Bangkong Kahoy – ecotour
Bangkong Kahoy Valley in Dolores, Quezon, located only approximately 3 hours away from Manila, is a good pick, especially for weekend warriors. It sits between two mountains – Mt. Banahaw and Mt. Cristobal. It has a restaurant that serves good food. Moreover, activities abound to keep everyone busy during the day.Bangkong Kahoy translates to ‘wooden bench’. The valley is located in Barangay Kinabuhayan, in Dolores, Quezon. Bangkong Kahoy Valley in Dolores, Quezon, located only approximately 3 hours away from Manila, is a good pick, especially for weekend warriors. It sits between two mountains – Mt. Banahaw and Mt. Cristobal. It has a restaurant that serves good food. Moreover, activities abound to keep everyone busy during the day.Bangkong Kahoy translates to ‘wooden bench’. The valley is located in Barangay Kinabuhayan, in Dolores, Quezon.
Birding:
Bangkong Kahoy Village – A sanctuary in Quezon Province
Day 1:
Today I'm traveling alone from Bangkok to Manila, Philippines, to join friends who arrived several days earlier. They've just returned from a birdwatching trip in Palawan. They were there for five days and saw 69 species of birds, including 25 endermic species – a truly amazing achievement! Next destination, we'll be going to Bangkong Kahoy village for three days. Hopefully, we'll find some new species there as well. |
| Restaurant |
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| Wiskerred Pitta |
Day 2: Mounts Banahaw
San Cristobal Protected Landscape is a protected landscapepark in the Calabarzon region of the Philippines, 120 kilometres (75 mi) south of Manila. It is the second largest protected area in Calabarzon, after the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape, with an area of 10,900.59 hectares (26,935.9 acres).[3] The park is located at the border of Laguna and Quezon provinces and includes the features it is named after: Mount Banahaw and, 7 kilometres
The area includes the headwaters of eight rivers namely, the Kinabuhayan, Talong Ambon, Balayong, Maimpis, Dalitiwan, Malinao, Nagcarlan and San Diego Rivers which provide water for domestic consumption and irrigation of surrounding communities.[5] It is also the location of several waterfalls which are popular among pilgrims and devotees such as the Santa Lucia, Suplina and Cristalino Falls on Mount San Cristobal in Dolores.
The protected area is characterized by dipterocarp forest, covering the lower slopes, montane forestabove 900 metres (3,000 ft), and mossy forestaround the peak. There are also areas of coconut plantations and fruit trees in the lower slopes including areas of kaingin.
It also contains some historical and religious attractions such as: a shrine dedicated to Hermano Pule and caves that have been converted into religious shrines.
The park is also home to a threatened and restricted-range bird population recorded in 2001 such as the Philippine eagle, Philippine eagle-owl, Flame-breasted fruit dove and Philippine cockatoo. It also hosts a number of unique flora including palms, ferns and mahogany trees such as the Aglaia banahaensis.
Morning of May 9th, 2026.
Today we will go in search of the target bird of this trip,
the magnificent Whiskered Pitta.
After breakfast at 6:30 a.m., we set off on foot along the narrow village streets until we reached the last community before climbing the hill. At the entrance to the trail, there was a small shop selling supplies and drinks for trekkers. The beginning of the trail passed by small houses with beautiful flowers decorating the fronts, which didn't clash with nature. After passing the community, the trail became a dirt road, which wasn't very steep. The sides of the path were still agricultural land, and with constant traffic, it wasn't overgrown.
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Crisanto Ceriban : our local guide |
The brown-breasted kingfisher (Halcyon tgularis) is a tree kingfisher endemic to the Philippines, where it is widely distributed. This kingfisher is a resident over much of its range.
Has a wide range of habitats that include clearings, fishponds, rivers, second growth scrubland, and forest edge. Typically found below 1,000 meters above sea level.
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| Photo:Argrit |
The IUCN has yet to classify this species as separate from white-throated kingfisher. This species is common all throughout and has well adapted and even benefited fromohuman modified habitats. While the Philippines has faced massive deforestation, this species adaptability has allowed it to survive and even thrive better than most Philippine birds.
Once, Crisanto pointed out a small snake in the bushes by the roadside. He has excellent eyesight, and he said it wasn't dangerous. We slowly made our way up the path lined with vegetable gardens and scattered houses. We stopped to rest periodically and spotted flocks of Philippine hanging parrot flying above the vegetable gardens and perched on the tops of palm trees, providing us with opportunities to take beautiful view photographs.
The Philippine hanging parrot is native to the Philippinesexcept the Sulu Archipelago and it is not widespread on Palawan. The different subspecies are native to different islands, and some subspecies are rare or almost extinct. Trading of birds between the islands for pets has resulted in escaped pets living on different islands to where they originated. Its natural habitats are tropical moist lowland forests, bamboo forest and tropical moist montane forest. It also occupies human-modified habitats including coconut groves and secondary forest. It is most common in lowland areas, being rare above 1250 m.
After walking for about an hour, we reached the end of the area which was a mix of forest and agricultural land. From there, the slope became steeper, but not impossible for elderly people to climb.
Finally, we reached the hide . For the target, it took a little over an hour, but some of my fellow travelers gradually made their way up, with the last person taking almost two hours, but they successfully achieved their goal.
Once everyone was settled in their blinds, our guide, Phransis, began feeding the birds at their designated spots. While preparing the food, he told us that the birds had arrived but were hiding in the forest. He started calling the birds out into the open area. After about 10 minutes, the birds slowly emerged. It was a truly spectacular sight. The birds were more beautiful and larger than we expected. The guide said this one was a female; males would be slightly darker in color and have a more prominent white beak, otherwise similar.
Has been recorded feeding on small beetles and earth worms. There is a feeding station for this species in Mount Banahaw which is fed earthworms and mealworms. It forages on the ground, and seemingly shows a preference of moist ground. It often seen in areas where wild boar have disturbed the soil. It has been recorded on the migration funnel in Dalton Pass which possibly suggests intra-island migration or post-breeding dispersal.
Barely anything is known about its breeding habits. It is most vocal from February to June but immature birds have been seen as early as January. Nests seen around 1 meter above ground made of dead twigs, recorded nest contained 2 chicks.
Habitat and conservation status
It chiefly inhabits montane forest, tolerating degraded and selectively logged areas. Records span a wide altitudinal range of 360 to 2,200 m. However, the highest densities found at 900-1,500 m where it typically breeds. It appears to prefer closed-canopy, primary montane, oak dominated forest, frequently on steep slopes. Its movements are poorly understood. Records from south Luzon (which may refer to wintering individuals) suggest that there is some intra-island migration.
IUCN has assessed this bird as Least Concern. This species' main threat is habitat losswith wholesale clearance of forest habitats as a result of logging, agricultural conversion and mining activities occurring within the range. It is also threatened by hunting in snare traps.
A female pitta came out to feed briefly and then returned to the forest. We waited several times, but the male bird didn't come out. Our guide, Crisanto, said that the male is responsible for incubating the eggs in the nest in the morning and will switch with the female around 11 am. However, we couldn't wait because he hadn't prepared lunch for us. At Hide, we needed to walk back down to the resort to eat, so we had to descend the mountain feeling disappointed that we didn't get a chance to see the male bird. During the descent, we encountered two more species of birds endemic to Philippines : the Chestnut-faced Babbler and the Filippine Coucal.
After lunch, we returned to our rooms to s short rest and started birdwatching around the village again at 3 pm. The first species we saw was a Flaming sunbird, foraging in an orange Chinese hat plant that blended in with its fur.
It was previously conspecific with the Maroon-naped sunbird but it differs in molecular genetics, a less glossy crown, the a greenih instead of maroon nape and duller yellow belly.
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| Flaming sunbird female |
Nicolas took us to several more birdwatching spots. He tried playing bird calls of various species, including our target, the Spotted Kinfisher, but there was no response. We eventually gave up and returned to our accommodation. We had dinner scheduled for 6 pm and planned to go perform night birdwatching for four more species after finishing dinner Philippine Scops-Owl,Luzon Scops-Owl,Philippine Nightjar ,Luzon Boobook
At the moment while we waiting for our food, Nicolas hurried over to inform us that he had spotted a kingfisher. We quickly grabbed our cameras and rushed to where the bird was found. It was perched on a low, open branch, but unfortunately, the lighting wasn't sufficient for high-quality photos. Nevertheless, it was a great record shot.
The spotted wood kingfisher or spotted kingfisher (Actenoides lindsayi) is a species of bird in the family Alcedinidae. It is endemic to the Philippines found on the islands of Luzon, Catanduanes, Marinduque, Negros and Panay where its natural habitat is tropical moist lowland forests.
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| Spotted Kingfisher |
The spotted wood kingfisher is a colourful bird that can readily be distinguished from other kingfishers in the Philippines. It is about 26 cm (10 in) long with spotting above and scalloping beneath. The male has a dark green crown with black spots and a light green stripe above a pale blue supercilium with a black band beneath. A blue moustache is bordered above and below by an orange-brown band and collar. The upper parts are dark green, each feather being tipped with buff giving a spotted effect. The rump is bright green and the tail dark green with brown bars on the outer feathers. The throat is orange-brown and the underparts are mainly white, the breast feathers having green margins. The under-wing coverts are buff. The upper mandible of the bill is black and the lower mandible yellow, the iris is brown and the legs pale green.
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| Philippine Eagle owl |
We started our night birdwatching around 6:30 pm. Nicolas led us to the edge of the woods where he thought nocturnal birds might perch. He began playing various owl calls, and when there was no response, he would move to another spot. Several times we heard the sound of a Boobook, but the guide said he wanted us to see the rarer Philippine Eagle Owl, so he took us to an unfinished, abandoned house. There was a large open area in front of the house, and some large trees were about 50 meters away. Nicholas told us to take cover on the front terrace and started to oped the sound record bird calling .Soon we heard a response nearby. We were hopeful that we would see one. Our guide continued calling out, pausing periodically, but the bird remained motionless. He did this for about an hour, hoping the bird would land in an open area so we could get a clear picture, but there was still no reaction.
He did like that for about an hour, trying to get the bird to perch in an open area in order to get good pictures, but the bird still didn't react, and eventually, the sounds faded away. By now, we started looking for it with flashlights, but it was too late. There wasn't even a trace of the bird there, so we had to return to our accommodation with disappointed
Day 3:Bangkong Kahoy
Birding around the aria.
Today we made a slight change to our travel plans. Originally, we planned to spend another full day and stay overnight in Bangkong Kahoy village, but now we'll check out today and depart for Manila at 10 am. We have four hours before and after breakfast, so our guide, Chai, took us for another walk around the area. We saw relatively few birds, and they were mostly common species.
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| The aea we heared the Philippine Eagle owl called last night |
Personally, I had already packed my bags the night before, so I had some time to walk around the guesthouse a bit more. In front of my house, I heard a knocking sound on a tree nearby. Walking closer, I saw a pair of woodpeckers diligently pecking at a tree with their strong beaks.
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| Philippine Pygmy woodpecker |
I walked along the road to the BNB house where there is a lot of the Chinese lanterns tree , hoping to see some beautiful sunbirds in a more scenic view than yesterday. But today there wasn't a single bird, so I turned back towards the my guesthouse, walking along the edge of the woods.A long the way I had the chance to see a Philippine coucal , flog of junklefowl and a kackoo dove.
Around 10 am, just before loading our luggage onto the bus, someone reported spotting the bird at the same spot near the restaurant. Everyone gathered together, and finally, we got photos of the bird that everyone was happy with this.
This is a strongly migratory species, wintering in Australasia. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe, including once in Blankenberge, Belgium, in September 2010. In the winter of 2019/2020 a bird was seen in The Netherlands.
San Pedro Laguna
We traveled for about four hours to check in at the Grand Westside Hotel in Manila, arriving at 3 pm. After settling in, we set off for San Pedro, a town we'd heard had seen the rare specie ,Little Curlew pausing at the river mouth. The drive took a little over an hour, leading us onto narrow roads into a delta community where land reclamation was underway for development. It was unfortunate for the seabirds that used to migrate and temporarily stop to feed in this area.
We entered an area of river delta with a large amount of accumulated trash. There weren't many waterbirds foraging there, mostly species commonly found in mudflats. Unfortunately, we didn't see our target bird either. We assume it had flown to another resting point, as the last reported sighting was four days ago. Before leaving, we encountered two bird species that are not easily seen. And another 14 species were observed as list
https://ebird.org/checklist/S336133133
The clamorous reed warbler (Acrocephalus stentoreus) is an Old World warbler in the genus Acrocephalus. It breeds from Egypt eastwards through Pakistan, Afghanistan and northernmost India to south China and southeast Asia. A. s. meridionalis is an endemic race in Sri Lanka.
Day 4: Manila-Bangkok
Parañaque, officially the City of Parañaque (Filipino: Lungsod ng Parañaque, Tagalog pronunciation: [paɾaˈɲäke̞]), is a highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 703,245 people.
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