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Birds of the Sepilok Forest – a Photographic Guide

BBooks — Tue, 25 May 2010 09:10:07 +0000

This is a neat little book of 110 pages has 200 colour photographs of birds seen at the Rainforest Discovery Centre and surroundings at Sepilok, near Sandakan on the E. Coast of Sabah, East Malaysia on the island of Borneo. 300 bird species have now been recorded, with 15 endemics, including the icon of¬† Borneo birds, the Borneo Bristlehead (see pic), which is easier to see here than elsewhere. Sepilok is only 20 minutes from Sandakan airport. It has a third generation canopy walkway, a heroic structure in steel, as steady as a rock, surrounded by scattered tall forest trees and a regenerating lower storey. Hornbills are common and easily seen.

The Rainforest Discovery Centre is proving to be one of the best birding sites in Borneo, due to its accessibility and its nearness to the¬† primary forest of¬† the 6,100 ha Sepilok Forest Reserve. The Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre is just down the road.

The¬† photos in this book are of a high quality and the text informative, although some further work is needed on it. The Forestry Department in general and Dr Robert Ong (text) and Ced Prudente (photos) can be congratulated on a really handy pocket guide that does the business. BBooks looks forward to selling updated versions of this book for many years to come.

Tales from the Bird Festival – Day 4

BBooks — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:59:59 +0000

We seem to have been here half a century. Today yet more stock arrived from KK on the Tung Mah Express to satisfy the insatiable demand for the two field guides. It’s gradually emerging that one (Myers) is the choice of the dedicated birder, while the other (Phillipps) is scoring with the less committed. It has lots of little yellow boxes filled with fascinating titbits of info.

Festivalites tracking the Bristleheads

The birdlife continues to sabotage the programme. Two days ago it was Black Hornbills, today the Borneo Bristlehead. Halfway through one of the talks on the verandah overlooking the forest the audience (and the speaker!) simply got up and walked out, the better to see a couple of BB’s hopping about overhead.

BBooks thought it had better follow, or appear conspicuous. Bristleheads look as though they were put together by a sketching party of schoolkids. The head is bright red and yellow (see the poster below – Oct 6th) with a big shiny black wart. The feathers on the crown often stick up like a punk hair do. With bristles. The feet look large and clumsy, and what happened to the tail? It whistles, burps and burbles. Everything is out of proportion, the colours are positively painful and it just seems to potter about, not chasing things and being ecological.
Never mind, this has become the icon of Bornean birdwatchers. People travel from all over the world to see it. It occurs nowhere else and until recently was very seldom seen. But at the Rainforest Discovery Centre it has been appearing every day. Just shows what can happen when birders get together. What will be the disruptive force tomorrow? A Storm’s Stork hitching a ride on one of the pedalos on the lake no doubt. Yr. correspondent received a near terminal crick in the neck watching the Bristleheads today, but hopes to be sufficiently recovered on the morrow to report on….further Tall Tales from the Rainforest

Tales from the Bird Festival – Day 3

BBooks — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:55:12 +0000

Quentin Phillipps, of the eponymous Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, signs off a copy

On this, the third day of the Festival, we ran out of stock of the two books we came to sell (the Phillipps and Myers guides to the birds of Borneo) (see postings for Sept 29th) Launching at this bird fest, with both authors present to meet and greet and sign copies, has proved highly effectives for sales. Now we have a problem, with 3 days to go, we have no more copies to sell. But not for nothing is Borneo Books Services known for its determination in the face of adversity. A flurry of phone calls earlier and even as I write this the Tung Mah night express coach from KK to Sandakan is speeding past Mt Kinabalu (keeping to its side of the road, we hope, although it seldom does so) with relief supplies for our beleaguered garrison.
So by tomorrow it will be BUA (business as usual). Only there is nothing usual about a bird fest.

Size matters !

More on this tomorrow, if yr. correspondent can survive the drama

Tales from the Bird Festival – Day 2

BBooks — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:38:37 +0000

The second day of the Festival opened hot and muggy. An overnight storm failed utterly to clear the air. It’s been like something out of Conrad all day. Lots of local families, being Sunday and free entry to the Rainforest Discovery Centre. This is half an hour outside Sandakan on the E. Coast of Sabah, with the buildings right up close to the forest. In fact so close that this evening we were able to watch a flying squirrel poke its head out of its sleeping hole in a dead tree, about 20m up, have a good look round and then glide slowly and silently to a nearby tree. This was very tall and we watched it hunch its way all the way to the top looking like Dracula in a mackintosh, but a beautiful russet brown rather than black (we’re sure Dracula wore black). With the poise of a seasoned star it then paused and looked down at us mere mortals, before launching itself off on a celestial descent into the deep forest.
At 5pm came the results of the Bird Race (a competition to see which team of birders can tot up the most species in 24h)(and to answer the obvious question there is an umpire with each team to confirm accuracy). The Chairman of the Festival was announcing the winners when he realized he had lost the audience completely, as a trio of Black Hormbills did a flypast. Twice he started again, only to be totally upstaged each time by more Hornbills. After some deliberation they agreed to settle in a nearby tall tree and let the proceedings continue, watching with interest

Tales from the Bird Festival – Day 1

BBooks — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:43:07 +0000

Borneo Books set up shop on the edge of the rainforest for the Borneo Bird Festival today. Our stall looks out on forest with some tall trees, one 50m tall. Flying squirrels are frequent in the evenings – the look like flying tea trays as they glide from way, way up. They can do about 300m. The festival opened with speeches from VIP’s followed by the launching of the two new field guides to the birds of Borneo. The authors, Quentin Phillipps and Susan Myers, both flew in from overseas for the occasion. It was so hot, humid and still that yr correspondent nearly expired.

The photo on the right shows Susan Myers being congratulated by Datuk Masidi Manjun, Minister of Tourism on the publication and launch of her book

We are at the Borneo Bird Festival 2009

BBooks — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:50:16 +0000

Borneo Books will be represented at the Borneo Bird Festival, and will have for sale amongst others two brand new books on the Birds of Borneo.

Birds of Borneo ‚Äì Phillipps Field Guide

Birds of Borneo ‚Äì Myers Field Guide

So if you are visiting the Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC), Seplilok, please drop by our Stand No. 18, have a chat and browse through the books we have available, including these two magnificent volumes.

Birds of Borneo – Myers Field Guide

BBooks — Sun, 22 Oct 2000 22:10:36 +0000

A brand new field guide to the birds of Borneo, fully up to date, with 50 endemic species listed.¬†¬† This compares with 35 endemics just a few years ago.¬† There are 631 species described in all. High quality colour reproduction of more than 1,600 artworks spread over 246 colour pages.¬† The accurate and up to date text covers the identification, voice, habitat and behaviour.¬† Range, status and breeding of all species and clearly defined subspecies on the island of Borneo are also included. There are 630 colour maps showing the distribution of each species and status as resident, non breeding visitor or passage migrant. Under the voice section details of the length of the notes and the frequency in kilohertz¬† are given – a first for a Borneo fieldguide. Fully referenced and indexed.

Birds of Borneo – Phillipps Field Guide

BBooks — Sun, 22 Oct 2000 22:04:05 +0000

Brand new fieldguide to the birds of Borneo, listing 664 species, including 51 endemics. Over 2,000 full colour artwork images by Karen Phillipps with birds pictured on the right hand page and species listed and described on the left. Fast find identification plates to the birds of particular habitats such as rivers and streams, lowland forest and the summit trail of Mt Kinabalu. Extensive summary of vegetation, climate and ecology. Maps of migration routes in Asia and 2 pages of key facts on the birds of Borneo. Colour maps showing distribution of residents (with endemic residents in a different colour) and¬† migrants. Map detail shows distribution as general, montane, rivers and coastal. 22 pages describing the 130 top birding sites in Borneo. Fully referenced and indexed.