Every year, I set up few target for myself study and find … this year is good I got 3/6 done so far even I was busy for pass few months. Finally I am free up last 2 weeks to go for on and off birding myself with my gang .. 2 of my target birds for 2017 at 2 different location.
Found one of my target few months ago , too bad it was very shy and only record the call and saw it flying few times. I do not got good view and picture. Finally I spend few nights and got 1-2 record photo for the bird.
last 3 days ago , we accidentally found another bird which we original plan to go another forest but too bad .. (may be too tired), me and my buddy went to wrong location and found this which allow us capture good photo and video. LUCKY day
We had Japan guests for some target in Peninsular Malaysia .
Day 1 – Kuala Lumpur
We mainly at center of Kuala Lumpur before heading Kuala Selangor for next day Mangrove targets .
we quickly start a day with Barred Eagle-Owl, with very small window but still we got it clear view ..
very soon , another cute bird approaching … black and yellow Broadbill
after here , we quickly move to another nearby forest .. here we quickly tick
Rufous-backed Kingfisher
Black-and-red Broadbill
etc
with very short stay time, we rush to west-Kuala Lumpur for Mangrove Pitta and etc .. very fast within 5 minutes, we got the pitta in frame and we would like to try
Savanna Nightjar
with long search, finally we see one …
……. we got most the targets tick and yet we have some time, we go for earlier dinner … immediate after the dinner, we very soon tick both
3 Gray-breasted Partridge (Malayan)
1 Crested Serpent-Eagle
1 Asian Emerald Dove
1 Whiskered Treeswift
1 Greater Yellownape
3 Bay Woodpecker
1 Large Cuckooshrike
1 Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo
4 Mountain Fulvetta
3 Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush
1 Malayan Laughingthrush
1 Streaked Spiderhunter
Day 3 – Fraser Hill
we spend almost whole day at Fraser Hill , but seem like weather getting misty and rain after lunch … which slow down our bird list
but some how most the target got hit and miss few …
while our visit of Telekom loop, we bumped into few birds wave . and heard Blue Nuthatch but too bad mist just too thick for us to have a view and picture .. but again, lucky to got
Collared Babbler
Bamboo Woodpecker
to close a beautiful day with most the Fraser Hill star birds e.g
Fire-tufted Barbet , Pygmy Cupwing, Sultan Tit , Red Headed Trogon, Dark-Hawk cuckoo etc …
we only had 3 hours , so we trying our best and still missed the Ferruginous Partridge & Rail-Babbler. no call at all for the morning. but lucky we had Mountain Peacock-Pheasant family with displaying male and Silver-breasted Broadbill .
a very cute and smart mammal, one of the must-see on Borneo island ..
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update 202405
– it is a beautiful morning, and it is first Orangutan of the tour so everyone excited.
– 非常漂亮的早上。我们的第一只罗洲猩猩，大家都很兴奋。
202405, Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysia
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update 202402
– another good moment at Kinabatangan river, meet an Orangutan mummy carrying the baby not that high up
– 在京河找鸟时，也有很大机会看到婆罗洲猩猩。这次还遇上妈妈带小孩在吃东西。
202402, Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Malaysia
update 202212
– a very good moment, the mother hug, playing with the young.
– 一大早。就见到妈妈与小孩玩。幸运。
202210, RDC, Sabah, Malaysia
update 202210
– a Borneo tour will not be completed with a wild Orangutan. even it is far and blocking view. But we can see how adorable the young carry by the mum (lily ? )
– 婆罗洲行怎么能少了红毛猩猩。还要这么温馨的一刻。
202210, DANUM Valley, Sabah, Malaysia
update 202207
– one of the cutest creature and always ours’ main target. It can be any where but also can be missing
when with Japan guests to photograph this beautiful pitta, when it moving around. a skink come close and the Pitta sudden show this pose trying it best to frighten it away
this time , we visit both favorite birding spots Danum Valley and Sukau .. even didn’t get any lifer but got few improve picture capture .. one of them
as usual , this Monotypic species endemic to Borneo move fast .. this time more challenge due to the ground full with mud and leeches so make movement to chase more difficult .. I always enjoy to see and photograph Babblers and Wren-babblers here is some of my favorite Wren-babbler collection
with Australia guests , this report only cover up to Kinabatangan river .
for day 1 arrive Danum Valley , arrived Borneo Rainforest Lodge late evening. so we do not have much activity for today .
we join the night drive, managed to see Colugo , flying squirrel and Sambar deer .
Sambar Deer
Day 2 , we start our morning walk nearby lodge area .. Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker is the first endemic tick … very soon with Dusky Munia follow by both White-crowned Forktail & Chestnut-naped Forktail. Very soon , 4 Bornean Bristlehead spotted far but good and long view with scope so a big relief after got this special endemic
Bornean Bristlehead
than nearby a Black-headed Pitta calling and very soon everyone got good view of the pitta too .. first Pitta of the tour 😀
Black-Headed Pitta
a tough walk in the trail with leeches keep track us non stop .. we do heard Blue Banded Pitta, Rail-Babbler etc but too bad bird is slow compare to the leeches. Very soon, we decided to move out from the trail without got any view of those birds . 2 Trogons show us good view : Diard’s Trogon & Scarlet-rumped Trogon
Scarlet-rumped Trogon
with the afternoon visit fruiting tree, we had fruitful bulbuls … which include black and white bulbul .
while walking for other birds without going into the trail (scare of leeches) , but lucky we managed got another rare endemic .. Bornean Chestnut-necklaced Partridge
Bornean Chestnut-necklaced Partridge
at night when we plan for night activity, too bad it start rain ~6pm until 11pm …
1 Chestnut-necklaced Partridge
3 Green Imperial-Pigeon
2 Raffles’s Malkoha
1 Whiskered Treeswift
1 Diard’s Trogon
3 Scarlet-rumped Trogon
1 Helmeted Hornbill — Heard from far
2 Rhinoceros Hornbill
5 Bushy-crested Hornbill
1 Blue-throated Bee-eater
1 Rufous Piculet
1 Gray-capped Woodpecker
1 Green Broadbill — Heard only
2 Banded Broadbill
2 Black-and-yellow Broadbill
2 Black-crowned Pitta
1 Blue-banded Pitta — Heard from far and not come close
2 Giant Pitta — Heard 2 birds loud at 2 location
3 Bornean Bristlehead
2 Spotted Fantail
1 Slender-billed Crow
1 Malaysian Rail-babbler — Heard only but not come close
1 Puff-backed Bulbul
2 Black-and-white Bulbul
2 Gray-bellied Bulbul
1 Cream-vented Bulbul
2 Red-eyed Bulbul
1 Spectacled Bulbul
4 Hairy-backed Bulbul
2 Gray-cheeked Bulbul
3 Yellow-bellied Bulbul
1 Buff-vented Bulbul
1 Streaked Bulbul
1 Chestnut-rumped Babbler
1 Fluffy-backed Tit-Babbler
1 Chestnut-backed Scimitar-Babbler
1 Sooty-capped Babbler
2 Bornean Blue-Flycatcher
2 Verditer Flycatcher
1 White-crowned Forktail
2 Chestnut-naped Forktail
1 Rufous-chested Flycatcher
2 Greater Green Leafbird
2 Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker
1 Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker
1 Yellow-vented Flowerpecker
1 Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
1 Bornean Spiderhunter
2 Dusky Munia
Day 2
We start our early birding just before light come in , we were lucky to saw 4 Orang Utan and a Straw-Headed Bulbul .. than our Targets look for more Pitta, wren-babblers etc ..
Again, soon we got Blue-Headed Pitta with clear view and picture ~10-20m
Blue-Headed Pitta
very soon , we also spotted Bornean Wren-Babbler and Black-throat Wren Babbler not far from the pitta
before rain hit, we were lucky to had Bornean Banded Kingfisher . too bad the male is way too high to get reasonable good picture ..
…. after dinner, rain stop and we decided to look for minimum one frogmouth or owl for the tour .. within 1km walk and less than 10 seconds wait, the Large Frogmouth stand at the usual perch again for long for us to good view and pictures
We had 4 Beijing, China guests for this customize bird photography tour. On the arrival pick up, seem like each of everyone has different target … but all have common interest on raptor and owl … than immediate fine tune the location again to try to cover most the possible owls
We are lucky enough to have most the plan targets picture except a missed on Silver Breasted Broadbill .. missed the good chance while looking for another target 🙁
almost can conclude this is a owl tour where we search for owls almost every night and day time 😀 , guests really enjoy to see and photograph the owls ..
This trip, we follow KL-Kuala Selangor-Fraser Hill-Bukit Tinggi
DAY1
for start , we tried to search for Buffy-Fish Owl… we got 2 in the day time but too bad they are bit shy and playing hide and seek with us
very soon , we also found another Owl day roosting . where we got 2 in same tree .. a Brown-Hawk Owl
with extra effort at night , we were lucky to have another 2 owls ; Barn Owl and Spotted Wood-Owl…
in same day make it 4
When we almost end our day, Large-tailed Nightjar stand still for us for a good view
DAY 2
we spend morning inside a mangrove . lucky to have Crested Goshawk, little late for Crested Serpent-Eagle feeding when we stop our car. We actually saw the male bring the snake to the female .
we also got various woodpeckers nearby mangrove e.g. Rufous Woodpecker ,Common Flameback+Greater Flameback fighting for same stand
after morning walk, we heading Fraser Hill… on the way we got various bird like Whiskered Treeswift, Red-bearded Bee-eater stand close and long for us
immediate arrive Fraser Hill, we actually got Malaysian Hill Partridge family
as usual , we tried quick night walk for owl again.. very lucky we got our 5th owl : Brown Wood-Owl in less than 30minutes
we end our day with laugh and smile 😀
DAY3
in the Morning, we had our Red-headed Trogon displaying for us ~1 hour make guests fill up almost card for single beauty
we also had our Fire-tufted Barbet fill up guests another card again
beside the 2 star birds, we also have pygmy Wren-Babbler, lesser short wing, long-tailed sibia , SIlver ear mesia etc .. but we still missing our SIlver Breasted Broadbill.
at Night , we managed to see another Brown-Wood Owl and also a gray nightjar
DAY 4
we rushing from Fraser Hill to Bukit Tinggi. we able to had Mountain Peacock-Pheasant displaying and Ferruginous Partridge in pair …
Banded Kingfishers (both male and female), Rufous-Collard Kingfisher,Blyth’s Hawk-Eagle etc seem show customer good view
most the pictures captured using handhled .. and am too busy sharing all .. and birding season here seem getting active .. let’s birding
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
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 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 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 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 …
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 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
