The Birds of Cebu and Bohol

Raul Puentespina was building his house in Consolacion town when he had his first glance at the Black Shama, a bird found only in Cebu, locally called Siloy, also Cebu Daily News’ mascot. Little did he know that fateful day would be the beginning of a bird-watching friendship with two others that will culminate tomorrow with the launching “The Birds of Cebu and Bohol,” at six o’clock in the evening at the Ayala Center Cebu’s Activity Center.

The book is University of San Carlos (USC) Press’ latest addition to the very thin body of works on local wildlife produced in the Philippines.

Now based largely in Hong Kong as a consultant and trainer for nongovernment charities, Raul flies back to Cebu every month to join Nilo Arribas and Bobby Kintanar, his co-authors, on their continuing forays into the world of bird-watching. Nilo is a management consultant based in the US but eventually moved to Manila and then to Cebu while Bobby is an information technology professional also here in Cebu.

After searching the Internet to get to know the bird he saw that fateful day in Consolacion, Raul eventually landed at the homepage Wild Bird Club of the Philippines where he e-mailed its president, Mike Lu. The rest, as they say, is history. He was introduced to Nilo and I hate to say this but when they finally met, they figuratively hit two birds with one stone! Nilo had been asking around to go to Consolacion and to Tabunan to look for birds to photograph. Raul not only had a house under construction in Consolacion but he also had a farm in the hills of Tabunan way beyond Busay and Babag.

Nilo has been engaged in bird photography with his friend Romy Ocon one of the best in the Philippines) and later lent Raul his camera and that is how Raul finally got to photograph a Black Shama at the Tabunan forest. The two became members of the Philippine Bird Photography Forum and soon got linked with Bobby Kintanar who was also into bird photography. Bobby had been posting bird photos on Flick’r where Nilo was also posting and commenting.

During one of their trips up in the mountains, they passed by the scene of an accident which apparently jolted them into realizing that all good things do not last and that before long they might leave nothing for the next generations to see. All three decided therefore to make the first run of the book using print-on-demand and to initially launch it at the 3rd Bird Festival held in Cebu in September 2007.

And, as fate would have it, a priest photographer, Fr. Generoso Rebayla, Jr, SVD, incidentally the vice president for finance at USC, came into contact with Nilo and before long USC Press came into the picture.

A nonprofit launching price of P400 will mark tomorrow’s launch which is open to the public. The birds presented in the book are representative of both the most common species often seen in backyards and rarely observed species not only in Cebu and Bohol but throughout the country.

With nearly 300 pages of full-color photographs, “The Birds of Cebu and Bohol” provides basic information about wild birds naturally occurring in the islands of Cebu and Bohol. The main goal of the authors was to drum up interest in the thriving wild birds in these two provinces. The book was designed with newbies or first time birdwatchers in mind.

Asked what is the rarest of the birds they have ever shot, the immediate response was the Cebu Flower Pecker, which Raul describes as the Holy Grail of Philippine bird photography.

The authors’ next projects? Of course, more books about other provinces in the Philippines and ultimately a thick book called “The Birds of the Philippines.” Along the way, perhaps a book here and there on specific types like one for kingfishers of the Philippines and another for owls of the Philippines, and many more.

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Today is the 72nd anniversary of Japanese invasion of Cebu. It took the Imperial Japanese Forces all of four months before finally landing in Cebu after taking Manila because of the dogged resistance of Filipino and American soldiers holed up in Bataan. That is, until their eventual surrender on April 9, which we marked yesterday as Araw ng Kagitingan, our Day of Valor and Bravery.

As Russia hovers like a bully over the Ukraine, and as China rears its ugly head over our territorial waters, let us never forget that there is never any justification to invade another country by brute force.

If there is any lesson to be learned from the Second World War, it is this: Look how tight we are as friends now with Japan and how much we rely on their products to run our nation if not our houses. And, more to the point, how much we rely on that country to loan us money for our multi-billion infrastructure projects that are often carried out by Japanese construction companies.

Who could have imagined that seven decades ago, militarists running their country thought that invading the Philippines was the best way to get at our resources and our economy?

Today, what would life be without Japanese machines, electronics and cars?

We virtually have everything essential that Japan has, except for its strict time management, self-discipline and, most of all, deep sense of personal and familial honor, to the point of committing suicide even at the mere hint of corruption. In the Philippines, when politicians get accused of stealing billions, they go to court. The Japanese go to the top floor of a building and jump.