Java Just for Fun

 

After my workshop in Japan I had one more stop in Asia before I returned home. This time I was heading to Indonesia, where I'd be doing fieldwork and meetings for a couple of projects. The work part of my trip was... well, let's just say "clusterfuck" would be putting it mildly, for reasons I won't go into because this is a blog about birding, not about the complicated political economy and institutional dynamics that come along with working in international development. Thankfully, I did have a few chances to do some birding in my week in the country. 

My first stop was in East Java, where I flew into the city of Surabaya. I had been to other parts of East Java before, but Surabaya was a new city for me. I ended up unexpectedly having to overnight in Surabaya, thanks to aforementioned complications with work things, and only made it to the field the second day of my trip, on February 3. The "field" this time was the town of Bangkalan in the eastern part of Madura, where I went to observe data collection and visit some childcare centers.

Madura is a large island just off the northeast coast of Java. It was the site of a powerful sultanate in the early days of Dutch rule but has fallen on hard times more recently, being mostly known these days as the source of a large proportion of the economic migrants settling eastern Indonesia through the Transmigrasi program. The whole island is a big limestone platform which gives it poor soils, which combined with the dry climate means that it's been almost entirely deforested for farming and cattle ranching. Birding-wise there's very little reason to visit it, except as a necessary stopover on the way to the Kangean Islands to the east with their little-known endemic tit-babbler and almost-certainly-extinct shama. 

Still, I'd come all the way out there so I was determined to try and squeeze in some birding. My first and only chance came on my one morning on the island, when I got up before sunrise and walked to the nearest green spot I could find on Google Maps. That happened to be a little estuary that was rather optimistically named Bancaran Tourism Area. The "tourism area" consisted of a dirt road along the river leading to a crumbling boardwalk going through the coastal mangrove forest. Mangroves are just about the last decent natural habitat left on Madura and it was fairly birdy that morning, with lots of House Swifts circling over the river and some decent mangrove birds like Common Ioras, White-shouldered Trillers, Black-naped Orioles, Olive-backed Tailorbirds, and Crimson-breasted Flowerpeckers. At the end of the boardwalk I was able to peek through the trees to a distant mudflat, where there were some surprisingly good water birds including Bar-tailed Godwits, Eurasian Curlews, Gull-billed Terns, Great Crested Terns, and even a few Black-headed Gulls which are rare visitors to Java. 

House Swift

White-shouldered Triller

My terrible record shot of a Black-headed Gull, along with a Grey Heron, Eurasian Curlew, and some other terns

Scarlet Skimmer (Crocothemis servilia)

Common Sun Skink (Eutropis multifasciata)

Slender Skimmer (Orthetrum sabina)

Long-tailed Macaque being its usual vaguely menacing self

White-cheeked Carpenter (Xylocopa aestuans) on a passionflower 

Oriental Straight Swift (Parnara bada)

Asian House Gecko, strangely enough not in a house

The river near the start of the tourism area

I flew back to Jakarta later that day, and spent the rest of the week in various meetings and conferences. I did manage to get out with my camera one late afternoon right before sunset to do some urban birding. In a little garden area next to my hotel there were several fruit bats of some sort feeding in the treetops, joined by a flock of noisy Red-breasted Parakeets and a Coppersmith Barbet of the red-faced Javan subspecies. In the Gelora Bung Karno gardens I saw much of the same, including even more fruit bats feeding in a different kind of tree. 

One of the reasons I struggle to get into mammal-watching is how damn hard it is to ID so many species, even if you can get a good luck. I have lots of pictures of this individual in various angles but according to the bat guys on iNaturalist it can only be IDed down to genus level (Cynopterus sp.)

Red-breasted Parakeet

Coppersmith Barbet

Spotted Dove

Yet another unidentified fruit bat (Cynopterus sp.)

Sunset from my hotel room

The weekend of February 7 I had Saturday and half of Sunday free before I was set to fly back to the US. Of course I had to get out of Jakarta and go somewhere, although I wasn't sure where since January and February are the low season for birding in Java; it's rainy, muddy, and birds tend to be nesting rather than singing or responding to playback. I got in touch with Desi who had guided me last time I was in Indonesia and we eventually decided to visit Carita Forest Reserve, a park on the far west side of Java in the province of Banten. By now I've seen almost all of the Javan endemic birds, and the ones I haven't are either virtually extinct or in far-away areas that can't be visited in 1.5 days during the rainy season. With that in mind I just wanted to have a nice couple days of birding in Java, and Carita seemed like the best place for that. 

Desi picked me up very early on the morning of February 7, and we made the 3-hour drive west to Carita before sunrise. At the entrance to Carita Forest Reserve we met up with a couple of local birders who would accompany us and dropped our car, as it was necessary to take motorcycles into the reserve. The first place we stopped was a bend in the road where there was a roosting pair of Javan Frogmouths, as well as a Javan Banded Pitta nest that seemed to be unoccupied. There were a few pittas calling deep in the forest, but we never managed to see any of them and it was otherwise very quiet–which proved to be the norm for that weekend. 

The entrance to Carita Forest Reserve

Javan Frogmouths

Our next stop was further inside the forest reserve, where there was a little hide set up. Javan Banded Pittas are apparently regulars there during other parts of the year, but now they were all too busy with their nests to come and find mealworms. A few other birds did visit, including a pair of Javan Black-crowned Babblers and a single Temminck's Babbler, as well as a very cute Horsfield's Tree Shrew. 

Javan Black-crowned Babbler

Temminck's Babbler

Horsfield's Tree Shrew helping itself to some mealworms

Once it became clear that there weren't going to be any new visitors to the hide I decided it was time to move on, as sitting in a hide for hours getting several hundred versions of the same picture isn't really my style of birding. We got back on the motorcycles and headed further into the park until we reached the head of a trail going up a river valley and into the crater of the extinct volcano that's the heart of Carita. We mostly had the trail to ourselves for the first half hour, but after that the number of hikers steadily increased as fellow weekenders from Jakarta began to make their way through on the way to the waterfalls that were further in.

We spent the next few hours hiking along the trail seeing what birds were around. It was a nice trail that went through good-quality forest, but the birds were few and far between–February really is a terrible time for forest birding in Java. In the few small mixed flocks we encountered were a number of Scarlet Minivets, Olive-backed Tailorbirds, Cream-vented Bulbuls, Black-winged Flycatcher-Shrikes, and a pair of Lesser Cuckooshrikes which was a new Indonesia bird for me. A Crested Serpent-Eagle circled above a distant ridge top and we heard a Javan Hawk-Eagle calling but it never came into view. Also heard only was a Banded Kingfisher, which would have been nice to get another look at. I was happy to get a little flock of Grey-cheeked Tit-Babblers, but possibly the bird highlight of the hike was a very showy male Javan Sunbird.

Female Scarlet Minivet

Grey-cheeked Tit-Babbler

Black-winged Flycatcher-Shrike

Lesser Cuckooshrike

Javan Sunbird

While the birds were underwhelming, it was a tropical rainforest which meant that it was chock-full of other interesting things: several kinds of lizards, a cool frog, butterflies, beetles, spiders, begonias, and much more. I didn't have any bird lifers but I nonetheless ended up with hundreds of observations for my iNaturalist.

Caryanda spuria, an endemic grasshopper

A cool flea beetle (Lema praeusta)

Leptataspis fuscipennis, an endemic froghopper

Ropalidia fasciata, a little paper wasp

Hemithyrsocera histrio, the type of cockroach that's actually nice to see

Yellow-lined Forest Skink (Sphenomorphus sanctus)

Laccoptera tredecimpunctata, a cool tortoise beetle

Chocolate Pansy (Junonia iphita)

Oriental Long-tailed Grass Lizard (Takydromus sexlineatus)

A gorgeous little metalmark moth (Choreutis sp.)

Glipa malaccana, a weird beetle

Some kind of cool assassin bug (Ectrichodiini sp.)

Cirrhochroa clagia, a rare brush-footed butterfly

A gorgeous clearwing moth of some sort (Melittia sp.)

Fringed Flying Dragon (Draco fimbriatus), I think

Parallel-spined Spiny Orbweaver (Gasteracantha diardii)

Sundanese Gossamerwing (Euphaea variegata)

Traulia flavoannulata, another endemic grasshopper

Thiania demissa, a gorgeous little jumping spider

A huge noctuid moth of some sort (Gangarides sp.)

Some kind of beautiful little damselfly

Some kind of hoverfly

Some kind of giant millipede

Javan White-lipped Frog (Chalcorana chalconota)

Some sort of ichneumonid wasp (Cryptinae sp.)

A soldier fly (Clitillarea bilineata) facing off against an ant

Common Sun Skink (Eutropis multifasciata) chilling on a branch

Common Southeast Asian Tree Frog (Polypedates leucomystax)

Eventually we turned around and headed back to the trailhead–not a moment too soon, as we were caught in a torrential monsoon downpour that forced us off our motorbikes and into a roadside shelter. Once the rain let up we continued downhill and had lunch at a little eatery along the main road serving delicious Minang cuisine. 

After lunch we checked into the hotel then headed south to a spot along the coast where there was a chance of looking for some water birds–since if the forest was going to be quiet I figured I might as well try to pad my Indonesia bird list. That spot happened to be the grounds of what used to be a fancy beach resort before it was abandoned during the pandemic (remember that?). It had only been closed down for 5 years ago but the jungle was already well on its way to overtaking it, with all the buildings covered in vines and saplings. It was a bit spooky but also oddly hopeful, seeing how easily nature can rebound if it's given a chance.

The grounds of the abandoned resort

We made our way through the abandoned resort to the beach to see if we could find any water birds. As beaches go it wasn't anything to write home about, just a stretch of grey sand covered in driftwood and a good amount of trash. There were a few waders around, but only a few: Javan Plovers, Tibetan Sand Plovers, Common Sandpipers, Sanderlings, a Whimbrel, and a single Ruddy Turnstone as well as a Lesser Coucal sunning itself on a snag. The most interesting bird was a snipe of some sort that we flushed but couldn't ID; any of the migratory snipes are rare in Java but getting an IDable look is almost impossible.

Javan Plover

Ruddy Turnstone

Sanderling

Ruddy Turnstone and Sanderling being pals

Some cool tiger beetles (Abroscelis longipes)

A cute little ghost crab (Ocypode kuhlii, I think)

The beach near Carita

Back at the entrance to the abandoned resort we went into the creepy former lobby building where there was a roosting pair of Eastern Barn Owls, which definitely didn't help the creepy vibes. 

Eastern Barn Owl

After a quick dinner we headed back into the forest reserve to try some night birding. Unsurprisingly considering how quiet the daytime had been, we had very little in the way of calling birds of any sort–only a single distant Javan Frogmouth. With my thermal I picked up a few roosting Javan Banded Pittas and, more interestingly, several Sunda Colugos, which was a mammal lifer for me. We also found a very cool Elegant Bronzeback snake hanging out in a tree next to the road. 

Roosting Javan Banded Pitta

Sunda Colugo, no doubt happy it doesn't have to worry about giant eagles like its cousin in the Philippines

Elegant Bronzeback (Dendrelaphis formosus)

Once it became clear we weren't going to find much inside the forest reserve we checked out the grounds of a big resort on the beach that was (surprisingly) a known spot for Javan Slow Loris. We didn't see any lorises, and while I kept picking out animals with my thermal it was all roosting day birds like Eurasian Tree Sparrows and Yellow-eared Barbets. On the way out we picked up some more interesting animals, including a Large-tailed Nightjar, an Oriental Whipsnake, and a Sunda Leopard Cat! 

Sunda Leopard Cat

Large-tailed Nightjar

Oriental Whipsnake (Ahaetulla prasina)

The next morning we were back at the forest reserve bright and early in hopes of finding some interesting birds. Unfortunately, the second morning was just as quiet as the first. Just after sunrise we heard a Javan Owlet calling but never managed to get more than brief looks at it despite trying for almost an hour. We also heard a Common Flameback calling, an uncommon bird in Java, but also never actually saw it. Thankfully there were enough cool bugs and other wildlife to distract us from the lack of birds.

Javan Lutung

Dusky Partwing (Psolos fuligo)

Branded Imperial (Eooxylides tharis)

Paddyfield Frog (Fejervarya limnocharis)

Heteropoda ocyalina, a huge huntsman spider

Thoradonta nodulosa, a little pygmy grasshopper

Eventually we decided to cut our losses and head to a nearby rice field to look for open country birds. To my delight the spot happened to be near a colony of Streaked Weavers, which was actually a lifer for me–my only lifer of the Indonesia leg of the trip. I love weavers, and I always forget there are a few good ones in Southeast Asia, as well as the African birds I'm more familiar with. 

Streaked Weaver

Lesser Grass Blue (Zizina otis)

Purple Cleome (Cleome rutidosperma)

Some pretty Coleus flowers (Coleus scutellarioides)

Rice fields outside Carita

I was flying out that evening, so we bid goodbye to our Carita birding companions and made the 3-hour drive back to Jakarta. We arrived late afternoon, and with the remaining daylight decided to check out the coastal areas of North Jakarta near the airport. We first stopped at a very fancy subdivision where there had been recent records of the very rare and declining Javan White-Eye, but came up with zero white-eyes. There were a few other birds though, like a friendly Zitting Cisticola and a female Pied Triller. 

Sooty-headed Bulbul in the subdivision

Zitting Cisticola

Pied Triller

Just before sunset we visited a little public baywalk next to the mangroves of Muara Angke, famous among birders for its population of Milky Storks and handful of Javan Coucals (which I've dipped on many times). It was low tide, which meant that there was a wide expanse of mudflats exposed. They were mostly covered in trash and driftwood, but there were good numbers of shorebirds, including Pacific Golden Plovers, Tibetan and Greater Sand Plovers, Pied Stilts, Wood Sandpipers, a single Kentish Plover, Red-necked Stints, and some good resident birds including Sunda Teals, Javan Plovers, and a few Milky Storks. There were no white-eyes in the mangroves, but we did see a little Cerulean Kingfisher and some Pink-necked Green Pigeons.

Milky Stork

Pink-necked Green Pigeon

Jakarta Bay from the baywalk

That was all we had time for, as the sun was setting and I needed to get to the airport to catch my flight back to DC. While I can wholeheartedly recommend birding in Java at a time of year that's not January or February, it was still a fun time catching up with nice birds I hadn't seen in a year or more, plus other cool wildlife.