Location: Panglao Island off Bohol
Date: May 20 to 23
Weather: Cloudy with scattered rains
by Kitty Arce

My family and I went to Panglao Island, in Bohol from May 20-23. We stayed at this very pretty resort where I heard lots of doves, sunbirds and other species. Too bad though because the part of the resort where I heard most of the interesting bird calls were off limits to guests and there were no trails.

Yet I managed to see some birds.

For those unfamiliar with the area, Bohol island is located in the Visayas. The land is almost flat. On my next trip, I will try to visit Rajah Sikatuna National Park. The park is along the road to the Chocolate Hills. There are lots of mangroves too. Another good birding site I think is along the Loboc River.

When we were there it was cloudy. I didn't need too much sunblock. It rained a couple of times but still had a good time.


Here are the birds I saw:
1. Zebra doves (Geopelia striata) - flock of 4-5. Heard and seen walking along the pathway of the resort every morning
2. Kingfisher spp - only heard inside the resort. Likely to be White-Collared Kingfisher. It mustve been inside the prohibited area!
3. Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) - 1 a life bird for me! Very beautiful and the stripe on the wing which was very obvious made it very different from the Pied fantail. Thought it was a pied fantail at first. The tail is not fan-shaped at all! I thought it looked very
beautiful and elegant.
4. Pied Fantail (Rhipidura javanica) - 4 (2 couples) seen every morning in the resort. They seemed like in a courtship mood
5. Asian Glossy Starlings (Aplonis panayensis) - Common everywhere even in Tagbilaran City
6. White Brested Wood-Swallow (Artamus leucorychus) - 1 -seen roostingon an roof antenna with an Asian Glossy Starling
7. Long-Tailed Shrike (Lanius schach) - 2 seen perched on electric wires along streets in Panglao Island
8. Sunbird spp - common everywhere! I was not able to postively identify every sunbirds but they sound very much and look like the Olive-Backs in our property in Cavite. The ones I saw had yellow bellies and with dark backs ...so these might have been Olive-backed Sunbirds. I heard these birds throughout the day wherever in Bohol I went!
9. Chestnut Munia (Lonchura malacca) - 2 saw these Munias perched in a small tree from the bus to the airport! The tree was right next to my window!