Ba Kelalan for Birds Lovers

INTRODUCTION:

Ba'kelalan is consist group of nine villages in the Highlands of  Lawas,Limbang Division, Sarawak, about 3,000 feet (910 m) above sea level and 4 km from the border with Indonesian Kalimantan. The villagers belong to the Lun Bawang tribe. The villages are Buduk Nur, Long Langai, Long Lemumut, Long Ritan, Long Rusu, Pa Tawing, Buduk Bui, Buduk Aru and Long Rangat.

The name Ba’Kelalan is derived from the Kelalan River and Ba’ which means rice field in the Lun Bawang language. Its population is about 1203 but as many as 8000 call it home.

 Ba'kelalan Airport has flights to Bario(Thursday) and to Lawas using 19-seater DHT aircraft.

Road access is possible via a 129 km former logging trail from Lawas using four-wheel-drive vehicles, but the road conditions can be particularly bad in the rainy season and the journey takes at least six hours. 

Rice production

Ba'kelalan paddy rice field

With water supply from the Kelalan river, the community have created well-irrigated padi fields  and grow the prized, small-grained “Highland Adan Rice” with fine, sweet grains.

Salt processing

Nearby salt water wells enable the community to produce an average of 40 kg of salt per week. The salt water is brought to the village and evaporated in a tank above a wood-fired stove; they take it in turns to stir the tank continuously for about five days as the crystals form and until the last water has been boiled away.

Home of many Borneo’s endemic species

Common Name                             Scientific Name

Bornean barbet                          – Megalaima eximia

Bornean Green Magpir             – Cissa jefferyi

Bornean Treepie                         – Dendrocitta cinerascens

Blue Banded Pitta                       – Pitta Baundii

Dulit Frogmouth                         – Batrachostomus harterti

Eyebrowed jumgle Flycatcher   – Rhinoyias gularis

Mountain bardet                         – Megalaima eximia

Mountain Wren babbler            – Napothera crasca

Whitehead’s spiderhunter         – Archnothera juliae

White headed’s Broadbill           – Calytomena whiteheadi

Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker    – Prionochilux Xanthopgius

And lot of common birds

                                                     

                                                          The Birders or the...

                                                             The Dulit frogmouth

                                                           Photo by Sang S.