Afterthought: Lessons from a Silvery Kingfisher

By Julius R. Paner

In my early years of birding one of the special birds I chased and wanted to be instantly included to my life list is the Southern Silvery Kingfisher (SSK) - Ceyx argentatus. Life list is a cumulative record of observed birds since day 1 of an individual’s birding milestone. Most birders opt to extend their record for personal fulfillment, inciting them to go to places with higher level of avian endemism, hoping to add few more species in their respective records.

The Southern Silvery Kingfisher is a Philippine Endemic bird located only in Mindanao and recently considered Near-threated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) due to habitat loss. In 2019 I spent exactly eleven months to look for this bird at the Philippine Eagle Center (PEC) in Malagos, Davao City. I could hardly remember escaping a single session every first Saturday of the month just to see SSK face to face. That same year we had a Big Year of sort with my birding friends in Davao where we targeted to see 200 birds and I surely could not afford to miss SSK in that list. After series of PEC visit I finally nailed one. That was 3 days before 2019 ended and definitely a great finale of my birding-filled year. That was also a culmination of the creation of Big Year Davao Group, a team made up of avian enthusiasts from all over Davao Region.

Looking at how I started loving birds in the wild and up to this point I have always considered SSK very special. In 2020 during the pandemic we had this collaboration project with Malagos Garden Resort (MGR), one of the most popular and high-end highland resorts in Davao City, for bird watching and bird conservation program, an initiative I could say very timely because the same program at PEC just suddenly evaporated into thin air with no clear reasons at all. I don't know. I'm not sure.

Well, like a flower full of caress our partnership with MGR blossomed. In our first few sessions here we were treated with sights of SSKs, sometimes even in pair, other than the 71 bird species we discovered. And yes, we always saw the bird practically everywhere within the resort compound. We made it our flagship species that symbolizes friendship and lasting partnership. And lately we discovered that MGR hosts one of SSK’s nesting areas. What else could be lovelier than that?

Now that we have witnessed good stories unfolding before our very eyes I think it is safe to say that the Southern Silvery Kingfisher is about to take over as a promising Mindanao icon for wildlife conservation. While this bird has what it takes to be a revelation, it has, in a way, gave me so much teachings in life. Its existence left me in awe until now, maybe because it has led me to meet new friends outside of my family and workplace, and that it provided me more force to level up my passion for conservation and the environment. That eleven long months of chasing the Southern Silvery Kingfisher has inspired me to appreciate the virtue of patience, and that in life, failures - and more failures, are pre-requisites to success.