VENT. Indonesia Highlights: Sulawesi, Java & Komodo 8/1/2025-8/17/2025

We had an incredibly successful tour with so many highlights!

Sulawesi Pitta at Mahawu © Dion Hobcroft

We spent our first four days on the Minahassa Peninsula on the northern tip of Sulawesi. At Mahawu, a dormant volcano clad in thick jungle, we quickly picked up our two most wanted, Sulawesi Pitta and Scaly-breasted Kingfisher. A spotlighting session was particularly successful obtaining walkaway views of Sulawesi Scops-Owl, Speckled Boobook, and Sulawesi Masked Owl in thirty minutes. Moving to Tangkoko, it was an express train of great birds: White-bellied Imperial-Pigeon, Knobbed Hornbill, Sulawesi Dwarf-Kingfisher, Ruddy Kingfisher, Great-billed Kingfisher, Sulawesi Lilac Kingfisher, Green-backed Kingfisher, Spot-tailed Goshawk, Golden-mantled Racquet-tail, White-necked Myna, and Rusty-backed Thrush amongst the highlights. Further diversity was added with Bear Cuscus, Gursky’s Tarsier, and Sulawesi Black Macaque. It was, literally, "wow."

Sulawesi Dwarf-Kingfisher © Dion Hobcroft

Gursky's Tarsier at Tangkoko © Dion Hobcroft

After a big travel day, we arrived in Way Kambas in southeast Sumatra. During two full days we immersed ourselves into the rich Sundaic jungles expertly guided by Hari Yono and his team. Each session, morning and afternoon, was quite unbelievable, and I rated this as the best birding I have done all year. Crested Partridge, Malayan Crested Fireback, five species of malkohas, the rare Bonaparte’s Nightjar, both Sunda and Large frogmouths, Storm’s Stork, Bat Hawk, Lesser Fish-Eagle, three species of trogons, Red-bearded Bee-eater, Banded and Rufous-collared kingfishers, nine species of woodpeckers including the rare Olive-backed, five species of broadbills, two species of pittas, Rufous-winged Philentoma, twelve species of babblers, three species of leafbirds, and you get the idea.

Large Frogmouth © Dion Hobcroft

Milky Stork at Jakarta Bay © Dion Hobcroft

With an early flight into Jakarta, I hastily organized an optional boat trip into Jakarta Bay. It worked well and gave us Milky Stork and superb studies of the rare Christmas Island Frigatebird. Our two nights at the very comfortable Carita Forest Reserve delivered a bunch of new birds including superb studies of Javan Frogmouth, Spotted Wood-Owl, Yellow-eared Barbet, Javan Banded Pitta, Javan Black-capped Babbler, Temminck’s Babbler, and Streaked Weaver to mention a few. Thanks to Wawan for keeping the bird hide operational and assisting us with many of these stakeouts.

Christmas Island Frigatebird (male) in Jakarta Bay © Dion Hobcroft

Temminck's Babbler in Carita © Dion Hobcroft

We moved along to Flores, and although I have visited many times, I believe this was our most successful visit. It started strongly with Mee’s Nightjar and Moluccan Scops-Owl. As we headed into the mountainous interior, a key stop produced the amazing Ornate Pitta (our fifth pitta of the tour) and the difficult Flores Crow. In the mountains we had tremendous success with perched Flores Hawk-Eagle, Flores Green-Pigeon, Flores and Wallace’s scops-owls, Wallace’s Hanging-Parrot, White-rumped Kingfisher, and Chestnut-backed Thrush. We could do no wrong. Followed by an audience with the extraordinary Bare-throated Whistler, we returned to the coast via a Chestnut-capped Thrush for our day trip to Komodo.

Moluccan Scops-Owl in Flores © Dion Hobcroft

This operation went well, and we arrived early to hoover up many of the special birds here including the critically endangered Yellow-crested Cockatoo. We observed two fine Komodo Dragons—one an absolute beast. This ended our time on the main tour with a couple of late highlights including a Great-billed Parrot and Stork-billed Kingfisher. We all continued on to Bali.

A complete list of the birds recorded on our tour can be found at: https://ebird.org/tripreport/398334

Read the description for the next departure of this tour.

Dion Hobcroft's upcoming tour schedule.