The Best of West Mindanao

 

After our brief but highly successful jaunt in eastern Mindanao, the rest of my time on the island with Doug and Andrew was spent further west, in some of my favorite birding sites in Region XII. We had three days in my usual patch of SNA to look for lowland forest birds we'd missed in Samar, as well as a couple of stops on various mountains to look for the remaining high-elevation Mindanao endemics.

We spent the night of February 22nd in Kidapawan City in the province of North Cotabato, on the opposite side of Davao City. The next morning we headed up the slopes of Mount Apo to the Lake Agco area, where we were looking for Mindanao Miniature Babbler. Similar to Mindanao Brown Dove (and also Visayan Miniature Babbler), Mindanao Miniature Babblers are inexplicably rare, being mysteriously absent from most of the appropriate habitat but oddly reliable in other spots. Of these, Lake Agco is by far the most reliable. 

We arrived at the site just after sunrise, and set about looking around the stretch of dirt road where the miniature babblers are usually seen. It was a beautiful sunny morning, but things started rather slow, with no sign of the usual mixed flocks the babblers are seen with. We had to satisfy ourselves with the many Grey Wagtails hanging out along the road, a Buzzing Flowerpecker hanging out in a mistletoe vine, and a beautiful Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove perched next to the road. I tried taping for Cryptic Flycatcher, which is sometimes found in the area, but without success; it ended up being one of the only Mindanao endemics we dipped on.

Grey Wagtail

Buzzing Flowerpecker

Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove

After about 45 minutes of surprisingly quiet birding, the mixed flock we were hoping for finally moved through. It started with a few lovely Scarlet Minivets, but I soon spotted a tiny Mindanao Miniature Babbler as it darted across the road into a pine tree. We all got good looks at our second miniature babbler of the month, a extremely rare endemic that's become much easier to see in recent years.

Female Scarlet Minivet

Mindanao Miniature Babbler

We went down to Lake Agco where we could find Whiskered Flowerpecker, our second major target for the trip. The flowerpeckers are also rather rare and localized, but once you find a tree with the right kind of mistletoe, they're quite reliable. Sure enough, as soon as we got to the usual tree the Whiskered Flowerpeckers were there. They were quite difficult to photograph, preferring to stay up where the mistletoe berries are, which is a shame since it's one of my favorite flowerpeckers. As we walked out we ran into another, much better mixed flock: Elegant Tits, Sulphur-billed Nuthatches, Scarlet Minivets, Orange-bellied Flowerpeckers, and to my surprise another Mindanao Miniature Babbler.

Whiskered Flowerpecker

Scarlet Minivet- this one a yellow-orange male of the johnstoniae subspecies, which is intergrade between the orange-colored males of east Mindanao and the yellow males of western Mindanao

Mindanao Miniature Babbler

Orange-bellied Flowerpecker

Sulphur-billed Nuthatch

Elegant Tit

With our targets successfully seen, we drove back down into Kidapawan where we had lunch at Penong's then continued the drive west towards Senator Ninoy Aquino in Sultan Kudarat province, our next stop. The vast majority of birding tours to the Philippines spend a few days in the forests of PICOP in northeast Mindanao looking for lowland endemics and other specialties like Celestial and Short-crested Monarchs. PICOP is certainly the best place to see many of those birds, and it also has local guide Zardo, who's probably one of the best birding guides anywhere in the world. The problem is that PICOP is being destroyed at a blinding rate by illegal logging, and any visit there means days of searching for remaining patches of forest and looking at birds while listening to nonstop chainsaws. It's one of the most depressing places I've ever been to, and after my visit in 2017 I swore never to return. Instead, I decided to have us look for lowland birds in SNA, which has most of the same birds as PICOP in a far less depressing backdrop. It was a risky gamble, as it's not quite as good for some birds and (more importantly) doesn't have a local guide like Zardo, but I've always enjoyed my visits there and wanted to also help promote birding tourism in the area, so I was hopeful it would pay off.

 The drive to Sultan Kudarat goes through the province of Maguindanao (technically Maguindanao del Sur since they decided to split the province in two last year to please some political dynasties). We were just a stone's throw from the famous Liguasan Marsh, home to some extremely rare-for-the-Philippines birds like Comb-crested Jacana, Oriental Darter, and an outside chance of Spotted Whistling Duck. Alas, it's also one of the dodgiest parts of the Philippines, so we didn't dare get out of the car to look. Driving through is fine, but three white guys carrying cameras and binoculars would be liable to attract some unwanted attention. 

We arrived in SNA on the evening of February 23rd, enough time to meet Roy, my usual companion for SNA birding adventures, at the local government office and sign in with the police. Dinner was at the local litson manok house, after which we settled in at Princess Dannah's for a few hours of sleep before an early start the next day. My last two visits to SNA I had dared to visit the birding site by car, which had previously been quite easy but is now a dodgy affair thanks to the worsening state of the road. They keep promising the road will be fixed but since that apparently had not happened we opted to go for habal-habal (motorcycles) instead. 

The next morning, we left before dawn so we could sign in at the local barangay hall and meet our drivers and minders. Sunrise at the birding site in Barangay Kuden was, as always, misty, cool, and full of birds. The morning started with several singing Rufous Paradise Flycatchers, and then with a nice little mixed flock including Mindanao Pygmy Babblers, Philippine Leaf Warblers, Brown Tit-Babblers, Striated Wren-Babblers, and best of all a lovely Chestnut-tailed Jungle Flycatcher, a species I hadn't had a good look at in years. We explored a little side trail off the road where we were able to get decent looks at a Blue-capped Wood Kingfisher and a very cooperative pair of Buff-spotted Flamebacks.

Chestnut-tailed Jungle Flycatcher (also known as Rufous-tailed Jungle Flycatcher, also known as Philippine Jungle Flycatcher, because apparently taxonomists never talk to each other)

Striated Wren-Babbler- this picture taken at 1/13s handheld!

Blue-capped Wood Kingfisher

Female Buff-spotted Flameback

Male Buff-spotted Flameback

Roy and one of our minders along the Kuden road

Misty morning in SNA

The sun rose, the day got hotter, and the birding got slower, but we still made some nice additions to the trip list: a very cute Guaiabero, really great looks at a gorgeous Southern Rufous Paradise Flycatcher, and a male Mindanao Hornbill were all nice. Best was a flyover from a single Writhed Hornbill, the rarest hornbill on Mindanao and one that's quite tough in SNA. We started walking back and forth along a particularly productive stretch of road, which brought us some nice birds like Philippine Oriole, Black-headed Coucal, Rusty-crowned Babbler, and a big flock of Mindanao Pygmy Babblers. I spotted a tiny black bird flying overhead, and finally heard it singing and saw white wing patches- White-fronted Tit! The tit has become one of the hardest Philippine endemics lately and SNA might now be the most reliable spot for it. That's funny considering it was essentially unknown from Mindanao until Pete, Irene and I discovered it here a few years ago. We played constantly for Celestial Monarch and Short-crested Monarch, but ended up only with a nice male Black-naped Monarch.

Southern Rufous Paradise Flycatcher

Philippine Oriole

Horrid record shot of a Black-faced Coucal

Mindanao Pygmy Babbler

Black-naped Monarch: not the monarch we were looking for, but not bad-looking either

Gynopygoplax walkeri, a cool endemic froghopper

Common Jester (Symbrenthia lilaea)

Calligaster williamsi, an endemic potter wasp

The nymph of some kind of walking stick

Some kind of cool weevil

Some kind of ladybug

Archduke (Lexias panopus), an endemic butterfly

By the time noon rolled around, it was hot and quiet, and we were tired and sweaty. We had lunch complements of the Cap Sitjar of Barangay Kuden, and then returned to our hotel in SNA town for a much-needed nap and shower. In the late afternoon we drove westwards, along the newly-built highway going over the Daguma Mountains from SNA to the town of Kalamansig. The new road, like many in the Philippines, is both an economic boon and an environmental disaster in the making, as it allows poor farmers to make their way further into the mountains and clear even more forest to plant corn and coffee on the unstable soil. The farms are inevitably productive only for a few years thanks to the poor soil and steep slopes, after which they advance further uphill and cut down even more trees until there's simply no forest left. In the short term though, it's great for birding.

A farmstead in newly-cleared forest next to the road

Still some very nice forest along the road...

 

The highest point of the road is at about 1,100 meters above sea level, high enough that it should have some interesting mountain endemics in a very understudied part of Mindanao. Unfortunately it was rather quiet by the time we got there an hour or so before sunset, with only Philippine Swiftlets and a hooting Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove present. Things improved greatly when a big flock of Southern Rufous Hornbills flew in to snack on a fruiting tree, filling the valley with their raucous honking calls. They stayed there for almost 30 minutes, long enough for me to set up my scope and for all of us to get great looks at them, enjoying their beautiful colors and entertaining antics as they preened and hopped around the fruiting tree. With their enormous size, gorgeous colors, and outsized personality, Rufous Hornbills have to be one of my favorite birds anywhere in the world.

Southern Rufous Hornbills (adult male on the left, immature female on the right)

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Digiscoped video of Rufous Hornbills doing their thing

We waited for it to get dark, then started looking for owls. Almost as soon as the sun set, we heard the hooting of a Chocolate Boobook next to the road, which we got great looks at as it sat in the top of a tree. Soon after, we heard the cawing of a Giant Scops-Owl close by. This was one of our main targets so we started frantically searching, until it flew over the road and perched right above our heads! It sat there for 10 minutes as we took pictures and just enjoyed its general weirdness- they really are very large scops owls, looking more like an Oriental Bay Owl than any of their scops relatives. It's probably my favorite owl in the Philippines, and this was by far the best look I've had at one.

Chocolate Boobook

Giant Scops Owl!

The night didn't end there- a huge Great Eared Nightjar flew over us calling, and several other Giant Scops Owls starting calling nearby. Doug spotted us a roosting Grey-Streaked Flycatcher in his thermal scope, followed by a female Philippine Colugo climbing a tree, with an extremely cute baby clinging to her belly! In a pond by the road were lots of frogs, including an absolutely enormous introduced Cane Toad looking like some kind of cave troll.

Grey-streaked Flycatcher

Mother and baby Philippine Colugo!

Cane Toad

Some kind of endemic stream frog (Limnonectes sp.)

Hydaticus philippinensis, an endemic water beetle

We returned to SNA town, where we had more litson manok for dinner and then turned in at our hotel. SNA keeps advancing as a town- when I first visited in 2018 there was no cell signal and electricity was only 12 hours a day. Now there's cell data on all networks, and the hotel even has good wifi. If only the roads to the town and to the birding site didn't suck, it would be a really hard to beat birding destination. 

We were up and at it bright and early the next morning, arriving at the birding site in Barangay Kuden before sunrise for more owling. That too was a success, as we soon had point-blank looks at Mindanao Hawk-Owl, the last remaining Mindanao owl for us. I had high hopes for a good morning of mixed flocks, but unfortunately the forest was surprisingly quiet as the sun rose, with only a pair of Mindanao Hornbills and a couple of cool spiders to break the silence. We did get a good look at a pair of Spotted Imperial Pigeons flying over, another rare endemic that's often missed on the usual birding tours. 

Mindanao Hawk-Owl

Mindanao Hornbill

Black Golden Orbweaver (Nephila kuhli)

Gasteracantha hecata, an endemic orbweaver

We started to head downhill to a stretch of road I knew to be good for hornbills and Mindanao Bleeding-Heart, among other birds. Unfortunately, our minders told us that that was off limits, as the corporation that owned that land had become very strict about visitors. That was rather surprising and frustrating, as I'd previously been able to bird there without issue, and the last I heard was that the logging company's lease had not been renewed. Apparently they've decided to stay there despite not having a valid lease (and also despite the fact that it's the ancestral domain of the Dulangan Manobo tribe and one of the last remaining lowland rainforests in Mindanao, among other things). They've also gotten strict with security, even though they're not really supposed to be there themselves. Logging companies, mining companies, and settler farmers have been astonishingly successful in clear-cutting Mindanao's lowland forests, and apparently they're not done yet...

That was a big disappointment, both because of the implications and because it was our best chance at seeing some of our more difficult targets. We were a bit mollified, however, when a Philippine Leafbird flew in and perched at the top of a tall tree- another very difficult endemic, and a particularly challenging one at SNA. We did a long circle around the accessible bit of road, and were rewarded with a calling Metallic Pigeon and a surprise Pygmy Flowerpecker, a widespread but sparse endemic we'd missed up until then. We ran into a small mixed flock that included lots of Elegant Tits, a singing Rufous Paradise Flycatcher, and a few Philippine Leaf Warblers, but nothing new. A Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove flushed from next to the road, and we realized that it was sitting on a nest with eggs in it (such as it was- really more of a loose pile of sticks). 

Philippine Leafbird!

Pygmy Flowerpecker

Elegant Tit floof sequence

Elegant Tit

Southern Rufous Paradise Flycatcher

Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove

Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove nest; doves are not exactly the geniuses (or architects) of the bird world

Lorquin's Satyr

Pandanobasis cantuga, a Mindanao-endemic damselfly

The day was getting hotter, but we decided to do one more circuit in hopes of some good mixed flocks. We soon encountered a small mixed flock with lots of Mindanao Blue Fantails and a few Yellow-bellied Whistlers and Philippine Leaf Warblers. I decided to troll some Celestial Monarch tape and to our surprise it worked- a Celestial Monarch started whistling back from deep in the woods! We tried our damnedest to track it down, but it never came closer, and stopped calling after a minute or so. It was deeply frustrating to come that close to seeing one of the best birds in the Philippines twice in the trip, and that species is quickly becoming a nemesis for me considering how many times I've missed a good view or a picture. 

A bit dejected, we kept walking, though it was quite hot and sunny and things were quieting down. At one point, a strange scolding noise and rustling in the bushes next to the road alerted us to the presence of some sort of animal. We struggled to get a view until I realized it was a huge Samar Cobra! It was thrilling to finally see one of the best-looking endemic snakes in the Philippines, even though it was a bit too close for comfort considering that they're quite deadly, and are known to spit their venom. Our spirits were further lifted by great looks at a showy male Southern Rufous Hornbill perched in a big tree next to the road, preening and watching us without any concern at all. It's interesting to me how bold the hornbills are in SNA considering how much human presence there is, but it seems that the local Manobo don't hunt them, which I very much appreciate.

Mindanao Blue Fantail

Short-billed Brown Dove

Southern Rufous Hornbill

Samar Cobra!

Emerald-banded Skimmer

Some kind of bee-mimic robberfly

Some kind of cool grasshopper (Erucius sp.)

Plusiopalpa adrasta

Some kind of weevil infected with cordyceps fungus- very cool and very creepy

Diplacina bolivari

Fluffy Tit

It was mid-afternoon by then, so we had a late lunch and then headed back to our hotel for a much-needed shower and nap. We'd already seen all our owl targets, so that night we went into town for dinner and had what was quite possibly the worst pizza we had ever had in our lives. The next day, we returned to Kuden for one more morning of birding, hoping for our last remaining targets. It was a fairly quiet morning, but it did start off with excellent views of a Blue-capped Kingfisher, which is never a bad bird to start a day with. A large mixed flock passed by us, too far from the road for a good view of anything which was very frustrating considering that it included a calling Mindanao Wattled Broadbill! While it was a very good new trip bird it was also another painful heard-only, up there with our earlier Whiskered Pitta and Celestial Monarch. Otherwise we had a calling Azure-breasted Pitta near the road that we got only fleeting looks at, and another mixed flock that included Rusty-crowned Babblers and Black-bibbed Cuckooshrikes, good new birds that can be challenging to see. A Pinsker's Hawk-Eagle flew over calling, a nice addition to our SNA list. 

Blue-capped Wood Kingfisher

Philippine Trogon

Rusty-crowned Babbler

Black-bibbed Cuckooshrike

Pinsker's Hawk-Eagle

Lachnopterus socius according to someone on iNaturalist, although the only other record of this species is from Taiwan

Was pleased to learn that this jumping spider is from the genus Portia, the subject of one of my favorite science fiction novels

Forest Quaker

Some kind of cool leafhopper

Plain Tiger

Commander (Moduza thespias)

With that it was time for us to head back to the barangay hall to say goodbye to Cap Sitjar at the barangay hall and then head onwards to our next stop. One positive development of our trip was finding out that the barangay and the SNA tourism office are getting increasingly interested in promoting birding tourism in the area. That's a very good thing, as it's only a matter of time until the forests of PICOP are all cut down, and birders will need alternative sites to look for Mindanao lowland birds. Our trip this time was much more organized, with easy pick up and drop-off and the guides and motorcycles already arranged with minimal effort on our part. Hopefully the tourism office can arrange to have some local birding guides trained, so that there's some assistance available for visiting birders less familiar with the local avifauna. And, most importantly, hopefully the forest will be preserved for many years to come!

From SNA, we made the drive across the western Mindanao plateau down into the Allah River valley, and then south to Tboli town, where we met up with Jonas once again at the Crown Jewel Hotel and started heading toward Lake Holon, our afternoon stop. As we were leaving SNA we noticed that one of the tires in our rental car was a bit flat, so we put some air in it and continued on, thinking the problem was solved. The low pressure warning came on again as we got to Tboli however, and this time the tire was dangerously flat by the time we got to a place with an air pump. We started to suspect there might be a real issue with the car, but it was late in the afternoon and there were no auto repair places nearby, so we decided to risk it and continue on toward Lake Holon. If this blog had a soundtrack, this is the part where foreboding musing might start to play...

We arrived at the birding site an hour or so before sunset, just in time for the star birds to arrive. Sure enough, after a few minutes we started to see small groups of Mindanao Lorikeets coming into their roosting area, a small valley full of dead trees. As we waited we were also entertained by little flocks of Philippine Spine-tailed Swifts swooping overhead. It was, as always, one of the highlights of the trip. 

Mindanao Lorikeets, here with the Holon-endemic Nepenthes tboli pitcher plants in the background

Digiscoped Mindanao Lorikeets excavating a nesting cavity

Philippine Spine-tailed Swift; finally managed a picture of one with the spines visible!

I've said it before, but watching dozens of highly endangered parrots flying around in circles and perching on dead snags among orchids and pitcher plants is one of the best natural spectacles anywhere in the Philippines. It's also an endangered one; although the forest in Lake Holon is amazing, it's also quickly disappearing thanks to road construction and land-grabbing, with rich businessmen coming in and buying land to cut down trees and build resorts and farms, despite the fact it's a protected area and an ancestral domain of the Tboli tribe. After all, if you're wealthy enough or know the right politicians, the DENR is more than happy to look the other way (or sometimes actively facilitate it). 

The lorikeet roost was fun, but by the time we got back to the car we realized that the tire was, once again, dangerously flat. It was only a 30-minute drive back to the hotel so we decided to once again risk it. We only made it a couple of kilometers before the sounds the car was making made it clear that wasn't a wise choice; the tire was now completely flat. Thankfully, Doug and Andrew proved to be experts in changing car tires, and we soon had our stuff out of the car, reflecting triangles set up, and the car up on a jack. Miraculously, the rental car not only had a spare tire, but it wasn't flat and it wasn't even a donut tire but a proper tire. If anyone is traveling through Davao I highly recommend Car Rental Davao- aside from great rates and great service, they actually provide well-functioning cars on top of that! (Also, I highly recommend Doug and Andrew as road trip buddies, as they're mighty useful in a pinch)

I love birding adventures!

With the spare tire safely on the car, we returned to the hotel for dinner and some much-deserved beers, and then turned in early as always. The next morning we were back up on the mountain at sunrise, with high hopes for Tboli Sunbird and other good birds. Annoyingly enough however, it was easily the worst morning of birding I've ever had on Lake Holon; foggy and drizzling, with barely any visibility and extremely quiet birds. After a few hours of birding we had little to show for it but a quick glimpse of a calling Tboli Sunbird and some of the other usual suspects like Olive-capped Flowerpecker, Turquoise Flycatcher, and Citrine Canary Flycatcher. Eventually we decided to cut our losses and head down into General Santos for lunch and some errands.

Olive-capped Flowerpecker

Turquoise Flycatcher

Citrine Canary Flycatcher

Coppersmith Barbet

Beccarianthus pulcherrimus, an endemic flowering tree

Some kind of beautiful Metapocyrtus weevil

Some kind of cool darkling beetle

Mycalesis treadawayi, a cool endemic bushbrown butterfly

Some kind of Dendrobium orchid

Down in GenSan, our first stop was the famous Tiongson Arcade, where we ordered basically every combination of tuna on the menu. It was a vast amount of food, but also one of the tastiest meals of the whole trip. GenSan probably has some of the best seafood in Asia outside of maybe Japan (which is where it sends most of its tuna). After that we dropped Doug off at a hospital so he could get his infected thumb fixed again, while we went to an auto shop to get our tire fixed. Mechanics in the Philippines always amazing me, and this was no exception: it took the guys at the shop less than 5 minutes to get the tire off the rims and spot the source of the air leak, which turned out to be an enormous razor blade! It was another 5 minutes maximum before they'd patched up the tire, jacked up the car, and switched out the tires once again, all for less than 5 US dollars (I paid them a fair amount extra). 

Lunch at the Tiongson Arcade

Fixing our tire

Welp, that'll do it

Doug was still in the ER, so we headed to the mudflats in Barangay Buayan, which used to be one of my usual birding spots when I lived in Davao. Access there has unfortunately gotten much more difficult, but the birds were still along the mudflat, along with a gorgeous sunset. There weren't any particularly unusual shorebirds, though, which was fine with us since Doug wasn't around.

This kid kept following us around wanting to look through my scope, and also demanded I take his picture

Sunset on the coast of GenSan

We picked Doug up again at the hospital around 6PM, then began the long drive to Davao, where we bid farewell once again to Jonas and headed to our hotel, the Malagos Garden Resort. The resort is right next to the famous Philippine Eagle Center and has some decent birding in its own right (along with very good breakfast). I had a meeting the next morning so I couldn't go birding with Doug and Andrew, but they did see Doug's lifer Southern Silvery Kingfisher in the river running behind our hotel rooms. Later in the morning we visited the PEC for up-close looks at Philippine Eagles, and surprisingly enough also managed to get our only Orange-tufted Spiderhunter in the bushes by one of the eagle cages. 

The rest of the day was taking care of visa stuff and getting some rest in Davao before heading to Palawan, the last stop of the mega Philippines trip. This segment of our trip was a huge success, wth all of the Mindanao endemics except for Black-eared Tailorbird, Mindanao Bleeding-heart, and Zamboanga Bulbul- a tough combo of birds, but one that puts all of us within spitting distance of cleaning up the lot of them, something perhaps fewer than 10 birders have managed. I'm personally only missing Zamboanga Bulbul (along with Mindanao Serin once that gets officially split), so hopefully I can do a weekend trip at some point to take care of that bit of unfinished business. In the meantime, it was excellent to get such a great cross-section of Mindanao birding so far this year.