This is the largest national park of the island (it goes from km 63 to km 97 and all the way down to the South coast) and holds several patches good quality forest and all endemic bird species (and subspecies) can be seen here. From several trip reports I read and Burung Nusantara it appears that access to this national park is a bit complicated as there office is located in Kupang and so some birders enter the park “illegally”. We had no problems at all, for we asked Mama Kati (006285239910745) from our homestay to help us with this matter and within 15 minutes a young guard of the national park was standing before us. He introduced himself as Sam (006281238943833) and turned out to be very friendly and with a lot of knowledge, both about the local avifauna and the sites were to find him. We arranged everything through him: 100.000 IDR for the ojeks (for the whole day, so a good price in my opinion), 100.000 IDR guiding fees, 10.000 IDR entrance fees (per person per day) and 25.000 IDR camera fee (per camera per day). Currently the entrance fees are still cheap, but most likely they will change in 2015. Like in Kelimutu national park the fees are going to be 150.000 IDR per person per day on a weekday and 225.000 IDR per person per day on a Sunday, making the birding here a lot more expensive…
We visited several sites within the national park. We started at 05:00 and drove all the way to km 88 (an area also known as Lokuhuma). Exactly at the km 88 marker there was a path leading to a viewing point (there is even a yellow sign stating this), where one has a good view on several patches of forest. We walked the path for 15 or 20 minutes and arrived at the hill. Within five minutes we had distant but decent views of three Yellow-crested Cockatoos of the distinct citrinocristata subspecies. Later it turned out that there were not three but seven Cockatoos! After this success we moved a little further to scan for Parrots, Hornbills and Pigeons. We scanned the trees for some time and got good views of several Great-billed Parrots, Red-cheeked Parrots and Green Imperial Pigeons as wells as some distant views of two Marigold Lorikeets. Unfortunately we found no hornbills so we moved back to the hill where we had seen the Cockatoos. After a while we heard a single Sumba Hornbill, but it stayed in the valley and we did not manage to see it. A Green Junglefowl that flew up into a tree in front of us and started calling was very entertaining on the other hand. On the way back we flushed a Brown Quail, saw several Broad-billed Flycatchers and got more looks at Great-billed Parrots. Furthermore we got charged by an angry free ranging steed, which was fended off by Sam. Consequently we were glad we had visited this site the official way and had a national park guard on our side who knew how to deal with this!
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| Male Red-cheeked Parrot (Geoffroyus geoffroyi) |
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| Two Citron-crested (Yellow-crested) Cockatoos (Cacatua (sulphurea) citrinocristata) flying over a valley |
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| Broad-billed Flycatcher (Myiagra ruficollis) |
After our early morning visit to km 88 we drove to an area called Langgaliru, which is more commonly referred to as km 68-72. Birding here is done simply from the roadside, which means a lot of honking from passing vehicles, a feature I still cannot appreciate. There are some tracks that lead into the forest but these are generally scarce. We hoped to find the Hornbills we had missed earlier here as well as Sumba Myzomela, Sumba Brown and Sumba Flycatcher. We did not find these targets, but saw several other good species including Short-toed Eagle, Black-naped Fruit-dove, Marigold Lorikeet and Spectacled Monarch. As soon as it got hot we returned to the homestay for a delicious lunch.
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| Adult Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus) |
We visited Langgaliru (km 68-72) again in the afternoon to give our diurnal target species another try. After a 10 minute drive we arrived at the forest and found it very silent. In the end we failed again to find our targets, but on the other hand I got ridiculous good views of an Elegant Pitta and my girlfriend even found two! We didn’t even use playback to find them as they betrayed their presence by the sound of rustling leaves while they hopped and foraged on the forest floor. All individuals were incredibly tame and did not mind our presence at all. We also got some views of Ashy-bellied White-eye and Eclectus Parrot along the road together with some more common forest species.
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| Elegant Pitta (Pitta elegans maria) |
At dusk we decided to give the Hornbill a last try and so we moved to km 65 were some scrubby forest is left. Before we even got of the ojek a Sumba Hornbill was flying over the road! In the end we saw four individuals here, of which two allowed rather close views. We again enjoyed ridiculously good views of Elegant Pittas here, by tracing them in the same fashion as before.
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| Sumba Hornbill (Rhyticeros everetti) |
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| Male Sumba Hornbill (Rhyticeros everetti) in flight |
The next day we returned to Langgaliru (km 68-72) to search for our remaining diurnal targets: Sumba Myzomela, Sumba Brown and Sumba Flycatcher. We left at 05:30 and at km 65 I realised that I forgot my binoculars. I left my girlfriend at the scrubby forest, where we had seen the Sumba Hornbills the day before and went to the homestay to collect my bins. When I returned I found out she already had had a pretty good morning in which she saw a male Green Junglefowl, a Black Kite, a Sumba Hornbill, two Elegant Pittas and an unidentifiable Flycatcher! We continued our way to km 69 and started searching for the remaining targets. Luckily the day turned out to be a pretty good one for me as well. A Sumba Flycatcher was found quickly inside the forest as it was singing. Later we found three more! After a bit of searching the brightly coloured Sumba Myzomela was seen several times at a flowering tree. We went to a tree with a large hole in it, were normally Sumba (Australasian) Barn Owl can be seen roosting. As Short-tailed Starlings entered the hole it was clear to us the Owl was currently not at home. However it was no shame that we waited half an hour at near this tree as two Sumba Brown Flycatchers showed perfectly in a tree in front of it! All diurnal targets were seen by now and we birded a bit further along the road enjoying views of Variable Goshawk, Orange-footed Scrubfowl (found in the same fashion as we found all those Elegant Pittas), Metallic Pigeon, Black-naped Fruit-dove, Eclectus Parrot, Elegant Pitta, Pale-shouldered Cicadabird, Sumba (Russet-backed) Jungle-flycatcher and Spectacled Monarch amongst others.
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| Black-naped Fruit-dove (Ptilinopus melanospilos) |
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| Sumba Flycatcher (Ficedula harterti) |
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| Sumba Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa segregata) |
In the evening we returned to km 65 to do some owling. When we arrived we noticed that a considerable part of the scrubby forest was on fire… It turned out that a farmer wanted to burn his grassland to stimulate the growth of fresh grass started a fire nearby and that got out of hand due to strong winds. We heard later that these fires are currently the biggest threat to wildlife on Flores as hunting and wildlife trade has been put to an end here by the national park guards. We drove to the far western edge of the scrubby forest, as far away from the fire as possible, and started to search for night birds. While we waited for the darkness to set in we found some more Elegant Pittas here! Our main target however was Sumba Boobook. We tried at several sites along the road and inside the forest but we never got more than a short series of coughs as a response. Little Sumba Boobook was equally unwilling to play. We also heard a Sumba (Australasian) Barn Owl and noticed a Savannah Nightjar flying over. A bit disappointed we returned to our homestay. Perhaps the owls were a bit skittish due to the fire close by…
We enjoyed birding in this national park a lot, although I still can’t get used to birding next to a busy road. We did not have any trouble with the national park and in fact, I think the national park guards are doing great work. I also think that it is a bit silly to try to enter the national park “illegally” just to avoid paying the fees. It is in the advantage of the national park and the birds if money gets generated by visiting birders, even if the money you pay does not go to the national park itself.
Find the Elegant Pitta (Pitta elegans)! (video made by Anna van der Kaaden)
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