Mt. Kinabalu area, Sabah

[moloch]

My friends and I headed to Sabah after our stay at Taman Negara. We spent about 8 days in the the Mt. Kinabalu area. We stayed at the Kinabalu Pine Resort in Kundasang which turned out to be quite nice and well situated. From the resort, it was a short drive to the Kinabalu NP headquarters, about a 40 minute drive to Poring Hot Springs or about 1.5 hours out to the Rafflesia Centre. We alternated between these sites depending upon the local weather conditions.

Mt. Kinabalu is a scenic place. It is a big mountain so it was quite astounding to see how quickly some people are able to ascend to the summit. We only worked the area from the park headquarters to the trail head of the summit track. Some of the guys walked for a few hours on the Mempening, Liwagu and Silau-Silau tracks where they found a number of interesting birds. The best for me was a Fruithunter, a species that I missed on my first trip to southeast Asia in 1990.

Here are a few shots of the mountain.






The summit of the mountain was often enveloped with clouds.



We often drove to one of the higher lookouts in the morning and watched for birds. The upper forests were rather quiet. We found Indigo Flycatchers, Sunda Bush Warblers, Golden-naped Barbets, Sunda Laughing-Thrush, Sunda Treepies, Little Pied Flycatchers, Scarlet (Temmink's) Sunbirds, Mountain Leaf Warblers, Mountain Imperial Pigeons, Little Cuckoo Doves, various swifts and others.



... my birding friends: (L->R) Bruce, Bill and Ted.

[moloch]

Ted unfortunately sprained his ankle badly at Taman Negara so he was on crutches for much of the trip. I stayed with him for part of the time at Mt. Kinabalu and drove him from area to area for birding. I did not get out on the long forest walks but Bruce and Bill did this a few times with good success. Here is a shot by Bruce of the habitat along the Liwagu Trail. Interesting birds here included Mountain Wren Babblers, Short-tailed Magpies, White-browed Shortwings, Whitehead's Broadbill, Mountain Whistler and others.



Here are shots of the upper end of the Silau-Silau Track. I found a female Whitehead's Trogon, Fruithunter and Sunda Laughing-Thrushes in this area.




Creek that was good for Sunda Whistling-Thrushes:




We also drove from the Kinabalu Pine Resort to the Poring Hot Springs area on a few occasions. The hot springs was a busy place with bus loads of tourists. Most soaked in the pools or went on the canopy walk. Only a few ventured into the forest. Poring had a butterfly garden that was excellent for birds. It was planted with numerous mint-looking plants that attracted a variety of butterflies. There also was a sulphurous stream that flowed through the garden. A few butterflies puddled in places along it.

habitat near Poring Hot Springs:



I climbed to Langanan Falls one morning. The climb is long and steep but the views along the way are good. Bamboo forest was thick in places along this trail. I had no luck, unfortunately, with the Blue-banded Pitta and Hose's Broadbill but saw other birds including Scarlet-rumped Trogons and the endemic Bornean Forktail.

[moloch]

Langanan Falls. It was sunny when I started the climb but clouds closed in and it began to rain when I reached the falls. This was disappointing since I expected a few puddlers to be in the area. I saw an odd crow but little else along the creek.





This pretty Balsam was flowering near the falls:



Flowering tree along the trail:



The Rafflesia Centre was the third site in the area that we visited. It actually was not all that far from Kinabalu but the roads were poor, traffic heavy and the transit was slow. The forests at the Rafflesia Centre were thick and tall. The understorey was unusually dark even in the middle of the day. This was a top place for the Bornean endemic birds and other species. We saw Bornean Leafbirds, Bornean Bulbuls, Bornean Barbets, Mountain Barbets, Pygmy White-eyes, White-fronted Falconet, Long-tailed Broadbill, Chestnut-backed Scimitar Babblers, Rufous-bellied Eagle, Rufous-tailed Jungle Flycatcher and others.




Forest Quaker (Pithecops corvus) were common along the creeks near the park headquarters of Mt. Kinabalu.

[moloch]

Common Posy (Drupadia ravindra). Several seen along the lower portion of the Langanan Falls trails.



Mycalesis marginata. (thanks, Les). These were numerous near the park headquarters. They were wary and tended to perch several meters above the ground.




Orsotriaena medus One near the orchid garden at Poring Hot Springs.



Mycalesis orseis. (thanks, Les and Seow for your help). This and others were observed in the orchid garden of Poring Hot Springs.



This Mycalesis kina was huge (thanks, Seow). I found it along the track at the Rafflesia Centre. When first observed, I thought that it was a Faun due to the dark colour and large size. I was surprised when I was close enough for photos to see that it was a bush-brown.



Mycalesis janardana baluna (thanks, Les). This one was found along the Langanan Falls trail.



Ypthima pandocus? These were common along the Langanan Falls trail.

[moloch]

Ragadina makuta were common along the Langanan Falls trail.



An interesting one was Ragadia annulata (thanks, Les). I saw several of these at the upper trail head to the Silau-Silau Track. They always landed several meters up in trees so good photos were not possible.



Erites argentina. One was found at the orchid garden of Poring Hot Springs.



Lethe perimede. (thanks, Seow). This pretty Lethe dropped to the road near the summit track one morning. It was the only individual of the species that I observed.



Lethe darena . (thanks, Seow). I saw one of these along the Mempening Track. It had a fair amount of orange-brown on the upperwings. This was a fairly large butterfly.

[Angiud]

Wow! A lot of beautiful and unusual Satyridae.

Congrats with the same friendly jealousy for your amazing interesting trip and for the beautiful pictures.

[Painted Jezebel]

Les suggested that this is Mycalesis gotama.

Er..... I think I said that it looks similar, but I could not see that the species was found on Borneo.

Those 'Lethe' species are still confusing me. I have also looked at all closely related genera, but can not find anything. I must be missing something somewhere!

By the way, it is [I]Mycalesis janardana baluna[/I] (if I got the ID right!).

[moloch]

Thanks, Antonio and Les.

Sorry about dropping off part of your comment, Les.

Regards,

[Glorious Begum]

Wow. A great set that you got again. Nice !

[Psyche]

There is only 1 species of Orsotriaena, so it is correct.
The M. gomata lookalike should be M. orseis.
The large one can only be M. pitana, no other spp left.

Lethe 2 is definitely L. darena.
Lethe 1 can only be keyed out as L. darena , no other left.
I think they could be 2 sexes.

TL Seow