Indigenous peoples have many interesting tales about the rainforest and its animals as a means to convey their respect of the immense diversity and magnificence, as do ROBERT DECANDIDO & DEBORAH ALLEN, who visited Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Sabah.

Written by Robert Decandido & Deborah Allen on 14 Jun 2005 with 0 comments. Be the first!

During our time at the Tabin Wildlife Resort in Sabah, we heard many stories about the rainforest birds and how they came to be. Here are three of the best. The first story evolved from our own ornithological research in Borneo. The two other stories were kindly translated and called to our attention by the Tabin staff. Whether these stories are partially or entirely true, we cannot say for sure. We do think that they convey the feeling of diversity and magnificence of the rainforest.

How Sunbirds Get Their Colours

Biologists working in the old world tropics have recently discovered that birds can enhance, and sometimes even alter their colours by feeding upon certain kinds of foods. We decided to test this remarkable discovery by studying sunbirds, perhaps the best known family of birds here in Southeast Asia. We hypothesized that drab males should be most interested in feeding upon the showiest flowers. We did indeed find such "cloudy" males clustered around flamboyant blooms (Photo 1).

We watched ugly sunbirds feeding upon showy blooms for a few days, and then went to re-find these same males in the small trees and bushes at the edge of the rainforest in their new apparel. The photograph of the Crimson Sunbird (Photo 2) comes from the lowlands, while the Temminck's Sunbird (Photo 3) was captured on Mt. Kinabalu. These are the first photos of their kind that show the importance of extreme sugars to sunbirds over and over again.

However, what really blew our socks off was watching what happened to these little vampires on subsequent days if they spent too much time chasing other sunbirds and not enough time feeding at those flowers. See Photo 4. This is of course why penguins look the way they do: there are no flamboyant flowers in Antarctica, just iceberg lettuce and anchovies.

Sound and Vision

Here in the Old World, the warblers like the Mountain Leaf Warbler (Photo 5) and the Arctic Warbler (Photo 6) are not particularly attractive. We apologise for even showing these two photos. In their defense, we will say that these are warblers in name only, more closely related to the flycatchers than anything else. On the other hand, the flycatchers here are pretty spectacular. Altogether there are about nine other electric blue flycatcher species on this island besides these three. Our favourite is the Paradise Flycatcher, though that one is white and black. Sorry but we cannot show the latter species. It is so spectacular, the government here pointedly refuses to grant permission for international export of any image of the Paradise of Borneo.

The Ibidem people of Borneo have several myths they tell about how these blue flycatchers came to be. My favourite begins as all stories do: A long, long time ago while the Ibidem ancestors still lived and hunted in the primary rainforest, the tree cover was so thick that it was almost impossible to see the sky. In fact, when the Ibidem people saw blue in the tree canopy, they thought it was blue fruit. They also believed that this fruit only fell to the ground at night, and that it must be so sweet that the forest animals ate every bit of it before dawn. One year the Ibidem people saw more blue in the canopy than ever before, yet all the animals had become thin. The people thought some god somewhere must be playing a very mean joke on them. How could so much blue fruit be up in the trees but all of the animals (and the Ibid too) be starving?

The elders of the tribe decided to hold a contest. They summoned the best hunters from all parts of the forest to come and shoot the blue fruit down from the tops of the trees. On the day of the contest, the best hunters came to take their best shot with their best arrows. Lo and behold, even though their arrows made it all the way to the tree canopy, no blue fruits fell to the ground. Instead, the arrows lodged in the heads of the trees, making the trees weep in pain. The tears the trees shed were blue, like small sweet fruits. But instead of falling to the forest floor like rain, the tears of the trees became many species of blue birds. These blue birds flew down into the branches of the low trees and onto the roofs of the longhouses where the Ibidem slept. The birds then sang sweet songs to the people telling them that if the bowmen would stop shooting at the trees, the blue flycatchers would eat the insects that bothered the Ibidem people so much. And that is why, to this day many of these blue birds, and their friends the swallows, nest close to people in the rainforest.

Born Again

Not so long ago, the chief of the raptors went to one of his braves who had not yet earned all his crest feathers. "Fly straight away to the jungle lodge on the river and learn why all those people come to watch our friends, the birds," said the chief. "If they are good people, leave with them this message that I give to you. If you judge them to be dangerous to us and to the forest, take care and come back to us so that we will know to leave this place to them."

Early the next morning, the Hawk-Eagle took the message in his left foot and flew fast through the tall trees to reach the lodge on the river, just after dawn. When he landed in a tree in a clearing just beside the lodge, the brave Hawk-Eagle gave the calls he remembered the elders made to scare the monkeys through the tree-tops. Soon all the people in the lodge had gathered on the balcony to see who made the strange cries near them.

From his perch, the brave Hawk-Eagle had a classical dilemma: How could he determine if these people were good or not? He wanted to deliver his message, but people had begun to point things that looked like guns towards him, while others just pointed and talked loudly. He was also worried that the people would only act good for a while so that they could get the message he held in his left foot, so he hid the message against his body. He decided to ask the people a simple question: "Who am I?" (Deborah Allen's photo of the brave Hawk-Eagle was taken right about this time, when the raptor was trying to decide about the people. If you look closely at the photo, you can obviously see the left foot held against his body with the hidden message.)

You have probably already guessed what happened next. Of course, the people began to discuss amongst themselves whether he was a hawk or an eagle. Then they began to quibble whether he was a Blyth or a Wallace or even a magical raptor that was changeable from one to the other. Someone even suggested that they should collect him as a specimen.

(Deborah told me the ending, though she still can't believe what she saw.) First, the brave Hawk-Eagle flew up from the tree and began to climb higher and higher in the sky. By doing this, he could give the people more clues. But just as he was about to begin circling above the earth, a thunderstorm began. Lightening struck his left foot, and he dropped the message. It fell like an arrow from the sky. (By this time it had begun to rain very hard, and Deborah had to run fast inside the lodge to keep her camera gear from getting soaked.)

All day the people waited and waited for the rain to stop. And when the rain finally subsided just a little, almost everyone emerged to see what had happened to the Hawk-Eagle. What they saw instead was this: in the distance a great tree had emerged right about the place where the message fell to the earth. The people could see all the forest birds flying toward the highest branches of this great, new tree. Even the squirrels were heading in the direction of the tree.

(Right about then, Deborah said that she noticed a great raptor in the very top of the tree that flashed its tail towards the people.) Everyone became silent. It was almost dark now. A far off voice called to them: "Can you guess who I am?" And then he was gone.

For those of you who are interested, the people finally did determine the identity of the Hawk-Eagle. And they enjoyed doing it. You too can probably guess by now. And what about the Hawk-Eagle, did he ever determine if the people were good or not? Yes actually, for when he flew, he could clearly see that the people were happy to find the great tree in the field. He knew then that the forest had a bright future once more in Borneo. He returned to the raptor elders and told them that the people and their kids are all right.