Gunung Lucia of Tawau Hills Park, Part 1

Gunung Lucia, at 1,201 m above sea level, is one of the several landmarks within Tawau Hills Park. It is 13.25 km of uphill jungle trekking from Park Headquarters, Lucia Camp is at 10.55 km for you to rest for the night as it might be too tiring for ordinary folks like me to finish the trip in a day.

Gunung Madgelena is slightly less than 4 km further away and about 100 m higher up.

Members of the public are only allowed access to these two mountains, they share the same trail for most of the journey, visitors to both mountains use the same Lucia Camp for accommodation.

With their high altitudes, they are two of the few accessible, albeit tough to go,  places in east coast of Sabah to see some montane and sub-montane birds.

Here are some images of the journey. Birds will come in part 2.

At Park HQ before the hike.Compare the persons in this to the last photo when we are at the summit, here we are fully charged while in the last photo we are all spent.

Direction Sign at 1.7 km indicating that there is 10.7 km to go.

Muddy and slippery climb right after 2 km.

Location map at the edge of Kerangas forest.

View of Kerangas forest.

Another view of Kerangas forest.

Resting Hut at 6 km, located inside the Kerangas Forest.

This is the second resting hut, it is at 8 km.

Typical look of the trail.

Lucia Camp, we stayed here for 2 nights, it has piped spring water but no electricity, it has beds for sleeping and utensils for cooking. Without a trace of light, the starscape here is nothing short of spectacular.

Directional sign after another rest hut at 12 km, here the trail splits into two, the one going to the left leads to Gunung Magdelena. Of course, we took the shorter one.

Ku and Kong on the trail next to a wall of over hanging mosses before the summit of Lucia.

Ground Zero.

My bird photography buddies, Kong Ket Leong, Ku Kok On and myself.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of the wild birds of Borneo.

Standard references for my blog.

Kingfishers' pond, Tawau Hills Park

The little Water Lily Nymphaea sp. and Lotus Nelumbo nucifera pond behind Magdalena's Chalet in Tawau Hills Park has not been officially named, but bird photographers have unofficially named it Kingfishers' pond for the relative ease in taking photograph of four species of Kingfishers, all within an area smaller than a badminton court.

Magdalena Chalet is built on raised flooring on concrete stilts, the space beneath its floor is an excellent hide for lurking photographers.

  View from outside

 

View from inside

 Another view from inside

These are the kingfishers photographed around the pond.

Stork-billed Kingfisher Pelargopsis capensis

Blue-eared Kingfisher Alcedo meninting

 

Rufous-backed Kingfisher Ceyx rufidorsa motleyi, a bird only found in northern Borneo.

Blue-banded Kingfisher Alcedo euryzona Male

Blue-banded Kingfisher Alcedo euryzona Female

Blue Banded Kingfisher is not an easy bird to see elsewhere in Sabah.

Common Kingfisher has not been photographed here, we will keep an eye for it during the migratory seasons.


Happy birding.

Photodocument of the wild birds of Borneo.

Standard references for my blog.

Field identification of the three male Blue Flycatchers of Tawau Hills Park

The male of Bornean Blue Flycatcher Cyornis superbus, Mangrove Blue Flycatcher Cyornis rufigastra and Large-billed Blue Flycatcher Cyornis caerulatus are little blue flycatchers with blue upperparts and varying rufous orange underparts found along the trails of Tawau Hills Park. They are similar looking birds of about same size, which are confusing at first glance, but with more careful observations, they can be separated with ease.

The female of all three are distinct and unmistakable, if a pair is seen together, their ID should be readily confirmed.

The males, on the other hand, are a different story, they look puzzling at first but there are subtle features to tell them apart as described below.

Bornean Blue Flycatcher

The identification features of male Bornean Blue Flycatcher are lack of dark chin and a bright shiny turquoise blue down its mantle and back as indicated in the above image.



This species is endemic to Borneo.

Mangrove Blue Flycatcher

Though Tawau Hills Park is considered quite inland, and is lack of any mangrove trees, Mangrove Blue Flycatchers do occur here, see my earlier post here.

You can see that Mangrove Blue does have dark chin, contrary to the plate in Susan Myers, however, its mantle and back lacks the bright and shiny turquoise blue of the Bornean Blue. Its upperparts are also more uniformly colored.

Large-billed Blue Flycatcher

This image is courtesy of Kong Ket Leong

Large-billed Blue Flycatcher, on the other hand has relatively more saturated and extensive rufous orange underparts,  the legs look paler on birds that I have photographed.

It has more extensive dark chin than Mangrove Blue. Its back is dull blue in contrast to the darker mantle, whereas Mangrove Blue has the back uniformly colored with the mantle.

Large-billed Blue Flycatcher is only found on Borneo and Sumatra.

In Summary, the key to separate them is as follows:

1. If no dark chin = Bornean Blue Flycatcher.

2. If has dark chin

                    2A, back and mantle uniformly colored = Mangrove Blue Flycatcher.

                    2B, mantle dark and back dull blue = Large-billed Blue Flycatcher.

It is not that hard, is it?

Happy birding.

Photodocument of the wild birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.