Rounding out Mindanao
After getting back from our trip to Japan, I had another three weeks in the Philippines with Nikki before I had to return to the US. We were mostly in Sorsogon for that time, but I had a work trip in Manila which meant time for a weekend outing. With these couple days to spare, I was finally able to convince Nikki that we should make a trip to Zamboanga City, in the far west of Mindanao. Zamboanga was a place I had been itching to get to for years, for a variety of reasons. Bird-wise, it was because it's home to the eponymous Zamboanga Bulbul, found only on the Zamboanga Peninsula and the only Mindanao-endemic bird I had yet to see after getting Slaty-backed Jungleflycatcher and Apo Myna in Intavas earlier this year. It also has a variety of surprisingly good birding spots, hosting some of Mindanao's last remaining lowland forest, and a very active little group of birders has sprung up there. More people looking means more good birds, and aside from the bulbul they had man...