• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Map
• Reference and further resources

Site description (2001 baseline)
Mt Matutum is a steep mountain north of the town of General Santos in South Cotabato Province. A recent forest cover survey reported that the forest stands on Mt Matutum are found at 1,290 to 2,270 m, and are therefore all montane in type. Mt Matutum has a forest reserve of 14,000 ha, of which c.3,000 ha is reported to still be primary forest. The boundaries of this reserve are used to define the IBA.

Key biodiversity
Many of the threatened and restricted-range species of the Mindanao and Eastern Visayas Endemic Bird Area have been recorded on Mt Matutum, most of them during collecting expeditions in the 1960s. They include several montane forest specialists, which are likely to still have substantial populations in the remaining montane forests there, including Mindanao Racquet-tail, Whiskered Flowerpacker, Olive-capped Flowerpecker, Black-masked White-eye and the threatened Blue-capped Kingfisher. However, almost all of the forest has been cleared from the lower slopes of Mt Matutum, and this IBA is unlikely to support significant populations of the lowland and mid-altitude forest specialists which were found there in the past, such as Mindanao Bleeding-heart, Mindanao Brown-dove, Spotted Imperial-pigeon, Wattled Broadbill, Philippine Leafbird and Celestial Monarch. Philippine Eagle has recently been recorded on Mt Matutum, and this IBA is probably still important for the conservation of this critically endangered species. A subspecies of Snowy-browed Flycatcher, Ficedula hyperythra matutumensis is only known from Mt Matutum.

Non-bird biodiversity: Several species of threatened mammals are known from Mt Matutum.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Mount Matutum (Philippines). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/mount-matutum-iba-philippines on 22/12/2024.