This year, the 10th Borneo Bird Festival took place in its inaugural home ground at the Rainforest Discovery Center or RDC in Sepilok, Sandakan. This is also in the east coast part of Sabah Borneo.
Being one of the most influential bird watching events held in Malaysia, this festival sees a beautiful balance among nature, conservation and most importantly education.
Never before has a yearly bird festival take the initiative to promote bird conservation and awareness on such a large scale, and the Borneo Bird Festival is one to do it.
Review Of The Borneo Bird Festival 2018
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| Entrance to the Rainforest Discovery Centre in Sepilok, Sandakan |
Created purely by bird watchers for bird lovers, this unique festival was conceptualized by the Sandakan Borneo Bird Club back in 2008.
Originally, with the influence of the bird club and its members, the word spread around to what it has become today.
This year, the bird festival saw over 2000 participants and visitors attending, with fringe events, conservation talks and a variety of vendors.
The overall atmosphere of the event was more curiosity than a general event as visitors were keen to see and learn about birds and bird watching.
This year around the festival saw industry players from the tour agencies, nature resorts, optics, cameras and NGOs participating.
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Datuk Rosmadi Datu Sulai giving his speech on behalf of Datuk Christina Liew
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Official Opening And Speech
The official opening of the event was launched by YB Datuk Rosmadi Datu Sulai, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment Sabah.
Originally, YB Datuk Christina Liew, who is the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment for Sabah, but due to unfortunate circumstances, she was unable to attend this event.
In his speech, he clearly wanted Sabah to be a leader in the bird watching industry. This was made into a mission for the Borneo Bird Club President Gary Albert.
Bird watching is a lucrative business where it is bringing in quality visitors who will not stinge on services and accommodation.
This was also compared to general commercial tourism in terms of tourism revenue or tourism spending in Sabah.
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Guest during the launching of the Borneo Bird Festival 2018 at RDC in Sandakan
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Datuk Rosmadi also put it as a comparison with golf tourism, where golfers will fly in for at least five days to play some of the unique golf courses in Sabah.
He mentioned that if the golfers could do that, why not promote bird watching in Sabah on a similar level.
The opening ceremony was closed with a launching of a new bird book on Borneo by Wong Tsu Shi, with Datuk Rosmadi.
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Some of the trails where the bird race is conducted
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Bird Race And Bird Photography Competition
This years bird race saw 12 teams participating in a two-day race to spot the most number of birds around the Rainforest Discovery Center. In the end, the winning team was spotted a record-breaking number of 120 birds.
For the bird photography contest, a total of 40 entrants were collected a year before the actual festival date, and it was judged on the final day of the festival.
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Sanjit giving his talk about merging Arts and Science
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Talks At The Borneo Bird Festival
As usual, every year, several reputable speakers will be invited to give their 30-minute talks which cover conservation, bird migration, bird tourism and also about birding in other countries.
Speakers came from as far as Cambodia and even Kuala Lumpur to share their expertise on the various subjects including a strong focus on nature conservation.
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The Borneo Bird Run 2018 winners
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Borneo Bird Run
A special bird-themed marathon that is in the third year was one of the general public highlights on Sunday where over 500 participants from around Sandakan turned up for the Borneo Bird Run.
The event is a fun run which takes runners through the inner roads of Sepilok, and through the nature trails of the RDC before finishing at the event grounds.
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One of the marathon winners was also celebrating his birthday on the same day
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Some of the runners came dressed with the bird theme as it was purely a fun run, and everyone finished the run, to collect the marathon medal.
Photos at the Borneo Bird Festival 2018
Below are some random photos were taken during the two-day bird watching event here in Sandakan, Sabah. Photos were all taken using my Oppo R9s Smartphone.
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The opening performance for the Borneo Bird Festival 2018
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Main registration section for the festival
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The food and drink vendors at the event in RDC, Sandakan
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A Zumba session taking place at the festival
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Datuk Rosmadi checking out the Birds of Borneo book by Wong Tsu Shi during the launch
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Cambodia birding group at their booth during the festival
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One of the NGO booths during the Borneo Bird Festival
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Taking a selfie moment with Mr Henry Goh of Malaysia Nature Society and BirdLife International
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The amazing bird watchers and bird guides of Sabah Borneo
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Conclusion
With the success of this event is fully managed by the Sandakan
Borneo Bird Club, this years event saw a slight rise in new bird watchers, naturalist and also conservationist that attended the event.
Having being managed independently, this is truly one of the best homegrown events that take place in Sandakan and known as the
Borneo Bird Festival.
For the next event, the Borneo Bird Festival 2019 will most likely take place in the city of Tawau, which is further southeast of Sabah Borneo.
