October 18, 2024
Following our adventure at Trus Madi, our remaining time in Borneo had dwindled to just three days. On October 19 we planned to visit a hide often attended by the Bornean Peacock-Pheasant. This gave us October 18th as a free day.
After mulling over a few other possibilities, Laura and I settled on Manukan Island, located offshore from Kota Kinabalu. These offshore islands are very popular with tourists due to their beautiful sandy beaches and there are regular water taxis that will drop people off at the various islands. From a birding perspective, several species on these islands are either absent from the mainland or rather uncommon, including Philippine Megapode, Mangrove Blue Flycatcher and Mangrove Whistler. All three would be lifers for Laura, while the blue flycatcher and whistler were species that I had never photographed before. Currently I have photographed about 87% of the species on my life list and so I was eager to add a few more.
The water taxis do not start running until around 8:30 in the morning. This isn't very convenient from a birding perspective as the hot sun begins baking these islands relatively early in the day, leaving little time for productive birding. However, we were lucky. Heavy cloud cover (and some rain) delayed the onset of the hot temperatures. Though the intermittent rain was a bit of a nuisance, the birds remained active all morning whenever the rain subsided.
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| Looking west from Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
We drove to the Jesselton Point ferry terminal, paid for our tickets and after a short wait we were corralled onto a boat. We landed at Manukan Island around 9:00 AM, paid our entrance fee to the national park and began to hike. Luckily all of the other tourists headed to the beach. We ventured along the brick path that headed west, paralleling the shoreline through beautiful forest towards Sunset Point. We ended up having this trail to ourselves for almost the entire morning!
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| Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
Within 20 minutes of arriving we had already found a rare bird. As we walked around a bend in the trail, a dark rufous night-heron flushed up from a creek bed and landed further up the slope. Its distinctive wing pattern in flight gave it away as a Malayan Night Heron. This species is a scarce non-breeding visitor to Borneo, and October is peak migration season here. Some years there are no records of Malayan Night Herons in Borneo, while in other years several of them are found. Luckily, I managed a few photos before the shy night heron vanished.
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| Malayan Night Heron - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
Buoyed on by this exciting find, we kept our wits about us in case there were any other rare birds lurking. We quickly found a small mixed flock that contained a female flycatcher that is either a Blue-and-white or Zappey's (the females are not confidently separated in the field). We ended up seeing several others along with a male Blue-and-white Flycatcher. This species is an uncommon migrant/winter visitor to Borneo. Things were happening!
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| Blue-and-white/Zappey's Flycatcher (female) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
The interesting discoveries continued. A little while later we found a different Malayan Night Heron along another small creek that passed the trail. And we found a Siberian Blue Robin, yet another migrant. Unfortunately that was it for migrants but we were pretty pleased with our haul. These islands have serious vagrant potential!
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| Siberian Blue Robin (female) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
The rain passed and the sun eventually peaked out from behind the clouds. Laura and I had flushed a pair of Philippine Megapodes near the start of our walk but our other two targets, the blue flycatcher and whistler, remained out of site. Upon reaching Sunset Point we lingered for a few minutes to search for marine life along the shoreline and to scan for ocean birds like terns or frigatebirds. There were none to be seen but we had fun observing the crabs and blennies resting just above the waterline.
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| Grapsus sp. - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
These blennies were completely exposed out the water. These fish are capable of surviving short periods of time in this manner, using their pectoral fins to prop them up.
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| Andamia sp - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
The sun had encouraged several butterflies to fly while we waited at Sunset Point.
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| Plains Cupid (Luthrodes pandava) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Blue Glassy Tiger (Ideopsis vulgaris) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
We turned around and began the walk back to the jetty, hoping for better luck with our three target species on the way back. And things went to plan!
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| Pink-necked Green-Pigeon (female) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
I thought I heard a Mangrove Whistler sing, and a minute later we were watching one in the trees above our head!
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| Mangrove Whistler - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
Not 15 minutes later I thought I heard the song of a Mangrove Blue Flycatcher. A bit of quiet playback caused it to immediately fly in to investigate the intruder. A few seconds of playback was all that was needed (no need to blast it on repeat for several minutes as this is often counter-productive) and for a few minutes the Mangrove Blue Flycatcher sang back at us from a prominent perch.
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| Mangrove Blue Flycatcher - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Mangrove Blue Flycatcher - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
All what was left was a proper view of a Philippine Megapode. We heard one singing up the slope and eventually found it watching us. Most of the body was hidden but we had great views from the neck up! I never managed a photo, though.
The rest of our walk was quite relaxed as we had been successful with all three of our bird targets and had also found a few bonus migrant species. I focused more on identifying lizards, plants and insects.
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| Eutropis sp. - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Asian Water Monitor (Varanus salvator) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Rough Mabuya (Eutropis rudis) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Saga Tree (Adenanthera pavonina) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
This Brown's Mabuya was a lifer for us.
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| Brown's Mabuya (Eutropis indeprensa) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
A Zebra Dove was testing fate with a massive Asian Water Monitor lurking in the background.
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| Zebra Dove - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
This particular Asian Water Monitor had no interest in leaving the path, so we gave it a wide berth. I still can't get over how large these lizards are...
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| Asian Water Monitor (Varanus salvator) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
Laura and I finished our time on Manukan Island by joining the other tourists on the beach and going for a dip. I think this was my first ever swim in the ocean in Borneo despite this being my fourth visit - shameful, I know!
While waiting for the water taxi to take us back, I amused myself with photographing the various tropical fish that were near the dock. I would love to spend some time snorkeling or diving in these waters...maybe one day...
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| Doublebar Rabbitfish (Siganus virgatus) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Black Rabbitfish (Siganus fuscescens) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Indo-Pacific Sergeant Major (Abudefduf vaigiensis) - Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia |
Laura and I returned to the mainland, bought lunch and debated our next move. We still had several hours of driving ahead of us so that we could be in place to search for the Bornean Peacock-Pheasants the next morning. However, we were also sitting at 292 total bird species for our trip, by far the most I had seen on one trip to Sabah, and 300 was looking like a real possibility. We decided to add roughly an hour and a half to our drive by detouring north before heading east. The goal was to explore the rice paddy fields in the Tempasuk Plain.
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| Scoping the rice paddies at the Tempasuk Plain, Sabah, Malaysia |
We arrived with a couple hours of light and immediately went to work finding herons, rails, shorebirds and more. Wandering Whistling-Ducks sometimes flew low over the rice, while Lesser Coucals sang from their perches.
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| Wandering Whistling-Duck - Tempasuk Plain, Sabah, Malaysia |
The shorebirds were rather numerous and I was very happy with my decision to bring my scope with me on this trip. If only we had more time to scan the shorebirds as we were running out of light quickly! We still found ten species of shorebird including Pacific Golden-Plovers, Red-necked and Long-toed Stints, Little Ringed Plovers and Common Snipes.
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| Pacific Golden-Plover - Tempasuk Plain, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Marsh Sandpiper - Tempasuk Plain, Sabah, Malaysia |
A couple of Eastern Marsh Harriers patrolled the fields along with other raptors like Peregrine Falcon, Black-winged Kite and Brahminy Kite.
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| Eastern Marsh Harrier - Tempasuk Plain, Sabah, Malaysia |
Several large flock of terns flew past near dusk. As far as I could tell they were all Whiskered and White-winged Terns.
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| White-winged Terns - Tempasuk Plain, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| Whiskered Tern - Tempasuk Plain, Sabah, Malaysia |
Rails included Eurasian Moorhen, Black-backed Swamphen, White-breasted Waterhen and Buff-banded Rail. Try as we might we couldn't turn up a Watercock. This species is starting to turn into a nemesis for us, as we dipped on them during our six weeks in Thailand and Malaysia in 2022 as well.
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| Buff-banded Rail - Tempasuk Plain, Sabah, Malaysia |
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| White-breasted Waterhen (chick) - Tempasuk Plain, Sabah, Malaysia |
Several other additions included Paddyfield Pipit and Eastern Yellow Wagtail. When it was all said and done we had added 14 species, bringing the trip total up to 306! I would say that was a success.
At sunset we left the Tempasuk Plain behind and commenced the drive through the mountains to the town of Ranau where we had a room at an AirBnB property reserved. Along the way we moved this toad off the road. I believe this is a Giant River Toad (Phrynoidis juxtasper) which is found in Borneo, Sumatra and mainland Malaysia. That night, we fell asleep dreaming of Bornean Peacock-Pheasants.
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| Giant River Toad (Phrynoidis juxtasper) - Kota Belud, Sabah, Malaysia |
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