Birding Tour Indonesia: Sulawesi and Halmahera – Spectacular

This small-group birding tour in Indonesia visits the two endemic-filled islands of Sulawesi and Halmahera. These two islands straddle the equator and sit between the islands of Borneo to the west and New Guinea to the east. They also offer some of the best birding on the planet (and some good photo opportunities). Sulawesi, accessed through its capital city Makassar, in the southwest of this interestingly shaped island (also a convenient international arrivals entry point into Indonesia and the start/end point of our tour), is the westernmost of the two islands and is part of the Greater Sundas (along with Borneo, Sumatra, and Java). The other island, Halmahera, is more Australasian in nature and is part of the North Maluku Islands (also known as the Moluccas). We enter Halmahera through the town of Kao, in the north, and depart from Sofifi in the west via a speedboat to the small island of Ternate, to the west of Halmahera (the closest airport to Sofifi).

Maleo, the only member of the monotypic genus Macrocephalon in the Megapode family, is endemic to the island of Sulawesi. We will be looking for it on this tour.

This tour provides some incredible birding opportunities with a dose of adventure too, likely to leave you with a firm desire to explore further throughout this bird-filled Indonesian archipelago. Both islands are to the east of the famous Wallace Line, an invisible faunal boundary line which divides the biogeographical realms of Asia and Wallacea (a transitional zone between Asia and Australia) and named after the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. The avifauna of Sulawesi and Halmahera is distinctly Wallacean, headlined by the bizarre mound-nesting megapode, Maleo on Sulawesi and the Standardwing (also known as Wallace’s Standardwing or Standardwing Bird-of-paradise), whose raucous calls echo through the forests on Halmahera, as they bounce around their display leks – a magical sight.

We will visit a lek of the rather unique (Wallace’s) Standardwing, a range-restricted bird-of-paradise and one of many spectacular birds we will look for on Halmahera.

The birding on these islands is excellent, with a variety of stunningly colored endemic kingfishers which illuminate the forest in the Sulawesi lowlands (such as Sulawesi Lilac Kingfisher, Green-backed (Blue-headed) Kingfisher, and Sulawesi Dwarf Kingfisher), the Hylocitrea (a highly sought-after monotypic family), the enigmatic Geomalia (an aberrant ground thrush), and the Satanic Nightjar in the mountains. Further to the aforementioned Standardwing, the island of Halmahera also supports the huge Ivory-breasted Pitta, several spectacular kingfishers such as Common Paradise Kingfisher, Blue-and-white Kingfisher, and Sombre Kingfisher, the unobtrusive Scarlet-breasted Fruit Dove, the bizarre Moluccan Owlet-nightjar, and Halmahera Paradise-crow (a member of the bird-of-paradise family).

A Green-backed (Blue-headed) Kingfisher sits patiently in the forests of northern Sulawesi.

The above are just a few of the potential highlight birds we will be looking for during this tour. Some of the many other targets include Gurney’s Eagle, Sulawesi Nightjar, Purple-bearded Bee-eater, Sulawesi Pitta, North Moluccan Pitta, Invisible Rail, Blue-faced Rail, Grey-headed Fruit Dove, White-necked Myna, Red-backed Thrush, Ashy Woodpecker, Knobbed Hornbill, Sulawesi Hornbill, Blyth’s Hornbill, Yellow-billed Malkoha, Ochre-bellied Boobook, Halmahera Boobook, Scaly-breasted Kingfisher, Beach Kingfisher, Great-billed Kingfisher, Azure Dollarbird, Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher, Great Shortwing, Sulawesi Streaked Flycatcher, Malia, Rufous-bellied Triller, Piping Crow, and Goliath Coucal. There are also plenty of brightly colored parrots (especially on Halmahera, which has a more Australasian feel than Sulawesi) such as White Cockatoo, Moluccan Eclectus, Great-billed Parrot, Violet-necked Lory, Chattering Lory, Moluccan King Parrot, and Moluccan Hanging Parrot. A highly rewarding and thoroughly exciting tour is guaranteed here!

This exciting Sulawesi and Halmahera birding tour can easily be combined with some of our other Indonesian birding tours, such as those that cover the endemic-rich Lesser Sunda Islands (before this tour) or West Papua (after this tour).