Rare species: The wreathed hornbill (below) black-and-crimson oriole and Blue-banded pitta. — Photos courtesy of Gary Albert and Mark Louis Benedict
Group records four rare finds among over 100 bird species at Rundum highlands
KOTA KINABALU: A mission to find a bird species that was thought to not exist in Sabah has led a team of birders to a series of surprises at Rundum highlands.
Headed by Sabah Bird Watchers Association (SBWA) president Ron Pudin, the expedition to the interior Tenom district has recorded new discoveries of four fowls, which were believed to have only lived outside the forest highlands.
The district, some 150km from here, is best known for its Murut ethnic people and agriculture products particularly coffee rather than its feathered friends.
Based on word of mouth from the Murut elders about the presence of the black oriole (oriolus hosii), a bird believed to endemic only in Sarawak, the seven-men team had set out to find the truth on Jan 9.
Pudin said in the four-day expedition at Rundum, none of the members spotted the avian but one of them claimed he heard the sound of limbas, as the bird is called in the Murut language.
He said John Bakar, a local active birder for over 10 years, who has accumulated 560 bird species in Borneo, told them he heard the call on three occasions on the trails to Umit waterfalls.
“He had been to the Payeh Maga highlands in Limbang of Sarawak, the only place where the black oriole was sighted before and was certain what he had heard,” he added.
Pudin said the black oriole is particularly known to be more skittish than its close cousin, the black-and-crimson oriole (oriolus consanguineus).
He said the team also discovered the blue-banded pitta (erythropitta arquata).
“This is one of the most sought-after bird species for birdwatchers that come to Sabah and the discovery is perhaps the first record of the bird inhabiting in the forest some 1,200m above sea level,” he added.
He said the sighting of the white-rumped shama (copsychus malabaricus) was also the first in Sabah while the iconic Bornean bristlehead (pityriasis gymnocephala) is most probably being seen for the first time in the west coast of the state.
“This bird perched and hopped on a tree,” he said, adding team member Gerald Baxter claimed he sighted the bird on his binoculars but it flew away before it could be photographed.
Pudin revealed that other notable records were the elusive eye-browed wren-babbler (napothera epilepidota) and black partridge (melanoperdix niger).
The association was invited to initiate the mission by the local community with the objective to compile a bird list and to tap the potential for eco-tourism in the area.
Pudin said the team recorded more than 100 species of birds during the field trip.
On another matter, Pudin said the Kampung Rundum Community Tourism Cooperative, run by a local native Rusli Tampasan, has been pushing for the over 404ha hill and montane forest land to be gazetted as a protected area to preserve the natural flora and fauna.
“We hope the government can support the cause to promote the highlands as an eco-tourism destination and conserve it as an important water catchment area,” he added.
Tenom, particularly Rundum highlands, has always been associated with the uprising history of Murut warrior Ontoros Antanom, who fought for the people against the British North Borneo Chartered Company in the early 1900s.
Pudin said with the new findings, the locals hoped that the district would also be known for its bird diversity, wildlife and nature.
