One night in Bali, like the borderline racist 80-ies song One Night in Bangkok but different location, no drugs, no loose women, but birds, birds, birds. At least, in my dreams. Arriving at 14:00 hrs and leaving the next day at 7:30 hrs to fly to Timor-Leste did not bode well for a long list. So sitting in my private swimming pool, binoculars at hand I saw a meagre set of 8 species. Of the lifers I saw in Bali, a full 50% was seen while waiting for my airport transfer to arrive: the Javan Tailorbird. The other lifer was the Blue-tailed Bee-eater. I shared the pool area with a White-breasted Waterhen and a juvenile waterhen joined me in my open air bathroom. Reading back the above few sentences I realise that with less luxury I could have seen more birds… but the deal on this room was soooo good… Although I managed to sneak in three bird names in the introduction of this post, I will have to shamelessly pillage Wikimedia Commons to give you an idea of the possibilities of Bali for the more dedicated amongst us. The header picture for example is by JJ Harrison.
Most pictures of the Sunda Pied Fantail, or Malaysian Pied Fantail are of stamps or dead birds. This one photographed by Tony Castro is much nicer. “Malaysian” seems a bit unfair since the Sunda region is so much larger than just the peninsula, but at least the scientific name does justice to Indonesia: Rhipidura javanica. Its song is quite lovely.
The Blue-tailed Bee-eater was a bit unexpected, but a very welcome sighting. A striking bird, migratory to the western part of Indonesia but resident in the eastern part (Lesser Sunda islands in particular). I don’t think there are ugly bee-eaters, but this one is beauty pageant level, but without claiming to want world peace. Anirudh Anmuthuvara captured it well.
The Javan Tailorbird or Olive-backed Tailorbird was my second lifer after the bee-eater. Again, a lot of dead birds on Wikimedia Commons. Not sure what the other 11 Melindras are up to, but Melindra12 caught it on the photo-sensitive chip. The bird’s vocalisations are as pleasant as my karaoke singing.
It’s hard for me to say whether Bali has more to offer when I was just stopping over and enjoying unnecessary luxury. Yes, I checked for a garden at my hotel when preparing the trip, but never had the time to do some proper birding. Anyone else has better insights?
For the record, I would gladly share my bathroom with a waterhen anytime ?? nice blog and a solid list for less than 24 hours!