Half an hour from the Sepilok area is the Sandakan jetty from which we boarded our Kinabatangan Wetland Resort(KWR) boat for the resort, about 1.5 hour away, across the opening of the bay into the Sulu Sea and into the Kinabatangan river estuary. The sea was calm and as we entered the estuary, the nipah palms fringed the shoreline as the river started…..
On the way to the KWR along the kinabatangan river…..the water is coffee brown in colour….arriving at the KWR jetty which is on a small tributary of the main river…..palm fringed shoresa wet welcome to the KWR….the rooms are accessed via this boardwalk and there are plenty of birds around….Along the footpath, this pregnant colugo hung from the treeand checked us out….
The afternoon started with a water safari of which there were to be several….
we soon saw our first proboscis monkey high up a tree along the river…here a female with her snub noseand another female with her long white tailof course the male proboscis monkey with the pendulous nose is the more impressive…His rich shade of brown is contrasted by the grey limbs…But we were on a river safari so we watched out for life in the river too….a large 4m long crocodile swam quietly not far awayand sightings of the majestic white belly sea eagle were frequentLesser adjutant storks high up in the treeslesser adjutant stork in flightand then a flock of 4 hornbills made their way across the riverstopping just long enough in the trees for us to shoot….the Bushy Crested Hornbill…I guess the one with the ebony black beak is the male and the one with the white beak, the female…note the bicoloured tailand when we moored by the shore to have breakfast, this charming ashy tailorbird came by with a beakful of nesting material….ashy tailorbirdCommoner birds like the collared kingfisher were also presentthis impressive nest belongs to the black and red broadbill but there was no sign of activity
A crested goshawk soared over ussilver leaf monkeyCruising the river and ox-bow lake, there were lots of egrets showing us the way…
We tried but sadly failed to find any pygmy elephants on the shore despite going to the upper reaches of kinabatangan beyond Abai resort….. the wildlife spotting from the boat was slightly disappointing when compared to the sightings when cruising on the actual Amazon….the amazon has more colourful birds etc….but for the Kinabatangan river, aka the Amazon of the East, it’s not bad.
The Natural Traveller 
Hi Ron,
Very nice series of photos of your holidays and the birding. Are you on holidays with the family? Thanks for sharing