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