For a couple of weeks from the 15th of September I joined the overseas field course on Tropical Ecology and Conservation in the island of Borneo. Borneo is not only an amazing place for wildlife, sitting right in the tropic and harbouring one of the largest lowland tropical rainforest in the planet. It also sits in the middle of the biogeographical province studied by Wallace and many others since the 1850’s due to their interesting biogeographical patterns, where different branches of the phylogenetic tree collided in what is now known as the Wallace line, separating the Asian and Australian continents faunas.

We spent a few days at the Danum Valley Field Centre, an amazing place for research and teaching that has been welcoming us for a few years now. We developed many interesting lectures and field activities where the students learned about the tropics and the species found there as well as a set of field techniques that helped them with their research projects.

As every year, there are many opportunities for birding, especially when walking around with DeDe, Jonni, and Ahmed, our friends from Danum and whose knowledge of the valley and the species found there is out of this world! They always go above and beyond to show us and teach us everything about the rainforest.

This year, I managed to see around 140 species, with many cool species such as the helmeted, wreathed, oriental pied, and rhinoceros hornbills, the bornean bristlehead, blue-headed and black-crowned pittas or the white-fronted falconet.

 

We also managed some amazing views of the grey-headed fish-eagle as well as the Wallace’s hawk-eagle in the nest with a chick!

But the highlight of the trip was the elusive spectacled flowerpecker (Dicaeum dayakorum), a species of flowerpecker that had not been seen in Danum Valley since 2009 and never before seen at the field centre where we were based. I first saw this bird just by chance while walking close to the hostel accommodation building. At first I wasn’t sure what species was it, as I had never seen it before. After some research I realised it could be an individual of this rare species, so I convinced a couple of students, Lewis and Joe, to join me in the quest of obtaining photographic evidence of the finding. Surely enough, Lewis managed to capture some images.

I got in touch with some experts in the species, including Professor David Edwards, from Cambridge University, who confirmed the finding. This evidence inspired me to write a small article note to get this observation published. The small article, authored by myself, Lewis and Joe will appear in the December issue of BirdingASIA.

After our time at Danum we also visited the sun bear conservation centre in Sepilok, where I met a lovely Catalan couple who had been travelling by car around Malaysia for a few months, and I had the chance to practice my Catalan with them! The visit to the bear sanctuary, adjoining with the orang-utan conservation centre, was an interesting experience for the students to see how local conservation projects are set up and what they can achieve.

   

After Sepilok we moved on to Poring to find one of the jewels of the Bornean flora, the Rafflesia flower, a parasitic flower that is pollinated by flies, and as such produces an aroma similar to the smell of rotten meat to attract its pollinators!

At Viviane’s Rafflesia garden we also had the chance to see some local plants such as rambutan and mangosteen, from which trees we harvested ourselves some fruits and ate them there by the trees!

Our last stop before heading back home was the Mount Kinabalu. We visited the botanical garden of Mount Kinabalu, where we encountered many interesting plants, including the smallest orchid in the world! as well as some interesting birds such as the Bornean tree-pie, the Bornean whistler, and the Temminck’s sunbird.

We then flew off from Kota Kinabalu, saying good by to the happy times we had in Borneo!

Thanks to Jonni, Ahmed, DeDe, Sesan, Louis, and all the other RAs at Danum Valley for a great couple of weeks!

Photo credits: Lewis Ferguson - All pictures of birds and the view of the island from the airplane