Birding in Malaysia
By Birding-Aus, on May 26th, 2014
Hi fellow birders, I am planning a short birding trip on mainland Malaysia while travelling through Southeast Asia in March 2015. I would like some tips for place to visit, which resorts to stay in and how to get there from which major city. I know that Frasers Hill and Taman Negara are recommended spots but are there any others worth visiting? I have heard Taman Negara is the most diverse location but have also heard its difficult to get to and the resort is not very impressive (these details may seem trivial to a dedicated birder but very important when travelling with a non-interested partner!) Any advice would be great, Thank you Brendan Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
My family spent a few days on Langkawi in April. The birding there is sensational, and it’s one of the few great birding places where your non-birding partner is catered for even better! We stayed at The Andaman on the north west coast. It’s a little out of the way from the villages and shops on the busy part of the island, but that’s what makes it such a great spot for birding. I saw two of the three resident hornbill species near the resort’s pool complex, plus a roosting Brown Hawk-Owl right above the pool! The resort runs all sorts of walks, from free morning and evening nature walks to paid mangrove walks or island sailing trips. I did a guided bird tour: because I was the only guest on the trip, I had to pay the solo fee of RM500 (about $180) but it was incredibly good value. The guides are from an eco-tourism group called Junglewalla (they have a website) and I think are all marine biology or enviro science graduates. They are young, and quite good with regular local birds, and best of all they provide transport for the trip: what I thought was going to be a 3-4 hour outing ended up over 5 hours, and we went looking for my target birds. I just turned up with a list, and they planned the morning from there. We visited three exceptionally good sites, ones I never would have found by myself. This was just about the best hotel-organised trip I’ve ever been on. For full-on individual guiding, I’d strongly recommend Indera Yangbest, a wildlife photographer who has an exceptional knowledge of all the local wildlife – birds are his specialty, and he can replicate most of the calls himself. I was entertained by his dialogue with a Sunda Scops-Owl in the middle of the night half way up the Gunung Raya road. And very impressed when he found us a Slow Lorus (hard to see primate). I can provide further details for anyone who wants to know more. Russell On 26 May 2014 07:52, brendan cook < bcook84@hotmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Hi Brendan, Having done a brief trip to mainland Malaysia with a non-birding wife I can thoroughly recommend doings some guided day trips from Kuala Lumpur. I did a trip out from there with Lee Kok Chan of Endemic Guides to the Genting Highlands and had a excellent days birding (c. 90 species I think) with Hornbills, Pittas and Broadbills as some of the highlights. My wife, meanwhile, had a wonderful day’s shopping! It was a win-win. There are good trips they run from there to Fraser’s Hill and to the wetlands around Kuala Selangor too so you could base yourself there and have several excellent days out. If you want more info contact me off-list and I’ll dig out my trip report. Cheers, Ed _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org