Enjoy our triplist below! For our tour description, itinerary, past triplists, dates, fees, and more, please visit our TOUR PAGE.

Click on the link at right to see this triplist in printable PDF format with media only on page 1.

The spiffy Black-and-yellow Broadbill, though a fairly common Sundaland specialty, turned out to be one of our favorites. (Photo by tour participant Steve Rannels)

I've said it before, but I'm still thinking: what could be more fun?! Take an enthusiastic group of birders to some of the world's most impressive forests, full of exotic birds and mammals, "flying" reptiles and amphibians, and a long list of other incredible critters and plants, and we're sure to have a great time. And so it was on this, our sixth, tour of some of the best of Borneo. Dave and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In our efforts to overcome jetlag, we all arrived early, and we managed to get in a little extra birding before the tour officially started. We had a morning to the N of KK, in open country marshes and agricultural fields on the Tempusak Plain; it produced a number of more widespread Asian species that we don't see on the tour itself but that were clearly enjoyed by this group, a number of whom were experiencing Asian birding for the first time. (Since we all participated, I've included those species in the list below.)

We began officially in the Crocker Range, where we saw a number of highland endemics, from the usually tough Whitehead's Broadbill and Mountain Serpent-Eagle to Mountain and Bornean barbets, Bornean Treepie, Bornean Bulbul, Bornean Leafbird, Black-sided Flowerpecker, and endearing flocks of Chestnut-crested Yuhinas. We were off to a nice start.

At Gungung Kinabalu, Borneo's center of endemism, we had wonderful luck with such specialties as the gorgeous Whitehead's Trogon (a male before breakfast our very first morning!), Fruit-hunter (including near an active nest), Crimson-headed Partridge, Bare-headed Laughingthrush, Cave Swiftlet, and such skulkers as Mountain Wren-Babbler, Bornean Stubtail, and (for the Summit Trail group) Friendly Bush-Warbler. We never heard even a note from a Whitehead's Spiderhunter, and we failed to encounter the little-known Everett's Thrush, but most of the rest of the endemics fell into place, and we had a wonderful Rafflesia experience at Poring and saw fabulous pitcher plants, including (for the Mesilau group) the world's largest. Each morning we marveled at the diversity of beautiful critters, especially moths, that had accumulated outside Steve's door.

Our real introduction to tropical lowland forest was at Sepilok, where we spent a morning in the RDC canopy towers, enjoying a range of representative Asian species, from our first hornbills and Black-and-yellow Broadbills to displaying Violet Cuckoos, stunning White-bellied and Crimson-winged woodpeckers, and fancy Raffles's and Chestnut-breasted malkohas.

That afternoon we would continue to Gomantong Cave, where we scoped out each of the echo-locating swiftlets on their nests and then emerged from the cave to our first Orangutan! We watched a long-winged Black Eagle sailing along the high limestone cliffs and watched our first Red Leaf Monkeys accomplishing some impressive jumps. We saw a calling pair of White-crested Hornbills and watched large groups of Bushy-crested Hornbills gather to roost sites as we waited for the bats to emerge. Soon there were smoke-like clouds of hundreds of Wrinkle-lipped Bats drifting away from the caves, and shortly the crepuscular Bat Hawks appeared, diving through the clouds and emerging with food for the night. We would later see them perched and even hear their calls. It was a lovely clear evening, and we managed to reach Sukau earlier than usual.

We had sunny mornings, cloudy afternoons, and rainy evenings for our two full days in the Kinabatangan. We birded by boat, morning, late afternoon, and one evening, and we worked in some time on the boardwalk immediately behind our lodge. Highlights included the Bornean Ground-Cuckoo that we all managed to see on our very first morning; electric light on such beauties as Long-tailed Parakeets, Black-and-red Broadbills, and Storm's Storks; the dramatic interactions among three wing-lifting Great Slaty Woodpeckers; scope views of Ruddy Kingfisher and Striped Wren-Babbler from our Sukau boardwalk; a pair of tiny White-fronted Falconets perched up beside the big Kinabatangan just before the heavens opened up; incredible Proboscis Monkeys gathered along the riverbanks; a Colugo with a young one that roosted during the day on a trunk at our lodge and then sailed from one trunk to another by night; and finding "our own" herd of Bornean Pygmy Elephants at close range.

We had a wonderful morning of birding along the Gomantong entrance road, seeing such wonders as Hooded and Black-headed pittas, Red-bearded Bee-eater, and a terrific array of babblers, before settling in to Borneo Rainforest Lodge, our comfortable home for the next five days.

Foremost among our favorites at BRL were great views of the monotypic Bornean Bristleheads on our first morning afield; being able to watch at leisure a stunning male Blue-headed Pitta repeatedly gathering dead-leaf material from the forest floor and carrying it to a nest in the crotch of a tree 25 feet up!; and watching (and listening to!) the most bizarre of the hornbills, the Helmeted. The canopy walkway offered non-stop activity from time to time, with unique opportunities to see canopy species eye-to-eye, and both the road and the trails held ever-changing surprises, both by day and by night. Among the many incredible birds, mammals, and other critters we encountered at BRL, we'll each have our own additional favorites. It was fun reliving the trip while annotating the list that follows. Hopefully it'll serve to bring back great memories for you guys as well.

It was a bit sobering to realize how many of the species we saw are considered either Endangered, Vulnerable, or Near Threatened by Birdlife International and the IUCN Red List. We'll hope that our visit will contribute a bit toward their longterm preservation.

In the annotations below, I've used the following abbreviations:

RDC = Rainforest Discovery CentreBRL = Borneo Rainforest Lodge

By a Sundaland specialty, I mean a species whose range is generally restricted to the Thai-Malay peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and Java‚ all of which were connected during the last ice age. The eastern boundary of Sundaland is Wallace's Line, a deep-water trench between Borneo and Sulawesi and between Bali and Lombok, east of which is Wallacea/Australasia. Many of the birds of Borneo, as marked with an S on the checklist, are Sundaland specialties. Taxonomy follows the Clements checklist with online updates. To access the Clements checklist, go tohttp://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist, where you can download it and check for additional updates.

We thank Borneo Eco Tours, our great local guides (Adrian, Haswan, Wangkong, and Paul), our captains and boatmen, and the staffs of our wonderful lodgings throughout the tour. Special thanks for cover photos to John Drummond (Fruit-hunter, Black-sided Flowerpecker), Steve Rannels (Antheraea moth, Black-and-yellow Broadbill), and Karen Walz (Orangutan). Dave contributed the Storm's Stork, Streaky-breasted Spiderhunter, and Blue-headed Pitta, and the rest were mine. Thanks, too, to each of you guys for coming and for making the trip so much fun.

--Rose Ann (& Dave)

For more information about this tour, including future departures, visit our website at www.fieldguides.com. And to see this same triplist online, go to https://fieldguides.com/triplists/bor12aLIST.pdf and you will find the list in its entirety.

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KEYS FOR THIS LIST
One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant

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BIRDS

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MAMMALS

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

One of the joys of birding in Borneo is all the delightful distractions that come in varied and exotic forms from other parts of the animal kingdom. Our triplist database contains only birds and mammals, but we had a long list of additional write-ins, including a few plant species of exceptional interest. To mention a very few, emphasizing those that we were able to identify:

Among the plants:

--Rafflesia keithii - We traveled to Poring to see the flower of this fascinating Bornean endemic, the largest of its genus in Borneo. Adrian explained how scientists and the Kinabalu Park staff work with locals to enhance the environmental conditions favorable to this rare parasitic plant, namely by making its host vine available for distribution on nearby private lands. We saw several buds and a fabulous blossom on its second day open, as well as several older, decaying flowers.

--Carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plants - The pitcher plant center of Borneo (and the world!) is the upper-elevation Mt. Kinabalu. This was the first year we've offered an alternative trip to Mesilau, where we took a steep (but short) trail to 4 different species of pitcher plants: N. burbigeae (see my cover photo), N. fusca (a small one), N. tentaculata (the same one that was seen by the group birding the Summit Trail); and N. rajah, a.k.a. Rajah Brooke's Pitcher Plant, the largest pitcher plant in the world, its pitcher holding up to 3.5 liters of liquid! Recent research has revealed the "evolutionary incentive" for high-elevation pitcher plants to have evolved bigger and bigger pitchers: It's to serve as a toilet for treeshrews! Treeshrews, which are common at these high elevations (where insects become increasinly scarce) are attracted by the sweet secretion on the underside of the pitcher's lid. To reach it, they climb onto the pitcher's sturdy rim, which fits them perfectly, and sip away, meanwhile defecating into the pitcher to mark their feeding territory--thus supplying all the nitrogen critical to these normally carnivorous plants. See the following link for a full explanation, with photos: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8552000/8552157.stm

Among the other vertebrates of particular interest were:

--that huge Water Monitor (Varanus salvator), in the crotch of a tree along the Menanggul River

--the giant Tokay Geckos (Gekko gecko) that were usually under the covered section of the boardwalk between the rooms and the dining area at Sukau Rainforest Lodge; these were the ones we heard throughout the lowlands, uttering the loud "gec-ko" or "to-kay" that slows down; it was for this species that the genus was named.

--the cool Kuhl's Parachute Gecko (Ptychozoon kuhli) that some of us saw on the trunk of a tree at the Danum bridge; those frilly extensions on its sides and all of its appendages help it sail from tree to tree by night, when it's active.

--Blue-eyed Angle-headed Lizard (Gonocephalus liogaster) - This is what I think the crested agamid lizard was that we saw by night at BRL. Its nuchal and dorsal crests were continuous and tall, and it showed a blue eye with yellow eyering. It's another Sundaland specialty, found only in peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo.

--small "flying lizards" of the genus Draco - The bright green one with the pointed orange display pouch was probably D. cornutus. They were seen at Sukau and BRL.

--Mangrove (or Yellow-banded) Cat Snake (Boiga dendrophila), the shiny black snake with the brioght-yellow bands that was so tightly coiled in a tree overhanging the Menanggul that we could hardly see its head! Their diet consists of birds and their eggs, amphibians, lizards, other snakes, mouse deer (!), and treeshrews.

--Red-sided Keelback Water Snake (Xenochrophis trianguligerus) This was what Paul called a "Red-sided Tree Snake" when we saw and photographed it at the BRL "frog pond." It's a mildly venomous member of the Colubridae that feeds almost exclusively on frogs near bodies of water.

--File-eared Tree Frog (Polypedates otilophus), the richly colored frogs also at the BRL frog pond. They occur only in Sumatra and Borneo, ordinarily well above the ground. But they congregate over water to breed and lay their fertilized eggs into a foam mass that will harden on the outside while remaining liquid on the inside, providing the tadpoles a suitable environment until the mass falls into the water below.

--Harlequin Flying Tree Frog (Rhacophorus pardalis). Also at the BRL frog pond. Little did we realize at the time that this little frog spends most of its time in the canopy, only coming to the ground to breed in suitable streams and pools. It too is a foam nest builder, but it's one of the "flying" frogs, with extensive membranes between its toes to help it glide from branch to branch--and down to pools on the forest floor. It occurs in peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines.

Among the many invertebrates were some that simply must be remembered:

--the common Wood Nymph (Idea stolli) or Tree Nymph butterflies that floated tissue paper-like throughout the lowlands

--the striking black-and-yellow Common Birdwings (Trioides helena) and many other superb butterflies [see the following website to help ID some of your photos: http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Malaysia%20thumbs.htm]

--the many gorgeous moths attracted to Steve's black light at Kinabalu, including the big beauty on the cover (Antheraea sp.; thanks for the photo, Steve); and the big Lyssa moth (Lyssa menoetcus) that was photographed along the boardwalk to our rooms at BRL. We'll try to post the names of the ones we've ID'd in a slideshow, to be compiled eventually.

--the long-snouted Chinese Lantern Bug (Pyrops sp.) that Diana found at Poring (and I think some were seen at BRL as well?). These are sap suckers, which excrete excess sugars as droplets that certain ants have specialized to collect!

--those wonderful black-and-orange Trilobite Beetles (Duliticola paradoxa; in rotten logs at Kinabalu) that retain their larval form even when sexually mature

--that unbelievable praying mantis that was so elaborately trimmed to resemble a dead stick with leafy extensions; all the big cicadas, katydids, and other amazing insects in the lowland rainforest

--the hordes of cockroaches and scuterigid centipedes that decorated the walls of Gomantong Cave

--those long, dark millipedes with bright orange legs; and big, short, fat Pill Millipedes (Glomeris connexa) that curl into a balllike a pillbug, both fairly common at BRL

--some wonderful spiders, including lots of "wolf spiders" with eyeshine and that big arboreal tarantula that Paul pointed out on our final night drive

--and did I mention the leeches? Especially notable were those yellow-striped Tiger Leeches (Haemadipsa picta) at BRL, yet another Bornean specialty. They informed our fashion and left several of us with a "battled scar" to show off at home.

Like Kinabalu itself, that's just the "tip of the batholith." There are LOTS of fabulous critters out there, and we encountered a wonderful sampling of them.

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Totals for the tour: 328 bird taxa and 33 mammal taxa