Indonesia Tourism: 5/27/07

White-Tailed Tropicbird (Phaeton lepturus)

Indonesian-Burung buntut satek putih

Description: medium-sized (41 cm excluding tail streamers) white seabird with trailing, long, white tail streamers. Adult: mainly white with black eyebrow, black wing tips and black bar on upperwing. Immature: lacks stremers and has black barring on upperparts. Iris –dark; bill –yellow; feet –greyish with black webs.

Voice: Rattling ‘tetetete’ and ‘tik’ call in flight and loud screams at nest.

Distribution and status : Tropical and sub-tropical seas of Atlantic. Indian and Pacific oceans. In Bali there are important breeding colonies in the cliffs on Nusa Penida and probably at Ulu Watu. Occasional strays are seen in Javan waters. Breeds in Rongkop (C. Java) and probably Nusa Barung (E. Java).

Habits: flies high over sea with fast wingbeat circling, or twisting and turning sharply to plunge onto food in the sea. Swims in sea with tail cocked. Partly nocturnal.

Diet: Small squids that rise to the sea surface at night, also fish.

Breeding: nests in cliff holes in the sheer cliffs of Nusa Penida. April.

Race: P.l.fulvus

Tropicbirds-Family Phaethontidae

Tropicbirds – Family Phaethontidae

A small family of only three species of beautiful white seabirds characterized by the wedgeshaped tail with its two elongated central streamers. These birds range far out to sea, are excellent divers and plunge readily into the water. They swim with the tail cocked up. They feed largely on squads so are often active at night. In Java there are only two species.
Key to Javan Tropicbirds
Barred juvenile with black beak…………………….Phaethon rubricauda
Barred juvenile with yellow beak……………………………P. lepturus
Adult with red tail streamers………………………………………P. rubricauda
Adult with white tail streamers……………………………….P. lepturus

Swinhoe's Storm-petrel (Oceanodroma monorhis)

Indonesian- Petrel badai coklat

Description: very small (18 cm) dark, fork-tailed petrel. Plumage all over sooty chocolate with paler grey wingbar, grayish crown, chin and rump. Iris-dark; bill and feet –black.

Voice: silent at sea

Distribution and status: breeds in south China Sea off S. Japan and Formosa and Pescador Island and ranges through to N. India Ocean. Rare birds are forced into Javan coastal waters in bad weather.

Habits: the flight is distinctive and tern-like with much bounding and swooping over the water, never pattering along the surface – sometimes follows ships.

Diet: fish, plankton, crustaceans, small squids.

Race: O.m. monorhis

Wilson's Storm-Petrel (Oceanites oceanicus)

Indonesian-Petrel badai pantat putih

Description: very small (18 cm) black and white petrel. Upperparts black with grayish wing bar and a conspicuous white rump bar formed by white upper tail coverts; underparts sooty brown. The feet protrude just beyond the short square tail in flight. Iris-dark; bill; black; feet – black with yellow webs.

Voice: twittering and piping calls at breeding sites but only a faint peeping by feeding birds at sea.

Distribution and status: breeds in Antartic but migrates over almost all the world’s oceans. Occasionally seen over Javan and Bali waters.

Habits: flies singly or in small parties low over sea with short glides interspersed with loose wingbeats, tilting and rolling from side to side. When onto food it hovers and paddles on the water with its long feet. Often follows ships.

Diet: fish, plankton, crustacean floating scraps.

Race: O.o. exasperatus

Storm-petrels-Family Hydrobatidae

A small family oceanic birds similar to shearwaters but smaller with a more fluttery flight and with the nostril tubes joined into a single aperture.

Storm-petrels are the smallest oceanic birds and their weak butterfly like flight and habit of hovering and treading the water with their webbed feet makes them easy to recognize from other seabirds.
Storm-petrels feed on small crustaceans or floating organic debris. They nest in rock crevices and burrows on rocky shores and islands.
Individual species are often difficult to distinguish but only two species are recorded for Javan waters.
Key to Javan Storm-Petrels
Rump white………………………………………….Oceanites oceanicus
Rump dark grey……………………....................Oceanodroma monorhis
source: Mckinnon. Java and Bali. Gadjah Mada University Press. Jojakarta

Surrounding Bali: landscape, religion and civilization

The southern slopes of Bali’s central volcanoes are heavely cultivated and rice terraces extend high up the mountain sides. This area is the cradle of Bali’s rich and ancient civilization. It is virtually the only region of Indonesia that remains Hindu today, left to go its own way during the wave of Islamization that swept through the archipelago in the 15th century, they were so fascinated by what they found that they made a concerted effort to conserve and foster Bali’s traditional culture.

As traditional Balinese art commonly features birds, a painting would features birds, a painting would seem to make the ideal souvenir. It is quite a challenge, however to find a piece depicting only native species American Cardinals. Australian Rossellas and south American toucans regularly pop up among the lotus pools and nymphs-just one example of the ease with which Balinese culture accepts new and foreign elements. Perhaps the growing popularity of bird-watching will help the Balinese to appreciate the beuty and variety of their own native birds.

Nowhere matches Bali for such a fusion of birds, landscapes and cultures-for birders with eclectic interests it is an island not to be missed.

Birding Bali: Introduction

In search of the “real” BaliThere are so many fascinating aspects to Bali that birders might be tempted to hang up their binoculars for a few days and immerse themselves solely in culture, be this the island’s colourful Hindu ceremonies and exquisite temples or the vibrant modern beach life of kuta and Sanur. But birding and culture are wonderfully compatible.

Go birding on Bali and you will find yourself searching for forest birds around the Pura Luhur temple in the beautifull scenery of mt Batukan, scanning the cliffs below the Uluwatu temple for tropicbirds, joining the diving crowd on a trip to Serangan or Nusa Penida islands, exploring the back roads through Bali’s famous vivid green rice terraces and wandering around villages and gardens. Indeed, go birding and you may get close to discovering the “real Bali”, which half the tourists on the island seem to be searching for anyway.

Although small (5,315 sq km) Bali is geographically diverse and very rich in birds: 317 species have been recorded on the island. The central mountains, dominated by the sacred mt Agung (3,143 m), and its neighbours to the west, where 8 species unique to the mountains of Java and Bali can be seen, are cloaked with rain forest. In the far west a remnant of the dry, savannah-like forests that once covered the lowlands of west and north Bali survives in the Bali Barat National Park, the island’s only endemic bird species.

The south coast is glorious mixture of sandy beaches, steep limestone cliffs where Red-tailed Tropicbirds breed in May and June, and- normally shunned by tourists-muddy bays fringed with mangroves where hundreds of shorebirds stop over on migration.

Bulwer's petrel (Bulweria bulwerii)

Indonesian –Petrel bulweri

Description: medium-sized (27 cm) sooty brown petrel with paler brown underparts. Pale bar on wings usually visible. Distinguished from Swinhoe’s Storm-petrel by larger size and long, wedge-shaped tail. Iris –brown; bill –black; feet –pinkish

Distribution status: a birds of the oceans. Breeds in northern latitudes and generally not found south of the China Sea but sight records indicate it may now sometimes occur in the Java Sea.

Habits: flies more strongly than storm-petrels with fluttery erratic swooping and high wheeling loops.

Diet: fish.

Streaked Shearwater (Colononectris leucomelas)

Indonesia-Penggunting putih

Description: large (48 cm) shearwater, dark brown above, white below with dark streaks on head and breast. Distinguished from the pale form of the wedge-tailed shearwater by white rather than brown head. Iris –brown: bill –horn: feet –pinkish.

Distribution and status: an oceanic bird, breeding in northern latitudes but ranging south as an occasional vagrant as far as the equator. A recent sighting is claimed for the Java Sea.

Habits: flies low over the sea. Banking from side to side with occasional swoops and frequently gliding so low over water that the wing tips touch surface at bottom of beat.

Diet: fish, squids, plankton and crustaceans.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus pacificus)

Indonesian-Penggunting laut

Description: medium-sized (39 cm) long-winged, wedge-tailed shearwater. Occurs in light and dark colour phases. In dark phase it is dark chocolate all over with grey bill and pinkish legs. In pale phase it is brown above, whitish below with white underwings showing dark borders and undertail coverts; the bill is dark pink; feet-flesh-coloured.

Voice: a slow wailing song at breeding sites but silent at sea.

Distribution and status: Indian and pacific oceans. Stray bird can occur anywhere in S.E. Asian waters. Occasional records off Javan coasts.

Habits: flies low over the sea. Banking from side to side with occasional swoops and frequently gliding so low over water that the wing tips touch surface at bottom of beat.

Diet: fish, squids, plankton and crustaceans.

Dove Prion (Pachyptila desolata)

Indonesian- Penggunting merpati

Description: small (26 cm) grey, black and white shearwater. Tail wedge-shaped with black tip. Upperparts bluish grey with a black W shape formed by outer primaries, scapulars and a dark band across the lower back. A blackish line extends under the eye.nderparts white. Iris- dark; bill –grey; feet –greyish blue.

Voice: silent at sea

Distribution and status: Sub anartic and southern oceans normally only up to 35°S but single exhausted individual was washed up on the S. Java coast in the 1930’s.

Habits: flies with fast zig-zagging erratic flight low over the sea, often in flocks, banking from side to side.

Diet: Fish

Shearwater-family Procellariidae

Shearwaters-family Procellariidae
A moderately large family of oceanic gull-like birds with curiously structured tube-nose bills, hooked at the end and with the nostrils opening in a double tube on top of the bill.
Shearwaters get their English name from their habit of flying just above the water surface or even touching the water. They dive for fish and crustaceans and nest on cliff ledges or in borrows on rocky islets. They are predominantly temperate in distribution with four species seen off Java.
Key to Javan Shearwaters
underside dark chocolate……………………………………….(2)
underside white………………………………………………….(3)
2. Bill long and slender Puffinus pacificus (dark form)
Bill short and squat………………………………..Bulweria bulwerii
upperparts grey with blackish W pattern on back and wings
…………………………………………………Pachyptila desolata
Upperparts uniform grayish brown………………………………(4)
Tail wedge-shaped, blackish………………(Puffinus pacificus (pale form)
Tail rounded, brown…………………………..Colonectris leucomelas

Introducing Moluccas

Introducing Moluccas
the World’s Forgotten Galapagos
moluccas-1,027 islands scattered across 151,000 sq km of ocean-is the world’s forgotten Galapagos. It was on the famaous “spice island” of Ternate and Moluccas that Alfred Russel Wallace, simultaneously with Darwin, formulated the theory of evolution by natural selection, while recovering from fever in 1856. the main attraction for birdwatchers, however, is the region’s 90 uniqe bird species. They are distributed into five distinct groups (endemic Bird Areas): the halmahera group holds 24 species; the Sula Islands-8; Buru-10; Seram-21; and the island groups of the Banda Sea (Tanimbar and Kai) a further 16, so to see them all you will need time and a penchant for adventure, jungle trekking and sea travel.

A journey in search of these specialities is definitely recommended: not only will you see some of the world’s most unusual and least known birds-species such as the remarkable Wallace’s Standardwing and invisible Rail on Halmahera, the georgeous Salmon-crested Cockatoo and Purple napped-Lory on Seram, and the beach-nesting Moluccan Scrubfowl-but you are also sure to be captivated by a society oriented around the sea.

Previously known as the moluccas or spice islands, Ternate and Tidore-specks on the map next to Halmahera, Ambon-dwarfed by the bulk of Seram, and the tiny Banda islands, have played a role in European history totally disproportionate to their size. The reason was spice: clove, the bud of an insignificant forest tree native to the Halmahera group, nutmeg and mace, the seed (and its waxy covering) of a rather splendid tree native to the islands of central moluccas. In past centuries, cloves and nutmeg were literally worth their weight in gold, not only to make badly preserved meat palatable but also as vital ingredients in medicines and magic potions.

Reminders of moluccas trading past are everywhere. Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch forts are dotted throughout the islands. Some, like the old Dutch fortified trading house at hitu on Ambon, have been lovingly restored; others-for example, Fort Oranje on Ternate-have been plastered in concrete, and scores more are just crumbling into the sea. Rusting wrecks in Kao Bay, Halmahera, a few amphibious landing craft on Morotai, and the Australian are cemetery at Tantui on Ambon are evidence of another cruel and bloody period in Moluccas history-the Japanese occupation from 1939-1945.

Today, this province divided two regions. There are South Moluccas province and North Moluccas Province. Issues about conflict in Ambon have reduced much. Now this province can be visited by tourism. Safety and stability is commitment government duty to assure citizen for their live.

Source: Birding Indonesia. Periplus Publishing. Singapore

Sago Swamp (Birdwatching in Halmahera Islands)

Sago Swamp is Interest Place for New Experience Adventure
No visit to Tanah Batu Putih is complete without at least an attempt to see the invisible Rail. The species had not been seen for 35 years when Anu rediscovered it in 1995 in a sago swamp, a 30-minute hike inland from Sidangoli. You really will need luck to see this rarity, though Anu will undoubtedly be getting better at finding it, but, even if the rail remains invisible, the Great-billed Heron nest Anu can show you will certainly make the trip worthwhile.

By nightfall, you will be exhausted from a hard day’s birding, but make the effort to return to the logging trail to search for Moluccan Owlet-nightjar. The sight of this strange bird, caught in a torch beam, will end a never-to-be forgotten trip to Halmahera.

Source: Birding Indonesia. Periplus Publishing. Singapore

Back at Tanah Batu Putih (Halmahera Islands)

Back at Tanah Batu Putih
But back to dawn at Tanah Batu Putih, where the next great bird identifies itself with a wolf whistle: the ivory-breasted Pitta. Pitas are notoriously difficult to see but, with patience and stealth, you should be successful with this one. If you use tape-playback, seeing this splendid pitta, with its black head, cool white underparts and bright red vent, should not be difficult. If necessary, Anu will expertly whistle one into view for you!

During a 3-4 day visit the prospect of finding Nicobar Pigeon will draw you back to this fascinating hillside, but the favoured birding areas are along the logging track, across the road from Anu’s home, or along the road, where the greater openness makes it easier to spot Halmahera’s other specialities. In the early morning or late afternoon. White Cockatoo, Chattering Lory and Blyth’s Hornbill fly noisily overhead, and you will be rewarded with views of Blue-capped Fruit-dove, White-naped Monarch, Paradise Crow, Halmahera Cuckoo-shrike and Rufous-bellied Triller, to mention just a few of the endemics. Midday is the time to raptor-watch for Gurney’s Eagle, backed by a magnificent panorama looking west to Ternate and Tidore, from a highpoint 2 km up the main road.

Source: Birding Indonesia. Periplus Publishing. Singapore

Standardwing Leks and a Megapode Beach in Halmahera Island

Standardwing Leks and a Megapode Beach
The first morning’s excursion at Tanah Batu Putih is the short pilgrimage to the Wallace’s standardwing lek. Just before dawn, Anu will guide you across the stream below his house and up a short, steep trail to a small clearing in the forest. Here, in the cool dawn, two or three male standardwings perform their display flights. Shadows at first, but, as the light improves, the iridescent breast spurs and four strange, white, elongated feathers become visible. What a bizarre bird!

Brilliant though it is, this standardwing lek is pitifully small. If you have three or four days and really want an unforgettable experience, ask anu to take you to the lek tree of hundred or more birds he discovered during the 1995 BirdLife International surveys. Getting there is great journey, which starts with a 4-hr bus ride to Tobelo, followed by 2,5 hours by speedboat across the magnificent Kao bay to the village of Lel life. The display tree is just a 4-km trek away.

This trip is easily combined with a visit to another truly remarkable bird phenomenon-the world’s largest nesting beach of Wallacean Scrubfowl. The PHPA office in Tobelo will give permission to visit the 1.6-km long, black sand beach, which is pitted with the nest burrows of this extraordinary bird.

The beach owners harvest the eggs in an apparently sustainable manner. At least, for nearly a hundred years they have been collecting the eggs, and hundreds of scrubfowl still arrive each night to lay their single, massive egg.

Source: Birding Indonesia. Periplus Publishing. Singapore

A Birder's Best Friend For Birdwatching In Moluccas

A Birder’s Best Friend
This is due in part to the daily flights to Ternate, the famous neighbouring spice island, from Manado or Ambon, but it is mainly because the first adventurous birder chanced to meet Deminaus Bagadli (or Anu, as he is universally known), a farmer with a natural talent for birding, who has since become host, friend and ace guide to visiting birders.

Anu’s “birdwatchers home”, a very basic losmen, is located in a dip to the right of the road at Tanah Batu Putih, 8 km along the road out of Sidangoli. Forested hills rise up behind the house, making it a great place to hang out and get into some serious birding. Finding it is simple: just climb into any of the bemos meeting the ferry and ask for Tempat Burung Bidadari (bidadari, or fairy bird, is the local name for standardwing).

Nowadays, Anu is often away working on conservation projects, so it is best first to call in at his brother’s shop, Toko Mandiri, in Domato village, to make arrangements. If Anu is not around, his detailed birders’ log will point you in the right direction.

Source: Birding Indonesia. Periplus Publishing. Singapore

Birding Moluccas: Halmahera Island

Australian Little Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae)

Australian little grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae)
Indonesian – Titihan AustraliaDescription: medium-sized (25 cm ) small. Diving duck-like waterbird with lobed feet and a pointed beak, very similar to little grebe but differs in having white underparts and breeding season a black rather than red throat. A chestnut brown stripe behind the eye separates the black crown and nape from the black chin and throat. Iris –white to red; bill –black; feet – olive.

Voice: shrill chattering ‘chee-ee-ee-ee’ similar to little grebe

Distribution and status: from java and bali through lesser sundaes to new Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. A rare local resident in Java and Bali from lowlands to montane lakes.

Habits: frequents lakes, swamps, flooded ricefields etc. where there is clear water and plenty of water plants. Dives under water to feed and at the slightest provocation. Generally single or in small disperse groups. In breeding season birds chase each other, rushing over the water and calling.

Diet: aquatic insects, tadpoles, fish, prawns and the seeds and shoots of aquatic plants.

Breeding: the nest is a floating mass of water plants attached to the surrounding vegetation. Three to five, usually four, whitish eggs are laid. Breeding in west java is recorded for november, for central java in November, March and April. When off the nest the parent covers the eggs with weeds. Young birds ride on the parent’s back.

Race: T.n. javanicus is the western race of the species

Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficoliis)

little Grebe (Tachybaptus (Podiceps) ruficoliis)
Indonesia- TitihanDescription: small (25 cm) dark, duck-like bird; a squat bird swimming high in the water and diving repeatedly, remaining submerged for long periods. In breeding plumage the throat and fore neck are reddish; crown and back of neck dark brown; upperparts brown; underparts greyish; conspicuous rictal patch yellow. In non-breeding plumage upperparts are grayish brown. Iris – yellow; bill –black; feet – bluish grey.

Voice : repeated high-pitched chittering ‘ke-ke-ke-kee’ particularly during courtship chases.

Distribution and status: Africa, Eurasia, India, China, S.E. Asia, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Celebes, Philippines and through eastern Indonesia to northern New Guinea. Very rare in Java and Bali.

Habits: frequents lakes, swamps, flooded ricefields etc. where there is clear water and plenty of water plants. Dives under water to feed and at the slightest provocation. Generally single or in small disperse groups. In breeding season birds chase each other, rushing over the water and calling.

Diet: aquatic insects, tadpoles, fish, prawns and the seeds and shoots of aquatic plants.

Breeding: the nest is a floating mass of water plants attached to the surrounding vegetation. Three to five, usually four, whitish eggs are laid. Breeding in west java is recorded for november, for central java in November, March and April. When off the nest the parent covers the eggs with weeds. Young birds ride on the parent’s back.

Race: T.r.tricolor

Grebes-Family Podicipedidae

Grebes- family Podicipedidae
A small, worldwide family of medium to large duck-like water birds. Grebes have pointed bills, short wings, very short tails, long, erect necks, lobd rather than webbed feet and long silky feathers.
Grebes are excellent divers, able to stay under water for several minutes at a time. They feed on fish and water insect and makes nests on rafts of floating vegetation. There are two sepecies in java and Bali.
Key to Javan Grebes
Underparts grey throats in breeding plumage reddish……………………………..
……………………………………………. Tachybaptus ruficollis.
Underparts whitish, throat in breeding plumage back…………………………………………………………………………. T. novaehollandiae

Birding Moluccas: Halamahera island

Birding Moluccas: Halmahera island
Standardwings and Invisible Rails
Ferry is one of water transportation who can be choiched to this island, the view to the left is of a crane in the Barito Pacific log-pond, loading a barge destined for the plywood factory on Ambon. But to the right is scene as pristine and beautiful as any you will find in Indonesia: a creek winds away through mangrove forest towards a backdrop of forested hills.

This is Halmahera, in shape a Celebes in miniature, with few people, few roads and vast forests, where logging has yet to make a significant impact. For birders it is home to 24 species of bird found nowhere else in the world, including the aptly named invisible rail and Wallace’s greatest find-the standardwing bird of paradise. For decades an island so far off the beaten track that only one ornithologist ventured there between 1932 and 1986 Halmahera is now a surprisingly easy place to see some very special birds.

A Birder’s Best Friend
This is due in part to the daily flights to Ternate, the famous neighbouring spice island, from Manado or Ambon, but it is mainly because the first adventurous birder chanced to meet Deminaus Bagadli (or Anu, as he is universally known), a farmer with a natural talent for birding, who has since become host, friend and ace guide to visiting birders.

Anu’s “birdwatchers home”, a very basic losmen, is located in a dip to the right of the road at Tanah Batu Putih, 8 km along the road out of Sidangoli. Forested hills rise up behind the house, making it a great place to hang out and get into some serious birding. Finding it is simple: just climb into any of the bemos meeting the ferry and ask for Tempat Burung Bidadari (bidadari, or fairy bird, is the local name for standardwing).

Nowadays, Anu is often away working on conservation projects, so it is best first to call in at his brother’s shop, Toko Mandiri, in Domato village, to make arrangements. If Anu is not around, his detailed birders’ log will point you in the right direction.