Borneo Birding

Your journey begins in Kota Kinabalu with a night at The Luma, a contemporary hotel with thoughtful design that draws inspiration from Borneo’s natural forms and textures. It’s an easy and comfortable base to settle in after your arrival, with good food, calm interiors, and a chance to prepare for the adventure ahead.

Heading inland, Tambunan offers a slower pace and a first introduction to Borneo’s montane forests. The lodge is simple but welcoming, surrounded by hills where cool air, bamboo groves, and bird calls dominate. It’s a natural pause on the road towards Kinabalu, where early morning walks bring you close to village life and the first sightings of Borneo’s endemic species.

Two nights inside Kinabalu Park place you at the edge of one of Southeast Asia’s most extraordinary ecosystems. The lodges here provide direct access to the park’s trails, where orchids, pitcher plants, and cloud forest stretch upwards toward the granite summit. Time is spent walking with guides, exploring montane forest alive with birdlife, and absorbing the cool, high-altitude atmosphere before descending once more.

Next, you swap mountain trails for the Kinabatangan River, where the floodplains brim with wildlife. At Hornbill Lodge you stay right in Bilit village, with boat safaris at dawn and dusk revealing proboscis monkeys, hornbills, and perhaps elephants along the water’s edge. Nights are marked by the chorus of frogs and cicadas, mornings by mist rising off the river — a setting that gives a true sense of life in Borneo’s wetlands.

Your final stop is deep inside the Danum Valley Conservation Area, one of the richest tracts of primary rainforest left in Borneo. Two nights at Borneo Rainforest Lodge immerse you in the full intensity of the jungle — giant dipterocarp trees, swinging orangutans, and a symphony of insects and birds that continues day and night. Here the forest feels timeless, and walks along trails or canopy walkways underline why Danum is considered the jewel of Sabah’s conservation efforts.