Kinabalu National Park, Sabah - May 2014 (Part 2)

12th May: The next day we woke up at 6am, the first night of sleep wasn't too great, so we simply walked up to the park HQ and first birded along the Power Station Road. We got greeted by a group of laughingthrush, comprising of Sunda and Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush, then further on a pair of obliging Indigo Flycatcher stood for as long as we wanted to watch, further up the hill at Grace Hostel we heard a group of Bornean Green Magpies making their way up hill, we waited and saw them through the trees, below them a small flock of Temminck's Babbler made an appearance (the ONLY!). Highlight was a little further up the road just before the bend leading to the Liwagu Restaurant, a female Whitehead's Broadbill made a brief appearance! It first made it's distinctive call and was then spotted on a fruiting tree ahead. 30 seconds later it flew uphill and out of sight, we waited a little longer but it never returned, making no calls at all.

Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush

Indigo Flycatcher

Bornean Green Magpie

Temminck's Babbler (record shot)

Whitehead's Broadbill

We walked the Silau-Silau trail back down, with little sucess except for a flock of Chestnut-crested Yuhina, we heard the Bornean Whistling Thrush but it never showed. Walking back down to the hostel we noticed the swiftlet nests under the roof of the HQ buildings, these are "supposedly" Bornean Swiftlets, with their greenish rather then bluish sheen.

Chestnut-crested Yuhina

Bornean Swiftlet

After lunch it started raining, once it subsided a little we headed out again. First were a few Bornean Treepies right outside our hostel, you can hear them pretty much constantly in the mountain. We again followed the Power Station Road, outside the Botanical Garden and Liwagu Restaurant were these fruiting bushes, here you can find Black-sided Flowerpeckers, Ashy Drongo, a family of Indigo Flycatchers and Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush. This spot proved to be quite successful on the coming few days as well, as different birds tend to show up here if you give it some time.

Bornean Treepie

Ashy Drongo

Indigo Flycatcher

Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush

Black-sided Flowerpecker

On the way back we encountered a bird wave with Bornean Whistlers, Yellow-breasted Warblers, Mountain Leaf Warblers, Ochraceous Bulbul and White-throated Fantail. Most were too quick and I couldn't get any good photographs, however the Whistlers were slightly more cooperative, willing to stay long enough for us to take some photographs.

To be continued...