This hike up in Makiling had been my best trip so far, in terms of number of birds seen. The day was very bright, the sky was clear and the sun was up (but not too hot). I was with Mike Catsis, he is visiting from the UK and it was his first time in Asia but he's done a lot of birding in other countries in South America. What's interesting is he has reviewed the Kennedy guide and seemed to already know what birds to expect.
We started out by climbing up the mountain very early in the morning to look for the thrush. Mike spotted something moving among the bushes and said it had a chestnut head. For a moment it was gone but then we spotted it in the main trail. It was instead a Red-bellied Pitta and it was obliviously hopping towards us. It's the first time I've seen the pitta in the main trail.
Aside from the pitta, everybody else seemed to come out. The small birds were very active. There were perhaps 3 to 5 trees where we just stopped and look at the nuthatches, woodpeckers, sunbirds, and flowerpeckers flit about.
We even saw a number of the always-heard-rarely-seen-in-makiling barbets among the group of birds. There were so many small birds that I think it's quite impossible to identify and give an accurate count at the same time,especially that they were moving very fast and way up the trees. We had a fine view of the bicolored flowerpeckers because they were all over this red fig tree that was just a few feet high.
were dark blue and the underparts were white. The bills were not black but yellowish or orange.
That afternoon, we visited the Botanic Gardens to give a shot at the indigo-banded kingfisher at the bridge where people usually see it. We waited for a while but instead of the kingfisher, a Common Emerald Dove flew in and just strutted there for some time. It's the best view I've seen of it because usually it flies away the second you see it.
7. Brush Cuckoo, Cacomantis variolosus- 1 immature, finely barred underparts.
35. Fire-breasted flowerpecker,Dicaeum ignipectus/flowerpecker sp. - not sure. saw this flowerpecker with this big red on its throat, it was too fast for me to be sure, but certainly not red-keeled.
36. Yellowish White-eye Zosterops nigrorum - 1, briefly seen, white eye-ring, underparts completely yellow.
1. Green Crested-lizard, Bronchocela cristatela (?)- suddenly appeared in the main trail, generally green with some white spots on its back and had a short crest behind its neck and a very long tail; looked a bit like an iguana.