Text and photos by Ian Hall

I was up before dawn to watch the sun rise from the view point at Borneo Rainforest Lodge. I could see nothing on account of cloud and so I lay down on the bench and went to sleep for a while.

I was woken up by an orang-utan rustling the branches above me. I ignored it and rolled over on my binoculars-rolled-up-in-my-hat pillow. Another rustle and debris showered the observation deck.
‘OK you bugger, I’m getting up’ I grumbled and went to check on the progress of the view.

The reason I had come to the viewpoint was to see the dipterocarps fruiting. This tree family is the cornerstone of rainforest ecology and their fruiting occurs sporadically. From the lodge by the river I could see that a lot of dipterocarps were fruiting and wanted to see what they looked like from above.

Rainforests for all their splendour are rarely anything other then green. The subtle colours of the winged fruit change this in a way that although not as showy as autumn in a temperate forest, is no less dramatic.

Viewed from above the forest canopy is tinted light green through greenish-yellow to russet-brown. Dipterocarp seeds hang wings-down and so close up there is a uniformity of the seeds’ alignment that differentiates them from leaves. Each crown looks like it has just been to the hair salon for some tip highlights. Colours are lighter in young seeds and darker as the seed wings mature and harden.

Even the mengaris trees (Koompassia Excelsa – a legume not a dipterocarp) are getting in on the action and have lost all their leaves in favour of singled-winged fruit pods that turn their entire crown red. In my six years in Malaysia I have not seen the mengaris fruiting before and they are fruiting everywhere I have been recently from Danum to Sepilok to Mt. Kinabalu.

Witnessing this phenomena is made more poignant by the knowledge that this is a mast fruiting event. The most remarkable thing about dipterocarps is the fact that once every 3 to 10 years almost every tree in a big region like North Borneo decides to fruit simultaneously.

Scientists presume that regional climate patterns set them off but it’s not really clear. As to the ecological function; the most popular theory is that it is a tactic to overwhelm predators so that enough seeds survive to germinate.

Feeling refreshed and no longer sweating from the climb up to the viewpoint I mooched on down and was given another treat on this magical morning; a lifer.

Lifer is birdwatcher speak for a bird that you haven’t seen before and the fella in question was a male white-tailed flycatcher Cyornis concretus. Peering sideways around a tree trunk I located the fluff of black with a white belly that I had caught in the corner of my eye. The dark colour became blue when seen through the binoculars and he had a thicker bill than is normal for a flycatcher.

He was a handsome fella and perched obligingly for me until I started to get bored. He even turned around so I could get a look at his back and front. After a while I decided that either he had to move or I would. I went first and managed to get to within a few meters before he flew off.

Photos of this species are scarce on the internet but I managed to find the following courtesy of Troy Shortell at Oriental Bird Club Images.

It was past breakfast time and although I hadn’t eaten I didn’t feel hungry and irritable as I often am on these early morning jaunts. I was in no hurry to get back to the lodge and walked slowly kicking in the leaf litter at a carpet of flower parts and a few immature fruit.

From the ground it is difficult to see the dipterocarp fruit but branches high in the canopy where the epiphytes bristle were awash with white flowers of the dove orchid Dendrobium crumenatum and in the mid storey the tumbling red and orange flowers on climbing vines (the ubiquitous Bunga Api, bauhinia kockiana) kept the show going.

Within a week or so the forest will be raining seed helicopters and the wild pigs will be enjoying the good times.

The best photos I have found on the net of this fruiting event are by Cede Prudente in a sequence starting here

And another here

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