Review: Craig Robson 2008/14 Birds of South-East Asia Second Edition [Helm Field Guide]

Yes, Mun did take us to a riverine park behind a shanty town east of KL where there is a fishbowl for the kingfisher and an elevated log to put meal worms on for the flycatchers and robins. We walked around the wall to follow a track – no guards to be seen.

The Malayan Partridges tend to turn up at the Frasers Hill stakeout around mid morning and mid afternoon. This time there were about half a dozen adults and 4 or so chicks.

Some of the stakeouts are beside the road – look for logs placed in odd spots [they put the meal worms on top of the logs]. The Frasers Hill barbet site literally had stake out for rock melons

Regards, Laurie

> On 21 Apr 2018, at 4:41 pm, Koren Mitchell < korenm64@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Laurie and all,
>
> I’m currently living in Kuala Lumpur, and I use both Robson and “A Field Guide to the Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore” by Allen Jeyarajasingam (illustrations by Alan Pearson).
>
> I concur with your opinions of Robson, but unfortunately the other guide is no improvement. It has many of the same faults – no distribution maps, plates separate from descriptions, species listed in inconsistent order. I suspect that this last issue is because both books are second editions, and so much has changed both taxonomically and with species new to Malaysia.
>
> Furthermore, I find the illustrations in Jeyarajasingam to be too brightly-coloured and simplistic, for lack of a better word, compared with Robson. I find myself frequently just doing Google searches for photos to confirm IDs. There are a couple of photographic guides that show the “common” birds, but generally much better photos are available online.
>
> I just wish that someone would publish a “Where to find birds in Malaysia” book or web site. As you found on your trip, the practice of putting out food at particular spots to attract birds seems to be quite common here, but unless you know local birders or hire a guide, you will never find out exactly where these spots are. I tried to find a “well-known” spot where Mountain Peacock-Pheasants and Ferruginous Partridges come for food, but I didn’t know the key information, which is that you need to pay the guards to let you drive up the road early in the morning. Another “well-known” spot, where a water dish with little fish placed under a convenient perch attracts rufous-backed kingfishers, I found out about by running into some local birders/photographers nearby, who kindly took me there (and told me about paying the guards at the other place).
>
> I’m not sure why birders here are so protective of their “special spots” – possibly partly because of the widespread illegal bird trade.
>
> For anyone who is planning to come to Malaysia in the future and wants to do any birding around KL, I’m happy to show you a few nice spots.
>
> Regards, Koren



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