John Kormendy: Borneo and Singapore 2026
This web site contains the pictures from my 2026 March-April trip to Borneo with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT). Afterwards, I again birded in Singapore for 5 days on the way home. For my previous, 2025 birding in Singapore, see this web site.
2026 April 11 update: The trip is now over and I am back
in Austin, TX. I will work on this web site intermittently for the coming few months,
adding batches of pictures as they get processed. I may still be far from finished
in July 2026, when I have to work full time to get ready for my 2026 August VENT tour
to Kenya. This paragraph always summarizes the current status of this web site and will
record when it is finished.
Calendar
Trip Birds
Travelog and Bird Pictures
Itinerary of the VENT tour of Borneo, from their published summary
March 14 and 15: Pre-tour Birding at Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Hotel, Kota Kinabalu, Borneo
Before the VENT tour, I birded the grounds of the Shangri-La Hotel. Our wing of the hotel consisted of 4 spokes of rooms radiating from an enclosed wild area of trees, grass, and a pool of water -- excellent birding just outside my room.
Hume's white-eye was my first life bird of the trip, seen at the Shangri-La Hotel on March 14, before other tour participants arrived. Note the black tail. With ID confirmed later by local guide Hazwan Suban, it is the common lowland white-eye of NE Borneo. At times (but when I did not have my camera with me), it came as close as 5 feet. We did not see it during the tour.
Asian glossy starling in the arbor surrounded by the Shangri-La Hotel
Female Pink-necked green pigeon in the arbor surrounded by the Shangri-La Hotel
Male Pink-necked green pigeon near the beach of the Shangri-La Hotel (unfortunately with the shadow of a branch on his neck)
Yellow-vented bulbul in the herb garden of the Shangri-La Hotel
Blue-naped parrot ... far away. This is my second life bird of the trip and the first one gotten during the VENT tour.
Long-tailed parakeets checking out nesting real estate
March 16: VENT Day 1 at coastal wetlands of Kota Belud & Tempasuk Plain N of Kota Kinabalu
Black-backed swamphen was common in the wetlands ... usually in crowded reed habitats. This is my life bird.
Black-backed swamphen
Javan pond-heron (This is my life bird -- a poor picture of a handsome bird, far away.)
Javan pond-heron (Poor but slightly better picture of another bird, later in the day.)
March 17: Crocker Range National Park; Trusmadi Hide 1; Drive to Tambunan
Today, we checked out of the Shangri-La Hotel and were driven to Crocker Range National Park, with mountains of 1200--1800 m altitude. We stopped first at a roadside area with a spectacular array of moths covering wooden walls. Birding here was excellent and easy.
This Atlas moth (Attacus atlas) with wing span of about 10 inches was the most most impressive. Quoting the the California Academy of Sciences, "An Atlas moth rests on a tree trunk with its wings closed. A bird, hoping for a snack, creeps closer, until it's within striking distance. Just as it’s about to pounce, the moth’s wings spring open—and bam! Instead of a moth, the bird suddenly sees not one, but two snake heads. Confused and startled, the bird flies away —- and the moth gets to live another day. ... Atlas moths are most famous for the markings on the upper corner of their wings, which bear an uncanny resemblance to cobra heads in profile. While not all entomologists are convinced of that visual mimicry, there is some convincing evidence. Cobras live in the same part of the world as these moths, and the moth’s main predators —- birds and lizards —- are visual hunters. Plus, species related to the Atlas moth have similar but less defined versions of the snake’s head, showing a pattern that could have been fine-tuned by natural selection."
Mountain leaf warbler (Warblers are virtually always hard to photograph, and this one is no exception. I did not quite catch the whole face, but the ID is unmistakeable. This web site will include pictures of my life birds as often as possible, even when they are poor in quality. They cement my memory of what I saw.)
Chestnut-hooded laughingthrush (This was the next new bird after the leaf warbler, but this is not my life bird -- this one was photographed later. I love laughingthrushes, so seeing a new one is always a special occasion.)
Indigo flycatcher (This is my life bird.)
Little pied flycatcher
Bornean whistler (This is my life bird.)
Mountain barbet ... in an exceedingly bad picture. For comparison, the right-hand panel shows a much better picture from ebird. This is my life bird.
Temminck's sunbird (This is my life bird, in a lucky shot taken during a "split second" when he -- this is a male -- stood still.)
This is the moment when I photographed Temminck's sunbird: Thanks very much to VENT guide Scott Baker for taking this photo and for allowing me to use it.
Black-and-crimson oriole -- far away! This is my life bird.
Bornean barbet ... also far away. For comparison, the right-hand panel shows a picture from ebird. This is my life bird.
Nicer portrait of Bornean barbet (Barbets are reliable "eye candy", but on this trip, no barbet came close to me.)
Chestnut-crested yuhina (This is my life bird. It reminds me of some of my favorite bird populations in the Himalayan foothills.)
This is the end of the morning of March 17. We spent much of the afternoon at "Hide 1" at Trusmadi. Here, we were exceptionally comfortable while a spectacular array of birds came close enough to be well seen and photographed.
Orange-headed thrush is gorgeous and the most common bird at the hide.
Dayak blue flycatcher (This juvenile male is my life bird.)
Yellow-bellied bulbul (This is my life bird.)
Asian emerald dove
White-crowned shama (This is my life bird.)
White-crowned shama
Siberian blue robin (female)
Bornean whistler
Temminck's babbler (This is my life bird.)
Dayak blue flycatcher is one of many birds that made multiple visits to the hide.
March 18: Trusmadi Bird Station Hides 2 and 1; Drive to Kinabalu National Park
We started out at Hide 2 still in very early, very dark twilight:
Penan bulbul deep in morning twilight (This is my life bird.)
Siberian blue robin (male)
Rufous-chested flycatcher (This is my life bird.)
Rufous-chested flycatcher during a later visit to the hide
Dayak blue flycatcher (Today, a gorgeous adult male came to Hide 2.)
Temminck's babbler was once again a frequent visitor.
Red-breasted partridge (These are two of a small flock of my life birds.)
At this point, we gave up on Bulwer's pheasant -- an important "miss" -- and switched back to hide 1.
Bornean banded-pitta (male) Both male and female stayed for a long time and gave us superb looks.
Bornean banded-pitta (female)
Penan bulbul, today in much better light. Cute.
After the drive to Mt. Kinabalu, we checked into our individual cabins there. Then:
Bornean whistling-thrush (This is my life bird. It is obnoxious that I did not do a better job on a bird that roamed across the front porch of my cabin. But I am used to thinking of whistling-thrushes as easy. When we were close to our cabins, we were preoccupied with seeing Fruithunter and Everett's thrush. Which is no excuse.
Despite several attempts to see Fruithunter, I never got more than these exceedingly bad views. It was always visible only through narrow lines of sight through thick bushes. With 9 people crowding around, I never managed a clear view. I take this as my life bird, although, of course, it is not satisfying. Birding can be like that.
Happily, VENT guide Scott Baker got a clear view of Fruithunter. I am grateful to him for permission to reproduce his picture. It shows what I saw and what I missed, and it cements in my mind what the bird really looks like.
March 19 and 20: Kinabalu National Park
March 21: AM at Kinabalu National Park; PM Drive to Sandakan and Sepilok
March 22 and 23: Sepilok Rain Forest Discovery Center
March 24: AM at Sepilok Rain Forest Discovery Center; PM at Gomantong Caves Forest Reserve
March 25 and 26: Kinabatangan River Boat Rides
March 27: Day-long Drive to Lahad Datu and Danum Valley
March 28 - 30: Danum Valley Rain Forest
March 31: Drive to Lahad Datu and Flight to Kota Kinabalu: Tour Farewell Dinner
April 1: Flights from Kota Kinabalu via Kuala Lumpur to Singapore
April 3 - 8: Birding Singapore
Our bird pictures from around the world follow standard ecozones approximately but not exactly:
Birds from the USA and Canada: our house, Hornsby Bend and greater Austin, Texas, California, Hawaii, Canada,
Neotropic birds from Central America and the Caribbean: Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago
Neotropic birds from South America: Ecuador, Ecuador 2017, Brazil.
Western palearctic birds: Europe: Germany, Finland, Norway, Europe: United Kingdom, Europe: Spain, the Canary Islands, Europe: Lesbos, Greece, Israel
Eastern palearctic birds: China
Birds from Africa: The Gambia, South Africa
Indo-Malayan birds from India: North-west (Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand) India: North-east (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya) India: Central (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh)
Birds from Australia, New Zealand.
For our 2014 December trip to India, see this travelog.
For our 2016 May-June trip to India, see this travelog.
For our 2017 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.
For our 2018 March trip to India, see this travelog.
For our 2018 May trip to China, see this travelog.
For our 2018 October trip from Munich to Budapest, Hungary see this travelog.
For our 2018 November trip to China, see this travelog.
For our 2019 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.
For our 2019 July trip to China, see this travelog.
For our 2021 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.
For the 2021 August 3 & 4 migration of Purple martins through Austin, see this web site.
For our 2021 December trip to Ecuador, see this web site.
For our 2022 January-February trip to Peru, see this web site.
For our 2022 July/August trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea, see this web site.
For our 2022 September trip to Bolivia, see this web site.
For our 2022 November-December pre-trip to Argentina (before our Antarctic cruise), see this web site.
For our 2022 November-December cruise to Antarctica, see this web site.
For our 2023 January birding in Chile, see this web site.
For our 2023 January-March cruise from Chile to Antarctica and around South America to Miami, FL, see this web site.
For our 2023 March-April birding in south Florida (after the Seabourn cruise), see this web site.
For our 2023 November-December birding to Sri Lanka, the Andaman Islands, and South India, see this web site.
For John's 2024 February-March birding in Colombia, see this web site.
For our 2024 May-June cruise from Iceland to Jan Mayen Island to and around the Svalbard Archipelago, see this web site.
For our 2024 June 25-30 stay in Paris, see this web site.
For our 2025 April 21 - May 3 trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.
For our 2025 July vacation and birding in Singapore, see this web site.
For our 2025 August birding in north-west Australia, see this web site.
For our 2025 August-October Seabourn cruise from Australia to Chile, see this web site.
For our 2026 January-February trip to New Zealand and 3rd cruise to Antarctica, see this web site.
For my 2026 March-April trip to Borneo and Singapore, see the present web site.