BY 2024 - Herman and Kit's 7th (!what?!) year

[Kitsafari]

128. Bornean Whistling-Thrush, Kinabalu Park 

 

A Bornean endemic, the bird is clad in dark coats with the male spotting muted blue gloss while the female is all dark brown. A lifer. 

 

 

Edited May 10 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

129. Chestnut-crested Yuhina, Kinabalu Park

 

A pretty little bird, it popped right up to where our guide and I were standing. A Bornean endemic, it flies usually in a single species flock. Lifer for me. 

 

 

Edited May 10 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

130. Little Cuckoo-Dove, Kinabalu Park

 

[Kitsafari]

131. Sunda Laughingthrush, Kinabalu Park

 

On the Near Threatened list, the rather dull bird with white eye rings is distributed in Sumatra and East Malaysia. A lifer for me. 

Always moving in a large flock. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 10 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

Now for the hornbill species. There are eight species in Borneo, and all can be found along the Kinabatangan River. We managed to see seven but dipped on the Wreathed Hornbill, which isn't a lifer, but would have been nice to have gotten a Grand Slam of the hornbills on the river!

I've already counted the Oriental Pied Hornbill, which was by far the most common on the river, but just as seen frequently was the 

 

132. Rhinoceros Hornbill, Kina River

 

We had several sightings of this majestic hornbill, including a spectacular sighting of a large flock flying in to roost along one of the tributaries in the late afternoon. The more active hornbills were play-fighting. More often, we saw pairs of the hornbills and we didn't need to use the playbacks to lure them in. This is on the Vulnerable status. 

 

male

 

female

 

 

 

Edited May 10 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

133. Bushy-crested Hornbill, Kinabatangan River

 

On the Near Threatened list, the hornbill is rather plain medium-sized bird that has nothing to suggest it has a bushy crest. It has bare patches of skin on its face which has a bluish tinge and a two-toned tail. It is both very vocal and sociable, usually moving in a small flock. The male has an ebony-black bill while the female's bill is paler with a brownish tip. Found only from southern Thailand through Malaysia to Sumatra and Borneo. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

134. White-crowned Hornbill, Kinabatangan River

 

We had seen the female on Pulau Ubin in Singapore when it caused a lot of excitement among birders and photographers. The male is just as handsome and striking as the female, with that rock-punk hair-do and a black and white attire. The female's all black attire only needs a leather jacket to complete the punk image. Okay, maybe not. 

It was a great sighting and the boat of photographers that had stopped 100m away hurriedly came over to join us, given that the bird is on the Endangered list. It has the same geographical range as the Bushy-crested Hornbill and Rhino hornbill. 

 

 

 

  female

[Kitsafari]

135. Black Hornbill, Kinabatangan River

 

On the vulnerable list, the hornbill has the same distribution range as the cousins mentioned before. It looks very much like the Oriental pied hornbill and indeed it sometimes mixes with this close cousin in flocks. The black bird has a bone-white bill in males, and dark in females. 

 

male

 

 

female

[Kitsafari]

136. Wrinkled Hornbill, Kinabatangan River

 

A lifer for both of us, the species is on the Endangered list. This is a brightly-coloured medium to large hornbill, and we only had one sighting of this species and that was very distant. The pair was high up in the trees and the male was hopping up and down the tree. Found only in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo. 

 

male

 

female

[Kitsafari]

137. Helmeted Hornbill, Kinabatangan River

 

Top of every birder's list for Southeast Asia is a sighting of the very rare and Critically Endangered Helmeted Hornbill. This was my third sighting of the bizarre but fascinating hornbill, Herman's second. It came in a very rare pairing and gave us a  perched stance - another rare occurrence! The helmeted hornbill is one of the most trafficked animal in the world as its solid casque - the only solid one among all hornbills - is much sought after by the China market for trinkets. (Yes I know those ignorant fools) The loss of primary forests to palm oil plantations is another huge threat to the survival of this species as it needs very tall trees to nest.

It is a very large bird, with some describing it as the largest hornbill in the world, but its long long tail is spectacular. Its call is especially distinctive and we loved imitating it as it ends in almost like a cackle. Other birders that we came across in Sabah were pretty envious of us. we were really lucky. 

 

male on the left, female on the right

 

male

 

 

female

 

 

 

 

Edited May 10 by Kitsafari

[xelas]

What a fabulous collection of hornbills!

[PeterHG]

Spectacular hornbill set!

[Kitsafari]

Thanks much @xelas @PeterHG. 

 

I think we had better sightings of the hornbills on Kinabatangan River than those in Belum Rainforest (Malaysia), but there are two additional species in Belum - the Great Hornbill and the Plain-pouched Hornbill - that are absent in Borneo.  

 

 

[TonyQ]

A superb collection of Hornbills 

[Peter Connan]

Wow, what a collection!

[BRACQUENE]

I have never seen such an impressive collection of Hornbills!

[Kitsafari]

Thanks much @TonyQ @Peter Connan and @BRACQUENE

 

I'm waiting for Herman to pass me his other photos so pse excuse the delay! we're also heading out on Friday to Darwin for a short trip hopefully to get the colourful Gouldian finch and the pitta and the pacific baza, among other Australian specialties!

 

 

[Peter Connan]

On 5/10/2024 at 5:01 AM, Kitsafari said:

137. Helmeted Hornbill, Kinabatangan River

It is a very large bird, with some describing it as the largest hornbill in the world, but its long long tail is spectacular.

 

 

Since I read this the other day it has been nagging at me.

This is certainly a massive bird and must be an awesome sight! Apparently the body is around 1.1-1.2m in length, the tail another 0.5m. Thus, if it could stand on it's tail, it's probably taller than me!

 

Interestingly though, the Southern Ground Hornbill which is shorter in body length (never mind the tail) is apparently on average 35% heavier (if one can trust Wiki)...

[Kitsafari]

On 5/14/2024 at 5:43 PM, Peter Connan said:

Since I read this the other day it has been nagging at me.

This is certainly a massive bird and must be an awesome sight! Apparently the body is around 1.1-1.2m in length, the tail another 0.5m. Thus, if it could stand on it's tail, it's probably taller than me!

 

Interestingly though, the Southern Ground Hornbill which is shorter in body length (never mind the tail) is apparently on average 35% heavier (if one can trust Wiki)...

 

@Peter Connanthank you! you prompted me to check the specifics of the hornbills. There are 62 hornbill species in the world, all but two in the family of Bucorvidae, the ground-dwelling hornbills, live in trees, and some in very tall trees at that. 

Excluding the Bucrovidae family, the Great Hornbill and the Helmeted Hornbill are about the same weight at around 4kg or 8.8lbs. Length-wise, the Great Hornbill - at 51in/130cm - is shorter than the Helmeted which is at 67in/170cm, but the Helmeted has a tail that is as long as 50cm/20in. 

 

If the ground hornbills are included, the Southern Ground Hornbill is less shorter in length at 50in/129cm but its weight at 6.2kg/13.7lbs makes it the heavyweight champion of all hornbills.

 

So the longest hornbill is the Helmeted but the heaviest is the southern ground hornbill. 

 

As an aside, the smallest hornbill is the 15 in (38 cm) long, red-billed dwarf hornbill (Tockus camurus) of West Africa. 

 

most of the data are from Wikipedia 

Edited May 16 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

Some repeats from Herman: 

 

Black-eared Barbet

 

Crimson-winged Woodpecker female

 

Greater Coucal

 

Bornean Brown Barbet

[Kitsafari]

 

138. Black Eagle, Gomantong Caves

 

 

[Kitsafari]

139. Blue-naped Parrot, Tanjong Aru Beach in Kota Kinabalu 

Not native to Sabah but a small flock released back in the 1970s have done fairly well with a small population now breeding and established at this beach. But the population of this Near Threatened species is now in danger as there are plans to redevelop this stretch of beach into a commercial property project. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

140. Bornean black-capped babbler, Gomantong Caves

 

A Bornean endemic, it was skulking around the dark shady areas below the boardwalk. 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

141. Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush, Kinabalu Park

 

A very attractive bird, this is another Bornean endemic. The chestnut-hooded laughingthrushes were always seen with the flocks of Sunda laughingthrushes moving through the forests. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

142. Indigo Flycatcher, Kinabalu Park

 

A small dark blue flycatcher with a robber's black mask with a silverish forehead that distinguishes it from other similar looking flycatchers. It is found in Sumatra, Java and Borneo. 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16 by Kitsafari