Birding with Ram Gopalakrishnan: Amidst the orangutans of Danum Valley

Look ahead, exclaimed our guide Sabinus Sadah, as a pheasant strolled across the road, with the sun literally setting his back on fire: that was the male Bornean Crested Fireback. Before I could push the off button on the video recording, a loud snap of bushes announced a rare ground visit by Lom, one of the resident male Orangutans, barely 10 meters away in the undergrowth: he had come down to feast on ginger roots. A few moments later, loud grunts and shaking foliage gave away the location of a pair of mating Asian Forest Tortoises!

Borneo: the name conjures up an exotic mystical, lush primeval tropical rainforest with rare primates and scarcely believable bird species. Our destination was the Danum Valley Conservation Area, in the eastern part of the state of Sabah, Malaysia. We had flown in to the tiny airport in Lahad Datu on the northeast of the island, from where a three hour drive took us to the iconic Borneo Rainforest Lodge (BRL), built on a curve on the Danum River in 1994. The lowland forest in Danum Valley is one of the oldest and most diverse primary (never logged) dipterocarp rainforests in Asia and home to some 380 bird species and iconic mammals such as the orangutan.

My wife Meenakshi and I got a chance to visit BRL in the month of February, at the tail end of the rainy season, rather than the popular months of June to September. We were taking a gamble on the trip getting entirely rained out with a leech count exceeding the bird count! Lets just enjoy the rainforest experience, and let any birding be a bonus, we decided. Fortune favors the brave, as we soon found out.

On the drive in, a mother and baby orangutan at the top of the canopy boded well for the days ahead. The lodge offers a splendid panoramic view of the river from the dining area: a Red Leaf-Monkey clambering up the canopy on the other side and a Blue-bearded Bee-eater kept us distracted as we lunched. A Lesser Fish-Eagle swooped from its perch to scoop up fish from the river. An introductory slide show was followed by a stroll on the thoughtfully constructed boardwalk within the thick rainforest and enabled us to experience the joy of appreciating many endemic tree species without getting our shoes muddy. Flowerpeckers (Yellow-breasted, Crimson-breasted and Yellow-rumped) and Spiderhunters (Little and Bornean) kept up constant background music on the flowers and bushes outside our verandah.

A night drive on a soundless electric buggy into the rainforest was truly magical. The heavy rains had brought out an army of bullfrogs and they struck up a raucous duet with the cicadas. The strong torches picked up the eye reflection of a variety of nocturnal residents, both awake and asleep. An Island Palm Civet (Paradoxurus philippinensis) clambered up a branch, while a Red Giant Flying Squirrel (Petaurista petaurista) looked most sluggish till it took a breathtaking leap for almost 30m by spreading out its patagium (skin between its limbs)! A Yellow-bellied Prinia and a rare Black-crowned Pitta slept peacefully despite the bright torches on them.

The highlight of Danum Valley has to be the canopy walk in the morning. A 360 m long wood and metal structure with a maximum elevation of 27m above the ground is strung between several large Compassia trees, whose smooth bark makes it a favorite for honey bees to keeps honey lovers such as bears away from the hives. We watched a Raffles's Malkoha construct its nest at eye level, while a Stork-billed Kingisher zipped across the river below us. Whoever named the Black-and-yellow Broadbill forgot to include the stunning mauve on its belly. A Blyths' Paradise-Flycatcher unfurled it's long white streamer, not from above, but below!

Just as we finished the canopy walk, a heavy tropical downpour sent us scurrying back to the lodge to dry off and gloomily watch the mesmerizing downpour from our room. When the rain slowed to a drizzle and finally stopped in the afternoon, we stepped out again. A Rufous-backed Dwarf-kingfisher zoomed across our path and then posed as we gleefully photographed it. A rare burst of sunlight illuminated the throat of the Red-bearded Bee-eater like a beacon. Two Black-crowned Pittas called and called and were finally triumphantly located in the undergrowth. A Rufous Piculet clung to a tiny branch. Innumerable butterflies mud puddled on the road while the long drawn out mournful whistle of the Blue-Banded Pitta was the background score: like so many other birds, easy to hear but very difficult to see. A Green Broadbill brought a smile to our faces just as daylight faded.

A night walk in the rainforest was a unique experience, though finding our footing on the dark, wet, slushy track was quite stressfull. A Lesser Mouse-deer (Tragulus kanchil) paused to gaze at these aliens shining a bright light at it. A Short-tailed Babbler slept right in the open, while a Buff-necked Woodpecker preferred a tree hollow. Two tarantulas (Singapore Blue and Malaysian earthtiger) were thankfully spotted not too closely, only on binoculars!

Heavy downpours overnight and at daybreak delayed the start of our "main course" the next day, a 4 km trek through the narrow trail to the Segama river. Our target was the Great Argus, a huge ground dwelling peacock like bird which had created a small clearing for its courtship display in the rainforest. Huge dipterocarp trees with wall like buttresses lined the narrow track, and dense vegetation surrounded us on both sides. If you dont get drenched by showers, you will from the 100 % humidity. Overnight rain had converted the trail into a muddy quagmire. Two "predators" awaited us: the sneaky brown leech on the forest floor and the big and actively moving tiger leech on the bushes above one meter with its relatively painful bites: self inspection followed by brushing them off every few minutes was needed. Calls of the Rufous-fronted Babbler, the White-crowned Hornbill and Scaly-crowned Babbler rang out overhead. No sunlight reaches the forest floor where mushrooms abounded, and the only breaks were the three narrow footbridges we had to negotiate. No, we didn't see the Great Argus, but this unique habitat was a once in a lifetime experience!

A final afternoon walk was our last chance to see the orangutan well, and Lom gave us some memorable close up shots. Highly intelligent and territorial, a little more than 100,000 individuals remain in Borneo as they are highly dependedent on an undisturbed rainforest habitat. However the depredation of the rainforest has been well documented in the last few decades. Widespread conversion of forest to plantations, mainly for palm oil, and agriculture has steadily reduced the rainforest to a small fraction of what it was half a century ago. Iconic species such as the orangutan and the helmeted hornbill have become endangered and may well become extinct in the next few decades. Some encouraging initiatives have arisen though: logging has stopped since 1994 and active reforestation of previously logged forests is being carried out.

Danum Valley and it's iconic orangutans beckons!