Whitehead's Broadbill

Whitehead's Broadbill Calyptomena whiteheadi, the largest of the three green broadbills of Borneo, is an uncommon montane endemic of the pristine forests from Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, along spinal range of Borneo to Gunung Timbang, Sarawak/Kalimantan Timur. However, it can be common in localities during times when fruits are abundant.

I once photographed this species in Rafflesia Centre at the end of May, 2009, at that time there was no fruiting trees at the Centre, so they just moved-on without staying long for me to get decent photographs. See this post.

However, this visit of mine at the end of August coincided with fruiting of some trees at Rafflesia Centre and two of them came to feed which allowed me an opportunity to get some photographs. It was a pity that the position that I have to shoot from was facing the bright sky.

Female

Male

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo

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2nd Borneo Bird Festival

Hi friends, here is a photo-summary of the 2nd Borneo Bird Festival in Rainforest Discovery Centre in Sepilok Sandakan over the week end from 15th to 17th of October 2010. It was a carnival there over the three days and the event was well attended by both local and foreign visitors. 

Informative and thoughts provoking lectures were delivered by famous names from the birding and ornithological fraternity of Borneo and Southeast Asia.

 

To the delight of birders and photographers, the evergreen star bird, Bristlehead Pityriasis gymnocephala, affectionately called BB, showed up on the second day. The up and coming starbird, the resident Ruddy Kingfisher Halcyon coromanda, which is equal match to Bristlehead also showed up every day on its favorite pond. 

 The opening

 The Borneo Bird Club Booth

Bird photographers' rigs

 

 Bird Race Flagging off

 The usual shower in the Rainforest

 The usual shower in the Rainforest

Professor Pilai Poonswad, Thailand Hornbill Project

Mr Dennis J.I.Salvador, Philippine Eagle Foundation

 Professor Frederick H Sheldon, Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, USA

 Mr Quentin Phillips, author of Phillipps' Field Guide to The Birds of Borneo

 Mr David Bakewell, MNS Bird Conservation Council Waterbirds Group

 

Photographers waiting for the Ruddy Kingfisher

 

 Waiting for the Red-giant Flying Squirrel to wake up at dusk.

Happy Birding.

Ashy Bulbul (Sociable Bulbul)

Ashy Bulbul Hemixos flavala is widely distributed in Southeast Asia and colourings and markings of the birds differ significantly across populations and regions.

In Borneo, it is chiefly a montane and sub-montane bird, but also found occasionally at sea-level. I have photographed it in montane forests of Rafflesia Centre and also in a hill near Tawau, which is one to two hundred feet above sea level.

The Bornean bird is of the endemic race connectens which has bright olive wings and tails, a puff white throat, and a yellow vent, it vaguely resembles the Ochraceous Bulbul Criniger ochraceus,  but it is smaller, quieter, and more of a canopy bird.

Susan Myers classified this under Cinereous Bulbul Hemixos cinereus connectens following Fishpool & Tobias (2005) who separated the Sunda (Borneo, Sumatra and Malay Peninsula) forms from those of Himalayas, China, and Southeast Asia under cinereus.

Both Clive Mann and Quentin Phillips rejected Fishpool & Tobias and treated this as Hemixos flavala connectens as the Borneo race is quite unlike the dull grey Cinereous Bulbul of Sumatra and Malay Peninsula and is a potential Bornean endemic with the scientific name Hemixos connectens and a proposed common name of Sociable Bulbul.

Interestingly, Craig Robson also rejected Fishpool & Tobias and continued to treat the cinereus race that occurs  southwards from Southern Thailands as Hemixos flavala cinereus with common name Ashy Bulbul in his latest Birds of Southeast Asia.

Here is the bird photographed in montane forest of Rafflesia Centre.

Here is the bird photographed in lowland forest near Tawau.

May be sometime in the near future we get to welcome the new endemic bulbul of Borneo.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo

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