14th - 18th February 2014
I have been hearing a lot of stories regarding Palawan, the closest island and shares almost similar species with Borneo plus some of the exotic endemics such as Palawan Tit, Palawan Peacock Pheasant, Palawan Blue Flycatcher and Palawan Hornbill.
During my 5 days at the island, saw my target birds, the Palawan Tit and Palawan Peacock-Pheasant. Then most of my time were spent looking at other birds and enjoying the scenic views and the hospitality of its people plus the impressive level of cleanliness of the place itself!
Based on trip reports and previous visit by John, we went to Sabang and Iwahig Prison Farm. The cruise on the Palawan Underground River was superb and I enjoyed the commentary by the boatman! It was good to be a tourist too hahaha :D
Birds seen:
- Palawan Peacock-Pheasant
- Purple Heron
- Cattle Egret
- Little Egret
- Great Egret
- Kentish Plover
- Little Ringed Plover
- Common Sandpiper
- Wood Sandpiper
- Common Greenshank
- Marsh Sandpiper
- Long-toed Stint
- Red-necked Stint
- Black-winged Stil
- Oriental Honey-Buzzard
- Philippine Serpent Eagle
- Rufous-bellied Eagle
- Crested Goshawk
- Oriental Praticole
- Whiskered Tern
- Spotted Dove
- Emerald Dove
- Black-chinned Fruit Dove
- Green Imperial Pigeon
- Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo
- Chestnut-breasted Malkoha
- Palawan Frogmouth
- Brown-backed Needletail
- Bue-eared Kingfisher
- Oriental Dwarft Kingfisher
- Dollarbird
- Palawan Hornbill
- Red-headed Flameback
- Philippines Cockatoo
- Blue-headed Racquet Tail
- Blue-naped Parrot
- Hooded Pitta
- White-breasted Wood-Swallow
- Common Iora
- Fiery Minivet
- Black-naped Oriole
- Spangled Drongo
- Black-naped Monarch
- Blue Paradise Flycatcher
- Slender-billed Crow
- Barn Swallow
- Palawan Tit
- Black-headed Bulbul
- Grey-throated Bulbul
- Palawan Bulbul
- Rufous-tailed Tailorbird
- Pin-striped Tit-Babbler
- Ashy-headed Babbler
- Dark-sided Flycatcher
- Philippine Magpie Robin
- White-vented Shama
- Palawan Blue Flycatcher
- Palawan Flycatcher
- Asian Glossy Starling
- Yellow-throated Leafbird
- Palawan Flowerpecker
- Pygmy Flowerpecker
- Brown-throated Sunbird
- Lovely Sunbird
- Olive-backed Sunbird
- Copper-throated Sunbird
- Pale Spiderhunter
- Yellow Wagtail
- Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Images taken with Nikon D3s + 300mm 2.8 VR II + TC1.4x and Swarovski STX 95 + TLS APO + Nikon V1 ~ All Rights Reserved ©
Palawan Bulbul
Palawan Blue Flycatcher female
Palawan Tit
Palawan Peacock Pheasant
Oriental Praticole
Waterbirds at Iwahig Farm
My favorite Buena Vista Viewpoint and spent one afternoon here and managed to get the Lovely Sunbird, Pygmy Flowerpecker, Slender-billed Crow etc
Together with Romy, a native to Palawan and has been in birdwatching industry since the 80's together with the late Tim Fisher
White-vented Shama
Blue-headed Racquet Tail
Black-chinned Fruit-Dove
Crested Goshawk
One of the endemic, Yellow-throated Leafbird
Excellent view of Palawan Frogmouth
The trip was made possible by MASwing, a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines flies 3 times a week from Kota Kinabalu - Puerto Princesa since last November. More info at http://maswings.com.my/ I Stayed at Tropical Sun Inn just around the corner of the famous Tiki Bar with the gang.
More info about trip to Palawan in the future, drop me an email. Highly recommended :D
Happy birding folks!
For birdwatching/bird photography tours, please check my other blog http://birdersofborneo.blogspot.com/
This post is Supported by Sandakan Foto
