The blue-banded pitta is a species of bird in the family Pittidae. It is endemic to the island of Borneo, where it is found in all three countries that share the island: Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest.
Similar species: Perching Birds
comments (14)
As he is not a full-time bird guide, only guiding on weekends, he still goes there everyday in the afternoon to feed this bird, even when he don't have photographers. He only starts feeding once the bird shows us, as there are also Squirrels and Lizards that are used to this and hang out around the area for 'free food'. This particular bird is quite used to photographers, he showed us pictures he took with his mobile phone, the bird will even go as near as less than a meter from photographers, if they throw some worms just in front of them.
He is also very familiar with the bird's 'character/behaviour' and will explains to us what to expect each time the bird moves to a certain place. Like in this picture, when the bird started to stand on one leg, he was very happy and said, it will stay like that even for 10 minutes if not disturbed by lizards or squirrels. Thus, he explained that we can set our shutter speed to as low as we want, especially during late afternoon when the lighting is not very good.
The best part of this hide is that it is situated just 20 meters from the road, where he drove us to and parked his car along the road side :D
His 'guiding-fee' for this particular bird is a bit pricey as there is a minimum charge, irrelevant of the number of photographers, and if there are more photographers, he charges per photographer. It is still cheaper than the 'fees' for the hide to photograph the more popular Bornean Pheasant though. Posted 2 years ago, modified 2 years ago
For this particular hide, the 'access fees' or 'guiding fees' is minimum charge of around US$150 including transport from town centre for 2 pax. If more than 2 pax, it is around US$75-80 per person. Duration of the session is up to 4 hours or half a day.
Generally, for a birding trip with guide and access to 'several birding hides' with targeted birds which may includes several species of Pitta, Argus Pheasant, Bulwer's Pheasant, Crested Partridge, Crimson-Headed Partridge, Red-Breasted Patridge, the cost/rates is around US$150-200 per day per person, minimum of 4 pax to a Group, which will includes full-board (all meals), transport and accommodation (twin sharing). Posted 2 years ago, modified 2 years ago
Count me in if you do organize a trip guys.
Thanks. Posted 2 years ago
I see that you organise birding trips around Indonesia? Posted 2 years ago