Last full day in Borneo

May 5

We spent the morning walking trails and roads in Kinabalu park, repeating many of the areas we visited yesterday. A number of the species are quite specific in their preferred elevation or surroundings, which influences where birders look for them. Our guide got a bit annoyed when a ground-squirrel started eating the berries that the Fruit-hunter likes. As ever, the actual birds and other species we saw changed day to day. 

After lunch we left the park briefly to look for two elusive endemic species ( the Bornean Barbet and the Whitehead’s Spiderhunter)— and found them both! We then returned to the park for “one final round of birding” as we will leave well before dawn tomorrow to make our way to Kota Kinabalu and the long trip home.  Each of us had a “bird we wish we had seen more clearly”, and we were able to do that, although our first attempt at the Golden-naped Barbet was foiled by mist coming in just as we were ready to take the photograph. We also saw two new kinds of partridge, which is really difficult as they scuttle through the underbrush… one was a lucky roadside sighting in the morning, but the second took over an hour of searching and luring the bird to come out. 

Pictured: Golden-naped Barbet (Kevin’s bird), Bornean Green Magpie (Katharine’s bird), Sunda Cuckoo, Dark Hawk-Cuckoo, Bornean Ground-Squirrel with the “Fruit-hunter’s berries”, Mountain Tailorbird, “barbet in the mist”