An unexpected mega lifer...

Over the weekend, I accompanied a birding couple from Houson. Harvey, the husband is an avid birder who has been birding longer than I have been, while Lynette, the wife, is a bird photographer since the pandemic. A few days prior, they came from Puerto Princessa where they birded with ace guides Randy Tibor and Totic Failana, including a visit to the Birdwing site. This made me somewhat worried that we will not live up to the standards of PPC birding. When I learned that they lived on a ranch where 275 species of birds can be found, I got all the more worried and said a silent prayer to the birding gods to convince the Capayas Three Kings to make an appearance.

I picked them up at BBL a 6:15am and we reached Capayas a little before 7am. And as soon as we entered the CCKP compound, the Ruddy Kingfisher, who has been scarce lately, was present to greet us. Not only that, there were two of them and they stayed for the better part of the day. I took this as a good omen and said a silent prayer to the Lord. But the object of this post is not the three kings but an unexpected and a mega lifer!

Sometime early afternoon, we took Erwin's tricycle to the Municipal Slaughterhouse grounds to check out the egrets which may be a lifer for our guests. We did see some Cattle Egrets as soon as we alighted the trike but these were not lifers for our guests. We drove on and went down a trail to Dipulao river hoping to see the Blue-eared Kingfisher which has not appeared at the main site. There was no sign of the kingfisher but we saw some birds on an acacia tree. Harvey, the husband, who was scanning the tree with his bins said he spotted a small bird with an orange patch on its chin. Erwin pointed to a Grey-streaked Flycatcher, which I confirmed after several minutes. But Harvey insisted that it was not the bird he saw. Other birds arrived and I recognized an Arctic Warbler and again Harvey was sure that it was not the bird he saw. So we continued to scan the tree. Finally, Erwin and I saw a bird perch on a branch in front of us but high up. Aim, focus locks, (it did look different), but its backlit, adjust exposure, fire at will! The bird stayed for probably less than a minute (based on the time stamp of my 1st and last shots).

"That's it!" Harvey blurted as soon as I showed him my camera's LCD screen.

Back at the main hide, we looked at the guidebook but could not find the bird. Harvey said, it looks like we have our work cut out for us (to research the bird's ID). I had a guess/suspicion but did not want to jinx it so I kept quiet. Then, I realized that I had internet connection (thank you Piso wi-fi!) so I took photos of my LCD screen and sent it to Rob Hutchinson and Rommel Cruz. The latter replied first and said "Taiga? But better confirm with Rob or Desmond". Rob replied a couple of seconds later asking for the location, so I said Coron and almost immediately he replied "another Taiga, congratulations!". Informed Harvey and we were soon sporting ear to ear grins.

Sharing some of the images of this rare migrant. Probably only the 4th sighting in the Philippines.

Taiga Flycatcher, Lifer #1 for 2025

Taiga in flight...

Some info about this bird:

The taiga flycatcher or red-throated flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla) is a migratory bird in the family Muscicapidae. The species was first described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1811. The female has brown upper parts with a blackish tail flanked by white. The breast is buffish with underparts mostly white. The male has ear coverts and sides of the neck blue-tinged grey with breeding males having orange-red coloration on the throats. It breeds in northern Eurasia from eastern Russia to Siberia and Mongolia. It is a winter visitor to South and South-east Asia in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Japan. Its natural habitat is taiga forest. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe. (wilipedia)

That the Philippines is not even mentioned in its usual migration path underscores how rare this bird is in our country. According to Desmond's book, the first sighting was in 1988. From socmed posts, I know that there were two sightings in Puerto Princessa recently. If those were the second and third sightings, this could be the fourth (fingers crossed). Will submit this to the Philippine rarities committee.

For the record, Harvey Laas saw it first. Others in our group were Lynette Ruelos-Laas, Erwin Edonga, and myself, Francisco Fernandez Jr. We saw it at the Dipulao river, Sitio Lamud, Bgy Poblacion 6, Coron, Palawan.

Nothing makes a bird photographer happier than bagging a major lifer and getting a good photo of said bird. That the lifer is a rare sighting and an unexpected one, makes it even more special.

Thank you Lord for this incredible experience.