Java

Intro
This year we filled in another piece of the SEA puzzle in western Java and south Sumatra. Of course, there are a number of useful trip reports and books to help you plan your trip to this area but things are changing rapidly in Indonesia and we found a fair proportion of the info to be out of date. As always, my aim in presenting this report is to encourage birders to visit this fabulous part of the world.

Prices
As most birders will be well aware, Indonesia is in a great state of flux. Two weeks before our visit the price of fuel was raised by 30%! As you can imagine this and other events have had a significant impact on prices. We found the prices listed in Birding Indonesia to be pretty well irrelevent, for example. For this reason I haven't gone into any detail regarding this aspect of our trip. Suffice to say that in comparison to wealthy countries like Australia, prices are very cheap. The Indonesians are well aware of this and will try to gain advantage. As far as I am concerned, they are welcome to overcharge me as long as it is not too over the top! My advice is not to get too het up if you think a driver is charging you twice as much as he would a local. It will still only be a fraction of what you would be paying at home.

References
There are a number of useful resources for Indonesia but everything is starting to look a bit dated, to be honest. I hope this report will help people planning a visit. That said, you should not go without Birding Indonesia by Paul Jepson (Periplus). The only field guide to use is A Field Guide to the Birds of Sumatra, Borneo, Java and Bali by MacKinnon and Phillipps. I will make some comments here about problems with a couple of illustrations:

Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker	the Javan race of this species does NOT have red undertail coverts; they are a washed out pale pink
White-bibbed Babbler	the distinctive blue eye wattle (somewhat similar to that of Chestnut-rumped Babbler) is not illustrated and the jizz of the bird is totally wrong.
Spotted Crocias	the underparts of this species are a distinctive pale lemon yellow NOT white as shown in the illustration and stated in the text
Indigo Flycatcher	the Javan race of this species does NOT have a yellowish vent

Other useful references include the new Mammals of South East Asia published by New Holland. It would probably also be useful to carry Robson's Birds of South East Asia (New Holland).

Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Tim Allwood, Ashley Banwell, Aidan Kelly and Peter Lansley for loads of useful info and trip reports.

We spent 6 nights, 7 days at this fabulous national park. Our main objective was to observe a good selection of the Javan highland endemics but also to enjoy the forest and spectacular volcanoes that Indonesia is renowned for.

Getting there - we arrived late in the evening but didn't want to waste any time in Jakarta, so we organised a driver to meet us and take us to Cibodas near the park directly from the airport. This was well worth the (relative) expense. It would be easy for anyone to organise a vehicle on arrival at Soekarno-Hatto Airport. You can always get someone to transport you to where you want to go in Java!

Where to stay - it seems that there is no limit to your choice of accommodation near the national park in the town of Cibodas. Naturally, we stayed at Freddy's Home Stay and I highly recommend it. Freddy, his wife and sons Eddy and Ibrahim are very charming. Freddy speaks a little English as does Eddy but Ibrahim is quite fluent. This is where all the local birders congregate as well so you can always find someone keen to talk to you about your sightings and the latest goings on. The only problem at Freddy's is the absolutely freezing mandi!

Birding - On arrival in Jakarta, we were told to our horror that we had arrived at the beginning of school holidays! So much for my meticulous planning to arrive on a Monday...Oh well, there wasn't much to be done except put a brave face on but over the next week it was almost unnerving to observe the incredible numbers of young people making use of the park. I'm afraid Java really has an overpopulation problem - just about every high school student in west Java seemed to be intent on climbing to the crater. The park info claims 5,000 visitors a year - well they must all come in July because there would easily have been 1,000 people a day on the trails right to the top. Despite the constant stream of people both ascending and descending the main trail we found the birding very interesting and rewarding. I think the noisy crowds did hinder our search for a few things but on the whole we were pretty happy with our efforts.

We spent a bit of time in the Cibodas Botanic Gardens but mainly concentrated on the Gunung Gede trail. In the Gardens, we enountered a few endemics including White-flanked Sunbird and Pygmy Tit but the best bird was Sunda Forktail - a gorgeous female seen in the early morning near the small foot bridge below the football field.

To enter the national park, walk up the hill to the botanic gardens and turn right at the golf course. About 200 metres from here you will see a small, concrete foot bridge on your left. Cross this and climb up the vertical rise to the park headquarters where you can pay the entry fee. We climbed up to the waterfall on three separate days and spent two days climbing to the crater where we camped one night. We also walked the birdwatching and dead end trails both of which were not really very interesting. The trail to G. Pangrango from Kandang Badak was not particularly interesting either.

The parlous state of conservation in Indonesia, and in Java in particular means that this small, degraded forest behind this busy beach resort is one of the best places to find some of Java's lowland endemics. We found that the forest is being heavily used both by tourists (more high school students) and by local woodcutters and trappers. We encountered many cutters as well as a group of 5 men with guns. All the forest on the ridge tops appears to have been recently logged and this forest would appear to have a limited future - another victim of Indonesia's economic woes.

Getting there - we travelled from Gunung Gede to Carita via Bogor, Panderglang and Labuan. Quite a long trip of 6-7 hours on pretty bad roads. Next time I would charter a vehicle! With limited time I think it would be well worth the added expense (which really amounts to about a $AU20 outlay) of chartering a vehicle. The buses are old, incredibly overcrowded, carbon monoxide-spewing death traps. Fun for the first hour or so and great for your street cred but.....

Where to stay - we stayed at the excellent Niguadarma Hotel. They have a swimming pool and it's cheap and clean. I would not recommend their restaurant though. There is a huge selection of accommodation in all categories here.

Birding - this is an easily accessible site for some of Java's lowland endemics. From the Niguadarma walk south for about half a kilometre to the Wisata Huta forest reserve. The entrance is marked by a large archway from the road. Walk up here for about a kilometre, take the trail to the left then walk through secondary forest until you get to the entry hut. Keep walking up through degraded forest for about a kilometre before you will find some excellent primary forest. Again we had problems with huge numbers of school students who come up here to swim at the waterfall. The density of birds is low but you will see some good species. We had good views of the endemic Grey-cheeked Tit-Babbler, White-breasted Babbler and Black-banded Barbet. We also encountered a superb pair of Banded Kingfishers, Banded Broadbill, Banded Pitta, Bay Banded Cuckoo and a few other non-Banded things.

This wonderful national park is easily accessible from Java and very well known for its large mammals and lowland specialist bird species. The 130,000 hectare lowland swamp forest is an island in a sea of humanity. While it is partly degraded by logging it is now well protected and offers refuge to a number of endangered species including Sumatran Tiger, Javan Rhino, White-winged Duck and Wrinkled Hornbill.

Getting there - from Carita we again used local transport to get to Bandar Lampung in south Sumatra. From Carita we travelled to Merak on Java's west coast on a colourful assortment of vehicles. From here we got the express ferry to Bakauheni in Sumatra from where it is another 85 kilometre bus ride to Bandar Lampung. We tried without success (again) to find an express bus so it took us about 3 hours to get to BL. This meant we were forced to overnight in Bandar Lampung before departing the next morning for Way Kambas - make sure you tell your driver you want to go to Way Kanan which is another 13km on rough roads from Way Kambas. Birding Indonesia claims that you can reach Way Kambas from Jakarta in 7 hours. If you have managed to do this in recent months please let me know as I have great trouble believing this would be even remotely possible unless you had your own vehicle!

Where to stay - the accommodation at Way Kanan is very basic but clean. The 6 room cabin mentioned in Birding Indonesia is actually four rooms of which it appears that only one is now habitable. The mandi is adequate and surprisingly there were no rats and the insect life was subdued. We took a mosquito net and I would consider this a vital piece of equipment here. You will need to bring your own food if you stay here. There is no kitchen at the accommodation so you will have to use the ranger's kitchen which is very basic. They will help you with your cooking but at least offer to help as this is a service not included in the price of the accommodation. If you had your own vehicle another option would be to stay at the Way Kambas elephant training centre, which is apparently rather more comfortable.

Birding - our main quarry here was of course the White-winged Duck and nightbirds. We saw only one duck in a small swamp off the main road. According to a researcher in the park, the exceptionally dry weather has meant that most of the birds have retreated to inaccessible areas of the park. We found the park staff singularly unhelpful in regard to finding the duck - it seemed like it was all rather too hard. Despite the dry conditions, we were unlucky to have our nocturnal birding somewhat curtailed by rain! That said, we were lucky to see Bonaparte's Nightjar, Brown Hawk-Owl and Gould's Frogmouth. We hired the park boat one morning (the canoe is now "broken" - read sunk) which was extremely pleasant and rewarding. Cinnamon-headed Green Pigeon is common here and we had a few excellent sightings of the stunning Small Blue Kingfisher. We had less success with the Look Trail which is reportedly good for pheasants and partridges but Banded Pitta was seen very well a few times here and on the main road.