or so flying back and forth across the road right in front of us. The malkohas are already one of my favorite endemics, but seeing them in an enormous flock like this was something else entirely, particularly as they glided from tree to tree like Cretaceous dinosaurs evolving flight for the first time. Photographing them was just as difficult as it always, but I was able to get a few acceptable malkoha-in-flight pictures for the first time. 

Rough-crested Malkoha- just a ridiculous flying muppet of a bird

Rufous Coucal

As we headed back to the car we had good looks at a Stripe-headed Rhabdornis feeding on flowers as well as another Luzon Flameback. That was all we had time for, as we had to get back in the car and head to breakfast before heading back to Manila.

Luzon Flameback

Stripe-headed Rhabdornis

The original plan had been to stop at the famous Total gas station along the North Luzon Expressway on the way up to Subic to look for Philippine Swamphen, as it's on the northbound side. Instead, we had so much fun birding in Palo Alto that we made the drive up in the dark. We still had to see the swamphen of course, which annoyingly enough meant having to drive an extra 40 kilometers or so up and down NLEX, since exits are few and far between. Still, it was worth it as soon after getting out of the car we were able to get the scope on a Philippine Swamphen, my first good look at this endemic in years. I'm not sure what their fate is going to be now that the mysterious Black-backed (or maybe Australasian) Swamphens that started colonizing Mindanao about 10 years ago have now reached Luzon. Hopefully this nice endemic will continue to thrive rather than being outcompeted or interbred into extinction.

Philippine Swamphen

The rest of the drive to the airport was easy, even getting through Manila thanks to the new expressway. That's the joy of Manila's design- the lucky few who can afford nice cars and expressway passes get to cruise through unimpeded, literally on top of the poor and middle class who have to suffer through the mind-numbing traffic and awful public transportation. I'm sure that's by design! The injustices of late capitalism aside, it did mean that we made it to our flight on time, so who's to say if it's bad or not. 

Samar was a whole 'nother adventure, but that will have to wait for the next blog... once I've actually edited those pictures!