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SULAWESI & HALMAHERA

Birdquest's Sulawesi & Halmahera, Indonesia tour is the number one Indonesian birdwatching trip. With more endemic birds than any other equivalent area in this sprawling aisland nation, our Sulawesi and Halmahera tour offers a compelling experience, with a rich bird list and an extraordinary number of specialities.

Saturday 7th September - Friday 27th September 2013
(21 days)

Leader: Craig Robson

Group Size Limit: 8

Tour Category: Easy to Moderate for the most part, but one or two fairly Demanding hikes

Sulawesi and Halmahera are home to a large number of stunning species, many of which are endemic, such as this Wallace's Standardwing. Sadly, the forests in this part of the world are perhaps more threatened than anywhere else on our planet and many of the species are becoming harder and harder to find. (Pete Morris)

While Charles Darwin was formulating his theories on evolution by natural selection another pioneering but much less well known Victorian naturalist was independently developing similar concepts on the other side of the world. He was Alfred Russel Wallace and during his eight years exploration of the Malay Archipelago (most of which is now known as Indonesia) he became the first European to visit many of the islands in this vast region. His book of his travels, The Malay Archipelago, is one of the great travel classics and thousands of species of animals and plants were first described by Wallace himself or by others using his specimens. Wallace is best remembered, however, for first discovering that the fauna and flora of the western islands in the archipelago were essentially Malaysian while in the east they were primarily of Australasian origin.

Even more surprising was his discovery that a clear division exists in the centre of the archipelago and to this day this boundary between these two very different faunal regions, which are separated by just a short distance between Borneo and Sulawesi and by as little as a few kilometres of deep water between Bali and Lombok, is known as Wallace’s Line. During our journey we will be birding on the far side of Wallace’s Line and will be able to see for ourselves the extraordinary avifauna of ‘Wallacea’, which is so very different from that of mainland Southeast Asia and the adjacent Greater Sundas.

Until recently the magical islands of Indonesia were only visited by a few intrepid travellers and even today few visitors penetrate beyond Java and Bali. The very inaccessibility of much of Indonesia has led to the country being largely neglected by birdwatchers, yet Indonesia provides the adventurous with some of the richest ornithological experiences to be found anywhere in the world, for this is one of the most biologically diverse and endemic-rich areas on earth.

This is a special itinerary for those who want to see the many exciting endemics of Sulawesi and Halmahera and is a real adventure: not especially difficult, but nothing like a ‘standard’ bird tour in more developed tropical countries!

Our exciting journey begins in earnest at Makassar on Sulawesi, an island formerly known as the Celebes and shaped rather like a four-legged starfish. During our time on this island of lofty mountains, cool mossy highland forests, misty lakes, fertile valleys with lush green rice paddies, and luxuriant lowland rainforests, we will visit three of Indonesia’s finest forest reserves, Lore Lindu, Gunung Ambang, Dumoga-Bone and Tangkoko, finding a large proportion of Sulawesi’s 70 or so endemic birds, with targets including the extraordinary Maleo, a suite of gorgeous kingfishers (including the elusive Scaly), the superb Purple-bearded Bee-eater, Purple-winged Roller, the amazing Knobbed Hornbill, the localized Matinan Flycatcher, the charismatic Piping Crow, four endemic starlings and many more.

In between, our island-hopping will bring us to the small island of Ternate, dominated by its gently smoking volcano, and to Halmahera, the largest island of the Moluccas, the fabled ‘Spice Islands’. Situated between Sulawesi and Irian Jaya (the Indonesian part of New Guinea), Halmahera has a much greater Australasian element in its avifauna than Sulawesi and an equally rich selection of endemics, including the famous Wallace’s Standardwing, one of the most exotic of the birds of paradise. We will even be able to watch this fabulous bird at a display site, as well as seeing a host of other little known birds, including the stunning Ivory-breasted Pitta and the weird Moluccan Owlet-Nightjar. By the end of the tour we shall all be reluctant to leave these wonderful, far away islands behind us.

Birdquest has operated tours to Sulawesi & Halmahera since 1990.

(Note: The above is a summary of the tour. For more information please download the detailed, day-by-day itinerary. The button is at the top right of the page.)

Accommodation & Road Transport: The hotels at Makassar and Manado are of normal Birdquest standard. On Sulawesi we will be staying in basic guesthouses with no hot water in Lore Lindu, in the Dumoga Bone area and in Tangkoko (bathroom facilities are shared at Dumoga Bone). On Halmahera we will stay in a very basic lodge for three nights at Foli and in a basic guesthouse with no hot water for two nights at Sidangoli (bathroom facilities are shared at both accommodations). Road transport is by small coach, minibus or cars. Roads are variable in quality.

Walking: The walking effort is mostly easy to moderate, but there will be one or two harder days in Lore Lindu and at Sidangoli.

Climate: Most days in the lowlands will be hot, dry and sunny, but overcast conditions are fairly frequent and some rain, heavy at times, can be expected. In montane areas it will range from very cool to warm. The humidity is often rather high.

Bird Photography: Opportunities are worthwhile.

Tour Price: (provisional): $6120 Makassar (Ujung Pandang)/Manado. Price includes all transportation (including all flights inside Indonesia), all accommodations, all meals, bottled water, some drinks, all excursions, all entrance fees, all tips for local drivers/guides and for accommodations/restaurants, leader services.

Single Room Supplement: (provisional); $365 (excluding three nights at Foli and two nights at Sidangoli).

Deposit: 10% of the tour price (excluding any single supplement).

Air Travel To & From The Tour: Our in-house IATA ticket agency can arrange your air travel in connection with the tour from a departure point anywhere in the world, or you may arrange your own air travel if you prefer. We can tailor-make your itinerary to your personal requirements, so if you would like to travel in advance of the tour (and spend a night in an hotel so you will feel fresh when the tour starts), or return later than the end of the tour, or make a side trip to some other destination, or travel business class rather than economy, we will be happy to assist. Please contact us about your air travel requirements.

This gorgeous Blue-breasted (or Red-bellied) Pitta was photographed at Tangkoko on Sulawesi. Although not endemic, this tour is a very good one for catching up with this elusive species (Pete Morris)

The amazing Knobbed Hornbill is a Celebes endemic, and is always a firm favourite (Dave Farrow)

The wonderfiul Moluccan Owlet-Nightjar (Pete Morris)

This cryptically patterned Satanic (or Diabolical) Nightjar was photographed during the daytime in Lore Lindu National Park (Pete Morris)

If we are fortunate we will find the elusive Ochre-bellied Boobook at its daytime roost (Dave Farrow)

View Map Download Detailed Itinerary 581kb

Report From September 2009/October 2009 Report From August 2010/September 2010 50 photos View Gallery Photos From SULAWESI & HALMAHERA

This is a great tour for kingfishers! This is a Lilac Kingfisher, endemic to Sulawesi (Dave Farrow)

More colour is added by the splendid Green-backed Kingfisher (Pete Morris)

... and a Sulawesi Dwarf Kingfisher (Pete Morris)

Maleo, a member of the Megapode family, is another of this tour's flagship birds! (Pete Morris)

The Geomalia is a rare and poorly-known species from Sulawesi's highlands and is of unknown taxonomic affinities (Pete Morris)

The unusual Sulawesi Thrush is an unusual-looking montane endemic. Taxonomists seem unable to decide whether it's a thrush or a babbler! (Pete Morris)