Hornbills on the Kinabatangan

 

After Trus Madi, Nikki and I headed to Mount Kinabalu, our usual favorite birding spot in Sabah, but only for one morning before continuing onwards to eastern Sabah (we're saving the Kinabalu outing for the next post, as we returned there later on). Our destination there was the Kinabatangan River, another one of the best-known birding sites in Sabah and the best place to see some of Borneo's best-known and most charismatic birds. I'd been ogling pictures from there for years, so it was exciting to get the chance to finally visit a new site and see some new birds.

It was a 5-hour drive from Mount Kinabalu to the town of Sukau, on the edge of the Kinabatangan River. The drive started in the beautiful forested mountains of Kinabalu, but quickly got more depressing: first with the deforested slopes of Borneo's central mountains, cleared of their tree cover to plant vegetables and other crops, and once we got to the lowlands, an endless green desert of palm oil plantations. Sabah has a shocking contrast between very accessible, well-protected national parks on the one hand, and large-scale deforestation for palm oil plantations on the other hand. The crop has single-handedly decimated the majority of the province's lowland forests as it has elsewhere in Indonesia and Malaysia, and nowadays driving through Sabah is a surreal experience of driving past hundreds of kilometers of essentially uniform palm oil wasteland. 

The view for most of our drive over

We arrived in the little town of Sukau in the late afternoon, and met our guide Romzi at the edge of the river. Since the vast majority of birding on the Kinabatangan happens via boat, it's necessary to go with a guide of some sort there, unless you happen to be packing an outboard motor. Romzi is one of the better-known birding guides for the area, and he did a great job with us, knowing all the best spots for the birds and their ID. He's also familiar with Osman's Homestay, the lodge along the river where we were staying (in fact, he's Osman's brother in law). Romzi boated us out to the homestay where we dropped our bags, and then we headed out on the river to look for birds in the remaining daylight.

Boating along the Kinabatangan

We stopped along the river for the nest of a Wallace's Hawk-Eagle, where the adult was still hanging out nearby. There was also a Crimson Sunbird in the bushes by the river, although it was too far for good pictures. Romzi then boated us through a narrow jungle passage to one of the many oxbow lakes along the river, which he said was a good spot for White-crowned Hornbill, the rarest of the regularly-seen hornbills on the Kinabatangan. I got excited to see a hornbill flying over the river, but it was only an Oriental Pied Hornbill, incredibly common throughout Southeast Asia. 

Wallace's Hawk-Eagle

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Boating to the oxbow lake

The oxbow lake was a beautiful stretch of calm water in the middle of the jungle, with the main tourist attraction being the troupes of Proboscis Monkeys by the edge of the water! This was a mammal lifer for us, so we were happy to get great views of several, including a pot-bellied male lounging on an open branch. There was also a Bat Hawk, an uncommon raptor specializing in exactly the food you'd expect, sitting by an active nest. Finally, just before it got dark I spotted a pair of White-crowned Hornbills at the end of the lake! They eventually came out into the open and then flew overhead, an early bird highlight of our time on the Kinabatangan. On the way back to the homestay we happened across a big group of Bushy-crested Hornbills all huddled together in a giant cuddle puddle, which was very cute.

Adult male Proboscis Monkey

Bat Hawk

Female White-crowned Hornbill

Male White-crowned Hornbill

Bushy-crested Hornbill cuddle puddle

Sunset on the oxbow lake

It was almost dark by then so Romzi took us back to the homestay. Osman's Homestay is somewhat of an institution for budget-conscious travelers to the Kinabatangan, ever since it was established as a cheap alternative to the eye-poppingly expensive lodges most tourists stay at. Osman himself is a burly Malaysian guy who both manages the homestay along with his wife Yanti and guides tourists on wildlife expeditions. He's also one of the most extroverted people I've ever met, and it was nice to have a local to be able to talk to. The way tourism in Sabah works you could spend weeks in the country without having any meaningful interactions with Malaysians- one of the disadvantages of traveling there.

At the lodge we had a hearty dinner of Malaysian food, and I spent some time in the woods out back trying to find a calling Large Frogmouth. Annoyingly it remained completely hidden in the foliage, and all I got for my troubles were a lot of ant bites. I also flushed a Buffy Fish Owl from a tree by the river by accident, but never got a good look.

The next morning we left before sunrise for a full day of birding. The first stop was the Menanggol River, a sluggish tributary of the Kinabatangan that was narrow enough for good looks at some of our key targets. Just after sunrise we happened upon a hulking Buffy Fish Owl perched right over the river, giving us excellent views. There was also a beautiful Malaysian Blue Flycatcher flying back and forth across the river, and even better we got great looks at our lifer Black-and-red Broadbill, a spectacular bird we'd managed dip on many times before. A Chestnut-breasted Malkoha also gave brief looks, and we had flyover looks at Blue-eared Kingfishers, Blue-eared Barbets, and an Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher.

Buffy Fish Owl

Malaysian Blue Flycatcher

Black-and-red Broadbill

Chestnut-breasted Malkoha

The Menganggol River

We kept going down the Menanggol River, and the birding continued to be fantastic: a Crested Serpent Eagle perched on a dead branch next to the water, and next a gorgeous Storm's Stork, an endangered forest-dwelling stork that was way better-looking than I expected. We passed by another boat full of tourists, which proved to be looking at an enormous Saltwater Crocodile, staring at us to see if anyone looked particularly edible. We heard the whooping call of a Barred Kingfisher, and after a bit of looking a beautiful male flew in and perched right over us in terrible light. The subspecies in Borneo has a black face rather than the rufous-faced birds I'd just seen in Java, so I suppose it's good I've now seen both of them. Another highlight was a gorgeous Scarlet-rumped Trogon that perched deep in the forest- one of many great trogons in Borneo. Romzi also pointed out a Gold-ringed Cat Snake lounging in a branch above the river, a cool herp lifer for us although we never saw the head.

Crested Serpent-Eagle

Adult Storm's Stork

Immature Storm's Stork

Saltwater Crocodile

Awful record shot of a male Banded Kingfisher

Scarlet-rumped Trogon

Gold-ringed Cat Snake

We kept going down the river until we got to a portion that was so clogged with water hyacinth that we could go no further. There was a Purple-naped Spiderhunter hanging out in this area, and a pair of Wreathed Hornbills flew over, the only sighting of this species for the whole trip. I've seen the feral Writhed Hornbills of Phnom Penh, but I suppose it's nice to see properly wild ones too. We surprised an Oriental Darter swimming through the river with only its head and neck sticking out of the water, always a nice bird to get a good look at. The highlight of the morning was, believe it or not, a bulbul- specifically a pair of critically endangered Straw-headed Bulbuls singing along the river! They're great-looking by bulbul standards, and have some of the best songs of any of them. This has unfortunately proved to be their undoing, as it makes them highly sought-after as caged birds and has resulted in their extirpation from many areas. It was great to see them still around here, and to see my eighth critically endangered bird of the year.

Purple-naped Spiderhunter

Wreathed Hornbills

Oriental Darter

Straw-headed Bulbul!

Orange-tailed Marsh Dart

Romzi took us downriver to another sluggish tributary, first stopping by a small cave with a nesting colony of Plume-toed Swiftlets. There's a cave nearby the Kinabatangan where nesting Mossy-nest, Black-nest, and White-nest Swiftlets can be seen, making it one of the only places where they can be reliably IDed to species, but annoyingly enough the nesting area is no longer accessible so we had to just settle with this. On the little tributary we had fleeting looks at our lifer Sooty-capped Babbler, and heard the crooning call of a Garnet Pitta, although it never came into view. We also heard a Rufous Piculet, and after a while were able to call it in- our first time seeing this incredibly tiny little woodpecker. A big colony of Large Flying Foxes was a nice bonus mammal sighting. We passed by the wreckage of a few buildings, and Romzi told us that someone had tried to set up a jungle lodge there only for it to be repeatedly trampled by elephants! I can only imagine how the owner offended them...

Nesting Plume-toed Swiftlets (I badly messed up my camera settings for this one)

Bad record shot of a Sooty-capped Babbler (it sounds better than it looks)

Rufous Piculet

Large Flying Fox

Malay Cruiser

Malayan Six-Ring

Forest White

Romzi dropped us off at our homestay for lunch and a nap in the heat of the day. He picked us up again in the late afternoon, and we immediately went a few kilometers upriver where there were apparently regularly-seen elephants. Sure enough we rounded a bend in the river and found dozens of boats lined up gawping at a few Asian Elephants feeding in the tall grass next to the water! It was our first elephant sighting in the wild and a major mammal highlight of trip. Heading back downriver we came across a few migratory Oriental Honey-Buzzards circling over the water and a Southern Pig-tailed Macaque hanging out on a branch.

Asian Elephant!

Oriental Honey-Buzzard

Southern Pig-tailed Macaque

Romzi took us down the Tenegang River, another small tributary, and we enjoyed some great nature in the light of the setting sun. It also once again drove home the contrasts of Sabah: the wildlife of the Kinabatangan is amazing, but it's a tiny island of forest in an enormous green desert of oil palm. In some parts here the oil palm plantation went right up to the river bank, without even the usual tiny strip of jungle that let us pretend we were in untouched wilderness. In fact, I suspect the reason there's so much wildlife on the Kinabatangan is that lots of megafauna like monkeys, elephants and hornbills have been crowded into the tiny area as the rest of their habitat is cleared for more plantation. It probably has higher populations of many of these than the habitat can really handle, and I wouldn't be surprised if the biodiversity crashes at some point. 

Oil palm right along the river

Still, for now the wildlife is fantastic. Near the confluence of the two rivers was a big troupe of Proboscis Monkeys, and lots of Green Imperial Pigeons flew back and forth across the water. Further up we had great looks at a Changeable Hawk-Eagle, much larger than the more-common Wallace's Hawk-Eagles, perched in a tree. Nearby was a scary-looking adult male Southern Pig-tailed Macaque, probably one of my least favorite monkeys. The highlight of the afternoon was a huge group of spectacular Rhinoceros Hornbills feeding in fruiting trees right next to the water, giving us amazing views. They're easily one of the best hornbills, and it was great to see them again after many years. Going back downriver we also had a single Grey-headed Fish Eagle and a flock of Indochinese Blue-throated Bee-Eaters.

Female Proboscis Monkey

Male Proboscis Monkey

Changeable Hawk-Eagle

Southern Pig-tailed Macaque

Rhinoceros Hornbill!

Grey-headed Fish Eagle

Indochinese Blue-throated Bee-Eater

We stayed on the Tenegang River until after sunset, where we tried for the owl targets of the Kinabatangan. It was a full moon, hardly ideal for owling, and it took quite a bit of boating up and down the river until we heard the shrieking of an Oriental Bay Owl. We spent almost half an hour looking for it and although we had several of them calling at the same time, they all stayed resolutely out of view. We finally found one perched in the open, but it flew off as soon as the light was on it meaning we didn't get any pictures. I had seen them last year in Cambodia, but it would have been nice for Nikki to get a good look as well. We had much better luck with a Large Frogmouth that flew across the river and perched just a few meters in front of us. As we headed back for dinner, we also saw another Buffy Fish Owl displaying, giving us the second good look of the day. Near the lodge we picked out the eye shine of a rather small Saltwater Crocodile.

Large Frogmouth

Buffy Fish Owl

Saltwater Crocodile

The next morning, the primary target was Bornean Ground-Cuckoo, the star bird of the Kinabatangan. Romzi picked us up at sunrise and we headed back to the Tenegang River, one of the spots it's regularly found. We spotted a big group of Bushy-crested Hornbills on the way out, and the Proboscis Monkeys were hanging out in the same spot as the previous day. A few Little Green Pigeons, a lifer for us, were building a nest by the river and we got good looks at some Oriental Pied Hornbills and a Stork-billed Kingfisher. We heard the call of a Sabah Partridge, and to our surprise Romzi was actually able to call one into view, adding yet another species of chicken to my year list. 

Bushy-crested Hornbills

Proboscis Monkey

Little Green Pigeon

Oriental Pied Hornbills

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Sabah Partridge!

We then had two good lifers in short succession. First was a Lesser Fish Eagle, a smaller version of the more-common Grey-headed Fish Eagle. Next was a spectacular Wrinkled Hornbill right next to the river, showing off his red bill and bright blue facial skin. It's certainly one of the best-looking hornbills out there, and it was one of my most-wanted birds of the trip. Boating back down the river we had great looks at a gorgeous little Blue-eared Kingfisher as it hunted from a little stick.

Lesser Fish Eagle

Wrinkled Hornbill

Blue-eared Kingfisher

Sunrise on the river

Romzi had been playing the call of the ground cuckoo intermittently all morning, but there seemed to be none of them anywhere near the Tenegang River. We headed back out onto the main Kinabatangan River, and it wasn't too long before we heard a Bornean Ground Cuckoo calling! Unfortunately, it was far away from the river, and in an area with a very high bank that offered little visibility into the forest. There were some other good birds around, like circling Storm's Storks and Lesser Adjutants, hunting Grey-headed Fish Eagles and Crested Serpent-Eagles, and a nice Common Hill Myna, but the ground cuckoo showed no interest in getting closer. 

Storm's Stork

Lesser Adjutant

Common Hill Myna

Grey-headed Fish Eagle

Crested Serpent-Eagle

Treehugger (Tyriobaptida torrida)

We headed to the oxbow lake to try that, and had another frustrating near miss- two Bornean Ground Cuckoos calling in the woods, but both far away and neither interested in approaching us at all. It was a bit annoying to have the #1 target bird of the outing as a heard-only, especially as this is the second species of ground cuckoo I've managed to narrowly miss seeing. Honestly though, the Kinabatangan is enjoyable enough birding that I don't entirely mind the chance to go back, and perhaps spend some more time looking for mammals and other targets as well. I can certainly highly recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in wildlife- birds aside it's full of enough charismatic megafauna like elephants, orangutans, monkeys, and other things that nature lovers are guaranteed a good time.