Exotic Red Breasted Bird Spotted In Cagayan

Image courtesy Girlie Cervantes

UPDATED 5 March 2012

This bird has been positively identified as a sub-specie of Purple-throated sunbird, indigenous to the area around Cagayan and the Babuyan Islands: Leptocoma sperata henkei

original article

This red breasted bird was spotted while walking a forest trail in Santa Ana, Cagayan, Philippines, in early February 2012. It was one of a pair that were heard calling to each other from the treetops of a remote, lowland forest area near the seashore, facing the Pacific Ocean; the other of the pair was not seen before they both flew deeper into the forest cover.

Searching the Internet we can find only the red-breasted blackbird/blackbill (Sturnella militaris) that apparently has a close approximation to the general shape and size of this bird but: the beak of our bird is much longer and thinner than that of the blackbird/blackbill; the red plumage extends to the legs whereas the blackbird's red plumage stops a long way short of the legs; and, this particular specimen is a little

Image courtesy Asian Bird Fair

The 1st Asian Bird Fair will be held in Davao City later this year in conjunction with birdwatching clubs from: Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, China and Singapore. The plan is to promote birdwatching as a eco-adventure, recreational sport and to: encourage international friendship, collaboration and the exchange of experience & best practices among the birdwatching clubs of Asia; foster bird-watching as an eco-tourism activity; highlight bird festivals, bird fairs and bird races in the Asia region; and, promote the host cities/countries – their natural beauty, eco-adventure activities, wild bird conservation and cultural heritage.

In conjunction with the 1st Asian Bird Fair, a birdwatching adventure tour will take place in the forests and wetlands of the provinces of Bukidnon and Surigao del Sur, to the North & West of Dav

The Philippines Tourism Minister, Joseph “Ace” Durano, was in the U.K. recently, extolling the virtues of birdwatching vacations around the Philippines. There is no doubt that the Philippine islands, and nearby Borneo, offer some of the most exciting and diverse environments where to photograph some of the World's rarest birds.

Anecdotal evidence collected during the past decade suggests that the Philippines in particular is enjoying a resurgence in many bird populations. For example, just last weekend, on Manila Bay, a unusually large flock of 228 birds, identified as black-napped terns, was observed frolicking and fishing about two miles out from the Manila Ya