Birding with Ram Gopalakrishnan: On the Kinbatangan

We gazed captivated at the long upcurved red and yellow casque of the male Rhinoceros Hornbill. It seemed an incredible feat of evolution for a creature to develop such a unique appendage!

We were on a brief trip on the Kinabatangan River, a 560 km long tortuous river that snakes its way down from the highlands of Sabah, East Malaysia, Borneo to the Sulu Sea on the eastern coast. The river is surrounded by one of the last riverine forests that remain in current day Borneo and constitute the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. Home to pygmy elephants, orangutans, proboscis monkeys, saltwater crocodiles and hornbills (the Big 5 of Borneo), what attracted us was the prospect of seeing up to eight hornbill species from the boating excursions on the river. We flew from Kuala Lumpur to Sandakan, the nearest airport and reached the Sukau Greenview Lodge after a two hour drive through endless rows of palm plantations.

A night time boat ride was mainly for large mammals, I imagined: promptly followed a slew of sleeping beauties: Rhinoceros Hornbill, Blue-eared Kingfisher and a Oriental Pied Hornbill pair. An obviously alert massive Buffy Fish-Owl was a lovely bonus.

A Wrinkled Hornbill (named after the “wrinkles” on its casque) greeted us in the cool morning as we set off down river. White-bellied Sea Eagles ruled the skies. A Wallace's Hawk-eagle was easily ID'd by its crest. Collared and Stork-billed Kingfishers added to the kingfisher count. A trio of peculiarly named Bushy-crested Hornbills were followed by another trio of Wrinkled Hornbills flying across the river. When we saw a pair of Black Hornbills, we had managed five of the eight hornbill species in this area.

A walk into the humid rainforest was a challenge, between the wet mud and leeches on the ground and the drenching humidity in the air. A Frilled Treefrog had the perfect camouflage against predators and could have been passed off as moss till you saw its eyes.

Proboscis Monkeys, endemic to Borneo, dotted the river banks: the alpha male had the largest nose of them all and aggressively chased away younger males. Silvered and Maroon Leaf Monkeys were abundant. Pig-tailed Macaques were distinguished from their Long-tailed Macaque cousins by their much shorter tail. Several rope bridges had been placed across the smaller channels for monkeys to cross over without fear of crocodile attacks. A solitary Bornean Pygmy Elephant and a couple of Saltwater Crocodiles helped us to complete four of Borneo's Big Five: orangutans are rare in this secondary rainforest.

Kinabatangan has enormous pressures: palm oil plantations have compressed the forest and the wildlife to narrow strips adjacent to the banks. Habitat fragmentation and hunting has led to local extinctions of iconic species like the rhinoceros and Helmeted hornbill, and orangutans may go the same way in the future. Widespread choking of waterways by the invasive water hyacinth poses yet another challenge.

Go there before it's all gone!