Our
birding adventure in the Spice Island of Halmahera continued, as we made our way south
towards a fancy diving resort (quite the relief after several days in squalor
in Sidangoli). As we journeyed towards our next destination the cloves for
which this island is famous for were seen being dried out along the roadsides.
After admiring our new surroundings at check-in, we were out in the field
again, this time checking the first dead snags we saw for our main quarry, the
endemic Purple
Dollarbird, which remarkably was found on this first snag-check! A
beautiful bird of the deepest purple, in contrast to its most striking feature:
a bright carrot orange bill. Dollarbirds are named as such for their wings have
markings within them that are said to resemble a dollar shape (although you
might require a lot of faith and some significant imagination for this!). With
the dollarbird in the bag we continued finding two Oriental Dollarbirds too, and a
further Purple
Dollarbird also, as well as our first Goliath Coucals feeding, rather
clumsily, in a large palm, and with their immense size making us feel a little
David-like below! Other notable finds were Moluccan (Spectacled) Imperial-Pigeon and
(yet) another Sombre
Kingfisher.
More spectacular finds to come from Halmahera yet…
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