At 9:38 AM 97.10.20 +1100, wrote:
> I have one day free on a business trip in Manila in early November -
> any suggestions?
If you have a whole day I gather that Mt Makiling is likely to be your best
bet. You should be able to reach it in 2 hours or so: bird from the road
though traffic is rather heavy these days. I have to admit I haven't been
here as there are much better sites if you have the time.
Traffic in Manila can be appalling so leave at about 5 am or earlier if you can.
If you have an early morning to spare, try the American and Philippine
cemeteries at Fort Bonifacio - do both if you can as they have different
birds.
Previously I have recommended Jon Hornbuckle's guide (available from the
OBC). I must qualify that now as there is at least one serious error for
those visiting Mindanao: DO NOT contact the public relations dept at PICOP
- they will do their best to prevent your entry. I hope I haven't misled
anyone by this advice before. Hence my posting to the list. Also Mt Pasian
is likely to be a 'critical' area for a little while (site of the recently
described Lina's Sunbird, and also a site for Miniature Tit-babbler.)
The Philippines provide some real ID challenges owing to the current lack
of a good field guide. Many trip reports have probable ID errors because
birders are unfamiliar with local subspecies of familiar species eg
Ficedula w. westermanni . Of the 1019 subspecies of the 556 species listed
as recorded by Dickinson et al. 708 are endemic and many of these deserve
specific status, so see them all! The descriptions in the only available
guide - Dupont - are sometimes downright poor and often misleading, so if
you are hoping to clean up (ho ho ) it would pay to spend a while in a
museum with a good skin collection before you go...
Good luck
Des Allen
Machida Shi, Japan
e-mail:
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