After some apprehension we finally got safely to Tabin via Lahad Datu after 2 hours of bone-rattling car journey through huge plantations of palm trees. Tabin is a wildlife area of tropical rainforest three times the area of Singapore. Although with a capacity of around 100 guests we were two of only six whilst we stayed there – which meant that we had we had the exclusive guidance of their top birding expert AmRafal who took us out into the forest several times each day, and who had an uncanny ability to find and recognise the myriad of wonderful birds that we had come to see and hopefully photograph.

The photography wasn’t easy as most of the time the birds were high in trees or obscured by the verdant foliage. Nevertheless we were able to come away with a good collection of photos, some of which were inevitably somewhat noisy. The Lumix GX-8 with Leica 100-400 zoom worked very well, especially with the use of the dual stabilisation set-up which meant that I could hand-hold shots in low light with shutter speeds around 1/100th second, enabling reasonably low ISO levels to be achieved.

Lesser Green Leafbird

Green Broadbill

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Crested Serpent Eagle

Crested Serpent Eagle

Brown-throated Sunbird (fm)

Brown-throated Sunbird

Banded Broadbill

Whiskered Treeswift

Black & Yellow Broadbill

Chestnut-breasted Malkoha

Rufous-tailed Tailorbird

Tabin Stream

Buffy Fishowl

Verditer Flycatcher

Rhinoceros Hornbill

Chestnut-winged Babbler

Hooded Pitta

Common Tailorbird

Brown Fulvetta

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

Pied Fantail

Black-naped Monarch