Tag: philippines

Rufous-lored Kingfisher [HD]

One of the main targets of a birding trip to the Philippines is to see the country's six endemic kingfishers. We have Philippine Dwarf Kingfisher for the major islands, Spotted Wood and Indigo-banded Kingfishers in Luzon, while Mindanao and its satellite islands have Silvery Kingfisher, Blue-capped Wood Kingfisher and the one featured here in this video: the Rufous-lored Kingfisher. The Rufous-lored Kingfisher usually inhabits the lowland forests of Mindanao, Bohol, Samar, Leyte and its satellite islands and feeds on small vertebrates such as lizards, frogs and other invertebrates. Like its relative in Luzon, the Spotted Wood Kingfisher, the Rufous-lored Kingfisher is very active in the early morning and is usually given away by its loud and harsh calls. These individuals were recorded during one of our birding trips to PICOP, Bislig, Surigao.

Rare Migrant to Luzon:
Ashy Drongo ssp leucogenis

Here is a video of an Ashy Drongo that Nicky videoscoped from Makiling a few months back. This is the subspecies leucogenis, a rare migrant to the Philippines, with just one other report a few years back in the local bird club's records. Incidentally, the previous sighting was also from the lowland forests of Mt. Makiling, Laguna. The other race leucophaeus shown below the video ranges only in Palawan where it is a common bird, often found in exposed perches. What big difference in terms of plumage! Possible split? šŸ™‚ Ashy Drongo, Dicrurus leucophaeus leucogenis Mt. Makiling, Laguna, Luzon, Philippines Ashy Drongo, Dicrurus leucophaeus leucophaeus Coron, Busuanga Island, Palawan, Philippines

Ashy Drongo

Yellow-breasted Fruit-dove in Mt. Kitanglad [HD]

Here's sharing with you a short video clip of a Yellow-breasted Fruit-dove trying to collect twigs as nesting material. This was taken during one of our custom tours for Jeepney Projects Worldwide. Jeepney Projects Worldwide is a partnering of benefit art projects and regional conservation groups working to inspire support and restore lost habitat of critically endangered birds. They are doing an art benefit project for the Philippine Eagle Foundation in conserving the Philippines' national bird, the Great Philippine Eagle. The Yellow-breasted Fruit-dove is one of the five endemic fruit-doves found in the Philippines. It can be found allover the country except the Palawan region and inhabits forest and forest edge in lowland and montane forests usually taking advantage of fruiting trees. Locally called Punay, it is one of the most colorful fruit-doves in the Philippines. Which one do you think is prettier, this Yellow-breasted Fruit-dove or its high-elevation-Luzon-only cousin, Flame-breasted Fruit-dove? Yellow-breasted Fruit-Dove Ptilinopus occipitalis January 2011, Mt. Kitanglad, Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippines Video by Nicky Icarangal, JR. Digiscoped with a Swarovski ATM 80 HD, Canon Powershot S95.

Close encounters with the Indigo-banded Kingfisher

Indigo-banded Kingfisher
Indigo-banded Kingfisher
The Indigo-banded Kingfisher is one of the most-striking and sought-after endemics in any birding tour in the Philippines. This beautiful kingfisher needs clean freshwater rivers and streams where it hunts small fish and crabs. It perches on rocks or on branches and dives head first to catch prey. It is restricted to Luzon and its satellite islands, and Mindoro, Cebu, Negros and Panay. The usual spots for the Indigo-banded Kingfisher in our regular Philippine birding tour are the small streams inside the green campus of the University of the Philippines Los BaƱos or inside the Makiling Botanical Gardens in Laguna, south of Manila. There is also a spot on the way up to Banaue, Northern Luzon where one can scan the Lagawe River for this small kingfisher. Another very good spot is Villa Escudero, www.villaescudero.com, a resort two hours south of Manila. This close encounter, however, was captured in Ipo Dam in Bulacan. The Ipo Dam serves as one of the fresh water sources for Metro Manila. Most of the birding is done on bangkas or motorized outrigger boats (not the best platforms for observation with optics!). Here is an excerpt from Trinket Canlas' blog, a birder from Birding Adventure Philippines. A complete story can be found in her blog here. Before "discovering" the Indigo-banded Kingfishers of Ipo Dam, i had always thought that these sparkling endemics inhabited small, clear and shallow freshwater streams. I have memories of running up and down the endless stairs at the Makiling Botanical Gardens to catch a glimpse at them at the Molawin Creek, of brilliant blue bullets speeding AWAY from me. Imagine on my second trip to Ipo Dam we counted FIFTEEN of them on the riverbanks of a wide, deep and open river! and these aren't the shy type. The bangka (take note motorized and therefore NOISY) can get within a couple of meters of them before they feel an encroachment of their personal space. Because of this unusual boldness the boatmen call them "ibong bingi" ("deaf birds"). Even on a boat you cannot miss the iridescent plumage of these tiny birds, always on the lookout for small fish and crustaceans. -- For the love of birds, Birding Adventure Philippines

A pair of Greater Flamebacks

This is a pair of Luzon (Greater) Flamebacks "doing it" in Subic Bay, Zambales, Luzon, Philippines. These woodpeckers prefer forests and forests edge more commonly in lowland forests. Their strong bills are used for drilling holes into tree trunks to extract worms and insects. LuzonĀ Flamebacks are found all over the Philippines with four races having distinctive characteristics. This pair isĀ from the haematribon race and are considered as endemic subspecies found only in the islands of Luzon, Catanduanes and Marinduque. EDIT: The Greater Flamebacks have been split and the birds shown are now called Luzon Flamebacks. Luzon Flameback Chrysocolaptes haematribon August 2010, Subic Bay, Zambales and Bataan, Philippines Video by Nicky Icarangal, JR. Digiscoped with a Swarovski ATM 80 HD, Canon Powershot S95.

A Cinnamon Ibon building a nest!

Check out this video clip of a Cinnamon Ibon clearing out a nest hole during one of our sorties in Mt. Kitanglad Cinnamon Ibons are high-elevation Mindanao endemics residing in submontane and montane forests above 1000 meters. They are usually seen in mixed feeding flock with Mountain and Black-Masked White-eyes, Black and Cinnamon Fantails, Sulfur-billed Nuthatches, Elegant Tits and other montane flocking birds. The excellent (and one and only) guidebook "A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines" by Robert Kennedy lists this bird as common yet the nests and eggs of this Mindanao endemic have not been described. This video clip maybe the first documentation of the nest of the Cinnamon Ibon. This video clip was captured in using a Swarovski 80mm HD scope with the new 25-50x eyepiece mated with a Canon Powershot S95. Check out our Swarovski Digiscoping Section for more superb stills and videos of Philippine birds.