Lesser Sundas Part 4

Rote

Friday 27^th

A leisurely start for a change as we were not out birding at dawn. We enjoyed a nice breakfast on the hotel veranda overlooking the sea. We still managed to see a few birds including a pair of Crested Terns that were perched on some close rocks. Three egrets flew over the sea, our first herons of the trip but were too distant to identify. We checked out of the hotel taking only an overnight bag and leaving the rest in the hotel.

We drove a short way down to the port and boarded the fast ferry to Rote. We had seats by the window in the VIP section so settled in for a two-hour seawatch. A Brown Noddy flew past shortly followed by a Bridled Tern then there was a long gap until four Red-necked Phalaropes were seen. Towards the end of the crossing we disturbed a group of six Brown Boobies that came up from the sea and flew off.

Rote ferry

Pacific Swallow

We docked at 11am and met our driver and went off for a buffet lunch while scanning the trees outside for our first endemic. After a while a Blue-cheeked (Rote) Flowerpecker came in. It was still really hot so there was no point going out birding yet so we went and checked into our hotel before heading out later in the afternoon.

Rote is quite arid and it was still hot when we went out but we did start to see some birds, including some more endemics. First up was Rote Myzomela and this was followed by Rote Leaf-Warbler, the only one we saw on the island. Rote Fantail was also seen along with other more widespread birds such as Pacific Emerald Dove, Rainbow Bee-eater (cue reference to George, Zippy & Bungle!) and Helmeted Friarbird. 

Ashy-bellied White-eye

Helmeted Friarbird

Rainbow Bee-eater

Rote Blue Flycatcher

We stayed in the forest until dusk and waited for the Rote Boobooks to appear. It didn’t take long before a pair flew in and landed on an open branch above us. They remained there for ages allowing us plenty of opportunity for photos and we left them there still calling away after we’d had our fill.

Rote Boobook

We returned to the hotel and had dinner on the rooftop terrace, washed down with a large bottle of Bintang.

Saturday 28^th

Back to an early start as we checked out of the hotel at 5am and drove for an hour to a different patch of forest, stopping for several species of dove along the way and a Cattle Egret, the first heron we’d identified. 

We had a field breakfast then spent a couple of hours in the area seeing quite a few of yesterday’s birds plus a party of Green Figbirds and a soaring Australasian Pelican.

Sunda Brush Cuckoo

Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove

Rote Fantail

Rote Myzomela

We then headed down to the lake where it felt like we saw more birds in the hour spent there than we’d seen all week. On the lake itself was a flock of Wandering Whistling-Duck with a sole Green Pygmy-Goose. Roosting Little Black and Little Pied Cormorants perched on trees at the edge and Whiskered and Black-naped Terns patrolled the water. Medium Egrets (a recent split of Intermediate) fed along the edge with a single Great Egret and a party of Royal Spoonbills slept in the far corner.

Lake

Black-naped Tern

Little Pied & Little Black Cormorants

Royal Spoonbills

Wandering Whistling-Duck & Green Pygmy-Goose

Great Egret

We edged along the shore where there were a few waders: a lone Grey-tailed Tattler flew off and we a located a plover which turned into a Red-capped Plover. There was another plover with it that we overlooked until we checked on our photos later and saw it was a Little Ringed Plover. As we drove off another Red-capped Plover was on a pool by the side of the road so we stopped for photos.

Little Ringed Plover

Red-capped Plover

It was then time to head back to the port for the return ferry to Timor. It left at 12.12 and was a much quieter journey with only three Red-necked Phalaropes and some unidentified terns seen. Once back on Timor we stopped at a restaurant for lunch then went to our hotel as there wasn’t really enough time to drive to the forest. We also had to pack up for tomorrow’s flight. 

Lesser Sundas Part 3

Timor

Tuesday 24^th

An early start as we had to check out at 5.15 in order to get to the local airport for a 6.00 flight. We’d finished our time on Sumba and were heading to the next island – Timor. We landed at Kupbung after an hour’s flight. We had breakfast in the airport then loaded our bags into the car and were off. We had an hour’s drive to the fields and were looking for Timor Sparrow but we were unable to find any. Instead we saw Sumba Zebra Finch, White-breasted Woodswallow, Scaly-breasted Munia, Pied Bushchat and Barred Dove. There were a few waders on the wetter fields: two Pacific Golden Plover and three Wood Sandpipers but still we had not seen any herons.

Pied Bushchat

At a lunch stop we saw a few Tree Sparrows nesting outside. Later in the afternoon we went to our next site. Like Sumba, there weren’t many birds but there were quite a few endemics so we saw birds such as Timor Myzomela, Flame-breasted Sunbird, Yellow-eared Honeyeater, Timor Fantail and Timor Gerygone. Timor has a noticeably different look and feel to it compared to Sumba. Being further east it's closer to Australia and is quite similar to the outback around Darwin with its Eucalyptus trees and rocky outcrops. 

We stayed out until dusk, this time to try for the only owl on Timor – Timor Boobook. A pair came in and showed well but kept flying around and only landing briefly so it wasn’t easy to get any photos. Still, at least we’d managed to get three out of three owls so far.

We drove into town and had dinner then checked in to our hotel.

Wednesday 25^th

Leave hotel at 5am, drive up into mountains and have breakfast in field before heading higher up track in new National Park. A pair of Pied Bushchats were at the start of the track and we gradually encountered a few more birds as we walked along but as usual they were in short supply. Probably the commonest bird was Drab Swiftlet. There were singles of Timor Leaf-Warbler, Warbling White-eye, Yellow-throated Whistler, Sunda Cuckoo, Timor Blue Flycatcher, Island Thrush and Yellow-eared Honeyeater. Since we’d both last encountered Island Thrush on Christmas Island it’s been split into many species so this was another new one for us.

A Timor Flying Lizard decided to climb up a tree rather than use its airborne super-power.

Timor Flying Lizard

One of the main target birds was a new species of parrotfinch, in fact so new that it’s still known by the moniker ‘Undescribed Parrotfinch’. We did manage to see one, it’s similar to Tricoloured Parrotbill but has a red-ear patch. On the way down we saw a few more Timor endemics: Stubtail, Myzomela and Bushchat.

Timor Bushchat

Timor Myzomela

Back at the car we ate lunch and had a rest for a while then birded the lower slope across the road where we had a brief view of Tricoloured Parrotfinch and a pair of Spotted Kestrels. As it had gone quiet again, we left mid-afternoon and went back to the hotel.

Thursday 26^th

We left hotel at 5am again having checked out and drove to another patch of forest. We had breakfast in the field then spent the morning exploring the area. It was a different type of habitat with scattered trees and open grassland almost like parts of the New Forest. 

First new bird of the day was Jonquil Parrot. 

Jonquil Parrot

We saw several repeat birds from previous days before the next one, another parrot: Olive-headed Lorikeet. A pair of Banded Fruit Dove perched up in a tree giving much better views than we’d had before.

Banded Fruit-Dove

Short-tailed Starling

A Black-banded Flycatcher that used a low branch as a perch was probably bird of the day. 

Black-banded Flycatcher

After hearing several we finally managed to clap eyes on a Timor Oriole but it wasn’t especially inspiring being one of the brown orioles rather than the smarter bright yellow ones. We also managed to see the elusive Thicketbird which had been giving us the runaround for the last couple of days. There was a selection of other Timor birds seen before we stopped for lunch.

Timor (or Blue-cheeked) Flowerpecker

We had another walk around in the afternoon for a couple of hours but the only new bird was a Brown Goshawk that I saw which landed for a second before flying back into cover. We left mid-afternoon and drove to the coast, arriving at dusk and checked into our beach hotel before heading out again for dinner.

View over the sea from our hotel window

Lesser Sundas Part 2

Sumba

Sunday 22^nd

Departure was at 5.30 and we headed straight out to the forest, making a brief stop for a perched roadside Citron-crested Cockatoo. 

Citron-crested Cockatoo

Helmeted Friarbird and Short-tailed Starlings were seen before the next specialities – Cinnamon-banded Kingfisher and Red-naped Fruit Dove, the latter being a very smart pigeon. 

Cinnamon-banded Kingfisher

Red-naped Fruit-Dove

There were also parrots seen with Red-cheeked Parrot being the commonest and a few Marigold Lorikeets (named after a brand of rubber gloves?) which were always flying past at speed. We had a roadside breakfast before carrying on.

Red-cheeked Parrot

We walked through a grassland area looking for buttonquail but couldn’t find any, a recent fire had probably moved them on to another area. We did see Paddyfield Pipit. Back on the forest road we ran into Wallacean Cuckooshrike, Sumba Brown Flycatcher, Ashy-bellied White-eye, Banded Fruit-Dove and a stunning red and black Sumba Myzomela. There seems to be two camps on how to pronounce this bird, either my-zomela or myzo-meela. Both were used so it probably doesn’t matter.

Wallacean Cuckooshrike

Sumba Brown Flycatcher

A recent split from Arufara Fantail was located next: Supertramp Fantail – is this the only bird named after a band? This was quite a productive area and also saw Cinerous Tit (which looks exactly like the more familiar Great Tit), Sumba Green Pigeon, Sumba Flowerpecker and several more widespread birds: Grey-headed Canary-Flycatcher, Brahminy Kite and Black-naped Oriole.

Sumba Flowerpecker

Sumba Green Pigeon

Wallacean Drongo

We went to a local restaurant for lunch and a rest then back out in the afternoon. First up was Ashy-bellied White-eye and we heard Lesser Coucal and Green Junglefowl. There weren’t many birds around but we did add a few more endemics: Broad-billed Flycatcher, Sumba Cicadabird and Tengarra Whistler. 

Glider sp

Crow sp

moth sp

We stayed out until dusk again to try for a more difficult Boobook – Least Sumba Owl. It called then after a while flew in and showed briefly but it didn’t hang around for long. We kept trying but being beside a busy road didn’t help and when it came in again it got spooked by a very noisy truck. We persisted a bit longer but had to conceded defeat on the photo front but at least we’d seen it. We headed back to town for dinner.

Monday 23^rd

We checked out of our hotel at 5.30 and went to a new area of forest. The main target was Chestnut-backed Thrush. It took a long while to respond then flew around for a while before we finally got good views of it but it was another bird that refused to pose for a photo.

Praying Mantis

At the next site we saw Sunda Brush Cuckoo, Tawny Grassbird and some distant Long-tailed Macaques up a tree. A Sumba Snake-Eagle flew over to add to the Brahminy and Black Kites we’d seen earlier. Raptors appear to be very thinly distributed on Sumba.

Broad-billed Flycatcher

Sunda Brush Cuckoo

Tenggara Paradise-Flycatcher

We had lunch then checked into the Beach Hotel where a couple of Striated Swallows hung out on the wires out the front to greet us. 

A typical dwelling on Sumba with roof storage

In the afternoon we drove to a forest where a hide had been erected. After a short wait an Elegant Pitta came in and showed brilliantly. 

Elegant Pitta

We went back to the hotel and spent an hour checking out the beach area but saw little apart from a couple of Common Sandpipers and four Whimbrel of a different race which have barred rumps so intermediate between European and Hudsonian. 

Mudflats and mangroves at back of hotel