Sulawesi Halmahera Birding Trip 14D13N

Sulawesi and Halmahera – Spectacular Endemic Birding

Itinerary:

Day 1 Palu then on to Lore Lindu
Pick you up at Palu Airport, directly to Lore Lindu
Along the way we will likely stop for a few open-country birds such as Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Lemon-bellied White-eye, White-shouldered Triller, Red Collared Dove, Pale-headed Munia, Black-faced Munia, Chestnut Munia, and maybe even day-roosting Savanna Nightjar.
As we reach the Lore Lindu area we will make some roadside stops, where we might find the first of many special birds to be found here, at what is surely one of the best birding areas in Sulawesi. Some of the specials we are after include (Western) Superb Fruit Dove, Red-eared Fruit Dove, Fiery-browed Starling, Sulawesi Thrush, Pygmy Cuckooshrike, Cerulean Cuckooshrike, Great Shortwing, and the bizarre Geomalia (now considered to be an aberrant ground thrush and not a babbler as previously thought).
Overnight: Nasional Lodge, Lore Lindu Area

Days 2-3: Birding Lore Lindu National Park area (Anaso Track and Lake Tambling area)
Lore Lindu National Park protects some of the largest tracts of montane rainforests remaining on Sulawesi. We will have two full days birding here as well as the morning of Day 15. We will likely focus our birding attention on two areas while here, the famed Anaso Track (considered a tough hike) and Lake Tambling. There are a lot of new birds for us here, with potential highlights including Hylocitrea (the monotypic family), Purple-bearded Bee-eater, Geomalia, Malia, Sulawesi Streaked Flycatcher, Sulawesi Woodcock, and Satanic Nightjar.
Plenty of other great species here will make our birding time very exciting. The area is excellent for pigeons and doves, and we will look for Grey-headed Imperial Pigeon, White-bellied Imperial Pigeon, Sombre Pigeon, Sulawesi Ground Dove, (Western) Superb Fruit Dove, Red-eared Fruit Dove, and Oberholser’s Fruit Dove. Additional non-passerine highlights could include Snoring Rail, Purple Needletail, Scaly-breasted (Lore Lindu) Kingfisher, Yellow-billed Malkoha, Sulawesi Hawk-Eagle, Sulawesi Hornbill, Dwarf Sparrowhawk, Spot-tailed Sparrowhawk, Eastern Grass Owl, Speckled Boobook, Cinnabar Boobook (the currently undescribed “White-spotted Boobook” form), Sulawesi Pygmy Woodpecker, Golden-mantled Racket-tail, and Yellow-cheeked Lorikeet. Meanwhile, passerine targets at Lore Lindu will include Great Shortwing, Sulawesi Thrush, Red-backed Thrush, Rufous-throated Flycatcher, Blue-fronted Blue Flycatcher, Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher, Sulawesi Drongo, Piping Crow, Ivory-backed Woodswallow, Maroon-backed Whistler, Streak-headed White-eye, White-eared Myza, and Crimson-crowned Flowerpecker.
Overnight (two nights): Nasional Lodge, Lore Lindu Area
Day  4: Lore Lindu to Palu, then flight to Manado
We will have a final morning birding around the Lore Lindu National Park area before we drive back to Palu, where we will board our afternoon flight to Manado. And after arriving in Manado we went straight to Muara Pusian
Overnight: Local Homestay

Day  5 : Manado to Muara Pusian Maleo Cantuary
Overnight : Local Homestay

Dey 6 : Breakfast around 7am. After breakfast, we will drive to Tomohon (Gunung mahawu) to spotted the Target bird such as: Scaly-breasted Kingfisher, Sulawesi-blue Flycatcher, Island Flycatcher, Sulawesi myzomela, Yellow-vented Whistler, Yellow-sided Flowerpecker, Grey-sided Flowerpecker, and much more. 
Overnight : Villa Emitta Hotel

Day 7 : Tomohon to Tangkoko
Breakfast around 7am. After breakfast, we will drive to Tangkoko. we will catch the highlight species such as: Green-backed Kingfisher, Lilac-cheek Kingfisher, Sulawesi-dwarf Kingfisher, Red-knobbed Hornbill, Sulawesi-dwarf Hornbill, Ashy Woodpecker, Yellow-billed malkoha, Purple-winged Roller, Sulawesi Pitta, ochre-bellied Boobook, Sulawesi Babbler, Red-backed Thrush, and much more

Day 8 - 9 : Start the tour around 5am, we will drive around 20 minutes  to Temboan hills spend 2-3 hours there to spotted some birds such as: Yellow-breasted  Racquet-tail, Ornate Lorikeet, Golden-mantled Racquet-tail, Sulawesi cicadabird, Great-billed hanging parrot, Pygmy hanging Parrot, Sulawesi-dwarf Hornbill, and much more.
Come back to the Homestay for breakfast. And then we will continue the tour to spotted some birds where you not seen  it on the day 2.Come back for lunch, after lunch around 2pm, we will go to the mangrove area by boat to spotted one of the kingfisher, Great (black)-billed Kingfisher and some birds such as: White-rumped Cuckoo-shrike, Pink-necked green Pigeon, Whimbrel, Grey-tailed tattler, etc
Overnight : Local Homestay

Day 10: Tangkoko to Manado and Flight to Ternate
Flight to Ternate, and we will go to the port. from the port, we will go by speedboat to cross to sofifi (Halmahera). from Sofifi, we will drive (4 hours) to the place called Weda resort.

Day 11: breakfast at 4:30am, after breakfast we will go to see Wallace standardwing Bird-of-paradise at the displaying place and another bird such as: blue-and-white kingfisher, common paradise kingfisher, ivory breasted pitta, northern molucan pitta,and many more. in the afternoon we will birding from the main road to see another bird suck as: Mollucan cockatoo, moluccan Whistler, purple dolarbird, rusty breasted couckostrike, golden monarch, sombre kingfisher, etc. the nights bird, moluccan scops owl, moluccan owlet nightjar.

Day 12: birding in the morning until lunch time. after lunch, we will drive to aketajawe lolobata National park. we will stay at the local homestay.

Day 13: Birding at aketajawe lolobata National park,  bird keys: Ivory-breasted pitta, northern molucan pitta, rusty breasted couckostrike, golden monarch, variable dwarf kingfisher, beach kingfisher, sombre kingfisher, moluccan scops owl, moluccan owlet nightjar,etc.

Day 14: Birding in the morning until lunch time to completed our target and after lunch we will drive to Sofifi and cross by boat to Ternate. Stay in Ternate, end of tour.

Include

All transportation, hotel based on shared room, 3 Meals per Day + Mineral Water, English speaking guide fee, park permits, conservation fees, Domestic Flight

Exclude

Porter, International flight fee for departures home, Extra beverages in hotel, alcoholic drinks/soft drinks, laundry, phone calls, extra personal expenses. Any kind of expenditures not mentioned on items included and incurred due to flight cancellation/delays or due other causes beyond our control (force majeure).