endemicguides Birds Report – 19 Feb – 6 March 2017
We start 2017 with previous 2 short bird watching tours which with very limited target . follow by this 14 days tour from Kuala Lumpur-Kuala Selangor-Fraser Hill-Bukit Tinggi-KRAU forest-Taman Negara. Quite a lot of miss due to raining almost every evening especially Bukit Tinggi-KRAU-Taman Negara (think mostly we lost 3-5 days due to rain L)
with 2 Switzerland guests , we have very good start from Kuala Lumpur, got few very special target hit and we got first pitta (hooded pitta) and Frogmouth for guests. A lucky day where rain stop ~830pm and we reach there 845pm and got the buffy fish owl, Blyth’s frogmouth and another very special target (guests just saw it flying hmmmm and they mark it count as this is so special owl) .. 54 species for day 1
http://liewwkphoto.com/portfolio/liewwk-nature-pitta-fever/
Day 1 : 54 species
Next morning, we heading to Pulau Indah for another target, struggle a bit but we still finally got the Mangrove Pitta after 3-4 hours tried for few locations.
Following to Kuala Selangor, spend evening walking nearby mangrove … got most the targets hit again and customer favor is Common Flameback woodpecker … how I wish everyday got such easy target 😀 . it was heavy rain after dinner, but we still try our luck and YES. Got the Spotted wood owl just before another heavy rain hit …
Day 2 : 46 species
Morning, we heading to Natural Park. A long walk , got most the target again but missed out Copper-Throat Sunbird L … after lunch slowly travel to Fraser Hill, on the way… what a lucky under a fruiting tree easily hit few target : Yellow-Crowned Barbet, Gold Whiskered Barbet … follow Chestnut-naped Forktail , Dark-Sided Flycatcher , Temminck’s Sunbird, Scaly-Breasted Bulbul etc …. Ohh forgot Rufous-Bellied Swallow and family of Silver-Breasted Broadbill make our day .
Day 3 : 50 species
For Day 4, very good weather at Fraser Hill … but we missed the Malayan Whistling-Thrush Hill Partridge in the morning !!! But with the half day, we got back some star Birds : Collared Owlet, Malaysian Nightjar, Fire-tufted Barbet, Rufescent Prinia, and very good view of Marbled Wren-Babbler … at night we also got Sunda Slow-Loris .
Day 4 : 34 Species
Day 5, misty+raining ohhhhh … and we got brief view of Malayan Whistling-Thrush in the morning. Than follow by very good view of Large Scimitar Babbler, Bay Woodpecker, Black-Browed Barbet, Black-and-Crimson Oriole, Black Laughingthrush, Malayan Laughingthrush, Brown Wood-Owl and what surprise Barred Eagle-Owl show off here too …
Day 5 : 34 Species
Day 6, again !!! MISTY+RAINING … but luck is on our site, with limited hours … We managed to got some main target like Yellow-vented Pigeon, Silver-rumped Needletail, Bamboo Woodpecker, Long-Tailed Broadbill + Blue Nuthatch (under the heavy rain !) … and very lucky to have pair of Collard Babbler stay long for us for very good view and photo …
Day 6 : 33 species
Day 7, we had almost everything we need … but we missing those common bird like mountain Bulbul, little cuckoo dove (joke from customer… it is a must and how can we missed it , lets stay few more days for Mountain Bulbul ) .. no joke we really missed this bulbul for 4 days @Fraser Hill .
Before we heading to Bukit Tinggi, we record Scarlet-Rumped Trogon @890m (think may be little too high but it show up there) and a pair of Banded Kingfisher …
With the rain and travel
Day 7 : 13 species
Day 8, from Genting Highland to Krau forest. We didn’t get much target meet but Cinamon-rumped Trogon is our favor of the day .
with 2 fruting trees , we managed to see some barbets, bulbuls, etc but to our surprise. We saw local climb up to a tree may be 30-40m height to hunt for birds !!!!!! L
Day 8 : 46 species
Day 9 : full day raining at Bukit Tinggi, guests enjoy red wine 80% of the day
Day 9 : 7 species
Day 10 : we have beautiful Moutain Peacock Pheasant displaying 2 hours for us , before we leave. Got a very good view of Rhinoceros and Helmeted Hornbill follow by heading to Taman Negara with raining full 2nd half day.
Arrived Taman Negara Dusk, both Great Hornbill and Great Argus welcome us at lobby area
Day 10 : 21 species
Day 11-16 : we spend few days at Taman Negara but 40% of the time raining or cloudy make the whole birding slowing. But within few days of tracking in the mud, pond etc . We cover a lot of Bulbuls, barbet, parrot, hornbill but the 10 star birds over days
- Garnet Pitta
- Crested Partridge
- Rail Babbler
- Blue Winged pitta
- Diard’s Trogon
- Crested Jay
- Crested Fireback
- Reddish Scops Owl
- Gould’s Frogmouth
- Large Wren-Babbler
Trip total : 272 species
