Sepilok

May 2nd

We had one final boat trip on the Kinabatangan River this morning. The mist coming off the water as the sun rose was really lovely. We saw a few new birds and again saw elephants.

We drove two hours northwest to Sepilok, a nature reserve best known for its orangutan and sun bear rehabilitation centers. Two of our trip-mates went to the orangutan center, while we opted to walk and bird on boardwalks and trails through the forest. The first thing we saw was a small group of Bornean Gibbons very high in a distant tree. As they swung through the branches we realized that one of the adults was carrying a very tiny baby— so tiny that it had no hair yet, which means it was less than a week old. Until their hair grows in, baby gibbons must cling to the mother for warmth. 

Our objective was to see two charismatic endemic species, the Sabah Partridge and the Black-capped Pitta. Both had proven elusive when we looked for them along the river. While we were looking for them, we saw a mother and baby orangutan in thick foliage some distance from the trail.  We returned to watch them a second time, when they were a bit more visible and active. 

We had great views of the partridge and the pittas, and finally saw, in daylight, a tiny forest kingfisher we’d seen sleeping on two night walks. Near the end of the afternoon we stopped along a raised boardwalk near a tree that had a water-filled hollow in its side. This is clearly the “public bird bath” and we were delighted to watch four different species take turns coming for a bath.

Pictured: Bornean Gibbons, Orangutans (mom’s face, baby clinging on upside down), Black-crowned Pitta, Sabah Partridge, Rufous-backed Dwarf Kingfisher, female Purple-naped Spiderhunter exiting the bath