Words by Edgar Alan Zeta-Yap
While planning a birding trip to western Mindanao from August 20 to 31, I decided to make the most out of my visit to the region by exploring beyond the hotspots of Zamboanga City and venturing to Isabela City, the commercial center of Basilan island. Due to decades of socio-political unrest, the island has been largely avoided by most travelers. Recent developments, however, have finally restored peace and order in Basilan, thereby presenting the exciting opportunity to explore what may be considered uncharted birding territory.
During the Zamboanga leg, our group of six enjoyed rewarding guided excursions to Pasonanca Natural Park, Upper La Paz, ZSCMST Fishponds, and the twin islands of Santa Cruz, observing 109 species in total over four days. We ticked off nearly all our targets, including Writhed Hornbill (Rhabdotorrhinus leucocephalus), Southern Silvery Kingfisher (Ceyx argentatus), Southern Sooty Woodpecker (Mulleripicus fuliginosus), Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), and Jerdon’s Baza (Aviceda jerdoni)—a resident raptor not commonly encountered in the Philippines.
On our last day of birding in Zamboanga, half of the original team—myself, my sister Anna Helen, and fellow Cebuano birder, Jan Denn Arriba—proceeded to the Basilan leg, hopping on a ro-ro ferry across the strait to Isabela City. Basilan is the largest and northernmost major island of the Sulu Archipelago, but biogeographically part of Greater Mindanao rather than the Greater Sulu faunal region (which comprises the rest of the islands farther south, namely the provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi). While Basilan shares most of its faunal species with mainland Mindanao, the island is home to endemic subspecies of birds.
After overnighting at the city proper, we departed before sunrise the next morning to begin our full-day tour arranged through the generous assistance of the Isabela City Tourism Office. Accompanied by tourism staff and forest rangers, our first stop was Isabela City Forest Park at Brgy. Maligue, located 11 km south of the city proper. While it was still dark, we decided to first walk along the main road, flanked by forest on both sides from which we heard the cries of the Everett’s Scops-owl (Otus everetti) and Mindanao Boobook (Ninox spilocephala), both endemic to Greater Mindanao.
As the sky slowly brightened, the forest came alive with birdsong. Soon, my ears picked up successive nasal squeaks from above—it was the unmistakable call of a tarictic hornbill, specifically the Basilan subspecies of Mindanao Hornbill (Penelopides affinis basilanicus)! Eventually, we spotted it, a solitary male, high above our heads in the canopy, obscured by tree branches. The Basilan subspecies lacks the black base on the upper jaw and has a more extensive rufous area on the tail, when compared to the nominate subspecies found elsewhere in Mindanao. No person was more thrilled in our group by the sighting than our eco-guide Gabriel Oriño Caro, who had been searching for this hornbill species since 2019, and was the only person who managed to photograph the brief appearance.
Further down the road, we chanced upon a Black-naped Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus melanospilus), perched again high up the canopy. Later, we had better encounters with an Orange-tufted Spiderhunter, another Basilan subspecies (Arachnothera flammifera randi), feeding on flowers, and the short-billed subspecies of White-eared Brown-Dove (Phapitreron leucotis brevirostris) on the forest floor, nonchalantly drinking from a creek only a few meters away from us. By mid-morning, we detoured into forest trails in search of other hornbills, but failed to encounter another one. We were greeted instead by Mangrove Blue-Flycatcher (Cyornis rufigastra philippinensis) and the southern subspecies of Buzzing Flowerpecker (Dicaeum hypoleucum hypoleucum).
At the Isabela City Forest Park, we logged a total of 20 species, followed by an additional eight common bird species spotted in the afternoon while sightseeing on Malamawi Island, specifically the Marang-Marang Mangrove Sanctuary and Malamawi White Beach, the city’s most popular tourist attraction.
Indeed, our Basilan side quest was short and sweet, but has immediately inspired plans for longer excursions on future revisits. After a whole day’s exploration, we spent another night in the city proper, before departing at dawn on the first ro-ro ferry back to Zamboanga City for my sister and me to catch the flight to the third and final leg of our journey: Tawi-Tawi.
While Isabela de Basilan is now safe to visit, all tourists, including birders, are advised to coordinate their visits beforehand with the Isabela City Tourism Office. Mobile: +63 9158046888, Email: isabelacity.tourism@gmail.com