The 2nd Borneo Bird Festival 2010

The 2nd Borneo Bird Festival will be held once again this year at the Rainforest Discovery Centre, Sepilok on the 15th - 17th of this month. This annual event is expected to attract not only birders and photographers alike but also all nature enthusiast and the general public. The 1st Borneo Bird Festival last year was such a huge success that it makes this years event the more so to look forward to. Plenty of fun-filled activities such as Bird Camps, Face Paintings, Colouring Competitions and even Bird Tattoos will be conducted to cater for visiting families with children. There will also be exhibitions from various bird clubs and organizations plus interesting talks and workshops conducted by specialist in thier respective fields. The Bird Race and Bird Photography Competition in particular will be the highlight for all birders and nature enthusiast (Like Me!!) with great prizes in store for the lucky ones. With about 300 species of birds already recorded within the Sepilok-Kabili Forest Reserve, this event is a must visit for all so as to allow each of us to foster a greater awareness and understanding of the importance of bird conservation and its direct link to our fragile ecosystem. See YOU there!

"There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before" (Robert Lynd)

The Forest Dragons of Borneo

The Forest Dragons that i am referring to are reptiles from the beautiful lizard genus of Gonocephalus. The Gonocephalus are a medium-sized genus of a distinctive looking agamids distinguished by thier quite unique head shape, which gives them the scientific and common name of "Angleheads". As with other species from the agamidae family, these lizards have a unique ability to change colour which happens when the lizards mood changes and is also an an adaptation to camouflage from potential predators.

Most Gonocephalus lizards live in forested area from an elavation of 0 - 1600 metres a.s.l. The majority are found fairly high up in the trees, either clinging to vertical tree trunks or sitting on the end of thin branches. They are always found nearby to a source of running water mainly a stream.

Among some key characteristics of this genus are the following - body laterally flattened, has a throat and shoulder fold, a distinctive gular pouch and crest on its naped, fairly visible hearing organ or ear drum (tympanum) always present in both sexes, a rather triangular head, and a strong tail that unfortunately does not regenerate if broken.

This species of forest dragon is the Doria's Anglehead Lizard (Gonocephalus doriae). This species was found clinging on a tree trunk about 1 metre high from the ground in the rainforest of Kubah National Park in Sarawak along the waterfall trail.

Photo taken with a Nikon D300 + 16 - 85 mm lens on 5th August 2010.

Thick-billed Green Pigeon (Treron curvirostra)

The Thick-billed Green Pigeon (Treron curvirostra) is a common bird of Borneo's lowland rainforest and can be found up to an elevation of 1500m above sea level. This species has a wide distribution in around South East Asia stretching all the way to Hong Kong, Bangladesh and also to India. According to the IUCN Red List this species is evaluated as Least Concerned due to thier large range and population.

This species comes from the family of Columbidae, a big family of Pigeons and Doves. They are all mainly frugivorous birds and eat a wide variety of fruits, berries and also seeds. According to Smythies - The Birds of Borneo (1999), two subfamilies are represented in Borneo - The primarily arboreal and frugivorous Treroninae family represented by the green pigeons, fruit doves and imperial pigeons and the remainder in the predominantly terrestrial seed eating family Columbinae.

Sexes of this species differ greatly in where the back, mantle and upper inner wing coverts are maroon in the male but dark green in the female. Both though have a grey crown and a distinctive heavy bill with a red base.

This Thick-billed Green Pigeon "couple" photo is taken in the Sepilok Forest Reserve.

All photos taken with a Nikon D 300 + 70-300mm VR at ISO 400 f5.6

Global Warming?

It has been awhile since i last updated my blog (thousand apologies on that).. and it has also been awhile since we last had any "REAL" rain in Sabah (not my fault though). This ongoing drought that we have been experiencing since the last 7 weeks have seen changes in our natural landscape in particular our rivers are slowly receding in its water levels, soil surfaces are cracking due to the extreme dryness and minor forest fires are happening here and there cause by the heat and constant humidity. This is a total contrast to when I was at the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in January this year. There, I saw the onset of the northeasterly monsoon, a period of time when the whole of sabah will be lashed by heavy rain and I also saw how fast the water can rise in less than a week of continuous rain. This flood lasted for about 3 weeks and just as it stopped, the dry period we are experiencing right now started. For most of the wildlife in the rainforest, wether it is rain or shine or drought or flood or even la-nina or el-nino the need to survived in such unpredictable weather patterns have allowed them to slowly acclimatize and to also change and at times improvise from thier normal behaviors to adapt to these circumstances. This weird weather pattern that we have been having has led me to believe that this could be the start of the effects of Global Warming. Are we ready to adapt and improvise to such uncertainty in our environment now?

"Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day." [Uncle Vanya, 1897]

Nikon D300 + 70-300 mm VR at 300mm F 5.6 ISO 800, Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Flying Dutchman of BORNEO

Hmm.. A Flying Dutchman in Borneo? Doesn’t it sound very much like Captain Davy Jones warship in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean? Well, before delving deeper into this subject and to avoid it from being to confusing and complicated, I think it is best that I clear the air on this mysteriously title post of mine. The Dutchman that I am referring to is none other than our enigmatic Proboscis Monkeys or locally known as the “Monyet Belanda”, the Dutchman Monkey. A name which has for long been used as a reference to the early Dutch colonialist that came to explore and accumulate the deep riches of Borneo in the early days. 

Now as you have all known why it is called the Dutchman, you might probably start asking about the flying bit. Well, all I have to say is that you will have to SEE it to BELIEVE it. This sequence of photos was taken just last week in the Menanggol River a lively tributary in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.  This is for me the REAL Flying Dutchman of Borneo : The Proboscis Monkey "Flying" without Wings. Enjoy!!

 Isn't that Amazing? For me seeing it happening just in front of my eyes and to capture the whole "Flying" sequence from the very start to finish is just simply AWESOME. This is not something that you get to see everyday in the Kinabatangan. Lucky Me! I just wish i had a Video Camera with me at that time, maybe this sounds for another additional equipment needed in my already expanding camera inventory: maybe a Nikon D90 or a D5000? Well, we will see. This is for sure another of our Natural Wonders of Borneo : The Proboscis Monkeys "Flying".

PHOTO TAKEN ALONG SUNGAI MENANGGOL, SUKAU LOWER KINABATANGAN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY ON 15 AUGUST 2009 AT 03:59 PM.

NIKON D300 + 70-300mm VR at 300 mm F 5.6 ISO 500