Birding trip report Sabah, Borneo 01.07. – 19.07. 2018 Borneo's rainforests need little introduction, being one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. The forests hold some of the world's most impressive and sought-after birds, but sadly, the biggest part of the island's primary forest has been destroyed to make way for oil palm plantations. Driving through the countryside for hours is quite depressing, with plantations stretching to the horizon. Visiting the remaining rainforests is still definitely worth it though, as a large number of special birds and primates can be seen, and because it is possible that they might not exist for much longer. We arrived in Borneo directly from a great trip to Thailand. Unfortunately, my father had to head back to Colombo to work and therefore couldn't join us for this leg of the trip. The focus was to see as many of the beautiful and endemic species as possible. The main targets were pittas, hornbills, the iconic Bornean Bristlehead, Everett's Thrush, partridges, pheasants, the Whitehead's Trio (Trogon, Broadbill an Spiderhunter), and many other endemics and specials. Mammals were also high on the wish list, especially Bornean Orangutan, Proboscis Monkey and Bornean Pygmy Elephant. To maximise our chances of seeing the targets, we visited many of the top bird and mammal- watching spots in Sabah, Mt Kinabalu National Park, Poring Hot Springs, Sepilok Rainforest Discovery Centre, Kinabatangan River and Danum Valley Field Centre. The birding turned out to be hard in most of the places, with the weather playing a big role. While there was too much rain every day on Mt Kinabalu (we lost two afternoons), Danum Valley was very dry, making birds, primarily pittas, very hard to find. The trip still turned out to be very successful, and the trip total was 214 species (and an additional 11 heard only), some of the highlights being: • Everett's Thrush next to a trail at noon in Kinabalu National Park • a close pair of Whitehead's Trogon in Kinabalu NP • Golden-naped Barbet feeding at arm's length in Kinabalu NP • great views of Bornean Orangutan (seen on six days), Proboscis Monkey and six other species of monkey (including Slow Loris) • Red Giant Flying Squirrels and Flying Lizards • Binturong on the Danum Valley entrance road • 12 woodpeckers and all 10 species of sunbird • Red-breasted and Chestnut-necklaced Partridges • Storm's Stork at Kinabatangan River • Bornean Bristlehead at Danum Valley • seven sightings of Crested Fireback at Danum • Black-headed and Blue-headed Pittas • The last day in Danum was probably the best birding day in my life. In the morning, we observed a calling Malaysian Honeguide at the grid, one of Danum's toughest birds, while in the early afternoon I saw Bornean Blue Flycatcher after a 5-minute search. Afterwards, on the entrance road, I had Crested Partridge, Jambu Fruit Dove and Black-and-white Bulbul within a few seconds of each other! Later, we found Chestnut-capped Thrush and Large Green Pigeon at exactly the same spot as the previous species! On a small stroll to the campsite in the evening, we finally saw at least two Great Argus directly next to the track, one bird even crossing it! Planning The trip of course required lots of planning to maximize the chances of seeing the specials and as many other species as possible. Previous trip reports proved very useful and supplied most information on what species could be expected, where to look for them, etc. Most of the valuable trip reports can be found on Cloudbirders and Surfbirds. I collected the information and put it together, so I would know what species should be searched for wherever we were. Learning the calls was also very useful before the trip. Had I not done so we would have missed many specials, for example Malaysian Honeyguide and Bornean Bristlehead. We did not hire a car and found that the trip was easily manageable with public transport and sometimes taxis. Minivans and especially buses have acceptable rates even for tourists, who get often charged a higher rate than locals, and we could often be dropped very close to the places we needed to go. On Mt Kinabalu, it is useful to have a car though to drive up the Power Station road earlier than the shuttles start (especially to see Everett's Thrush, which is regularly seen on the road verge in the morning). Accommodation Some searching was required to find suitable places to stay, as many of the accommodation options were already fully booked by the time we started planning in May. However, we ended up with adequate to good accommodation everywhere. We booked most places through Booking.com or Agoda. Kota Kinabalu In Kota Kinabalu we stayed in the Akinabalu Youth Hostel, which was good value for money (MYR 70 for a double room incl. breakfast) and is conveniently close to the bus stop from where you go to Mt Kinabalu. Mount Kinabalu NP We stayed in J Residence, which is situated 300m from the park entrance. The room was very cold at night and there were no places to hang up your wet clothing, but otherwise it was fine. The price was around MYR 65 per room / night. The accommodation inside the park is overpriced but has the obvious advantage of being closer to the trails. Poring Hot Springs The Poring Hot Springs hostel from Sutera Sanctuary Lodges was fully booked. The advantage is that it is very close to the start of the trails and you don't have to wait until 7:00 for the hot springs complex to open. Instead, we stayed at Kinabalu Poring Vacation Lodge, which is about 1 km from the hot springs - quite a tough walk in the sun after the steep and slippery 7 km waterfall trail, which is the place to see the specials. The accommodation is a farm-style homestay run by very friendly owners. We stayed in a six-bed dorm which he had to ourselves for MYR 30 per person excluding breakfast. Sepilok Most birders seem to choose Sepilok B&B, but this was fully booked, so we booked two beds in a mixed dormitory in Nature Lodge Sepilok for MYR 40 per person/night. From here it is an easy 800 m walk to the Rainforest Discovery Centre. The dorms are very clean and spacious, and they have a good restaurant. Breakfast was included but we chose a packed breakfast to be on the boardwalk at sunrise. Kinabatangan river For Kinabatangan there seem to be either relatively cheap accommodations with variable ratings or top-end places like Sukau Rainforest Lodge or Kinabatangan Jungle Camp, but nothing in between. If you are not on a tight budget, I suggest you staying the latter two lodges, as they provide better guides and focus more on wildlife and birding. We stayed in Kinabatangan Sunshine Lodge, which offered a 4D3N package. The guide was not very good, unfortunately. He was scared all the time on trails and always made a lot of noise. The boat's engine also failed once, so we were floating on the river while he desperately tried to fix it for about half an hour. The food at the lodge was good though, and the boat cruises bring you into the right habitat to see the monkeys and some of the birds. It is not advisable to go to this lodge if you are hoping to see Bornean Ground Cuckoo though, as the cruises don't bring you to the right places. Danum Valley We stayed in the Danum Valley Field Centre (DVFC). It is the only alternative to the insanely expensive Borneo Rainforest Lodge, but it's still not cheap either. There are several accommodation options - camping, dorms and two larger room types. We chose to stay in the single-sex hostels, as the other options were even more overpriced. The dorms were nearly fully booked by an English school group, so it seems to be necessary to book in advance nowadays. The washroom was not regularly cleaned, and the dorms were very mouldy, but we only slept there so it wasn't a very big problem. We brought our own food for breakfast and lunch but had dinner at the restaurant, which is quite good. Contacting the DVFC was a bit of a challenge, as there were several emails, but the one we eventually used for booking was [email protected]. Our costs were the following: Conservation Fee @ RM50.00 per person; Hostel @ RM105.00 per person per night; Dinner @ RM60.00 per person per meal; DVFC Scheduled Transfer (Monday, Wednesday & Friday) @ RM95.00 per person per way; Night Drive @ RM160.00 per vehicle, guided walk @ RM 30 per hour. Itinerary 1. July Arrival Kota Kinabalu 2. July Kota Kinabalu - Kinabalu National Park 3. July Kinabalu NP 4. July Kinabalu NP 5. July Kinabalu NP 6. July Kinabalu NP - Poring Hot Springs 7. July Poring Hot Springs - Sepilok 8. July Sepilok 9. July Sepilok 10. July Sepilok - Kinabatangan river 11. July Kinabatangan river 12. July Kinabatangan river 13. July Kinabatangan river - Danum Valley Field Centre 14. July Danum Valley Field Centre 15. July Danum Valley Field Centre 16. July Danum Valley Field Centre 17. July Danum Valley Field Centre 18. July Danum Valley Field Centre - Lahad Datu 19. July Lahad Datu - Kota Kinabalu Day-by-day account 1. July We arrived at Kota Kinabalu International Airport in the evening. There are taxi vouchers available for MYR30 to the city centre, we shared the price with two other travelers we met on the plane as both our accommodations were close to the centre.