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Kinabatangan Bird Hide

Bird hide

A giant pitta hide in the Pin Supu Forest Reserve, reached from the village of Batu Puteh on the lower Kinabatangan. Unlike the habituated hides at Telupid and Trus Madi, this one leans on the quality of the surrounding floodplain forest — at over 4,600 hectares, Pin Supu is the largest protected reserve in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain, looked after for more than two decades by the community cooperative KOPEL in partnership with the Sabah Forestry Department. Batu Puteh was named a UN World Tourism Organization Best Tourism Village in 2021. The wider forest and the oxbow-lake eco camp nearby add pittas, four hornbill species and Storm's stork along the riverbanks.

Best for: Giant Pitta, Crested Fireback, Sabah Partridge, a deep understorey birding checklist
Birds: Giant Pitta, Sabah Partridge, Bornean Black-capped Babbler, Black-crowned Pitta, Rufous-collared Kingfisher, Ruddy Kingfisher, Ferruginous Babbler, Red-eyed Bulbul, Yellow-bellied Bulbul, Black-throated Babbler, White-crowned Shama, Short-tailed Babbler
Other: Crested Fireback, Black-faced Kingfisher, Moustached Hawk Cuckoo, Large-billed Blue Flycatcher, Rufous-backed Kingfisher

Top highlights

  1. Giant Pitta
  2. Crested Fireback
  3. Sabah Partridge
  4. Bornean Black-capped Babbler
  5. Black-crowned Pitta
  6. Black-faced Kingfisher
  7. Rufous-collared Kingfisher
  8. Ruddy Kingfisher
  9. Moustached Hawk Cuckoo
  10. Large-billed Blue Flycatcher
  11. Ferruginous Babbler
  12. Red-eyed Bulbul
  13. Yellow-bellied Bulbul
  14. Black-throated Babbler
  15. White-crowned Shama
  16. Short-tailed Babbler
  17. Rufous-backed Kingfisher

Accommodation

KOPEL runs two options: Miso Walai Homestay, simple family-house rooms in Batu Puteh village, and Tungog Rainforest Eco Camp, a small solar-powered camp of raised platforms directly on the oxbow lake near the hide.

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