Early next morning we took an ojek (motorcycle taxi) to Toraut, a part of the national park where most birders go when they bring a visit to this park. It is a 12 kilometre ride and this is also the place where the ranger station is located. It is also one of the most accessible parts of the park. But also this part of the park is threatened by advancing agriculture. A small river separates the park from the fields and it seems only a matter of time before also Toraut is ‘swallowed’ by fields and plantations. We agreed with Hendrik, the main ranger, to take us to the park to see what birds we can find. Hendrik is not really fanatical and with a lot of effort we manage to find only 21 different species of birds during the whole morning, including the Pied Cuckoo-Shrike, the Ashy Woodpecker and the Maroon-chinned Fruit-dove. It is mandatory to take a guide, which means that Hendrik doesn’t have to do a lot to get customers. So, getting tired isn’t necessary is what he probably thinks.

During our second full day of our visit we took an ojek at five in the morning to Tambun, on approximately 20 kilometres from Auntie Mien. Tambun is also famous among birders, because this is one of the last places left to see the Maleo bird in the wild. Officially, Tambun is part of the national park, but the reality is that Tambun is separated from the park by, indeed, fields and plantations. Only 5 hectares of the Tambun forests are left, and the only reason that this part survived is because of the fact that around 50 Maleo birds still live in this forest. The Maleo is a very special bird. The chicken-kind of bird does not hatch the eggs herself, but uses geothermal warmth to do it. She buries her eggs in sand that has a constant temperature of around 30-35 degrees Celsius. She has the skills the find the right spot and determines how deep she must bury the eggs to reach the perfect temperature. The Tambun forest has a hot spring which means that thermal warmth is available to hatch the eggs. After around 60 days, the chicks are hatched and the chicks dig themselves upwards after which they rise from the earth. There is nobody to take care for them, so for survival they are completely depending on themselves. But they have one big advantage; they can immediately fly.

During the third day of our stay we took again a very early morning motor taxi to the so called Malibagu Road. Malibagu Road is the road between Duloduo and the village of Malibagu, and it intersects a part of Banani Nani Wartabone National Park and is for that reason a great place to watch birds. We decided to ask the ojek to take us fifteen kilometres along the road, form where we walked back to Duloduo. The area is hilly, which means that you have sometimes great views over the canopy of the jungle, a great way to see canopy birds. Another great advantage of Malibagu road is that you don’t need a guide, which means that you can bird all by yourself. It was going to be a very nice day. We saw many birds including extensive views on the Knobbed Hornbill, White-necked Myna, Spot-tailed Goshawk, Pygmy Hanging-parrot, Sulawesi Serpent-eagle, White-backed Woodswallow, two endemic species of Flowerpeckers and four different species of Sunbirds.

Despite the fact that the forests of Banani Nani Wartabone National Park around Duloduo are degrading in a fast pace, it is still an interesting place to go bird watching. The birding is often slow, but at the end of the day you probably still have a list of very interesting birds. We especially liked Malibagu road because it gives you the possibility to go by yourself and it has a wide range of species that you will also find in the official parts of the park. Unfortunately, the road can be a little busy, which means that you often have make place for the traffic. Passing vehicles will undoubtedly hit their horns when they see ‘bulehs’, and ‘hello mister’ are certainly the words that you hear most often that day, regarding being male of female. But unless these small drawbacks, you should give it a try.