Rafflesia Information Centre and Kinabalu National Park

Mr. Ku Kok On and myself went to Rafflesia Centre and Kinabalu Park over a period of four days, including two days spent on travelling. 

Here is what we saw, photographs of those that I managed to capture will be shown in this blog in due course.

We left Tawau at 6.30 am on 28th August amidst the still pouring rain which started earlier in the morning and flooded a few housing estates. We reached Rafflesia Information Centre slightly after 4.00 pm. We were greeted there by the following birds before it got too dark for us to check ourselves in to Gunung Alab Resort.

1. Chestnut-hooded Laughing-thrush Rhinocichla treacheri (Bornean endemic)

2. Bornean Laughingthrush Melanocichla calva (Bornean endemic) (Too dark to get a photograph)

3. Orange-headed Thrush Zoothera citrina

4. Whitehead's Broadbill Calyptomena whiteheadi (Bornean endemic)

Dramatic sunset from Gunung Alab Resort

The next day, 29th August, our haul included the following from Gunung Alab Reserve and Rafflesia Information Centre.

5. Short-tailed Green Magpie Cissa thalassina (Too dark to get a photograph)

6. Mountain Black-eye Chlorocharis emiliae (Bornean endemic)

7. White-throated Fantail Rhipidura albicollis

8. Ashy Drongo Dicurus leucophaeus

9. Golden-naped Barbet Megalaima pulcherrima (Bornean endemic)

10. Indigo Flycatcher Eumyias indigo

11. Glossy Swiftlet Collocalia esculenta and may be Bornean Swiftlet Collocalia dodgei (Bornean endemic), impossible to separate in the field and both species occurs at this altitude.

12. Mountain Imperial Pigeon Ducula badia

13. Chestnut-crested Yuhina Yuhina everetti (Bornean endemic)

14. Bornean Bulbul Pycnonotus montis (Bornean endemic)

15. Little Cuckoo Dove Macropygia ruficeps

16. Whitehead's  Spiderhunter Arachnothera juliae (Bornean endemic)

17. Black-capped White-eye Zosterops atricapilla 

18. Mountain Barbet Megalaima monticola (Bornean endemic)

19. Grey-throated Babbler Stachyris nigriceps

  This is me at Rafflesia Information Centre

We birded at Rafflesia Centre on the morning of 30th August and saw;

20. Fruithunter Chlamydochaera jefferyi (Bornean endemic)

21. Bar-winged Flycatcher shrike Hemipus Picatus

22. Bornean Flowerpecker Dicaeum monticolum (Bornean endemic)

23. Long-tailed Broadbill Psarisomus dalhousiae (Too fast to get a photograph)

24. Sunda Cuckoo-shrike Coracina larvata 
25. Temminck's Sunbird Aothopyga temminckii

Ku making a video of  the Chestnut Crested Yuhina's nest hole

We left for Kinabalu Park at noon, saw (26.) Blyth's Hawk-eagle Spizaetus alboniger while we were driving,

The afternoon was a complete wash-out by the non-stopping rain at Kinabalu Park.

On the morning of 31st August, we were at Kinabalu Park from 6.20 am to 10.00 am and had the following birds added to our list.

27. Bornean Whistling Thrush Myophonus borneensis (Bornean endemic) (Too dark to get a photograph)

28. Sunda Laughing-thrush Garrulax palliatus (Too dark to get a photograph)

29. Grey-chinned Minivet Pericrocotus solaris

30. Little-pied Flycatcher Ficedula westermanni

31. Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinera

32. Mountain Leaf-warbler Phylloscopus trivirgatus

33. Eye-browed Jungle Flycatcher Rhinomyias gularis (Bornean endemic)

34. Black-and-crimson Oriole Oriolus cruentus

35. Bornean Treepie Dendrocitta cinerascens (Bornean endemic)

36. White-browed Shrike Babbler Pteruthius flaviscapis 
37. Bornean Whistler Pachycephala hypoxantha (Bornean endemic)

At least 16 out of the 37 birds are Bornean endemics and I have 7 birds which I have not photographed before, all in all not a bad harvest for a 2 days session.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo

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