500 Philippine Lifers!

Head’s up this isn't a super bird-focused blog and I will only be really featuring 1 species for this post!

From Cagayan de Oro in the last blog, we said our goodbyes to Ben, who dropped us off, and headed off right onto the ferry. I had some delusions of getting some sort of rare pelagic, but as Camiguin was relatively inland and still close to the shore, the best we had were Whiskered Terns. 

Camiguin is the 2nd to the last island with endemics I visited. It so happens to be the 2nd smallest island with a unique endemic, with the first placer being the same area I have yet to visit - the Calayan Island with the Calayan Rail.

It’s actually fairly easy to get here with flights from Cebu or through land from Cagayan de Oro. The only reason why it took me 7 years of serious birding to get here is that this island is too gorgeous to only have a birding itinerary. This area is filled with incredible beaches and fun touristy things. For the first time in my birding career, we set out on our first and second days to enjoy the island!

Camiguin Island

That said, even prior to the “birding day” I definitely wanted to get my 500th lifer to be Camiguin Boobook as the Camiguin Hanging-parrot has a potential to be relumped and the Camiguin Bulbul is... a bulbul. Our hotel was right at the heart of the birding site. In just a 10-minute walk, I managed to spot a Camiguin Bulbul for my 499th lifer!!! I’ll spend a bit more time talking about this species in my next blog. 

We then rented a jeep and met up with Ens, who had just arrived that day, to take the ferry to Mantigue Reef. We only snorkeled, but saw the largest turtle I have ever seen in my life. Mantigue has some of the better quality coral reefs I’ve seen and I do wish we had more time to properly explore the reef and dive. I am actually licensed to dive but I haven’t really gone into this hobby as I cannot stand going into the water and not being prepared to ID every fish I see, not to mention, I have to actively make sure that I don’t die, so it’s something that I haven’t really gone into as much I had hoped back then.

A vacation pic! 

Angel being sales-talked to rent a gopro

What a day of no birding will do to a man

Ens went back to work at the hotel while Angel and I continued our tour of the beautiful island. Highlights included the Tuasan Waterfalls, Soda Spring, and the church ruins. I was slightly disappointed with the Soda Springs, as all this meant was that the water here had a slight lemon-y flavor, but it did make for a relaxing swim. We passed by the Ruins of the Church of Bonbon, which was a 400-year-old church that was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1871. This church was also covered with the most wild begonia’s I had ever seen in my entire life. A few weeks later, thanks to Mr. Wilhelm Turtle Tan, we managed to have this species ID’ed as Begonia madulidioi. We ended our city tour by buying some great coffee and snacks and headed back to our hotel for dinner. We had decided fairly last-minute to do the owl-ling so that we wouldn’t need to wake up too early the next day. Conveniently for me, having seen my 499th lifer in the morning would perfectly place this milestone lifer.

Soda Springs - there was a drinking fountain and the water tasted like some sort of weird lemon water

The ruins .... are ruins ...

but the walls are covered in Begonias!

Begonia madulidii

Gloria, our guide, met up with us right at our resort to owl. She also happens to be one of the few (less than 5) female bird guides in the entire country. Thanks to some generous donations, we were able to provide Gloria with Svbony binoculars. As of February 2026, we’ve donated 20 pairs of binoculars in the name of our dearly departed friend MJ Bugante. Most of the recipients have been able to use these binoculars to fulfill their duties as bird guides and to generate income for themselves. This is a project I’m extremely proud of and something I look forward to continuing. 

Gloria's new binoculars! She also works in the Department of Natural Resources, is a masseuse, and guides for birders and hikers. She's a true Renaissance woman!!

Surprisingly, we only had to go right outside our hotel in a mahogany plantation where Gloria had seen them recently.  Out of all sets of owls, I would say that the Philippine boobook complex (Camiguin, Cebu, Mindoro, Philippine/Luzon, Romblon, Mindanao and Sulu) are by far some of the easiest and most responsive owls so I assumed that this night would be quick and easy. To my surprise, no owls responded, and we had to move a few hundred meters away. Thankfully, a pair of owls showed almost immediately, and we were treated to an absolute show, and I finally saw my 500th Philippine lifer. 

Camiguin Boobook, an excellent 500th lifer!

Quick comment: I was riding high (on what I think are fantastic photos) of the Giant Scops but the shooting conditions aad overall quality of the photos broght me back down to earth

It’s hard to imagine nowadays but the entire Philippine hawk owl complex was just a single species. It was only in the 2010s where Pam Rasmussen, Godfrey Jakosalem, Rob Hutchinson, Desmond Allen, Nigel Collar, Bram Deumeleester, Bob Kennedy, and Lisa Paguntalan put in a ton of effort to split a total of 7 species! Among the 7, Camiguin Boobook is probably the most unique one as it has pale gray-bluish eyes, white throat and shoulders, plain unmarked face and of course its own very distinctive call. It’s also one of the larger ones while inversely having the smallest range (Cebu Boobook probably has a smaller habitat nowadays with how little remaining forest remains but whatever). 

2nd to the last Boobook of the PH Boobook complex !!! Hopefully, I get a chance to see Sulu Boobook one day!

After getting incredible views, I hit the Peter Kaestner pose, and thankfully, 500 Philippine lifers was too small a number (and had been reached by ~20 Philippine birders before me) to cause any sort of Jason Mann situation.  These numbers don’t fully reflect my birding skill, but rather the amount of privilege I’ve had to be able to spend a good amount of money and a lot of time to reach this milestone. I do track amount my total amount of lifers and celebrate these round

To reach this total also means that I’ve had the opportunity to travel all over the entire Philippines and really enjoy our country’s beautiful sights and sounds. Thanks to birding, I’ve managed to meet and travel with birders, guides, and locals. To me, the birds will always be the best part of birding, and you will never ever catch me saying that it's “it’s the friends we made along the way” that’s the true lesson, but it has been a good bonus (especially meeting my girlfriend/partner through birding email!).

Never thought I'd get to see this many species! The Philippines really has the most incredible birds.

PS: This is both a Peter Kaestner and Wilt Chamberlain reference!!!!

The Philippines is often described as a place you go to before it all gets destroyed. In just 8 years of birding, I’ve already seen a great amount of destruction, and I really do worry that some among my 500 PH Lifers will go extinct in my lifetime (out of all of them, I’m most worried for the still not yet split Cebu Streak-breasted Bulbul). However, I’ve seen enough passion, love, and care for me to be at least hopeful. The birding community and the general knowledge of the public have grown exponentially in just a few years, and there’s so much momentum that, despite everything, I have hope that we can turn or at least stop the tide. I’m not sure if this the hopeful message and I don’t think we’ll win all the many battles here, I do have hope that overall it will get better one day and that a majority of the species still have a future to live on their own terms and that the next generations of birders can share that joy that these wonderful birds once gave me. 

Next up! An actual day of birding in Camiguin!