The Bulwer's Pheasant was one of the first birds to grab hold of my attention when I first flipped through the pages of my Borneo field guide many years ago. This pheasant of Bornean hill forest is nearly unbelievable-looking (the male, that is). He has a deep maroon chest and a black body adorned with tiny iridescent bluish flecks that gives the appearance of a starry night sky. He has a bright blue wattle on his face, red legs, and an incredible plume of snow-white tail feathers behind him. At the time I realized that it would be unlikely that I would ever see a Bulwer's Pheasant. They are restricted to pristine hill forest and are extremely shy and skulky. Few birders had ever seen one, and usually it was the case of having incredible luck.
However, the Bulwer's Pheasant's mythical facade began to lift a few years ago. Some enterprising bird guides in the Trus Madi area not only discovered several territories of Bulwer's Pheasants, but they were successful in training several individuals to come in to feeding stations (hides) to eat cracked corn! In the last year or so the pheasants have become more reliable, though far from guaranteed.
I wasn't about to let a chance to see a Bulwer's Pheasant pass me by and so it was item #1 on my to-do list following the conclusion of the Borneo tour.
I organized our Bulwer's expedition via Calvin Ng, a local birding guide who seems to be the point man for organizing these sorts of things. We also had Calvin organize access for us at the Trus Madi Entomology Camp where we planned to stay for the night. Calvin wouldn't be able to join us (he was guiding a group in Sulawesi) but he arranged for his driver, Peter to pick us up in his 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser at 4 AM from our hotel in Kota Kinabalu. Cavin said that the Bulwer's were unreliable at his hides near the entomology camp at the moment, so he instead arranged for us to visit some other hides near the Tambunan entrance to Trus Madi, run by a gentleman named CP Song.
Our early morning drive took us through the Crocker Range where Laura and I had birded way back on our first morning of the trip. As dawn broke we could see the Trus Madi Forest Reserve in the distance with Gunung Trusmadi (the mountain peak) hidden in the clouds. And by 6:00 AM, we had arrived at the hides.
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| CP Song's main hide - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
Visiting bird hides is a very popular activity in Asia, though for some reason it hasn't really taken off in the Americas. From within the hide you are essentially hidden from the birds. There are typically several water features, seed/cracked corn/rice for the pheasants and partridges, and mealworms for the other birds. Throughout the course of the morning various birds, squirrels and treeshrews will stop by for the buffet and incredible photographical opportunities can be had. It can be a little slow at times since you are sitting in one location for hours on end, but the photo and viewing opportunities are well worth it.
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| Yellow-bellied Bulbul - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Asian Emerald Dove - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
We settled in to the hide and had been there only a few minutes until we heard a Bulwer's vocalize from somewhere down the slope! And a few minutes later, there he was. Incredible!
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| Bulwer's Pheasant (male) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
He was everything I had imagined and more. What a ridiculous-looking bird! His visit lasted only a few minutes until he slunk back down the hillside.
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| Bulwer's Pheasant (male) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
I was a little bit worried that I might have brought the wrong photography equipment for this hide experience. I only had two camera lenses with me in Borneo - my 90 mm macro and 500mm telephoto. Something in the 300mm range would have been ideal but I did not have space to bring that lens. Indeed, the Bulwer's Pheasant was a little bit too close to fit his entire tail into the frame, while the dark understory and early morning hour meant that there was very little light for photography. That being said, I have no right to complain about the photographic conditions when I was face to face with a male Bulwer's Pheasant!
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| Bulwer's Pheasant (male) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
I was ecstatic to have connected with this near-mythical beast. That took the pressure off for the day, and anything else was just bonus!
Throughout the course of the morning we could hear the Bulwer's Pheasant calling every five or ten minutes or so from somewhere down the slope. He never reappeared. However, a female Bulwer's Pheasant stopped by soon after, and she made several additional appearances later in the morning when the light was better.
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| Bulwer's Pheasant (female) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Bulwer's Pheasant (female) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
Even with our Bulwer's vision satisfied, there were several other species of birds that had been coming regularly to these hides which I was keen to see and photograph. The main one was the Dayak Blue Flycatcher. The blue flycatchers of southeast Asia are surprisingly confusing, with a large number of species that look and sound very similar. The Dayak Blue Flycatcher used to be lumped in with Hill Blue Flycatcher of mainland southeast Asia but is now considered an endemic species of the hill forests of Borneo. I had never seen one before, one of the few remaining Bornean endemics for me that can be found in Sabah. Indeed, that was rectified when a female Dayak Blue Flycatcher appeared at the hide.
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| Dayak Blue Flycatcher (female) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
She dropped in a few times, and eventually the male appeared as well. He is a stunning little gem of a flycatcher, and the views were fantastic!
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| Dayak Blue Flycatcher (male) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Dayak Blue Flycatcher (male) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
Two species of partridges that are endemic to Borneo's highlands are sometimes observed coming in to CP's hides as well. Though I had seen Crimson-headed Partridge on the trail system at Mount Kinabalu, I had never photographed it, while all of my encounters with Red-breasted Partridge were heard-only. We lucked out and saw several individuals of both species on numerous occasions throughout the day. The Red-breasted Partridges even performed a duet from just a few meters away.
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| Crimson-headed Partridge - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Red-breasted Partridge - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Red-breasted Partridges - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Red-breasted Partridge - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Crimson-headed Partridge - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Crimson-headed Partridge - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
The morning just kept getting better. Another enigmatic species with a limited range in southeast Asia is the Rail-Babbler, the only member of its family. Laura and I had previously searched unsuccessfully for this species in mainland Malaysia. Imagine our surprise when one began singing from somewhere down the hillside! I managed some recordings, but despite our patience it would not come in to the hide and remained "heard-only". CP showed us a video on his phone that he had taken of the Rail-Babbler strutting through the open area a few weeks earlier. He said that he often hears it, but only occasionally sees it.
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| Rufous-chested Flycatcher (female) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
We remained in the hide until it was around 11 AM. I was really holding out for a Bornean Banded Pitta but it was not to be. At times the banded pittas are regularly seen here, but not at the moment, unfortunately. However, there were many other birds to point my camera at; a few of them are shown here.
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| Gray-hooded Babbler - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Rufous-chested Flycatcher (male) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Bornean Whistler - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Siberian Blue Robin (female) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Siberian Blue Robin (female) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
I was happy to see a few Temminck's Babblers as well, as this was another species that I had never photographed. They made quick work of the mealworms.
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| Temminck's Babbler - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Temminck's Babbler - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
Though the hides are mainly set up for the birds, a nice variety of squirrels and treeshrews have been reported from here. We found Mountain Treeshrew (a lifer for Laura), Large Treeshrew (a lifer for both of us) and several common squirrel species.
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| Large Treeshrew (Tupaia tana) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Large Treeshrew (Tupaia tana) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Large Treeshrew (Tupaia tana) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Mountain Treeshrew (Tupaia montana) - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
At around 11:00 AM CP took us up the road a bit and into the forest on the opposite side of the road to a small hide that he had just set up. It was a much smaller setup that only fit a couple of people, and he said that we were the first birders he had taken to this site. He regularly sees Bornean Banded Pitta here.
Unfortunately, despite a couple of hours spent sitting here, the pittas did not make an appearance. But there were several other fantastic surprises.
A pair of Black-throated Wren-Babblers appeared at the small clearing to gobble down mealworms. This was a nice surprise for me and I didn't realize that this was even a possibility here. Evidently, all of my pre-trip eBird sleuthing was focused on the Trus Madi Entomology Camp and surrounding area, not this area by the Tambunan entrance.
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| Black-throated Wren-Babbler - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
This Bornean endemic was a lifer for Laura, while my only previous experience was of a singing bird at Tabin many years ago that I did not manage to see. Over the course of our multi-hour stay at this hide, the wren-babblers were in view quite regularly.
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| Black-throated Wren-Babbler - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Black-throated Wren-Babbler - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Black-throated Wren-Babbler - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
The flaming orange glow of an Orange-headed Thrush always catches me by surprise. We were treated to incredible views of this one coming in for the mealworms. This species winters in Borneo in small numbers and Trus Madi is a reliable site.
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| Orange-headed Thrush - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Orange-headed Thrush - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Orange-headed Thrush - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
Yet another unexpected lifer revealed itself. An Eyebrowed Wren-Babbler bounced through the clearing, but it did not stick around long enough for good photos. While most of the other wren-babblers of Borneo are found nowhere else in the world, this species is widespread in southeast Asia. It is the least common of the wren-babblers in Sabah.
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| Eyebrowed Wren-Babbler - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
We lucked out with one final encounter with the star species. We heard a Bulwer's Pheasant calling, and then a few minutes later a young male and a female walked through the area. They were extremely shy and skittish, running back into the dense undergrowth as soon as they detected that something seemed off. CP said that these ones need more time to become habituated to the hides, as they are still nervous of humans.
One final colourful bird species dropped in before we wrapped up for the day. This Rufous-backed Dwarf-Kingfisher was only in view for a few seconds.
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| Rufous-backed Dwarf-Kingfisher - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
With a long drive on a very rough road ahead of us, Laura and I decided to call it quits around 2:15 PM. Somehow, over 8 hours had passed! We thanked CP, Peter fired up the Land Cruiser, and we were on our way.
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| Selfie with CP Song - Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia |
My next post will cover our visit to the Trus Madi Entomology Camp. We found a few tricky bird species (including a scarce Bornean endemic!), a snake, and had the single best night of mothing we have ever experienced in our lives. Stay tuned.
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