It's been a good couple of years since I last visited Luzon, and my last visit certainly did not do the endemic rich island justice, as we missed a lot of target species due to bad weather. Captain got in contact with local bird guide Irene Dy, and she had an opening in April for a few days, she suggested for us to try northern Luzon, this was an awesome opportunity I did not want to miss! Eight of us in total got on the plane to Manila, our plan was to do a few days at Subic on our own and meet Irene back in Manila and fly up to Tuguegarao together, where we will explore the area near Baggao for the remainder of our trip.
Our main target was of course the legendary Isabela Oriole, a species once thought to be extinct but rediscovered back in 1993, but still a species that is highly threatened and extremely rare. There will also be a good set of endemics around Baggao area plus a few endemic subspecies that maybe future splits, making that area a very attractive one for birders indeed.
Since we have done Subic Bay before, we thought it was OK to do on our own without Irene's help, although she did gave us a few pointers in where to pickup a few targets. And with that, we set off to 8 days in Luzon.
Day 1 - Hong Kong > Subic Bay
My memory of birding in Subic Bay was that everything were pretty far away, as the trees are generally quite tall here, and birds in the Philippines are not the friendliest. We caught the morning flight to Clark International Airport and landed at around 10:30am, where we were picked up by the pre-arranged driver. From there, it was a quick journey along the motorway straight towards Subic Bay, this way we could skip the busy and congested streets of Manila. After lunch and a bit of rest at the hotel, we headed out for our first afternoon session of birding, the first stop was the Emerald Manor, a hotel situated closer to the forest, the car park there is suppose to be quite birdy. And it certainly was, as we were immediately greeted by Luzon Hornbills and some Philippine Bulbuls.
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| Luzon Hornbill - male |
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| Philippine Bulbul |
Not long after a few doves flew in, and they were Philippine Green Pigeons, a lifer for us all and the male showed especially well. Colasisi or the Philippine Hanging Parrot also came in, they gave much better views compared to our last sighting years ago. Coletos are common at Subic, this strange looking starling is always fun to see, but they never really gave particularly good photo opportunities.
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| Philippine Green Pigeon - male |
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| Colasisi (Philippine Hanging Parrot) |
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| Coleto |
After an hour or so, we drove to the Rufous-crowned Bee-eater colony nearby and got good looks at this endemic, they are very similar to the Blue-throated Bee-eater except that their throats are green and not blue.
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| Rufous-crowned Bee-eater |
Nearby along the road we added a single Stripe-sided Rhabdornis, another genus of birds endemic to the Philippines that is always intriguing, same as last time however, it remained too far for a good photo. A pair of Green Racquet-tails were spotted and they gave fairly good views, although still slightly on the far side, it was still a far better view compared to last time.
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| Stripe-sided Rhabdornis - yet another distant view... |
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| Green Racquet-tail |
Before it got dark, we headed back to Emerald Manor to try for owls, a Luzon Hornbill came in quite close before the sun went down. Owling that evening was not successful, we heard a Philippine Scops Owl calling but it never came anywhere near.
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| Luzon Hornbill - male |
Day 2 - Subic Bay
The morning started quite well with a male Northern Sooty Woodpecker by the roadside, this species is slightly less common than the Luzon Flameback, but we did encountered them twice on the trip.
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| Northern Sooty Woodpecker - male |
We tried Nabasan Road which is one of the prime birding site around Subic, a few Coletos came close for a photo for once, and a few Blue-naped Parrots also gave great views.
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| Birding around Nabasan |
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| Coleto |
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| Blue-naped Parrot |
A pair of small green parrots were spotted above, we initially thought they were Green Racquet-tails, but having gotten a better look I saw that they had a blue face, with a much shorter tail, so they were clearly Guaiaberos instead.
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| Guaiabero - male & female |
Philippine Coucals were a fairly common species throughout, as we could hear them calling in most places, but they were not particularly easy to observe, occasionally we would see one or two fly past the road. We heard the call of a Yellow-breasted Fruit-Dove but it never came into view properly.
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| Philippine Coucal |
It gets hot very quickly at Subic, and bird activity quietens down almost immediately after 9:30am, the only birds photographable were a few Bar-bellied Cuckooshrikes, race striata is the endemic subspecies in Luzon. A Philippine Falconet gave relatively good views, although still very far away, it was an improvement from our last encounter.
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| Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike - female race striata |
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| Philippine Falconet |
It wasn't until late afternoon that we went back out in the field, which was quite a slow session with nothing particularly interesting of note. We had a good look at a Luzon Flameback, and a back lit White-bellied Woodpecker. There wasn't that many other birds around, I only managed to photograph a Brown Shrike.
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| Luzon Flameback - female |
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| White-bellied Woodpecker - male |
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| Brown Shrike - race lucionensis |
Owling that evening was slightly more successful, we had many Luzon Boobooks calling, but only one decided to show itself to us, although most of us did not get a photo before it flew off. A distant Chocolate Boobook did however gave everyone a good look, despite being quite far away it gave good views while calling. So, I would say owling was moderately successful.
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| Chocolate Boobook |
Day 3 - Subic Bay > Manila
This was our last morning at Subic Bay before we headed back to Manila. We decided to try our luck along El Kabayo Road for the Indigo Banded Kingfisher, a species none of us have seen before. The area was actually quite birdy early in the morning, with Balicassiao showing well by the roadside, and we had several good looks at the Red-crested Malkoha.
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| Balicassiao |
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| Red-crested Malkoha |
Along the river, I had eyes on the Indigo Banded Kingfisher from afar, but not everyone in the group managed to see it. Brown-breasted Kingfishers were slightly more obliging but still difficult to get a good photograph of. It took some waiting before another Indigo Banded Kingfisher was spotted feeding along the river, this time everyone had good views and managed to get some record shots. They are quite a small Kingfisher, beings the same size as the Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher.
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| Brown-breasted Kingfisher |
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| Indigo Banded Kingfisher - female |
After successfully connecting with this kingfisher, we went onto try another species of kingfisher; the Spotted Kingfisher along the Hospital Road. We heard the call of the kingfisher, but it stayed distant and never came into view. We did however added brief views of a pair of Grey-throated Sunbirds, and a Blackish Cuckooshrike, the former being a lifer for everyone.
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| Grey-throated Sunbird - male |
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| Blackish Cuckooshrike - male |
With that, we headed back to the hotel, checked out and went back to Manila, where we stayed at the Holiday Inn near the airport, as we needed to catch an early flight the next day.
Day 4 - Manila > Tuguegarao > Baggao
We woke up at 3:30am and headed out of the hotel to the airport at 4am. The Holiday Inn was situated right next to the airport, we only had to walk across to terminal 3 via the newly built skybridge call the Runway, which took us just 10 minutes. Irene met us at the check-in counter and fortunately the flight was not delayed and we got to Tuguegarao right on time. Tuguegarao is the capital of the state of Cagayan, from there it was just over an hour and a half towards the agricultural town of Baggao.
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| Flight at first light |
Once we reached Baggao, we had to meet the sheriff and then go to the mayor office, the reason being the area we were heading into was supposedly closed off to visitors up until 2023, as there were signs of insurgency in the area, part of the ongoing and long civil conflict between the communist rebels and the government. So, it was not possible to visit the area prior to that time, and now that it is safer to travel there, the government is allowing visitors to enter those areas again. After meeting with the officials we headed to our hotel for the next few days, the Country Inn Hotel & Restaurant is about the only establishment in this small little town catering for visitors.
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| Country Inn Hotel & Restaurant - our base in Baggao |
After we settled down, we headed out towards the Bluewater Wildlife Sanctuary, this is the area we will be birding for the next few days. We were joined by local bird guide Eldie here at Bluewaters, who was trained as part of an initiative to boost eco-tourism to the area, hoping to attract more people to visit during the off season for normal tourists. We started off with two raptors, one being a Philippine Serpent Eagle at a relatively close range, and another raptor in the distant being a Philippine Hawk Eagle! Coppersmith Barbets were constantly calling, and we had good views of one.
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| Entrance Sign to the Bluewater Wildlife Sanctuary |
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| Philippine Serpent Eagle |
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| Philippine Hawk-Eagle |
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| Coppersmith Barbet - nominate race haemacephalus |
It didn't actually take that long before we had our first sighting of an Isabela Oriole, and everyone got great looks at this Critically Endangered species. This extremely rare species is a Luzon endemic and is now only found in north eastern Luzon, where it inhabits lowland hill forest, a habitat that is depleting at an alarming rate. There are now estimated just 50-250 mature individuals in the wild, making it the rarest Oriole in the world!
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| Isabela Oriole - star bird of Bluewaters! |
It took us a while but we finally had good views of a Green-backed Tailorbird, another Luzon endemic, they are far more skulking than the tailorbirds we are used to. After that we also added some 'common' species, although that doesn't make them any easier to photograph, this includes a few Yellowish White-eyes and Elegant Tits.
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| Green-backed Tailorbird |
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| Yellowish White-eye |
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| Elegant Tit |
Irene heard the call of a Cream-breasted Fruit-Dove nearby, it took us some time but Peter finally caught its movement and we were soon all enjoying brilliant views of this endemic!
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| Cream-breasted Fruit-Dove |
After dark we started owling straight away. Things started off quickly with amazingly close views of a pair of Luzon Boobooks! Everyone got good photos, with the exception of Captain, who somehow couldn't get a focus on the bird with his camera! He did much better with the Philippine Scops Owl which showed obligingly for everyone. We were all very happy to successfully to nail both owl species in such a short amount of time, all the while enjoying the starry night and numerous fireflies flying around us was quite an unforgettable experience!
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| Luzon Boobook |
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| Philippine Scops Owl |
Day 5 - Baggao
We started early again, as weather gets hot very quickly here, and bird activity is higher early in the morning. Along the same stretch of road we had Luzon Flameback, Scale-feathered Malkohas and Luzon Hornbills.
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| Luzon Flameback - female |
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| Scale-feathered Malkoha |
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| Luzon Hornbill - female |
A White-lored Oriole decided to show itself right out in the open, which gave brilliant views for everyone, this is also quite an uncommon species and a Luzon endemic as well. A pair of Isabela Oriole, quite likely the same pair as the previous day, also showed well in the morning light.
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White-lored Oriole - highly range restricted species
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| Isabela Oriole - more good views of this incredibly rare species |
Other good birds seen includes a male Black-and-White Triller and a Red-crested Malkoha of race cagayanensis, which is a possible future split as the Cagayan Malkoha, with its different eye colour, shorter crest and different colour to the wattle around the eye. A few Rufous Coucals came by, I managed to get a photo of a singing bird, this skulking species was not the easiest to photograph to say the least!
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| Black-and-White Triller - male |
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| Red-crested Malkoha - race cagayanensis |
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| Rufous Coucal - rarely in full view |
Pygmy Swiftlets constantly zipped around above us, we also noticed some bigger swifts flying around, turns out they were Purple Needletails.
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| Pygmy Swiftlet |
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| Purple Needletail |
By mid-morning, we decided to head down towards the trail to the waterfall, as there are more tree cover and we hope birds will still be active down there. On the way down we had a few confiding Pacific Swallow up above and an Orange-bellied Flowerpecker showed well, this extremely widespread species in its range have up to 18 different races, and race xanthopygium of northern Philippines looks the most different, by having a completely yellowish throat, making this a possible future split.
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| Irene & Eldie - both excellent bird guides! |
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| Pacific Swallow |
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| Orange-bellied Flowerpecker - race xanthopygium |
Along the trail, things were very quiet. Irene hopes to find the Luzon Striped Babbler or Golden-crowned Babbler here, but none were calling. A fairly confiding Blue-headed Fantail was pretty much our only notable new addition down here. It took us a while to finally bump into a friendly White-browed Shama which showed beautifully! Strange thing about this species is that they can be tough to find, but once you located it they can be very confiding.
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| Blue-headed Fantail |
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| White-browed Shama - finally! |
At the picnic area where we stopped to have lunch, we heard multiple Yellow-breasted Fruit-Doves nearby, but none wanted to show. A very close one right above us gave it's location away by a single call, and luckily Peter and Kenneth both picked up on it and found one nesting right above us! The nest was quite well concealed, but with a bit of manoeuvring we got good views of the bird.
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| Yellow-breasted Fruit-Dove - on nest |
Since there were barely any birds around, we turned our attention to smaller critters around us. Luzon is certainly a very biodiversity rich area, I can only imagine what it would be like without the heavy deforestation.
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| Nephila pilipes - look slightly different to ours in Hong Kong |
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Leucauge fastigata
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| Numenes strandi |
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| Saptha divitiosa |
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| Hippotion rosetta |
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| Campsosternus auratus |
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| Maira sp. |
The afternoon session was not particularly eventful, I barely took any photos. After dark we tried once again for the Luzon Boobook for Captain as he missed his chance for a photo the day before, and this time he nailed it with a very confiding individual landing in right in front of us! We also tried to call in any Philippine Eagle Owls but had no answer.
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| Luzon Boobook - again for Captain |
Day 6 - Baggao
Irene wanted to try the waterfall trail with us in early morning, as the area can also be good for doves and hornbills, we also wanted to try and get the endemic Furtive Flycatcher. On the way down a Brown-breasted Kingfisher perched out in the open was a lovely sight.
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| Brown-breasted Kingfisher |
Not far from the entrance we bagged two dove species, first being the Green Imperial-Pigeon, which would be a bird we normally take no notice of, but race nuchalis is a northern Luzon endemic, with its much greyer wing and slightly reddish brown nape. Eldie found us a perched Spotted Imperial-Pigeon, which got great views of.
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| Green Imperial Pigeon - race nuchalis |
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| Spotted Imperial Pigeon |
It took us a lot of effort for the Furtive Flycatcher, which was responding to our call, but never wanted to stay still and mainly just stayed very well hidden. In the end most from the group had brief looks at the bird, but not one of us managed to get a single record shot! Tough bird indeed! The two babblers remained all but missing. Our only consolation from walking the trail was finding a Cream-breasted Fruit Dove nest. At a flowering tree there were a lot of Purple-throated Sunbirds around.
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| Cream-breasted Fruit-Dove |
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| Purple-throated Sunbird - male |
Again, our attention turned to other critters around us when there were no birds around, the moth Petavia petavius is one of my favourite of the day, these butterfly like moths from family Callidulidae are day flying and also quite pretty, so a lot of people often mistake them as butterflies.
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| Petavia petavius |
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| Lymantria sp. |
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| Rhinocypha colorata |
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| Yellow Gull - Cepora aspasia |
Before we headed back to Baggao for lunch, we had a few encounters with the Rufous Hornbills! They were extremely shy and took flight almost immediately once they spotted us. After some effort we all got good flying views. Birds from northern Philippines differs from southern race by having larger casque and completely red bill, with some authority treating the two as separate species.
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| Rufous Hornbill - nominate race with completely red bill |
Outside our hotel in Baggao, the garden provided views of Garden Sunbirds and Javan Sparrows, the latter an introduced species to the Philippines. Yellow-vented Bulbuls were very common, race goiavier have brown ear coverts. Blue-tailed Bee-eaters were also hawking for insects nearby and gave great perched views.
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| Garden Sunbird - female |
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| Javan Sparrow |
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| Yellow-vented Bulbul - race goiavier |
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| Blue-tailed Bee-eater |
Late afternoon we returned to the birding trail and Irene wanted to try for the elusive Sierra Madre Ground-Warbler, we of course did not hold high hopes for this extremely tough species, but thought we might as well give it a go since we are here. Things started off rather quietly, with nothing responding. A Flower Mantis was about the most interesting thing we found.
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| Flower Mantis - Creobroter sp. |
Irene went up a smaller trail to try and see if she can hear the Ground-Warbler, and to our excitement she had a pair responding! We all rushed up and for the next hour we were all scrambling for views on this elusive ground dwelling bird. Most from the group saw a shadow or some movements, I managed to get a full view from the side for around two seconds before it hopped off to the right. Despite having no photo record for this species, it was still an exhilarating experience! This species favours dense undergrowth with some limestone outcrops, their song is a distinctive high pitched "tseeee-sip tsee-wee" as described in the Birds of the World, which is as accurate as it can be. Given how elusive they are, I am not at all surprise this species wasn't discovered until 2013.
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| Sierra Madre Ground-Warbler - Sketch of the incredibly difficult to see species |
On our way back down the hill, we noticed a few birds up ahead, having seen many Elegant Tits in the area I initially thought thats what they were. I looked through my binoculars in the dimming light and saw stripes on the underside! Luzon Striped Babbler! We all got good looks of this endemic despite the low light conditions. Before we got back to the van a few Great Eared Nightjars came in for a fly-by view.
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| Luzon Striped Babbler - finally! |
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| Great Eared Nightjar |
That evening, we celebrated our success of the Luzon Striped Babbler with a Halo-halo, a Philippine shaved ice dessert with various toppings and taro ice-cream! I personally celebrated seeing the Sierra Madre Ground-Warbler as well as I could have in the given conditions.
Day 7 - Bagggao
This was our final full day at Baggao, and our final chance to clean up on any of our target species. We tried the same small trail where we saw the Sierra Madre Ground-Warbler the day before, a few Balicassiao showed early on, together with a mixed bag of species including Isabela Orioles, Black-and-White Triller and Rufous Coucals.
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| Balicassiao |
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| Isabela Oriole |
The trail was rather quiet in the morning, only a White-crowned Shama showed well for us (only the second one in the entire trip to do so!), while the Ground-Warblers were all but silent!
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| White-browed Shama |
Our attention again turned to the critters...the most interesting being a Teleopsis selecta, an odd looking Diptera that will make your eyes pop! Other than that, plenty of beetles, butterflies, moths and spiders to keep thing interesting.
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| Gasteracantha sanguinea |
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| Macroglenea sp. |
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| Teleopsis selecta |
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| Hyposidra leucomela |
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| Tortricoidea sp.? |
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| Straight Pierrot - Caleta roxus |
Things improved slightly when a pair of Luzon Striped Babbler showed well again, this time in much better light and we got some good photos! This endemic species is confined to the lowland forest of Luzon.
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| Luzon Striped Babbler - improved views of this Luzon endemic |
Finally, we had good views of a Flaming Sunbird, another northern Philippine endemic that is quite common but doesn't always offers good viewings.
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| Flaming Sunbird - male |
Before we headed back to Baggao for lunch, we tried an area that Eldie knew have Spotted Kingfishers. Irene managed to call in a pair from the forest, with a lot of effort we finally caught sight of the female, sitting very quietly on a low branch, with a bit of difficult manoeuvring on the steep slope we got fairly good views through the gaps of the trees, a species well worth the effort!
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| Spotted Kingfisher - female |
The afternoon session was again rather quiet to start off with, but Irene located the pair of Sierra Madre Ground-Warbler again at another location, the thickness of the undergrowth made it almost impossible to get any look at the bird! In the end only Captain had brief views of part of the bird despite being just 2 meters from the birds! Just shows how difficult this species can be! Early evening saw us trying for Chirruping Nightjars by the river on our way back towards Baggao, this endemic species was split from the Savanna Nightjar based on differences in call, and in reality they actually look very different, with almost completely mottled grey scapulars with no brownish spots! With a bit of effort we managed to get a good view of a male on the ground and also inflight!
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| Chirruping Nightjar |
Day 8 - Tuguegarao > Manila > Hong Kong
This was a travel day and we caught the early morning flight out of Tuguegarao back to Manila, where we did a couple of hours of shopping nearby before flying back to Hong Kong in the afternoon. To our delight there were no delays what so ever, and we were back in Hong Kong before dinner time!
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| Views of Tuguegarao |
Summary
Birding in the Philippines is an exciting experience, the number of endemics make this a must do destination for many birders, but it is also a very tough country to bird, birds can be far and few between, and they often make you work extremely hard for them. Birds are generally quite shy, and this is likely a result of all the hunting and trapping that is still ongoing in many areas, even within the Bluewaters Wildlife Sanctuary we saw signs of bird trapping, even active and armed traps!
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| Trapped White-eared Brown Dove, likely acting as a lure |
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| Parts of a bird trap at a fruiting tree with Luzon Hornbill feathers nearby |
Despite the tough going and sometimes slow birding, the rewards can also be extremely high, with many highly sought after and interesting endemics. We actually connected with most of our target species, despite not every species were photographed or seen well, the only target species we really missed was the Golden-crowned Babbler, which we didn't even hear. The Philippines is a wonderful country with many different islands, and each with its unique set of birds! So, hopefully I will be able to visit a few more islands in the near future for the many more exciting endemics.
A big thanks to Eldie the local guide at Bluewaters for his excellent local knowledge, and for Irene Dy for her excellent guiding and company, she is a wonderful bird guide and extremely knowledgable in terms of the ecology and behaviour of the local birds, and that certainly helped us with many of the highly sought after endemics.
Full eBird trip list: https://ebird.org/tripreport/353458
