Philippines, March 2023
If heat has an anthem, perhaps it is something like this:
Coppersmith barbet, singing stories of feathered things in the land we call the Philippines. Birds know it better than we ever will, swooping and squabbling over trees that seem to be standing on tiptoes to outdo each other.
Past durian stalls and stray dogs, over telephone wires and construction sites.
Living their lives, learning their land, even as the millions of people in Mindanao do the same. In the heat and the hubbub, amidst the jeepneys and basketball courts, and the birds remain wild, but perched on the apparatus of humanity – or on the plants that we are pleased to provide.
Asian glossy starling
Collared kingfisher
Olive-backed sunbird
Chestnut munia
And the durian tree watches on, its fruits ready to fall.
A Walk with Wildlife 
Beautiful birds!
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They aren’t shy on the colours there, that’s for sure.
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Maybe that’s why they seem so exotic to us.
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That’s a very colourful selection of birds. You can almost feel the heat in the second photo.
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Hot and humid – the car claimed it was over 40c some days. On previous visits, I have tried to identify birds with a Kindle guide but that was as hard as it sounds, so I took a proper printed bird book this time. Still quite challenging though due to the sheer number of species there!
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Yes print is so much easier for certain things. 👍🏼
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A recent holiday getaway? Very different weather from the UK!
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I’ve got family in the Philippines so was visiting them 🙂 Yes, very different – it was snowing in England that week!
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Thank you, Adele, for the birding trip through the Philippines. Beautiful birds!
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Thank you for coming along in a virtual way 🙂
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Lovely bird photos and great post, Adele. You can keep the durian, though. I don’t like it much. You must have had a great trip, especially at this time of year. Cheers.
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Durian certainly stirs up some strong feelings (I’ve seen the signs banning it on the Singapore metro!). I thought it tasted mostly like overripe melon.
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Beautiful birds, especially the Chestnut munia
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They are very pretty 🙂 The munias sit on the telephone wires and chatter.
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Beautiful birds. One of my colleagues from North Vancouver is a birder and I saw some of these birds among his photographs.
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It’s certainly an interesting place to go birding. The star bird of course is the Philippines eagle. The starlings with red eyes took a bit of getting used to!
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