The first of a dazzling brace of pittas at the PICOP concession - this beautiful emerald and scarlet RED-BELLIED PITTA was soaked through following a recent bout of
very heavy rain.
One of only two endemic pittas in the Philippines (and the only one that we had a realistic chance of on the tour) - the breathtaking STEERE'S (AZURE-BREASTED) PITTA, PICOP.
13th March: Bislig Airfield (MINDANAO) Grasslands and marshy pools.
An extremely early start was necessary due to the unfriendly scheduling of the domestic flights to Davao on Mindanao, the largest city in the Philippines and indeed in terms of geographical area, one of the largest in the world. From there we boarded our vans and headed to the small city of Bislig in the eastern province of Surigao Del Sur, that would be our base for exploring the lowland forest patches of the PICOP concession over the coming days. Although we skirted some of PICOPs forests on the way, the long traveling time meant we arrived by the time the heat of the day had laid most of the birds to rest although an 'emergency' stop had to be made for a squadron of low-flying needletails, that proved to be a group of 15 or so Purple Needeletails that had somehow eluded us on Luzon, so particularly pleasing to get them then. We also bumped into our first Barred Honey Buzzard of the tour, that we had been expecting to see over the coming days around PICOP. After our afternoon arrival we spent the latter part of the day birding the grasses and marshland that border Bislig airfield, that despite apparently being an active airfield clearly must have very little traffic judging by the number of locals exercising and fishing around the edges of the it! A quick kick about the grassy margins produced the hoped for Blue-breasted Quail, along with a few Paddyfield (Oriental) Pipits. While a few Wandering Whistling-Ducks and Philippine Ducks flying around the airfield betrayed the presence of some hidden pools in the area, while Oriental Reed-Warblers sang from beside the reed fringed runway. From our vantage point on top of our jeepney that would be our vehicle over the coming days, we scanned the marshes as dusk approached for our main quarry that appeared well before the sun began dropping over the horizon, when the first of three Australian Grass-Owls appeared quartering the marshes; although waiting until after dark was required for our other night quarry - when a pair of 'chonking' Philippine Nightjars were watched flying around the runway a short time after dark.
14th March: PICOP (MINDANAO) Lowland forest.
PICOP is potentially one of the most depressing places to bird in the Philippines, as the lowland forests here are part of a large logging concession. So the birding is within an area that is largely theoretically doomed to the chainsaw anyway, and to add to that hundreds, (if not thousands) of illegal settlers are also working there way to deforesting the area further. Thus every new trip to PICOP can be full of surprises due to to the rapidly changing nature of the habitat there. For this reason we were grateful for the services of the local guide Zardo Goring, whose up to-the-minute information helped us concentrate our efforts on the best available forest patches. Despite all this gloom, for sure I would say any Philippine bird tour would be foolish to miss this place as it is the key site for many endemics and specifically for some very cool Mindanao lowland specialties, many of which are not possible elsewhere, and are often contenders for birds of the trip on any tour. This tour was no exception and we had three really good days birding in the area, and despite some heavy rain on two of these days, we left little behind due to some extraordinary luck and Zardo's intimate knowledge of the site. For our first day we concentrated on one of the most well-known birding sites at PICOP - road 1/4, that has changed markedly since my first visit there only a few years previously. However despite appearances, the forest fragments there still hold some of Mindanao's most highly sought after birds. Before light we tried for some of the key nightbirds in the area, and although we were initially frustrated by a nearby calling boobook, eventually Zardo picked the bird up as it flew in and positioned his beam right on a Chocolate Boobook, a near-endemic recently split from the the widespread Brown Hawk-Owl . Soon after it got light we started seeing some of the Mindanao lowland specialties that were our prime targets at PICOP. The soft, but distinctive whistles of Little Slaty Flycatcher were soon heard from the roadside and after this hyperactive pair initially frantically circled us eventually the male gave up the ghost and sat out on an open perch, allowing us all to soak up the subtle plumage features. In the open trees along the road there, we found a number of Philippine Orioles singing from the open treetops, a few Rufous-fronted Tailorbirds (a recent split from Philippine Tailorbird) feeding in some high vine tangles, while in the undergrowth another pair of key Mindanao tailorbirds - White-browed Tailorbird were found with a little strategic use of playback. Coucals are another bird group that few get excited about when pouring through the field guide before coming to the Philippines, although Black-faced Coucal, with its distinctive sulphury yellow head, dusty blue tail and bold black face mask must be a contender for the world's finest coucal being completely different from any others out there. The artificial open nature of the forest along this road (due to the recent deforestation) can be advantageous for picking out some birds that otherwise would be tricky - like a canopy dwelling pair of Naked-faced Spiderhunters, a few Philippine Drongo-cuckoos perched out on some open dead snags, several Yellowish Bulbuls; and several calling Winchell's (Rufous-lored) Kingfishers were easily found in the canopies of this artificially open forest there; while the pair of inconspicuous Philippine Leafbirds chose a heavily-leaved canopy to hide in, where their green plumage matched exactly the color of the surrounding leaves making the birds incredibly hard to find, even when fully framed amongst the leaves in the scope! Overhead the distinctive silhouette of a pair of Philippine Needletails with their characteristic 'butter-knife' wings were picked out easily as they flew low over us, that even allowed us to catch a glimpse of their clean white armpits. This was probably our most bird-packed day of the tour with many new endemics coming thick and fast, including a pair of Philippine Trogons over breakfast, a stunning Silvery Kingfisher (a highly localized endemic) hanging out on its usual small, dirty roadside pool, and several noisy gangs of Mindanao (Tarictic) Hornbills. Rain dogged us every time we talked about trying for the regular Red-bellied Pitta, meaning we had to call off the attempt on several occasions and retreat to our jeepney, while the rain (very slowly) passed. Eventually with time getting on and the rain giving us another short respite we ventured out to a small clearing amongst the bamboo understorey where we hoped we could coax the bird into. On playing the tape we initially heard nothing, then a brief, seemingly distant call back before, suddenly, the bird flew in and brazenly perched out in front of us just where we could all conveniently soak it up for the next few minutes. A perfect end to what had been a breathtaking taste of some of the very best birding in the Philippines.
15th March: PICOP (MINDANAO) Lowland forest.
For our second full day in PICOP, we concentrated our efforts on a different road - road 4/2, that in complete contrast to road 1/4 has some good continuous unbroken stretches of forest along it (largely by default, as the limestone substrate does not lend itself to farming after clearing, so that the settlers have, for now at least, left this bird-rich forest alone). We spent the best part of the day birding this deserted forest-fringed road, in between the bouts of heavy, unseasonal rain. Things were a little slow initially as the rain was heaviest in the morning, although things picked up later as they rain moved off and we logged some of PICOP's very best birds in our day there. Soon after arriving and with the rain coming down heavily at the time, we focused our efforts on the road itself, and soon after found our main target - the stunning Steere's (Azure-breasted) Pitta feeding right out in the middle of the road. The bird continued to feed on the road, as we followed, over the following 5-10 minutes allowing us all to great looks at one of PICOP's sexiest birds. Two days in PICOP and two pittas down - for a site with such a depressing backdrop to the birding, PICOP can still however produce the goods and some of the best Philippine birding is undoubtedly still within this concession. Many of the birds we were hoping for on that day were flock species, and although we never really got the one big flock we had been hoping for we managed to find some small flocks along the way and pick up these key endemics in these bird parties, like Rusty-crowned Babbler, Pygmy Babbler and several superb bright orange Rufous Paradise-Flycatchers. The main flock species we were keen to get however was the pair of endemic Monarchs - the distinctive metallic series of notes soon had us homing in on a pair of Short-crested Monarchs, that circled us several times allowing everyone a look or two, although the divine Celestial Monarch, clearly the sexiest of this pair proved a little more challenging as it appeared they may have reached the end of their calling season. However in one of the last flocks of the morning, as we neared the van again we heard its distinctive call, although it was a good 10 minutes or so before Mark managed to not only find, but scope up a spanking male complete with the flashy celestial headdress that gives the bird its name. Before we had hot on the celestial however, and just after having bagged the pair of Short-crested Monarchs we heard the first calls of a Blue-capped Wood-Kingfisher, a scarce Kingfisher that was originally thought to be endemic to mid-high elevation forests on Mindanao, although has recently also been found in the lowland forests of PICOP. We had tried several known territories for this bird throughout the morning and even got a response at one, that was then thwarted by a bout of extremely heavy rain, before this bird called right by the short-crested Monarchs and I finally began to think our luck was in. The bird then proceeded to circle unseen for the next 15 minutes, before finally Doris calmly announced she had the bird, seemingly mocking us by being perched at extremely close range. Just one of a trio of sexy kingfishers we had come across at PICOP. The kingfisher haul was not over however, as on the route back on passing by a recently known area for Philippine Dwarf-Kingfisher, this rarely recorded bird flashed by us calling all the while, to bring our tally of endemic kingfishers at PICOP to an impressive four species. Both Monarchs and both Pittas in the first two days, and all the possible kingfishers, what were we going to look for over the next day?! - there was nothing left to do but focus our efforts on PICOP's last sexy resident - the unbelievable (and more than a little tricky) Mindanao Wattled Broadbill. Unlike the other sexy species we had already seen, the broadbills are basically silent and generally spend very long periods being inactive in the understorey. This makes them really, really difficult to find unless they come by in a passing flock.
16th March: PICOP (MINDANAO) Lowland forest.
For our last full day we again moved our efforts on another fragment of forest, this time along road 4. The main purpose for our visiting this area was to try and pick up some hornbills as we were missing one species that is special to these lowland Mindanao forests. Once again the unseasonal weather dealt us a low blow and we hung out around some fruiting trees in an attempt to pick up the hornbill that can sometimes be found in this area in the early mornings. However with the heaviest prolonged burst of rain coming at this time, the weather seemed to have ruined our chances at picking up this key species. With nothing doing and finally the rain easing we headed off for some of the other species we were missing, and then typically as we had just turned the corner, leaving Nicky behind to answer a call of nature we heard his frantic shouting from where we had just been standing. We all raced back, rapidly negotiating our way around a deep muddy puddle in the process to find Nicky trained on a group of 20 Writhed Hornbills (a record count for the site according to Zardo), that had chosen to fly into the very trees we had been looking at just as we had turned the corner and were just out of sight! Still we were not complaining as we could then soak them up in full detail as they hung about in the treetops to dry off their rain-soaked wings. That brought our tally of endemic hornbills for the trip to four, all the possible species we could have seen until then, just the one on Palawan to go. We then headed back out of the open areas to focus on the forest understorey where we belatedly picked up Streaked (Striated) Ground-Babbler hopping about amongst the large limestone mossy boulders, that give the forest an almost Tolkeinesque feeling in this area. Aside from that this was our slowest;west days at PICOP, partly due to the fact that we had picked up many of the species we were looking for remarkably quickly in the first few days and also because the rain dogged us more on this day than any other. Our attempts at the Broadbill and Blue-crowned Racquet-tail both fell flat, meaning we were sure to be returning here for our final few hours at PICOP the following day. However, we did pick up Blue Fantail, Bicolored Flowerpecker, another Short-crested Monarch, Steere's Pitta and Rufous-lored Kingfisher although best of all was a pair of Pink-bellied Imperial Pigeons, one of which eventually showed extremely well, flying in and perching on an open limb right over the road.
17th March: PICOP (MINDANAO) Lowland forest.
In our last few hours at PICOP before we headed to the mountains of central Mindanao, we once again returned to road 4 in our last efforts to pick up the rarely encountered Broadbill and for another shot at the racquet-tail. Before we reached there however we made a stop before light and for Philippine Frogmouth and Philippine Hawk-Owl. The frogmouth proved elusive again, although we all got good looks at Mindanao (Philippine) Hawk-Owl (still unbelievably officially considered a subspecies of Philippine Hawk-Owl, although very different in both plumage and voice and therefore a surefire species in its own right). Before we headed to our best site for the broadbill, Zardo recommended checking out an area where the racquet-tails have nested in the not too distant past. On getting onto the trail we soon heard the distinctive high-pitched calls of the Blue-crowned Racquet-tail and looked up to see one of these impressive endemics fly in and conveniently land on an open snag above the clearing we were standing in, where we could admire the needle-fine racquets in full detail. With new birds running out fast there was nothing left to do but head into the forest to an area where the broadbill has been found nesting in recent years. In spite of this site being a good one, and where I had seen one shortly before the tour, many a tour misses them here due to their shy reclusive nature. On top of that the area of forest, while not far off the road has no real trail in and is set on the top of a spiny limestone outcrop, meaning the short walk in is not the most comfortable. Forewarned everyone was keen to try anyway and we soon reached the area where the birds nest hoping for a flock to be in the area, that would be our best chance of picking up this unobtrusive endemic. Unfortunately aside from a lone Blue Fantail there seemed little evidence of a bird party in the area and we started to settle ourselves so we could wait for a passing flock, when a muffled cry went up from Zardo behind. No one seemed to be sure what he said but we legged it anyway and on reaching him found he was watching a superb female (Mindanao) Wattled Broadbill, perched inconspicuously in the understorey that remained there for around 5 minutes so we could all get fantastic looks at this truly unique member of a family (complete with its striking blue wattled eye ring) that does not have a single bad looking bird within it. Job done we headed off to Davao for some welcome rest before we trekked up into the mountains in the Central Mindanao province of Bukidnon, to search for one of the rarest and certainly most celebrated of all the endemics - the Philippine national bird - Monkey-eating or Great Philippine Eagle.
http://www.tropicalbirding.com/tripReports/TR_Philippines2007/TR_Philippines2007.htm
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