Visits to Mount Silam, Lahad Datu and surrounding areas.

Some birds and a mammal on earlier visits to Mount Silam and surrounding areas.



Green Imperial Pigeon (Ducula aenea). Pied Imperial Pigeons  (Ducula bicolor) and Black-naped Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus malanospila), resident on off-shore islands are also reported to visit Silam coast.

Little Spiderhunter (Arachnothera longirostra)

Rufous-winged Philentoma (Philenthoma pyrhopterum)

Brown Fulvetta (Alcippe brunneicauda)

Moustached Babbler (Malacopteron magnirostre)

Erpornis (Erpornis zantholeuca)

Greater Mouse-deer (Tragulus napu)

White-crowned Shama (Copsychus stricklandii)

White-crowned Shama (Copsychus stricklandii)

Black Eagle (Ictinaetus malayensis)

White-bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster)

Temminck's Sunbird (Aethopyga temminckii), generally a bird of higher altitude.

Cream-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus simplex)

Heard there are other rare treasures there, will try again some other day.

Happy birding.

Maroon-breasted Philentoma

There are two species of Philentomas in Borneo, the commonner Rufous-winged Philentoma Philentoma pyrhopterum and Maroon-breasted Philentoma Philentoma Velata caesia.

Philentomas were previously treated as Flycatchers but DNA studies show that they are related to the Woodshrikes and thus are now placed in the family Vangini with Woodshrikes.

Maroon-breasted Philentoma  is an uncommon resident of Borneo, occurring from sea-level to 1,650 meters in the Kelabit Highland. In Sabah, it only occurs up to 1,200 meters in the Crocker Range. The male bird poses no difficulty in field identification with its maroon coloured breast. The female bird needs a little more attention as it looks  similar to the blue morph male of the Rufous-winged Philentoma, however, they can be distinguished by darker face and breast and no paler vent for Maroon-breasted.

It is classified as Near-Threatened by BirdLife International in 2001. Justification per BirdLife is as follows: This forest-dependent species is listed as Near Threatened because it is assumed to have experienced moderately rapid declines owing to the extensive loss of lowland forests from large areas of South-East Asia. It is not considered more threatened because it can use secondary habitats and occurs in lower montane forest.

This was taken in Tawau, my lifer bird (my #323 photographed wild birds of Borneo).

Male

Male

Female

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo 

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