Wildlife of S. E. Asia and S. America. A Photo Journal by Francis Burlingham.: 2025

Introduction

Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to live in Thailand, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Colombia and now Brunei. In my spare time I have had the opportunity to travel fairly widely, camera in hand, in search of wildlife. In these posts I aim to share some of these experiences and show you some of the extraordinary wildlife that can be found in these regions. All of the photographs you see within the posts and pages here are my own unless otherwise stated. Copyright © Francis Burlingham 2015

Wednesday, 15 October 2025

King Cobra and Sunbirds

My garden in Brunei continues to provide me with a wonderful array of wildlife to watch and a few weeks ago I was delighted to come face to face with a 2 meter long king cobra. It was hunting amongst the plants by my fence. Once it new I was watching it calmly looked up at me before heading off through the undergrowth into the neighbours garden. I have only caught a fleeting glimpse of this species in the wild before this, so to have it turn up in my garden and pose for me was an unexpected treat.

Ophiophagus hannah (King Cobra) Bandar Brunei Borneo

I regularly get a steady stream of sunbirds through the garden, attracted by the stands of Heliconias. They are pretty busy and don't tend to sit still for a photo but I managed to get these shots.

Aethopyga siparaja (Crimson Sunbird) Brunei Borneo

Anthreptes malacensis malacensis (Brown-throated Sunbird Male) Bandar Brunei

Anthreptes malacensis malacensis (Brown-throated Sunbird Female) Bandar Brunei

Unidentified Bandar Brunei

Another snake that occasionally visits the garden is the striped bronze back. This one was in the pot plants by my front door probably hunting geckos.

Dendrelaphis caudolineatus (Striped Bronzeback) Bandar Brunei

As ever a range of butterflies frequent the garden.

Lasippa tiga (Malayan Lascar) Bandar Brunei

Graphium antiphates (Fivebar Swordtail) Bandar Brunei

Papilio polytes (Common Mormon) Brunei Borneo

Despite the continuing loss of trees in the area I am still lucky enough to have regular visits from the silver leaf monkeys.

Trachypithecus cristatus (Silver Langur) Brunei Borneo

This one was sitting on my fence feasting on fresh new leaves.

Friday, 25 April 2025

Brunei Garden Wildlife

Brunei still has lots of tree cover and even amongst the built up residential areas there are still stands of trees and fallow land that enables a range of wildlife to survive. My house is at the top of a small hill and there are stands of trees on the steepest slopes that have not been built on. These back on to orchards and semi cultivated areas. I have purposefully planted my garden with attracting wildlife in mind and as a result many animals pass through. All of the photographs below were taken in my garden.

Ahaetulla mycterizans (Malayan GreenWhip Snake) Brunei Borneo

I have planted a range of climbing shrups and vines along my fences and large stand of heliconia under an avocado tree where a beautiful bright green whip snake has made its home.

Ahaetulla mycterizans (Malayan GreenWhip Snake) Brunei Borneo

The whip snake likes to hang out in the heliconias hunting for lizards. It is a very long skinny snake.

Ahaetulla mycterizans (Malayan GreenWhip Snake) Brunei Borneo

I have a good population of garden fence lizards that patrol the plants I have planted to attract insects.

Calotes versicolor (Garden Fence Lizard) Brunei Borneo

There are also plenty of skinks living in the leaf litter and geckos around the fence and buildings. Building a pond has also attracted a range of wildlife and I have three frog species that are regulars; toads, tree frogs and ox frogs.

Duttaphrynus melanostictus (Asian Toad) Brunei Borneo

Polypedates leucomystax (Four Lined Tree Frog) Brunei Borneo

Kaloula pulchra (Ox Frog) Brunei Borneo

Four mammal species regularly visit the garden. Both species of monkey like to strip the leaves and flowers from my Hibiscus bushes.

Macaca fascicularis (Long tailed Macaque) Brunei Borneo

Trachypithecus cristatus (Silver Langur) Brunei Borneo

The tree shrews and squirrels that visit at first glance look similar but are unrelated.

Tupaia minor (Lessor Tree shrew) Brunei Borneo

Callosciurus notatus (Plantain Squirrel) brunei Borneo

A large number of different birds visit the garden. These are some of the most common visitors.

Amaurornis phoenicurus (White-breasted waterhen) Brunei Borneo

Padda oryzivora (Java Sparrow) Brunei Borneo

Centropus sinensis (Greater coucal) Brunei Borneo

Aethopyga siparaja (Crimson Sunbird) Brunei Borneo

I have so far seen three species of snake in the garden. There have been a couple of spitting cobras, the whip snake and a striped bronzeback. Only the cobra gives a potentially fatal bite.

Naja sumatrana (Equitorial spitting cobra) Brunei Borneo


Ahaetulla prasina (Oriental Whip Snake) Brunei Borneo

Trogonoptera brookiana male (Brookes Rajahs Birdwing) Brunei Borneo

Tuesday, 1 April 2025

A Short Road Trip Through the Crocker Mountains of Sabah

I recently drove from Brunei to Sabah to explore the Crocker Mountains driving via Tenom and Tabunan, exploring a couple of waterfalls along the way. Mensisilad waterfall at the Melalap sub station near Tenom was pretty but there was no wildlife of note to photograph. The Mahua waterfall near Tabunan was however, more spectacular and proved much more rewarding.

Graphium stratiotes (Kinabalu Swordtail) Mahua Waterfall Sabah

Highlights at this waterfall included a white nosed keelback snake, a pygmy squirrel and a couple of rare endemic butterfly species. This swordtail butterfly is only found in the Croker range and around mount Kinabalu.

Graphium stratiotes (Kinabalu Swordtail) Mahua Waterfall Sabah

The snake was small and fast moving as it hunted amongst the rocks of the river. I only managed to get one pretty average shot of it.

Amphiesma flavifrons (White-nosed Keelback) Mahua Waterfall Sabah

Trying to photograph the fast moving water snake.

A more common reptile found here was this green crested lizard.

Bronchocela cristatella (Green Crested Lizard) Mahua Waterfall Sabah

I was extremely lucky to see the very rare endemic Kinabalu Birdwing butterfly. It was a female trying to find a place to lay eggs and moved rapidly amongst the trees without settling for long. This butterfly became the state butterfly of Sabah in 2023 as part of an awareness raising campaign to help save this large charismatic species.

Troides andromache (Kinabalu Birdwing) Mahua Waterfall Sabah

There were numerous other beautiful butterflies to photograph at the entrance to the waterfall site.

Graphium antiphates (Fivebar Swordtail) Mahua Waterfall Sabah

Graphium evemon (Lesser Jay) Mahua Waterfall Sabah

Papilio helenus (Red Helen) Mahua Waterfall Sabah

Cyrestis nivea (Straight Line Map) Mahua Waterfall Sabah

Cyrestis maenalis seminigra (Dark Mapwing) Mahua Waterfall Sabah

Bathed by spray and mist at the Mahua Waterfall

Unfortunately I was not quick enough to get a good shot of the pygmy squirrel but you can see its ear tufts and just how fluffy it is in these pictures.

Exilisciurus whiteheadi

(Whitehead's Pygmy Squirrel)

The mountain scenery in this part of Borneo is beautiful. I stayed at Borneo Kiim Resort where at an altitude of over 1000m the nights were quite chilly. The views from here were stunning.

View of Gunung Kinabalu past the end of the Croker Range at Tambunan

Early morning view across the cloud shrouded valley to the Crocker Range.

After a couple of nights it was time to head to Kota Kinabalu via Mount Alab. Along the way I stopped to look for Raflesia and was lucky enough to find a 3 day old bloom that was just starting to fade.

Rafflesia pricei Gunung Alab Sabah

R. pricei is a slightly smaller species than R. kethei which grows near Poring but is nonetheless an impressive flower.

Rafflesia pricei Gunung Alab Sabah

My final stop before KK was Gunung Alab at just over 2000m above sea level. Here there were a couple of species of orange hued Rhododendron in flower.