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The Dulit frogmouth ( Batrachostomus harterti) is a little-known species of bird in the frogmouth family, Podargidae, with a patchily recorded distribution in the Borneo montane rain forests to which it is endemic. The species is Monotypic taxon.
The only other frogmouth of comparable size in Borneo is the large frogmouth ( B. auritus), with which the Dulit frogmouth forms a superspecies.HBW 5: 285. The large frogmouth is slightly larger (with a length of 39 – 42 cm) and paler; the crown is spotted and vermiculated rather than barred, the wing-coverts more heavily spotted, and the underparts plainer. No other frogmouth found in Borneo is more than 30 cm in length.
Its preferred habitat is lower montane forest of both primary and Secondary forest, at an elevation of 300 to 1500 m above sea level. At Mount Dulit it replaces the more widespread large frogmouth altitudinally, the latter being found at lower levels.
Voice
The call is not known for certain, though Tom Harrisson recorded a call in the Kelabit Highlands, which he attributed to this species, as " tuab tuab". The Kelabit language name for the frogmouth is Tu’ub or Suit tu’ub.
Distribution and habitat
The frogmouth is endemism to Borneo. Only eight Bird collections are known, taken from Mount Dulit, the Usun Apau Plateau and the Kelabit Highlands in Sarawak, and from Mount Liang Kubung in West Kalimantan. It has also been seen near Poring in the Kinabalu National Park in Sabah.Smythies & Davison (1998).Cleere & Nurney (1998).
Behaviour
Very little is known of this frogmouth's breeding or feeding habits. A female specimen taken on 19 November was ready to lay eggs. The stomach of a specimen taken in the Kelabit Highlands was full of Acrididae.
Status and conservation
The range of the Dulit frogmouth is estimated at 127,000 km2 and decreasing. It is restricted to the Bornean Mountains Endemic Bird Area and is threatened by habitat loss through logging and agriculture development. Its conservation status is considered by BirdLife International to be Least Concern. Proposed conservation measures include the investigation of the species’ ecology and the protection of suitable habitat.BLI species factsheet (2010).
Notes
Sources
(1998). 9781873403488, Pica Press. ISBN 9781873403488
(1998). 9789838120289, Natural History Publications (Borneo), in association with the Sabah Society. ISBN 9789838120289
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