Bornean banter and birds: Part 2
- Denis Walls
- Jul 2
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 4
Denis Walls | Convenor
Editor’s note: This is the second article in a series being published in Contact Call with permission of the author, Denis Walls. It was originally published in Cairns Birders Newsletter: The New Frogmouth Number 22 of 30 May 2025. Part 1 was published in Contact Call on 13 June 2025.
After the excitement and dangers of Sarawak – the horrendous roads, the treacherous climb, the leeches, and Stella being badly stung by a swarm of Asian Hornets – we were able to return to Lawas, near Brunei, and head on to the small town of Tambunan where an ATM swallowed my bank card. Then followed a crazy circus where the teller, having retrieved it from the machine, held my card behind the grill but wouldn’t give it to me because it was against bank policy, and Head Office in Kuala Lumpur hadn’t given the nod.
With the Big Boss at lunch in Kuala Lumpur, and the A-Okay not given, we had a road to hit and birds to see. So, the Malaysian stand-off ended with the branch manager bringing out the scissors and chopping up my card in front of me, to make sure nothing bad could happen to it!
Two days of birding magic followed. The first of these was in a fancy hide (coffee, snacks, comfy chairs, toilet, cushions for our binoculars and cameras through the slats – only lacking cocktails) while we waited for his feathered Majesty to arrive. It wasn’t a certainty but Mr Bulwer, King of the Pheasants, had been a regular in the display area. While we waited, we were assailed with birding delight as the light gradually improved.
First came the troops of quaint Crested Partridge.
Then the gorgeous Orange-headed Thrush strutted his stuff, followed by the serious-looking Black-capped Babbler, the bright Yellow-bellied Bulbul, a pair of Crimson-headed Partridge, and a couple of Asian Emerald Dove.
And then appearing from the back, suddenly, feathered Royalty arrived, his female retinue before him.
He didn’t stay long. The Ladies pecked around, but the Bulwer Pheasant King perused the landscape haughtily, didn’t take the slightest nibble of the ground offerings and was gone. Wow, what a bird! The most spectacular pheasant I have ever seen.
Once out of the hide and before leaving the area we heard the call of the rare, endemic Black-throated Wren-Babbler. Braving the leeches we went into the forest and were rewarded with spectacular views of one singing.
The next day we went up Gunung Alap in search of some of the region’s key upland species. I have struggled for years in Peninsula Malaysia to get good views of the brilliant Green Magpie and here was one at the top of the Telecom Hill, albeit the Bornean Green Magpie, which is a little different, presenting itself in exchange for some mealie grubs. What a bobby-dazzler!
It was joined by a charming Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush and then, on an adjacent branch and low down for once, a Golden-naped Barbet appeared looking for fruit.
There soon followed cracking views of the rare Eyebrowed Jungle Flycatcher…
Then, finally, a Collared (or Sunda) Owlet arrived. There is now a thing in Borneo, as in India, that whatever you think of the practice, when you need a birding “sugar hit”, you play the call of an owlet. In India it’s the Asian Barred Owlet. The call of an owlet drives small birds into a frenzy of mobbing – ‘where is that nocturnal predator so we can give it it’s just desserts?’ In response, on this occasion, a Sunda Owlet called back and, lo and behold, was so close by that we got incredible views of it distorting its face to make its repetitive and monotonous call.
Can one get birding pleasure overload? Maybe. Recovering from the sensory assault we dozed, despite the dreadful roads, on the way to our next destination – Mt Kinabalu National Park. Whitehead’s Holy Trinity awaited – Trogon, Broadbill and Spiderhunter. But that’s for the next installment.
