Indonesia Update 5: North Maluku
Ethan finally left Sulawesi to cross the Moluccan Sea and at long last reach the Spice Isles. Over the next several weeks he birded across the islands of Halmahera, Morotai, and Ternate and ended up with a decent haul including a couple very good species. He even saw a Nicobar Pigeon but the photo is so bad I’m leaving it in the Collection.
For some reason, Halmahera has a grand total of five species of Todiramphus Kingfisher. Here are the two endemic ones: The creatively named Sombre Kingfisher and the slightly less creatively named Blue-And-White Kingfisher.
Ethan continued his good run with Kingfishers by getting the Common-Paradise Kingfisher, his first from its genus, and the more familiar looking the Moluccan Dwarf-Kingfisher.
Ethan got up at 3:30 AM to go see Halmahera’s most iconic bird, the Standardwing Bird-Of-Paradise. Unfortunately, a loud group birding tour happened to be at the site as well and most of the birds kept their distance except for this one who briefly landed on a branch near the hide. It was clearly too depressed to do its little dance and it just sat there and moped.
Here are the Morotai Friarbird, endemic to the the island of Morotai, and the Rufous-Bellied Triller, which unlike pretty much every other triller, isn’t just black and white.
Of the three new Fruit-Doves he saw on Halmahera, the Blue-Capped Fruit-Dove was his favorite and he was glad that it was the one he was able to get the closest to.
Just a couple of little guys high up in the trees. The Moluccan Hanging-Parrot and the Halmahera Flowerpecker.
Here are the Drab Whistler (Drab) and the Island Whistler, the two most interesting of the three Whistlers Ethan saw.
Crossing Weber’s line means a better selection of Monarch-Flycatchers incluing the White-Naped Monarch, the Moluccan Flycatcher, and the Moluccan Spectacled Monarch.
But wait, there’s more. Ethan managed to run into the very scarce Island Monarch while he was waiting on Ternate.
Ethan got both the Ivory-Breasted Pitta, which was frighteningly large and had a disturbingly upright posture, and the North Moluccan Pitta. Discerning viewers may recognize the latter bird as a member of the Ternate population but don’t worry as Ethan got a picture of a Halmahera bird too and is now waiting for the armchair lifer.
Ethan was also intimidated by the size of the Long-Billed Crown and the Goliath Coucal.
It’s not exactly the Invisible Rail but if the Moluccan subspecies of Pale-Vented Bush-Hen is one someday elevated to its own species it will be one of the more elusive birds Ethan has managed to photograph.
Ethan had actually encountered the Moluccan Scops-Owl once before but it was a bit awkward since it was actually on Flores where he missed the Flores Scops-Owl.
The Halmahera Boobook is one of the spookier birds Ethan has seen. Seriously, if you look at just the face and sort of forget that it is an owl, it is genuinely a bit disturbing.
No, Ethan did not discover Mothman, at least not yet. This is just the Moluccan Owlet-Nightjar. Ethan is a huuuuge Owlet-Nightjar enjoyer and hopes to find some more in West Papua.
The Moluccan Megapode is certainly one of the classier Megapodes Ethan has seen. They are exceedingly difficult to observe during the daylight hours but fortunately they can be found laying their eggs on certain volcanic beaches at night, a practice unique to this bird within its family.
Well, now all that remains to Ethan’s east is New Guinea so that is where he will head next. There he expects to find both his best birds as well as his most difficult situations.
I love getting your wonderful bird photos, and appropriately they arrived on World Owl day. Thank you very much as I wasn’t aware of such diverse birds in Indonesia. I wonder if you are ever planning on going home to Sacramento? Very best wishes from your Adelaide cricketing friend.
Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed the pictures. I enjoyed taking them and many of the birds reminded me of the ones I saw in Australia which was cool. I just got back from the more remote parts of West Papua on my itinerary and now I just have a few more birds to track down here before I am done in Indonesia for now. I’m not sure when I will go back to California. I’m thinking of going to Central Asia or South America for a while next so hopefully I’ll be posting some birds from there before too long.