Borneo Bird Photography
What you'll see
The journey, one day at a time
Arrive Kinabalu National Park
Arrive in Kinabalu National Park, met and transferred to your accommodation. Kinabalu adds the montane dimension — endemics and flora found only in the cool cloud forest.
Kinabalu National Park
Walk the mountain garden trails for pitcher plants and orchids. A dawn start for the highland birds below Mount Kinabalu.
Kinabalu National Park
A dawn start for the highland birds below Mount Kinabalu.
To Sepilok
Transfer to Sepilok. Visit the orangutan and sun bear centres, then bird the canopy walkway. A morning at the rehabilitation centre and an afternoon at the Discovery Centre.
Sepilok
A morning at the rehabilitation centre and an afternoon at the Discovery Centre. Sepilok eases you into Borneo with near-guaranteed orangutans before the wilder forests.
To Kinabatangan River
Transfer to Kinabatangan River. Dawn and dusk river cruises for proboscis monkeys, orangutans and elephants. Boat the oxbow lakes and tributaries for birds and crocodiles.
Kinabatangan River
Boat the oxbow lakes and tributaries for birds and crocodiles. A night walk for civets, frogs and roosting birds, plus more river time. Nowhere else delivers Borneo's headline mammals as reliably, or as comfortably, as the Kinabatangan.
Kinabatangan River
A night walk for civets, frogs and roosting birds, plus more river time.
Departure
A final morning in Kinabatangan River — a last outing or a slow start as time allows — before the transfer onward and the journey home.
The season changes what you see.
Peak season
Driest, clearest highland weather for birds and the mountain.
Good season
Montane birds are resident; mist and rain are common at altitude.
Hand-picked camps & lodges
Sukau Rainforest Lodge
A pioneering eco lodge on the Kinabatangan, National Geographic Unique Lodges, superb for the river cruises.
Sutera Mountain Lodge
A comfortable lodge near Kinabalu Park HQ, well-placed for the montane birding.
Kinabatangan Wetlands Resort
A comfortable riverside resort with easy access to the wildlife corridor.
Sepilok Nature Resort
A garden resort beside the orangutan centre, the comfortable Sepilok base.
Kinabalu Pine Resort
A hillside resort with mountain views, a practical base for the cloud-forest trails.
Bilit Rainforest Lodge
A relaxed riverside lodge at Bilit, good value for the dawn and dusk cruises.
Make it yours.
Add nights, swap a park, extend to the coast — this route is a starting point, not a fixed menu. Tell us how you travel and we'll route the rest.