Birds of Lake Agko

[Ely Teehankee]

Popularly known as Agko Mahomanoy Mountain Resort, it is 1199 meters above sea level. This place is one of the favorite birding destination of Ramon Quisumbing simply because there are a variety of mountain birds. The most popular & friendly bird is the Citrine Canary-Flycatcher. There is a laundry area at the back of the resort and it is beside a restaurant where they cook and dump their garbage. Because of this there is an infestation of flies and other insects making it a favorite place for the CCF to do its feeding.

Canon EOS 1DX, Canon EF 800mm f5.6L IS USM, Gitzo GT3530LS tripod, M-3.6 Mongoose Gimbal Action Head. Manual exposure in available light.

Citrine Canary-Flycatcher (Culicicapa panayensis) (endemic Mindanao) 4 1/2 inches. They could be quite skittish in a different location but at Agko, they keep on coming back and gives you enough time to photograph them.
1/500 sec., f/5.6, ISO 1600



1/640 sec., f/5.6, ISO 1600



1/500 sec., f/5.6, ISO 1600



1/640 sec., f/5.6, ISO 1600



This is probably the Everett's White-eye (Zosterops everetti) 4 1/2 inches that joined the bird flock when I took this picture.
1/400 sec., f/5.6, ISO 1600



Flame-crowned Flowerpecker (Dicaeum masawan) Western Mindanao 3 3/4 inches endemic to the Philippines.
1/1000 sec., f/5.6, ISO 1600



Scarlet Minivet (Pericrocotus It may be (gonzalesi, johnstoniae, or nigroluteus) 6 inches. Female
1/1000 sec., f/5.6, ISO 1600



1/2000 sec., f/5.6, ISO 1600



Little Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula westermanni) 4 1/4 inches. Another of the friendly bird that likes to hang around the area where the Citrine Canary-Flycatcher. Male.
1/640 sec., f/5.6, ISO 1600

[Ramon Quisumbing]

Wonderful harvest, Ely! That was fun birding with you that day. The Flame-Crowned Flowerpecker is a rare capture! Congrats!

[Ely Teehankee]

Mar 16, 2014 11:34:41 GMT Ramon Quisumbing said:

Wonderful harvest, Ely! That was fun birding with you that day. The Flame-Crowned Flowerpecker is a rare capture! Congrats!

Thank you Ramon. It is always fun to be birding and exciting especially when a mix flock appears from nowhere and you got several targets all at the same time. I usually choose the bird that is out in the open.

[Ely Teehankee]

Desmond Allen made a reply on Facebook:

Desmond Allen Ramon, Ely, this IS a male! Note the all black head. Western Mindanao birds are all yellow. They are orange over in PICOP and seem to intergrade/be variable in the Davao area. I don't think any philippine sspp are truly Scarlet but then they will be a good split at some point when someone gets round to studying them closer. The calls are very different from Thailand etc

[Tateo Osawa]

All nice shots, Ely. Specially I like the last photo of the Flycatcher.

[William Lim]

Great set, Ely.

[Ely Teehankee]

Mar 19, 2014 16:26:48 GMT Tateo Osawa said:

All nice shots, Ely. Specially I like the last photo of the Flycatcher.

Thank you Tateo for your appreciation. I like that one too.

[Ely Teehankee]

Mar 20, 2014 13:31:20 GMT William Lim said:

Great set, Ely.

Thank you William. If you can find time, go to Davao for the Philippine Eagle and make a side trip here.

[oespena]

Love the Citrine Canary-Flycatcher sir Ely! Hope we could take a photo of that bird this coming Holy-week in Mt. Talinis. nice shot of your Little pied flycatcher.

[Ely Teehankee]

Mar 31, 2014 3:56:15 GMT oespena said:

Love the Citrine Canary-Flycatcher sir Ely! Hope we could take a photo of that bird this coming Holy-week in Mt. Talinis. nice shot of your Little pied flycatcher.

Thank you Onnie. I hope you have a good harvest at Mount Talinis. Do post your birds in this Forum so we will see more activity here.

[Nilo Arribas Jr.]

Good to see the flame-crowned flowerpecker in this part of the country Ely. Thanks for sharing.

[Ely Teehankee]

Apr 5, 2014 3:36:29 GMT Nilo Arribas Jr. said:

Good to see the flame-crowned flowerpecker in this part of the country Ely. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your appreciation Nilo. It was happenstance and I wish I have a better picture of it, but still happy that I got a lifer.

[steve pryor]

Mar 18, 2014 11:19:00 GMT Ely Teehankee said:

Desmond Allen made a reply on Facebook:

Desmond Allen Ramon, Ely, this IS a male! Note the all black head. Western Mindanao birds are all yellow. They are orange over in PICOP and seem to intergrade/be variable in the Davao area. I don't think any philippine sspp are truly Scarlet but then they will be a good split at some point when someone gets round to studying them closer. The calls are very different from Thailand etc

As Des mentioned, this is a male. The race at Mt. Apo is johnstoniae, and this appears to be without any intergradation. Nice shots.

[Bobby Kintanar]

Wow, a very productive trip you had there Ka Ely! I'm sure Tateo Osawa will want to go there too! :-)

[Romy Ocon]

Nice to see you back, Steve!

[steve pryor]

Apr 10, 2017 12:43:23 GMT Romy Ocon said:

Nice to see you back, Steve!

Thanks Romy. It has been years since I have been able to get back home to Italy where all of my ornithological stuff is. I must admit that I am way behind on all of the taxonomic changes after Tobias threw his Nuclear Bomb! I hope to gradually upgrade myself so that I can be useful again, but it will probably be a hard slog.