Mt Banahaw - 14th April

A beautiful sunny day on Mt Banahaw with Richard and Alex. The day started with a pair of Philippine Cuckoo-Doves flying past while we had coffee, then 6 or 7 Luzon Hornbills crossed the gully in front of us. After that we met up with our guide, Chris, and set off up the mountain.

Throughout the day there seemed to be plenty of bird activity, but few were visible. Most numerous by call seemed to be the Mountain Tailorbirds, of which we saw a handful. On the way up Alex and Richard saw a White-browed Shortwing, one of the key species here, but sadly I missed it! Apart from that Philippine Coucal, Scale-feathered Malkoha and Balicassiao were almost the only other birds seen until we got to the high point of the trail, where we found a fruiting fig. We waited for an hour or so, during which time a host of birds visited, including Mountain Leaf-Warbler, Chestnut-faced Babbler, Mountain Verditer, Metallic-winged Sunbirds, more Mountain Tailorbirds and Spotted Wood-Kingfisher. We also heard Flame-breasted Fruit-Dove from here, but it was too far away to track down.

The downward journey was fairly uneventful until Alex found a male Fire-breasted Flowerpecker in a tree. We then tried the ATV trail, which was great again, with Blue-headed Fantail, Sulphur-billed Nuthatch, more Mountain Leaf-Warblers and Metallic-winged Sunbirds, and Lemon-throated Leaf Warbler.

A male Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, ssp. luzoniense. In The Philippines an uncommon resident of montane forest, above 1000m. I saw ssp. apo in Kitanglad in January last year.

Male Spotted Wood-Kingfisher