Kitanglad's Finest

 

After birding in Negros, Doug, Andrew and I flew to Cebu where we had a brief overnight layover and then flew onwards to Cagayan de Oro City in northern Mindanao. This was to be the first stop on Mindanao, which was actually the longest leg of Doug and Andrew's Philippines journey, taking up 10 days of the month-long trip. This is partly because Mindanao has the most (and some of the best) endemics of any island in the Philippines, and partly because as a former resident of Mindanao I was more familiar with the sites there and excited to show them to newcomers. 

The plan was to take the first flight of the day to CDO and arrive in the early morning, with enough time to head to Mapawa Nature Park south of the city for a bit of birding before continuing on to Mount Kitanglad. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans: we boarded the plane, made it out to the tarmac, and were promptly turned around and ushered out of the airplane as the flight was abruptly canceled due to "technical issues". I suppose a canceled flight is better than the plane breaking apart in mid-air or something, and the Cebu airport is just about the only airport in the country I don't mind being stranded in, but it was still frustrating to lose the best birding hours of the day. 

We finally arrived in CDO late morning, where we were picked up by a driver I'd hired earlier. We immediately headed to Mapawa Nature Park, arriving there around 11 in the morning. Mapawa is best known to birders as being an unusually good spot to see Southern Philippine Dwarf Kingfisher, in part because it has good habitat for them but mostly because the local guide Dodong has become very good at spotting them and their nesting areas. It's probably the best place in the Philippines to see the dwarf kingfisher, so obviously it was worth a stop. 

Unfortunately Dodong himself was busy on the day we stopped by Mapawa, so he instead set us up with his brother Ramil who also knew where to find the kingfishers. Ramil met us at the gate to Mapawa and took us to the kingfisher nesting site, a hole in an old termite nest. We spent half an hour or so waiting by the nest for the kingfisher to visit it or exit it, but there was no activity at all. To our annoyance, Ramil then walked directly up to the nest, which of course flushed the Philippine Dwarf Kingfisher out of the nest. It flew over our heads and away, never to return. We spent some more time waiting at a safer distance, but it never came back while we were there. 

Giving the kingfisher a break, we walked along the road looking for Philippine Pitta, which Ramil said had a territory there. Unfortunately he also apparently didn't know the difference between Philippine Pitta and Hooded Pitta, which was what we saw. Of course any pitta is nice, but this was our best chance for Philippine Pitta on the trip so it was frustrating our guide didn't know where to find them. We went down the hill to the river area where the kingfisher sometimes could also be found, and while we didn't see that, we did get a quick glimpse of a Southern Silvery Kingfisher flying downstream, though only Andrew and I were able to get on it. On the way back up we did get a good look at a Black-chinned Fruit Dove, which was nice.

Hooded Pitta

Black-chinned Fruit Dove

Petavia petavius, a nice butterfly moth

Some kind of geometer moth (Acropteris sp.)

Dysdercus poecilus, a cool cotton stainer bug

It was a bit frustrating to only get fleeting views of our main target at Mapawa, especially since I'm sure we would have properly seen it if our flight hadn't been delayed or if Dodong had been available. Still, it was another bird for the trip list so I suppose it could be worse. After Mapawa we headed back to CDO for some rest at a transient hotel and to do some last-minute gear shopping, then started the 3-hour drive south to Mount Kitanglad, our first major Mindanao destination.

When birding tours go to Mindanao, they virtually always visit the "Del Monte Lodge" on Mount Kitanglad. While that may conjure images of a fancy birding lodge, it's somewhat of a misnomer- it's actually a wooden shack on the side of a mountain with no running water or electricity, where birders generally sleep in tents because the house is too dodgy. It's also only named "Del Monte" because it's on the edge of a pineapple plantation, but it has no association with the fruit company or its fancy country club nearby. You do, however, pay fancy birding lodge prices: when I inquired about a visit, I was quoted a price of over $200 per person per day for a brief visit. That was far outside our budgets and not really reasonable for the privilege of hiking all day to squint at a Philippine Eagle a kilometer away in the spotting scope, so we decided to give it a pass.

(Once again, I'm being unfair here; it's apparently excellent birding at Del Monte and Carlito the local guide and his family have a reputation for a well-run operation and quite possibly the best chance at Philippine Eagle anywhere in the world. Still, it wasn't really within the budget of a few independent birders wanting to keep things affordable)

With the Del Monte Lodge off the table, we had to figure out backup options. I instead decided to arrange a hike up the Intavas Trail, an alternative route up Mount Kitanglad that was well-known among bird photographers but seldom visited by birders. I got in touch with Marlon Sayoron, the local guide, and arranged a visit of a couple days for us to climb the mountain and look for our high-elevation Mindanao targets. For Doug and Andrew that was basically everything as this was a totally new biogeographic realm for them, whereas for me I had only a couple: a glimpse at the mysterious Mindanao Serin if we were very lucky, or even better a look at the elusive, possibly mythical Apo Myna that I had dipped on repeatedly in the past. Rumour had it that it was easy there, but I wasn't convinced. 

We finally arrived at Marlon's house in the little indigenous village of Intavas around 9 in the evening, after being stuck for almost an hour in an enormous traffic jam. We tipped our long-suffering driver generously and sent him on his way back to CDO, while we settled in at Marlon's house. We would have been happy to stay in any cheap lodging house in the area, but Marlon very generously let us sleep at his house, giving us spare sleeping pads and blankets, and making food for us the whole time while he was at it. It was amazing and totally unexpected hospitality, and one of the reasons why Intavas was one of our favorite parts of the trip. 

The next morning the plan was to start the hike up Kitanglad early so we could spend some time in the woods and get up to high elevation. I woke up at 4AM ready to go and started having my caffeine, but just as I woke up the rain started... and kept going. In fact, it rained torrentially for the next three hours, leaving us with nothing to do but hang out at Marlon's house until a break in the weather. Andrew and Doug got some more sleep, while I worked on processing pictures since I'd already had my morning caffeine and couldn't sleep.

A rainy morning in Intavas village

Finally at 7:30 the rain let up enough for us to start heading up the mountain. Intavas is a popular trail for bird photographers since it's the highest one can get on Mount Kitanglad via car- up to about 1600 meters above sea level if you have a proper 4x4. Marlon drove us as far as he could get up the muddy dirt road in his little Honda sedan (which was much farther than the car was probably designed to go), and we walked the rest of the way up to where some bits of remaining forest started to be interspersed among the vegetable and flower farms. While it wasn't pouring rain anymore, it was still damp, and the rain continued in bursts throughout the day, leaving us nice and wet by the end of it. Annoyingly it was so wet that some moisture ended up getting inside my camera lens and remaining there for days before I could finally leave it with some silica gel, leaving all my photos from Bukidnon with some slight fogginess. 

The start of the Intavas trail- the comms towers at the top of the trail can be seen at upper right

Marlon stopped us at a small sunflower field, where he said White-cheeked Bullfinches had been feeding recently. We spent several minutes scanning fruitlessly until we finally spotted a small flock in a bush right below us! We descended into the flower field and ended up getting a series of amazing close-up views of dozens of White-cheeked Bullfinches as they fed right in front of us! They're normally one of the more difficult of the high-elevation Mindanao endemic, usually only being heard calling from the high canopy, but with these sunflowers in bloom they were happy to feed right down at eye level, practically ignoring us. Certainly the best looks I've ever had of this species, and we got some of the best pictures ever taken to boot.

White-cheeked Bullfinch!

Warbling White-eyes weren't nearly as exciting, but it was a new zosterop for the trip so there's that

Satisfied with our views of the bullfinches, we continued upward. We ran into a small mixed flock that included Grey-hooded Sunbird, Turquoise Flycatcher, and a single Mindanao White-eye, but it passed through too quickly for pictures. There were dozens- perhaps even hundreds- of migratory Eyebrowed Thrushes flying around everywhere, by far the most I'd ever seen of this species, though they were very tough to photograph. Finally, Marlon pointed out a bird perched on a distant snag- Apo Myna! It flew off before I could get a picture, but I was thrilled to finally prove that this bird exists, after dipping on it repeatedly. Of course, the pictures in this blog could just be of a bunch of aberrant Coletos- skeptics will have to go to Intavas to see for themselves!

We stopped at a clearing near the forest edge that proved to be excellent for birds- dozens of Eyebrowed Thrushes, mixed flock birds like Turquoise Flycatcher, Sulphur-billed Nuthatch, Negros Leaf Warbler, and even more White-cheeked Bullfinches feeding in another patch of sunflowers. A flock of Mindanao Racket-tails flew in and, to my surprise, actually perched briefly in the open, allowing us to get record shots of this extremely difficult-to-photograph birds. My favorite, though, were the Apo Mynas flying all around the clearing, chasing each other and performing all sorts of antics on the bare branches. They're incredibly weird, goofy birds with their bright yellow faces, unruly crests, and long tails that wave in every direction when they're perched. They might actually be one of my favorite endemics now that I've actually seen them.

Apo Myna! Such amazing birds

Eyebrowed Thrush

Mindanao Racket-tail! A very rarely photographed species

White-cheeked Bullfinch

Birding the Intavas trail- the apparel should give you an idea of the weather

We continued further upwards until we got to the actual trailhead of the Intavas trail. It was mid-afternoon by then and the forest was pretty quiet, so we didn't get much else besides a beautiful (but distant) male Fire-throated Flowerpecker and a Rufous-bellied Eagle soaring overhead. On the way back down we had a beautiful perched Long-tailed Shrike, a mixed flock with much better views of Turquoise Flycatcher and Little Pied Flycatcher, and an extremely cooperative male Grey-hooded Sunbird.

Fire-throated Flowerpecker

Long-tailed Shrike

Turquoise Flycatcher

Male Little Pied Flycatcher

Grey-hooded Sunbird- definitely not the best-looking endemic sunbird, but still nice to connect with

More Apo Mynas being goofy

Mueller's Stream Toad, a Mindanao endemic herp

Ropalidia nigrescens, a nice endemic wasp

When we got down to the village for a late lunch, and found it full of people and loud music. As it turned out it was the local datu's birthday, which meant that it was a party for the whole village. We had our lunch and then I spent some time socializing with the villagers. A random amerikano who speaks Bisaya is always cause for interest, so I was soon surrounded by people wanting to talk, take selfies, and see how I can handle my hard liquor (quite well, thank you very much). I'm sure I showed up on several dozen Facebook profiles after it. We were supposed to do a tribal ceremony before climbing higher on the mountain the next day, but it wasn't possible since the datu was too busy singing karaoke and singing Emperador Lite- fair enough. Marlon told us it was alright to do the ceremony after we hiked down, so instead we just enjoyed the festivities.

One of many pics that ended up on Facebook

That night we headed back up the trail to look for night birds. The most interesting bird was a Bukidnon Woodcock that flushed from the road while we were on the way up, but unfortunately only Andrew and I saw it, as Doug was on a motorcycle further downhill. On the trail, we heard a Mindanao Scops Owl calling very distantly, but it never came near us.

The next day, we headed back up the trail, where the mission was to get to the very high elevation forest in search of Apo Sunbird and, ideally, Mindanao Serin. Unlike the previous day it was a beautiful, clear morning, and birding was much better from the start. Once we entered the woods we had a mixed flock with the usual birds but with the addition of a couple Mugimaki Flyatchers, a long-overdue Philippines lifer for me. 

Eyebrowed Thrush

Mugimaki Flycatcher

Sunrise on Mount Kitanglad

As we were walking toward the official trailhead, Marlon suddenly stopped, and asked me to play the call for Goodfellow's Jungle Flycatcher. I did so, and after a minute or so of tape a Goodfellow's Jungle Flycatcher suddenly appeared out of the woods! It did two circles around us, constantly moving and not allowing for any pictures, before disappearing and never being seen again. Marlon had seen a bird flying out the corner of his eye and correctly guessed the ID- a very impressive bit of guiding, and one that gave us one of the most difficult and most sought-after of all Philippine endemics! I was annoyed to have (barely) missed getting a picture of it, since I care about my photo life list at least as much as I care about my "seen" list, but it was still an amazing bird for the trip list and the first time I'd properly seen one after a frustrating near miss last year.

We started hiking the real Intavas Trail, which goes up to a set of cell towers on one of the sub-peaks of Mount Kitanglad. Since it's meant to be used by technicians and repair people as well as hikers it's probably the easiest and best-maintained of Kitanglad's trails, with a wide path and some metal staircases going up the steepest bits. That's just fine with me, as I'd rather worry more about seeing birds than keeping my footing on a narrow or slippery trail. Along the trail we were able to successfully tape in a very confiding Long-tailed Ground Warbler and a nice Rufous-headed Tailorbird, although the condensation inside my camera lens made focusing extremely difficult. 

Long-tailed Ground Warbler

Rufous-headed Tailorbird

After about a kilometer of hiking we reached a shelter where we had our breakfast and did some more birding. There was a big group of Apo Mynas feeding on flowering trees, and we had a huge mixed come through that included Black-and-Cinnamon Fantails, Mindanao White-eyes, Negros Leaf-warblers, Little Pied Flycatchers, and Yellow-bellied Whistlers.

God I love Apo Mynas

Black-and-Cinnamon Fantail

Mindanao White-eye

Negros Leaf Warbler

Yellow-bellied Whistler

Agalmyla glabra, a nice endemic trumpet vine

We continued further up, aiming to get to the elevation where Apo Sunbird can be seen. The central mountains of Mindanao are the only place with two sympatric mountain sunbirds, with Grey-hooded Sunbird being found from about 1200-1800 meters above sea level, and Apo Sunbird mostly only above that. Grey-hooded is bigger and more aggressive than Apo Sunbird, and unfortunately seems to be expanding its range upwards (perhaps related to climate change), meaning that Apo Sunbird keeps getting higher and harder to find. 10 years or so ago they were possible anywhere 1500masl or so up, but these days one needs to go 1900masl or higher to find them. 

Finally, we got to a little patch of flowers that the Apo Sunbird had been feeding on, and sat and waited for them. It took a while, but finally a small group of Apo Sunbirds came through, allowing us to get record shots. Another mixed flock came through, with the usual Black-and-Cinnamon Fantails, Negros Leaf Warblers, Turquoise Flycatchers, and this time a beautiful McGregor's Cuckooshrike, though they stayed in the canopy and didn't allow for any pictures. 

Apo Sunbird

We could have turned around there, as we'd already seen all our realistic Kitanglad targets, but we decided to keep going up toward the mossy forest, in hopes of getting better looks at the sunbird and perhaps a Mindanao Serin or two. The trees got shorter and mossier as we went upwards, and we found ourselves walking thorough the middle of a cloud, which was a shame as we'd been hoping to skywatch for Philippine Eagle. Unfortunately we didn't end up with any serins, a bird that remains one of the most mysterious endemics, with only a handful of records from the last 20 years or so. There's no data about their food or preferred habitat, but we began to suspect that they're on the treeline at the highest elevation, only occasionally straying lower for flowering or fruiting trees. 

While there were no serins, we did end up getting much better looks at Apo Sunbird, which in fact proved to be quite common at the right altitude, even more so than Grey-hooded Sunbird. Bird diversity was low at this elevation, but we did get great looks at more Mindanao White-eyes, Black-and-Cinnamon Fantails, and the Kitanglad-endemic subspecies of Island Thrush. 

The katanglad subspecies of Island Thrush, one of approximately two million distinctive subspecies

Apo Sunbird

Mindanao "White-eye", one of the least accurate bird names ever

Black-and-Cinnamon Fantail, one of my favorite Mindanao endemics

Some kind of cool froghopper (Gymnogyplax sp.)

Just hanging out in a fog bank

Unfortunately we still had to get back down to the village for the ceremony and then to Cinchona Forest Preserve for our next stop that day, so we had to turn around at midday and start the hike down. If I go back to Intavas (which I very much hope I do), I'll certainly try and camp at high elevation to be able to get up to the treeline and spend the whole day looking for the serin- at this point my last remaining Mindanao endemic besides Zamboanga Bulbul!

We stopped at the shelter on the way down for lunch, and in the process Marlon heard the whisper song of a Mountain Shrike, which we soon located on a vine-covered tree. This was my first time seeing the Mindanao subspecies, which is much more difficult than the birds in Luzon, and we were able to get some of the only pictures of the subspecies to boot. Amazingly, this was only the third or fourth-best bird of the day! Further down we got good looks at a beautiful Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove.

Mountain Shrike looks somewhat less cute when you can see the fangs in the bill, perfect for ripping apart lizards, mice and songbirds.

Mindanao Mountain Shrike! 

Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove

Back at the village, we met with the datu and other tribal leaders for the ceremony necessary for entering the sacred land along the Intavas trail. We were supposed to have done so earlier, so the datu said part of the ceremony involved apologizing to the spirits for the late sacrifice. The mountain spirits seemed not to mind given the good weather and successful birding, but I suppose it's good to say sorry anyway. I had done the ceremony once before when I climbed Mount Dulang-Dulang, so I knew it involved paying 2,000 pesos and making an offering of a live chicken, along with ginger and cigarettes. However, sometime in the past 5 years the spirits of Mount Kitanglad had apparently communicated to the DENR that they wanted more money and more chickens, so an ordinance was passed saying that the ceremony now needs 3,000 pesos and three chickens. On top of that, the datu asked for a further 2,000 pesos for supplies, which is definitely not what it costs to get a pack of cigarettes, some ginger and a few chickens. That was a little annoying (and Marlon said that the 2,000 pesos was definitely not part of the usual deal), but honestly the indigenous peoples of Mindanao have been colonized and exploited for the past 300 years so I suppose it's only fair that they do some exploitation of their own now. And while I don't know if 5,000 pesos is really necessary, I also definitely want to honor sacred ground wherever I go.

The ceremony was carried out, the chickens were sacrificed, and we left Intavas and headed toward Cinchona, our next stop. Marlon once again went above and beyond what we expected, and volunteered to drive us all the way to Cinchona, a 2-hour drive. We were happy to accept as it was early evening by then. We arrived to Cinchona around 9 in the evening, and had time only to greet Blackie the guide before we settled in and went to bed. 

Cinchona Forest Reserve is known among birders as the cheapest and most accessible part of the Mount Kitanglad National Park, and with Blackie the local park ranger knowing birds and always happy to guide birders, it's a common stop for the few birders who decide to do Mindanao independently. Once every three or four years it's also home to an extremely accessible Philippine Eagle nest, where birders can get ridiculously good looks at a usually-difficult bird, much better and far cheaper than an equivalent visit to Del Monte. I did this back in 2018, and many birder friends of mine did so in late 2022 when the local pair of eagles raised another chick. By now the chick was long fledged, but Blackie said that it was still possible to see Philippine Eagle from the raptor watch point. Since we didn't have Del Monte Lodge money, this was the next-best option, so I just had to hope that an eagle showed up.

We spent the night in the famous "White House" of Cinchona Forest Reserve. Unlike Del Monte Lodge it's accurately named, as it really is a big white house. That's about all I can say for it, as it has no beds or blankets, unreliable electricity, and a toilet that doesn't flush. Still, it's free to stay in and we weren't going to complain about cheap accommodation. My favorite bit of it is that it's a magnet for moths, and I was able to add a few species to my moth list that night. 

Eoophyla sp.

Sacada sp.

Placosaris leucula

Philippine Duffer

Cyme sp., I think

Amraica sp., I think

Maxates elegante

Chrysaeglia perpendicularis

Oreta sp., I think

Amblychia sp.

Lymantria lunulata, I think

Orientopsaltria inermis, an endemic cicada

Heteronaias heterodoxa, an endemic forest dragonfly

The next morning, we left bright and early to head to the raptor watch point. The walk took us along a road through the forest preserve, which was full of activity even though it was mostly introduced Cinchona trees, planted to produce quinine back in the Spanish era. Hair-crested Drongos and Brown Tit-Babblers were all over, but the best was great looks at a stunning male Philippine Trogon- the first male bird of the trip. 

Philippine Trogon

We arrived at the raptor watchpoint around 8 in the morning, and immediately set up my scope and started scanning. The watchpoint was really just an exposed hill just below the forest edge, with a panoramic view of the southeastern flanks of Mount Kitanglad. Philippine Eagles are stupidly rare, but at least they're nice enough to soar conspicuously unlike some other large forest raptors like Harpy Eagle. We just had to hope we would luck into one. We spent almost an hour scanning as the morning got hotter, taking turns with the scope and looking at the slopes with our binoculars. While no Philippine Eagle came by, we did get a number of other good raptors, including Crested Goshawk, Peregrine Falcon, Oriental Honey-Buzzard, and many Brahminy Kites, all of which got us briefly excited before we got better looks. Striated Grassbirds, Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, and Pied Bushchats were singing and flying around us the whole time.

Andrew scanning for eagles

This whole time Blackie had been mostly quiet, happy to sit a bit away and smoke a cigarette while we scanned for raptors. Eventually, he stood up, walked casually up to us and asked to look in my scope. He pointed it at a distant tree and said simply "Eagle". I returned to the scope and sure enough: there was a Philippine Eagle perched up in the top of a tall tree over a kilometer away! We were flabbergasted Blackie had managed to spot it from so far, when it was difficult to make out even in the scope, but I suppose that's his job. We spent the next half hour taking turns at the scope, enjoying the distant eagle-shaped dot that was one of the rarest raptors in the world- and arguably one of the best birds anywhere. It was occasionally tough to make out, but we could sometimes see the crest raising and lowering. 

Digiscoped Philippine Eagle

What the tree looked like from the hill, for a bit of perspective (pic by Andrew)

All doubts about ID were removed when it took off and revealed its huge head and incredibly broad wings- the largest wing area of any raptor in the world. This was only a juvenile bird, but it was still obviously gargantuan, taking off from its tree with huge, slow wingbeats. At one point a Peregrine Falcon started flying next to it- by no means a small falcon, but it looked like a swiftlet next to the Philippine Eagle. Celebratory beers in hand, we watched it in awe as it circled higher and higher in the sky, thrilled with one of the finest natural spectacles anywhere in the country. 

Philippine Eagle!!

Doug watching the eagle with celebratory eagle beer in hand

Everything after a Philippine Eagle is bonus, but on the way back up to the White House we got great looks at a male Bundok Flycatcher, a lifer for Andrew and Doug and a sometimes tough endemic. At the hanging walkway we got a quick look at a Stripe-breasted Rhabdornis, another endemic lifer. 

Bundok Flycatcher

Milionia coalescens, a very impressive geometrid moth

I had allotted two days for Cinchona in our itinerary, but since we saw the eagle the first morning, some opportunities started opening up. It would have been great to stay and bird more with Blackie at Cinchona, but with an extra day I realized there was time to head to Mount Tagubud in eastern Mindanao to add some more difficult endemics to our trip list. I hurriedly arranged an extension of our rental car and broke the news to Blackie that we would leave early, and we took tricycles down to the national highway where we got on a bus to Davao City. Kitanglad had been wildly successful, with two country lifers for me, several dozen for Doug and Andrew, and a great deal of fun with great guides to boot. It was just a reminder of how much I enjoy birding in Mindanao, and we had some great stops to come as well.