Borneo Tropical Rainforest Resort

With Liz working at the Miri Curtin University campus, I had a few days on my own and there is only so much birding you can do in a city. The Miri City Fan though, is a lovely ornamental park that’s not bad for birding, right in the heart of the city. I did get great views there of Sunda Pygmy Woodpeckers, Pied Trillers and Plain-throated Sunbirds, but it was time to head out into the proper rainforest.

I headed for the Lambir Hills about an hour’s drive from Miri and booked in for two nights at the Borneo Tropical Rainforest Resort.

A good place to stay with nice rooms, but the food can be a bit basic at times if you're not part of a big package group buffet. Plus take lots of bottled water as there are no shops nearby and water is not sold at the resort.

 Birding in the main entrance carpark can be good at the right time of year, with pittas feeding at the jungle edges. The restaurant also has good views into the forest.

The large network of walkways is what makes the resort so good for birding, plus it's adjoins the Lambir Hills National Parks. When there are no package groups during the week, you basically have the place to yourself.

These beautiful Giant Black Bees were often flying along walkways, sounding like large bombers.

Amazing eyes.

The resort has this large pond, which had fruiting plants on the edges and attracted large numbers of birds, such as Grey-bellied Bulbuls and Yellow-rumped Flowerpeckers. 

Some colourful dragonflys were also in the area.

One of the best birding areas was the walkway to the waterfall for birds such as woodpeckers.

The road to the waterfall was equally as good, as it runs along a ridge area which was attractive to hornbills and raptors.

The late afternoons always brought huge thunderstorms that rained most of the night. I almost got caught by this one at the waterfall, which was a good half hour's fast walk back to the resort.

When it's pouring outside, you can still go spot-lighting for animals under some of the covered walkways. This is a Smith’s Giant Gecko (Gekko smithii) found hiding in the hallway. The largest Bornean gecko, just over a foot long and with a loud yelp that sounds like a dog.  

He was big and moved fast, so I didn't run around trying to catch him. He seems happy about that.

The night rain brought out this big two foot jungle earthworm.

He had nice yellow and black markings along the body.

A lot of the geckos were hiding along the rafters of the walkways, including this one.

He turned out to be one I have always hoped to see, a Horsfield’s Gliding Gecko (Ptychozoon horsfieldii). These geckos use the extensive skin folds on their bodies to glide between trees. 

Bird list

Chestnut-winged Babler

Fluffy-backed Tit-babbler

Blue-eared Barbet

Brown Barbet

Blue-throated Bee-eater

Black and Red Broadbill

Grey-bellied Bulbul

Hairy-backed Bulbul

Red-eyed Bulbul

Spectacled Bulbul

Yellow-bellied Bulbul

Emerald Dove

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

Changeable Hawk-Eagle

Crested Serpent Eagle

Orange-bellied Flowerpecker

Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Crested Goshawk

Black Hornbill

White-crowned Hornbill

Green Iora

Chestnut-bellied Malkoha

Red-billed Malkoha

Black-naped Monarch

Dusky Munia

Hill Myna

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

Oriental Magpie-Robin

White-rumped Shama

Little Spiderhunter

Silver-rumped Spinetail (Needletail)

Purple-naped Sunbird

Ruby-cheeked Sunbird

Glossy Swiftlet

Ashy Tailorbird

Rufous-tailed Tailorbird

Crimson-winged Woodpecker

Maroon Woodpecker

Rufous Woodpecker

White-breasted Woodswallow


Mammal/Reptile list

Plantain Squirrel

Prevost’s Squirrel (subspecies caroli)

Treeshrew Sp.

Green Crested Lizard Bronchocela cristatella

Smith’s Giant Gecko Gekko smithii

Asian House Gecko Hemidactylus frenatus

Three-keeled Ground Skink Mabaya rudis

Many-scaled Litter Skink Sphenomorphus multisquamalus

Horsfield’s Gliding Gecko Ptychozoon horsfieldii

Malayan Softshell Turtle Amyda cartilaginea

Miri Malaysian Nature Society

Well we got back a few days ago from our trip to Sarawak Borneo and at the moment I'm suffering from a severe case of 'Borneo Belly'. Not the best way to end a wonderful long week of birding in Miri and surrounding areas!

Liz and I were very lucky to be able to travel and bird with members of the Miri branch of the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), going to many places that only local birders know.

One well known tourist and good birding area is the Niah Caves National Park, which actually is on the other side of the river from the main entrance and can only be reached by boat.

Members of the MNS getting ready for some serious photography and birding in the national park.

Once across the river, there is a good network of trails to the caves and limestone hills.

Liz and Steve have a  rest and scan of the rainforest for birds, along one of the muddy trails. The highlights in this area were stunning views of 2 species of Trogon and a beautiful Oriental Dwarf-Kingfisher (after I left!).

One of the many big caves found in the area.

I may have missed the kingfisher, but I got great views of an Olive-backed Woodpecker and this interesting Rufous-sided Sticky Frog (Kalophrynus pleurostigma). I learnt very quickly that you don't try to pick him up for a better photo, as he releases a white glue from his skin and then you cant get the stuff off your hand!

Lots of different butterflies in the rainforest.....

That often only show their wonderful wing colours when they fly.

I seen these before. Some type of young shield bug I think.

Another great butterfly, with this one showing it's colours when the wings are closed.

One of the caterpillars of what must be a big butterfly or moth.

This one was interesting, with big spots on the wings that look like big eyes, probably to scare off predators, as well as a tail that looks like a head, so they may just grab or approach the wrong end.

One of the birding trips with Musa from the MNS was along the sea looking for coastal birds. The forest here had good numbers of Blue-throated Bee-eaters, Pied Trillers and lots of flowerpeckers and sunbirds.

The villages in this area are close to sea level, so these banks had to be built to stop flooding during storms. I don't think they will help much when global warming really kicks in.

The flooded swamp forests, such as this one in Brunei have some really unique birds and animals. These forests sadly are disappearing in Borneo, as palm oil and acacia timber plantations are replacing them at a shocking rate. The new roads into them also bring huge numbers of hunters that shoot everything on sight!

Some of the interesting signs we saw during our travels.

My wife wanted me to stand next to this one.......what does she mean?

Black-headed Python Videos

I thought I'd put up two videos of a nice healthy 2.5 metre Black-headed Python we found crossing a dirt track in the afternoon, during the Wodgina fauna survey.The video was taken on our Lumix TZ6 and seemed to come out quite well, especially seeing I had not used the video mode before.

I'm packing and organising my proper video gear at the moment, as we leave for Borneo on Friday. Hopefully a week of birding and videography around Miri in Sarawak. We will be spending a fair bit of time birding with the members of the Miri Branch of the Malaysian Nature Society. A small group of people there, working hard to get local people interested in birds, animals and conservation (please support them). If you are interested, check out their blog at  http://miribirding.blogspot.com/












This python is the same species that was swallowing a large monitor on a previous post at:

 http://wazoologist.blogspot.com/2010/03/python-swallows-large-monitor.html

Wodgina Fauna Survey - Rock On

Things that are rocks, look like rocks and live in rocks.

The early morning sun makes the flowering spinifex glow at the Wodgina granites.

Is it a rock?

No, it's a Desert Spadefoot (Notaden nichollsi).

We are just rocks, so leave us alone.

I'm a rock too! A small Russell's Toadlet (Uperoleia russelli).

Interesting patterns.

Lots of hiding places for rock-dwelling animals at Wodgina.

Bottle-shaped mud nests of Fairy Martins were hidden in most small rock caves.

Big boulders such as this one often had interesting animals living in deeper cracks.

A Common Sheathtail Bat (Taphozous georgianus) resting in a deep boulder crack.

Trying to look like the local terrain. A Military Dragon (Ctenophorus isolepis).

Beautiful scales.

Another resident of the area with great camo, a Fat-tailed Gecko (Diplodactylus conspicillatus).

A rock-loving dragon, a cute little baby Ring-tailed Dragon (Ctenophorus caudicinctus). I'm just a little rock!

The end of a wonderful day at the Wodgina rocks.