Stuart Dashper and myself have just returned from a 3 week trip to
Peninsular Malaysia purely for the purpose of birding.We visited 4
sites-
Kuala Selangor - an area of mangrove forest and secondary woodland
Fraser's Hill & The Gap - montane forest
Taman Negara - lowland rainforest
Pasoh Forest Reserve - lowland swamp rainforest
We mainly stayed in low cost accommodation,some of it with few creature
comforts (the rat creatures thought it was comfortable) so it's lucky I
don't have a wife!My "husband" didn't seem to mind - he's a bloke
though...
We observed a total of 270 species of birds.Highlights are as follows:
KUALA SELANGOR
Yellow Bittern
Black Baza - on migration
Slaty-breasted Rail
Watercock - in nonbreeding plumage
Spotted Wood-owl - on Bukit Metawi,a hill just outside the park
Stork-billed Kingfisher - how does this bird stay upright?
Ruddy Kingfisher - great bird
Laced Woodpecker
Common Flameback
Mangrove Whistler
Mangrove Blue-flycatcher
Flyeater - a gerygone,only one in the area
Great Tit - in the mangroves
Scalet-backed Flowerpecker
FRASER'S HILL & THE GAP- this area is unbelievable,we spent a total of 9
days here & if you don't see something new every day you're not working
very hard!
Blyth's Hawk-eagle
Bar-backed Partridge - a group of 5 crossing the road on the
Telekom Loop
Blue-crowned Hanging-parrot
Chestnut-winged Hawk-cuckoo
Drongo-cuckoo - looks exactly like a drongo
Green-billed Malkoha
Red-headed Trogon
Red-bearded Bee-eater - this was the bird of the trip for me,stunning
& wierd,my kind of bird
Fire-tufted Barbet - you have to see this bird to believe it
Silver-breasted & Long-tailed Broadbill
Lesser Shortwing
Slaty-backed Forktail - YES!!!
Pygmy Blue-flycatcher
Sultan Tit
TAMAN NEGARA - a very popular nat.park with tourists who rarely do more
than go on a boat trip & visit the canopy walk that opens from 11 to
2:45(very bloody useful!)so tracks are quiet on the whole
Masked Finfoot - watched from a boat for 10 mins,it also very kindly
got out of the water to show us it's finny feet
Great Argus - to be renamed as the Great Ar-bus because that's how
big it is
Red-naped Trogon
Oriental Dwarf-kingfisher - so tiny
Buff-necked Woodpecker
Great Slaty Woodpecker
Helmeted Hornbill - a male feeding berries to a female-what an
absolute stunner (6 species of hornbill in TN)
PASOH - this is run by Malaysia's forestry research department,you need
permission to enter and it is very hard work & very slow but we did see
some very good birds.
Green Broadbill-my favourite broadbill,and that's saying something
Red-billed Malkoha
Scarlet-rumped Trogon
Red-crowned Barbet
Rufous-winged Philentoma
Plain Flowerpecker
There's been a drought in Malaysia,their wet season didn't eventuate so
disappointingly pittas were even more scarce than usual,we did hear
Banded & Garnet who were both uncooperative!Also no thrushes,they've all
gone back north & Malaysian Whistling-thrush gave us the slip - can't
count a silhouette!
I would recommend Malaysia to anyone,it's cheap,the food is good (not
the best in the world but enjoyable-this is a very important factor),the
climate is fantastic and we met some great people including a number of
very good local birders(Chou & Terry say hello,Chris Padley)
For more details please fell free to contact either one of us.
Susan Myers
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