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Sablayan, Mindoro Occidental

One of the weirder settings for birding in the Philippines is on the island of Mindoro. To get the numerous Mindoro endemics, you have to make your way to the penal colony in Sablayan, where longtime prisoners who were transferred from around the country now reside. Within the boundaries of the penal colonies lies one of Mindoro’s last remaining patches of lowland forest. And in this forest live a number of birds that can’t be found anywhere else in the country. Many of these, such as the Mindoro Hornbill, Mindoro Racket-tail, and Mindoro Boobook, are simply slight variations of other species that can be found throughout the rest of the Philippines. As such, Mindoro is low on the list of guests visiting the Philippines the first time.

The two Mindoro endemics that do stand out are the Black-hooded Coucal and the Scarlet-collared Flowerpecker. The Black-hooded Coucal is particularly sought-after because it is listed as Critically Endangered, with only a few hundred individuals left in the wild. However, even if Sablayan is the best place to see them, being a coucal, it is still extremely hard to get good (if any) views of it. To make things even harder, the Mindoro subspecies of the Philippine Coucal is completely black as well, which means you need to either see the bird’s distinguishing features (a difficult task for this species) or hear it calling for a positive ID. The Scarlet-collared Flowerpecker, on the other hand, is very distinct and should be identifiable on sight. Like most other flowerpeckers, fruiting or flowering trees are your best bet if you want to see this species.

Unfortunately, the most interesting species of Mindoro—Mindoro Beeding-heart, Mindoro Imperial-Pigeon, and Mindoro Scops-Owl—are restricted to either higher elevation forests or more untouched ones. Since these are very difficult to access, there are very few records of these species and barely any photographic evidence of them in the wild. Hopefully, as more birders (specifically those who are skilled and physically fit enough to do the required ascents) visit Mindoro, we can finally pin down the best spots to find them.