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The birds around the hotel were
interesting, but could be quite limited, so I took a morning walk through the
local village, taking a left fork in the road away from the usual exit track.
This also eventually leads to the main road, but this part of the village found
many of the houses to be either surrounded by water, or are adjacent to marsh. This
and the surrounding vegetation made ideal birding habitat, as opposed to the
much drier gardens along the other fork. New birds started to appear almost as
soon as I took the left fork, initiated by a stunning Common Flameback, which
obliged by landing on a bare tree to the other side of a small marsh. It sat
and preened here for some time. Following a skulking Pied Fantail, a subadult
Cinnamon Bittern paraded across one of the smallholdings. This was immediately
following by a juvenile Plaintive Cuckoo posing well on a low bush, before
hopping a little closer and flying off. Continuing down this lane stirred up
water birds from the marshes, including Pintail Snipe and Wood Sandpiper, and a
family of White-breasted Waterhens. The dog leg to the right near the end of
the lane was a particularly good spot for bird activity. A singing bird in the
distance proved to be Striated Grassbird, which was quite a surprise for this
area, even more so when a second individual appeared closer to. 2-3 Lesser
Coucals were discovered here, the first sunning itself in the open and
revealing its dull black (and diagnostic) head. Also at this spot was a group
of 3 young Nutmeg Mannikins, another species I hadn’t expected to find in
Borneo – the question of a feral population may have arisen. Now heading
towards the main road, I took a diversion across the marshes to the left, and
found a very large Great-billed Heron amongst the Great Egrets, which
were only seen in flight, and where the size difference was apparent. Back on
the road again, and some difficult to pin down, if not noisy, passerines turned
out to be Striped Tit-babblers, these seeming to have the slight yellowish
caste on the upper breast of the northern Borneo population. I was about to
turn around here and head back, when I approached a much closer singing
Striated Grassbird among the numerous Spotted Doves on the wires. The land had
now become farmland interspersed by small dwellings. Heading back towards the
hotel was largely uneventful, but did add Brown Shrike, Pied Triller, and
superb views of Collared Kingfisher, which was perched for some time on a fence
post between houses.

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Brown
Shrike
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Collared
Kingfisher
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Striated
Grassbird
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Pacific
Swallow
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Spotted
Dove
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Juvenile
Plaintive Cuckoo
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