Birding PICOP

With our guide, the legendary Felizardo Goring (second from right)

 I certainly did not know that a Sunday afternoon at the bazaar with PH native tree champion Cel Tungol would lead all the way to the forests of PICOP in Bislig, Surigao del Sur, Mindanao. 

PICOP is the acronym for  the Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines which held dominion over 2000 square kilometers of lowland rainforests in eastern Mindanao. Awarded a logging concession in 1952, it grew to become a multibillion peso industry and operated the only fully integrated pulp and paper mill in Southeast Asia. Political and economic conditions exacerbated by a host of other problems, however, caused its demise in the early 2000s, leaving in its wake a forest landscape decimated and destroyed.  

The shutdown of PICOP opened the floodgates to illegal loggers, slash and burn farmers,  subsistence woodcutters, poachers and smugglers, allowing the plunder of the forests to continue unabatedly .

Pete Simpson who wrote the section on PICOP in the book 125 Birding sites of Southeast Asia said that while the forests continue to diminish, PICOP remains “a reliable site for a number of specialties like the stunning wattled broadbill and celestial monarch”. 

However, he said, many birds, especially the larger pigeons and hornbills are becoming harder to find. He does provide consolation, saying that for now, PICOP "offers an easy introduction to the lowland forest avifauna of Mindanao" and that it still is possible to see around a hundred species in a couple of days there.

There is always a sense of urgency when birders speak of PICOP.   They say, go while PICOP and the birds are still there. 

So, when Cel told me she was going there to bird, I was overcome by impulse and  asked her if I could go with her.

And so I went.  

I think myself incredibly lucky to have been to PICOP.  Even if I did not see its star bird which is the Celestial Monarch.  (It was heard only, twice) The repeated sightings of Southern Rufuous Hornbills and Writhed Hornbills, flying over our heads as we walked Road 4  of PICOP was awe-inspiring enough.

Birders who went before I did told me stories of how depressed they were—to see deforestation first hand and to hear the incessant hum of chainsaws all day long.

Despite this, the forests persist and persevere; the birds are still there. 

So is our guide Zardo Goring who has been showing the birds of PICOP to generations of birders for the past 30 years.

Daghang Salamat, Zardo!  Thanks, Cel and Jude for letting me tag along.

December 14-17, 2023

The roads of PICOP are white because of limestone

The Azure-breasted Pitta was one my main targets at PICOP.  I had missed it in Bohol.

Southern Rufous Hornbills were flying around all the time

Seeing the birds of PICOP was priceless already.Laying eyes on Tinuy-an Falls was more than a bonus. It is said to be the widest waterfall in the Philippines.”