Progress in a Big Year is usually a series of quiet days punctuated by leaps and bounds. ‘Day One’ of course is a leap, because everything is new. The first time you get to go to a Reserve will be another leap; rainy days sat at home will be a time to catch up and plan (or dream). What will turn up in in Spring? Do I need to get winter birds seen now rather than hope I can make time at the end of the year? What would I see if I were to go to a forest in Malaysia on a day off in Singapore?

Okay, that last one is probably not open to many birders, but a Big Year done as an airline employee throws up chances to “leap and bound” at least once a month, and this month my big trip has been a nine-day multiple sector flight to Sydney (Australia) and back with three separate chances to go birding in Singapore en route. I love Sydney but we get very little time there, and Singapore itself is a pretty good place to go birding (especially in March, which is peak passage time) and I’ve written about it a few times on this blog (eg here and here). If you’re in Singapore and get the chance, though, for a really special morning’s birding it’s worth trying to get across the Johor Strait into Malaysia and the renowned Panti Forest Reserve near Kota Tinggi.

Approximately a 55km drive from Singapore, the total ‘gazetted’ area at Panti is around 27500 ha (equivalent to about a third of Singapore’s land area), and consisting mostly of plains-level Lowland Dipterocarp evergreen forest, Freshwater Swamp Forest and remnants of Hill Dipterocarp forest and Lower Montane Forest on the flat-top summit of Gunung Panti (510 m asl) and Gunung Muntahak (615 m asl). (Info taken from http://www.geocities.com/zoothera/Panti.html.) A magnet for many Singaporean, Malaysian and international birders looking for forest bird species the bird-list for Panti is quite extraordinary and includes some very sought-after and/or scarce species (eg Storm’s Stork, Crestless Fireback, Malaysian Rail-babbler, 8 species of Hornbill, 11 Kingfishers, and a startling 19 species of Bulbul). Obviously though the list is made up from the combined records of many visiting birders and like any forest it has frustratingly birdless days as well as overwhelmingly good ones.

I last visited Panti in 1991, and to be honest can’t remember too much about it except that it was an ‘overwhelmingly good’ day. Looking back with undoubtedly rose-tinted memory there were birds everywhere - actually it’s far more likely that there were long periods of walking seeing nothing with the occasional explosive ten minutes of frantic waving and binocular-pointing when a bird party went through as is typical of forest birding. Today’s visit (made with ex-pat Brit birders Martin Kennewell and Simon Cockayne) was excellent, but typically stop-and-start, with periods of inactivity broken with hugely exciting birding. I wish I could back that up with loads of remarkable photos, but I took very few indeed. The forest at Panti is very dense, the canopy of the trees (where many of the birds feed and move around in) is dizzyingly high, and the difficult light doesn’t help either: having said that local photographers with the benefit of repeat visits have taken some gorgeous photos and it’s worth googling to find pages such as Con Foley’s, Panti Forest photos on PBase…

White-bellied Woodpecker Dryocopus javensis (left) and
Blyth’s Hawk-eagle Spizaetus alboniger

The birds we did see read something like a list of names made-up by non-birders trying to take the mickey out of us odd birdy-types (there’s really a bird called Hairy-backed Bulbul? Come on…). Starting pre-dawn looking for owls and nightjars (we heard a few species but only sawLarge-tailed Nightjar, and I’m only counting ’seen’ birds this year, not audibles), we went on to see excellent species like the diminutive Blue-crowned hanging-Parrot, the huge White-bellied Woodpecker, the skulking Chestnut-winged and Black-throated Babblers, the strikingly burning-bright Fiery Minivet, two species of tree-swift, the ludicrously long-billed Little Spiderhunter - and best of all the amazingly plumaged Black-and-yellow Broadbill, an unlikely fusion of pink belly, stout pale-blue bill, white collar, golden-yellow eye-ring, and a black back speckled with large yellow dots: a unique and astounding bird that provoked cries of “insane” and (from me) “Yay, that’s bloody incredible”…and at least I managed to get a few (distant) photos to prove what a stunning bird this tiny feathered paint-palette really is…

Black-and-yellow Broadbill Eurylaimus ochromalus

I’m probably being a bit fickle and swayed by such a riot of colour but I have to say that the Broadbill went to the top of my “Best Bird of the Year” list, beating the Indian Coursers I saw at Sultanpur back in January (and was a ‘lifer’ to boot).

We heard quite a pile of birds we never managed to see (including Great Argus, the rail-babbler, and Gould’s Frogmouth, and I’ve a feeling that Martin and Simon stopped calling them out after a while as my face dropped further and further throughout the morning), and it was as hot and humid a morning as you could possibly wish for, but without a doubt it was an unforgettable six hours in what is already turning into an unforgettable year, and my huge thanks go to Martin and Simon for taking me along. It’s impossible to say how long the birds will remain at Panti as the forest is actually ‘protected’ for logging rather than ecological reasons, and we saw the depressing and disgusting results of deforestation all along the route to Panti, so if you do get the chance to go - go now: there’s next to nothing of the rainforest’s diversity and sheer abundance of life in an oil-palm plantation and if you leave it much longer that’s precisely what Panti may have become…

That was just the morning’s birding - in the afternoon Martin took me to see a bird that’s new for science - the newly-recognised “white-faced plover”! I’ve already posted about it, and if you haven’t seen it then head on over to The Plover with no proper name.

Trip List: (new for the year underlined)
Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus 1; White-bellied Sea Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster 1; Grey-headed Fish Eagle Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus 2; Crested Serpent-eagle Spilornis cheela 1; Chinese Sparrowhawk Accipiter soloensis 1(+?); Black Eagle Ictinaetus malayensis 2; Changeable Hawk-eagle Spizaetus cirrhatus 2; Blyth’s Hawk-eagle Spizaetus alboniger 2; Emerald Dove Chalcophaps indica 1+; Pink-necked Green Pigeon Treron vernans c)20; Blue-rumped Parrot Psittinus cyanurus 4; Long-tailed Parakeet Psittacula longicauda 5-6; Blue-crowned Hanging-parrot Loriculus galgulus c)10; Raffles’ Malkoha Phaenicophaeus chlorophaeus 2; Chestnut-breasted Malkoha Phaenicophaeus curvirostris 2; Large-tailed Nightjar Caprimulgus macrurus 1; German’s Swiftlet Collocalia germani 20+; Brown Needletail Hirundapus giganteus 1; House Swift Apus nipalensis 10+; Grey-rumped Treeswift Hemiprocne longipennis 1-2; Whiskered Treeswift Hemiprocne comata 4-5; Blue-throated Bee-eater Merops viridis 4-5; Blue-tailed Bee-eater Merops philippinus 5-6; Dollarbird Eurystomus orientalis 5; Red-crowned Barbet Megalaima rafflesii 1; White-bellied Woodpecker Dryocopus javensis 1; Banded Woodpecker Picus miniaceus 1; Crimson-winged Woodpecker Picus puniceus 2; Black-and-yellow Broadbill Eurylaimus ochromalus 3; Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 10+; Ashy Minivet Pericrocotus divaricatus 5-6; Fiery Minivet Pericrocotus igneus 4; Black-winged Flycatcher-shrike Hemipus hirundinaceus 1; Black-headed Bulbul Pycnonotus atriceps 4-5; Grey-bellied Bulbul Pycnonotus cyaniventris 1; Cream-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus simplex 2; Spectacled Bulbul Pycnonotus erythropthalmos 3; Grey-cheeked Bulbul Alophoixus bres 1+; Hairy-backed Bulbul Tricholestes criniger 2+; Blue-winged Leafbird Chloropsis cochinchinensis 2+;Arctic Warbler Phylloscopus borealis 1; Asian Brown Flycatcher Muscicapa dauurica 2; Dark-sided Flycatcher Muscicapa sibirica 2; White-tailed Flycatcher Cyornis concretus 1; Asian Paradise-flycatcher Terpsiphone paradisi 1; Black-throated Babbler Stachyris nigricollis 1; Chestnut-winged Babbler Stachyris erythroptera 2; Purple-naped Sunbird Hypogramma hypogrammicum 2; Little Spiderhunter Arachnothera longirostra 3-4; Crimson-breasted Flowerpecker Prionochilus percussus 1; Orange-bellied Flowerpecker Dicaeum trigonostigma 1; Everett’s White-eye Zosterops everetti 1; Dark-throated Oriole Oriolus xanthonotus 1; Asian Fairy-bluebird Irena puella 4-5; Crow-billed Drongo Dicrurus annectans 1; Bronzed Drongo Dicrurus aeneus 1; Greater Racket-tailed Drongo Dicrurus paradiseus 1+; Hill Mynah Gracula religiosa 2