Meeting With Maleo - an endangered bird

After 4 years of waiting, I finally get to see the wild Maleo (Macrocephalon maleo) the chicken like bird that don't incubate their egg or feed their youngs. I didn't get the chance to see Maleo when I first visited Tangkoko National Park 4 yours ago. I was told that Maleo have been locally extinct in Tangkoko & another place to see Maleo is at Tambun in Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park. Due to ongoing habitat loss, limited range, high chick mortality rates and overhunting, the Maleo is evaluated as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Endemic to Sulawesi, the only area to meet Maleo is here and no where else.

After arrive at Manado Airport and meet up with our local guide, we start our long drive to Tambun. We took almost 8 hours to reach the nearby home stay which is another 45 minutes away from the Maleo nesting site.

 We wake up at 4 am and start our journey to look for Maleo.

Our target is to watch a wild Maleo in their natural habitat and look at how and where they lay their eggs. Maleo lay their eggs in the hole they dug and cover their eggs with sand and soil. The Maleo don't incubate their eggs & they rely on solar and/or geothermal radiation to incubate their eggs. The incubation took 2 to 3 months and the chick may took up to 2 days to dig their way up to the surface.Once on the surface, they are totally independent and ready to fly.

 These area are covered with hot spring and make it a perfect nesting site for Maleo.

 After searching for about an hour, we get to see Maleo!

 This could be a new nest looking at the newly covered soil.

The staff from the Conservation Center show us how they retrieve the eggs from the nest and transfer to protected site for incubation. If let unprotected, the eggs and the newly hatched chicks are at high risks of predated by monitor lizard & wild pig.

 The Maleo egg is about 5 times bigger than chicken eggs.

We are so lucky that there are 2 newly hatched chicks in the center and ready to be released to the wild. I was given the honor to release one of the chick to the wild! The young Maleo is now on his own to defend himself from the predators hopefully he will come back to the nesting site & produce more young Maleo.

I name this young bird Mini-Samson before letting it fly to the forest. Hope to see you again some day!

This trip was made possible with the logistics support from Manado Safari Tours - Thank you for the great service!

Ah Boy, Eagle!

One of the best place to watch wild storks in Singapore have to be here in River Safari Singapore! With readily available nesting material & foods, no accident why storks, herons chosen this area as their home. Although they are in the "zoo", they are totally wild and free ranging birds! 

Where else can you get so close to wild birds such as here? The nearest distance between the birds is just less than 2 meters!

 This is a mix flock of Milky Storks (Mycteria cinerea) and Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala).

 Everyone can have a nice photo of this birds with any camera with or without a long lens.

 A mobile phone is good enough to capture this beautiful moment. You can even do a selfie here!

Although there are lots of berries on this tree, the bird only interested in collecting nesting material.

During my last 2 visit there, only one time I heard a lady telling her child correctly - stork. It must be one out of may be 100? The most answer I hear is eagle, follow by flamingo & pelican. I even heard a father telling his son look, there are many kingfisher on the tree!

Something is not right some where? Most of us only know exotic "foreign" birds & wildlife but know nothing about our very own local birds or wildlife. Well, If you don't know what you have, you don't even know if you will ever lose it...

Hairy Hodgson's Frogmouth

Anyone have any idea if the "hairy" head have any other purpose other than help in camouflage? I was wondering if the hairy feather on the head is use as a mosquito net to prevent insect from getting near their eyes? Or act as sensor to pin point the location of the insect and help them in hunting? 

Frogmouth are known to good in camouflaging. When they stay motionless, is hard to spot them if you don't know their exact location. This made them vulnerable and give the insect an opportunity to attack their eyes.

An insect managed to bypass the hairy head and landed on the left eye of the frogmouth. What do you think?