Weekend on the Peninsula

 

Ah, it's that time of year again–the time of year when both the temperature and the humidity in DC climb into the triple digits, the birds stop singing, and I spend most of my time inside either working or dedicating my free time to other hobbies. The latter admittedly removes a bit of motivation for blogging about past birding adventures, which is why I've been slower at updating this than I really should be. Still, the torturous weather this time of year has me longing for the nice, cool equatorial weather of Kuala Lumpur.

Which, as it happens, is where I found myself last month on my first work trip since Fiji last December. May and June are stupidly busy months in my line of work with the end of the fiscal year and all the deadlines that come with it, but that didn't mean I was about to turn down the opportunity to head to Malaysia and Indonesia to lead a workshop and help put together a childcare project. Sacrifices must be made, and if that sacrifice is a bit of sleep and sanity in return for a free trip to Southeast Asia, well, sign me up. 

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on June 3, and unfortunately spent most of the next week inside of an office building. That's a shame since KL is one of my favorite cities in the world- diverse, cosmopolitan, surprisingly cheap, and with far better public transportation and more green spaces than anywhere else in Southeast Asia besides Singapore and maybe Bangkok. After completing my workshop, I had Saturday and half of Sunday to go birding before I needed to head to Indonesia. Not as much as I'd maybe like, but thankfully KL is one of the few places in the region where you can get some world-class birding just an easy drive outside the city. 

Although Nikki and I had been to Borneo for birding many times, I had never done so in the mainland half of Malaysia (I had visited Kuala Lumpur and Penang back in 2016 to see friends, but sadly I wasn't yet a birder). The Malay Peninsula is an interesting spot as it's in the transition zone between mainland Southeast Asia and the island rainforests of the Greater Sundas. That means it has the southernmost populations of many mainland species, including some that are otherwise only much further north in the Himalayan foothills, but other species that are more typical of Sumatra and Borneo. It's a fascinating mix, and Malaysia's good infrastructure and well-protected national parks mean that all of those things are much easier to get to than elsewhere. 

My original plan was to spend the whole weekend in the mountain forests around Fraser's Hill, a couple hours away from KL. However, by time I picked up my rental car on Friday I was completely zonked after a week of intensive seminars and report writing and I just didn't have it in me to drive all the way up there that night. Instead I decided to spend one more night in my hotel in KL and head up the next day, doing some birding in the lowland forest closer to the city on Saturday morning. 

I settled on Sungai Congkak (proud river) as my destination, as eBird told me it was a good spot for many birds I really wanted to see (Chestnut-naped Forktail, Sooty Barbet, Silver-breasted Broadbill, Scaly-breasted Bulbul), a long-shot possibility for some tough birds (Malayan Blue-banded Kingfisher, Dusky Broadbill) along with some that I didn't care about but would still be lifers (other bulbuls). It was just a 40-minute drive outside of KL, which meant that I was able to sleep in to a reasonable hour and still arrive by 8 AM when the gates to the park opened. 

The entrance to Sungai Congkak

When I arrived, it became clear that everyone else in Kuala Lumpur had also decided that it was a good idea to spend their Saturday morning in Sungai Congkak, and the place was packed with people. Sungai Congkak itself is a park enclosing a forested river valley, and it's a popular spot for Malaysians to go and have picnics, swim in the river, and hike up to the surrounding mountains. I should have known that it was a popular weekend getaway spot, but there wasn't much I could do about that. 

The trees around the parking lot were still hopping with bird activity when I got out of my car, although my camera lens was so fogged up by the humidity and temperature difference that I couldn't get any good pictures. There were Oriental Magpie-Robins singing in practically every tree, Asian Red-eyed Bulbuls and Spectacled Bulbuls flying all around, and Little Green Pigeons feeding in a fruiting tree. In the trees far above were a couple of Common Hill Mynas and I got a quick glimpse of a Grey-breasted Spiderhunter, which was a lifer for me.

It was actually rather nice to see Oriental Magpie Robins, as the bird trade has practically extirpated them from Java and Vietnam where I'd been recently.

Little Green Pigeon

There was very little information online about where to actually look for birds in Sungai Congkak, so I wasted a bit of early morning birding time wandering around trying to find a nice trail or something through the woods before resigning myself to just walking in along the main road like everyone else. Inside the birding was tough, as it was still dark and everything was very high in the trees and far away. I came across a flock of Pin-striped Tit-babblers and a couple of Purple-naped Spiderhunters that were too far away to photograph, and there were many Indochinese Blue Flycatchers singing that I never laid eyes on. I heard the call of a Banded Broadbill inside the forest and was able to get a quick glimpse, but still no good photos. In fact, this was apparently a good spot for broadbills- I came across a van full of photographers that were staking out the nest of a Silver-breasted Broadbill that wasn't making an appearance, and I also heard a Black-and-yellow Broadbill singing. Annoyingly enough, the only birds I was able to photograph were a Grey-headed Canary-Flycatcher and a Common Emerald Dove, plus a record shot of a Yellow-bellied Bulbul that was another lifer for me.

Grey-headed Canary-Flycatcher

Asian Emerald Dove

Yellow-bellied Bulbul

Common Faun (Faunis canens)

Striped Ringlet (Ragadia makuta)

Yellow Barred (Xanthotaena busiris)

Malayan Owl (Neorina lowii)

The river at Sungai Congkak

The morning wore on, and I started to worry that I was going to go the whole day without getting any good bird pictures or notable birds. I ran into the van of photographers again, tipped them off to my Yellow-bellied Bulbul sighting, and heard from them that they had just been looking at a Chestnut-naped Forktail and possibly a Malayan Blue-banded Kingfisher at a nearby bridge! Both of those were major targets for me so I hurried up until I found the bridge they were talking about. Unfortunately in the intervening time a few families had gotten there first and the river bank was full of picnic blankets and loud children- not exactly ideal conditions for a forktail or a shy kingfisher. 

Just as I was grumbling about my bad luck, I noticed movement in the branches above me, and nearly dropped my binoculars when I realized what it was- a flock of Dusky Broadbills! One of the more unusual in a family of wonderfully unusual birds, Dusky Broadbills are some of the most difficult Asian broadbills to see (besides the ones in the Philippines), being uncommon within their lowland forest habitats. These ones weren't difficult though- it was a group of 8 birds all swooping around the midstory and screaming at each other. It didn't hurt that they're huge- the size all broadbills should be in my opinion. It was by far my favorite bird sighting of the day, and one of my favorite lifers of the year so far. 

Dusky Broadbills!

That was when the birding really got good, even though peak birding hours were supposedly done. A bit later I happened upon a mixed flock with Spectacled Bulbuls, Finsch's Bulbuls, Greater Racket-tailed Drongos, White-rumped Munias, and a surprisingly accommodating Buff-necked Woodpecker, another lifer. The butterflies and other insect life were out in force, including lots of gorgeous Rajah Brooke's Birdwings (named for a fascinating and terrible person) that never perched long enough to photograph.

Buff-necked Woodpecker

Spectacled Bulbul

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo missing a racket

White-rumped Munia

Dysphania subrepleta, a day-flying tiger moth

Three-spotted Grass Yellow (Eurema blanda)

Wax Dart (Cupitha purreea)

Still trying to ID this dragonfly

The flock of Dusky Broadbills was still around when I walked back by the bridge, and I realized that some of them were bringing food to an occupied nest, which was cool. I also had a distant look at a Raffles's Malkoha, a bird I hadn't seen since 2017. Taking a little side road I found a couple of Yellow-breasted Flowerpeckers feeding on berries just off the ground, and later on had a mixed flock of bulbuls with Hairy-backed Bulbuls and a couple of beautiful Grey-bellied Bulbuls. 

Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker

Hairy-backed Bulbul (Pinoy readers aren't allowed to laugh at this)

Grey-bellied Bulbul, a far better-looking bird than the name suggests

Common Sun Skink (Eutropis multifasciata)

Lowland Slender Squirrel

Nisitrus malaya

Phlaeoba antennata

I ran into one more mixed flock on the way out, this one with the full array of drab bulbuls including Asian Red-eyed Bulbuls, Buff-vented Bulbuls, Streaked Bulbuls, and Spectacled Bulbuls. Much better were the Sooty Barbets, which were lifers for me and look and behave very differently than most other Asian barbets. To my surprise I ended up finding yet another occupied Dusky Broadbill nest, and closer to the entrance the Silver-breasted Broadbill was now at its nest again, peeking out at the passersby. 

Sooty Barbet

Buff-vented Bulbul- even by bulbul standards this one is pretty dull

Streaked Bulbul

Dusky Broadbill at a nest- Dusky Broadbills are cooperative nesters, with the whole flock building the nest and helping to incubate and feed chicks

Silver-breasted Broadbill

Straight-line Map-wing (Cyrestis nivea)

Lesser Jay (Graphium evemon)

Autumn Leaf (Doleschallia bisaltium)

Chocolate Albatross (Appias lyncida)

Pointed Ciliate Blue (Anthene lycaenina)

Straight Pierrot (Caleta roxus)

It was noon by then so I headed back toward KL. I stopped for lunch by a place that had a number of recent records of Bornean Black Magpie but given it was midday and extremely hot and sunny I unsurprisingly didn't find any. That afternoon I met up with friends in downtown Kuala Lumpur, and it wasn't until after dark that I was finally starting the drive to Fraser's Hill. 

Similar to Da Lat, Fraser's Hill began as one of the many hill stations established during the bad old days of the colonial period–a place where the British could go to escape the heat of the lowlands and restrict access only to other British. It was developed as a tourism spot in the 1970s but a moratorium was eventually put on construction due to worries about environmental degradation. These days it's a bit of a surreal spot- a slapdash conglomeration of colonial-style buildings in the middle of the mountains, accessible only via one tiny, winding one-lane road through the cloud forest. 

Since the moratorium on development the main focus of tourism at Fraser's has been for the wildlife- it's just a 2-hour drive from the biggest city in Malaysia but it's home to huge swaths of pristine mountain rainforest, and has an incredible diversity of plants, insects, mammals, and birds. It's one of the best-known birding spots in mainland Malaysia. So well known, in fact, that they do a "bird race" there every year, where teams of birders from throughout Southeast Asia compete to get the highest bird list they can in a 2-day period. 

Unbeknownst to me up until that week, I was in fact going to Fraser's on the weekend of the Fraser's Hill International Bird Race, meaning that a solid percentage of all birders in Asia were also going to be there. That included a few teams from the Philippines, including some birding friends of mine who I definitely wasn't expecting to be seeing again anytime soon. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. 

I got into Fraser's near midnight, and had only enough time to unpack my bags a bit and go to sleep. I should have set up my moth light since the area is famous for mothing, but I was exhausted and there were neighbors I didn't really want to irritate with a high-powered UV light. Instead I was up at sunrise and heading out to meet up with Ens, Ria and David, who were representing the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines. That morning was the second (and last) morning of the Bird Race, and we decided to do the famous Telecom Loop so that we could look for some of my main targets, and some key birds their team had missed the previous day. 

Sunrise from my hotel balcony

As we started birding around sunrise there were lots of birds singing, but very few seen. That wasn't ideal since I didn't do a very good job of looking up bird calls, and "heard onlies" didn't count for the WBCP team's totals. We did see some of the usual suspects like Streaked Spiderhunters and Little Cuckoo-Doves, but nothing much to write home about. My first lifer of the morning was a little flock of Chestnut-capped Laughingthrushes, a recent split from the Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrushes I'm used to in Borneo. 

The Telecom Loop road

We found a little clearing next to the road, and birding started to pick up a little. There was a fruiting tree full of barbets including Black-browed Barbets, Red-throated Barbets, and Yellow-crowned Barbets, joined by an impressive suite of bulbuls including Black-crested Bulbuls, Cinereous Bulbuls, Ochraceous Bulbuls, and Yellow-vented Bulbuls and a couple of Orange-bellied Leafbirds to boot. A flock of Malay Peninsula-endemic Rufous-bellied Swallows swooped overhead and there was a little family group of adorable Black-thighed Falconets flying around, the immature birds playing with leaves and mock-fighting. In the thickets next to the clearing were a few Rufescent Prinias, and a Mountain Imperial Pigeon flew over as we were walking back to the road. Annoyingly enough most of the birds stayed far away and high in the trees, and I got barely any pictures. In fact, despite its popularity as a bird photography location most of the pictures I managed at Fraser's were bad even by my low standards.

Black-browed Barbet

Rufous-bellied Swallows are beautiful, although you wouldn't know it from my terrible pictures...

Black-thighed Falconet

Rufescent Prinia

Mountain Imperial Pigeon

Early morning along the road

A bit down the road a big mixed flock moved through a valley below us, including more bulbuls, Chestnut-capped Laughingthrushes, Streaked Wren-babblers, Silver-breasted Broadbills, and to my delight a few Black Laughingthrushes. Despite their name Black Laughingthrushes are actually enormous scimitar babblers, and close relatives of the Bare-headed Laughingthrushes in Borneo that I've still never managed to photograph. It was one of my biggest targets for the weekend so I was thrilled even if they never came in close enough for good pictures. I spotted a female Red-headed Trogon sitting on a phone wire and we were able to get closer for some halfway-decent pictures. Endemic Malayan Partridges were singing in the distance but never seen.

Black Laughingthrush!

Female Red-headed Trogon

The road went through a shaded valley and we came across another mixed flock, this one with lots of Mountain Fulvettas and a few Buff-breasted Babblers. I found a Streaked Wren-Babbler singing in the undergrowth and managed to get some clear views, and Ria and David spotted another pair of Red-headed Trogons, including a beautiful male that perched in bad light. 

Streaked Wren-Babbler

Male Red-headed Trogon

Pallid Faun (Melanocyma faunula), my favorite butterfly find of the weekend

Some sort of giant millipede

Bird activity dropped off somewhat as we moved on, though there were lots of White-browed Shrike-Babblers singing in the canopy and we saw a nice Black-throated Sunbird high above us. We got distracted from birding for a bit when Ens found a very well-fed leech hanging out on his foot, and again when we ran into the other WBCP team competing in the bird race, including Cha, Ana and Timmy (who had been with me at the epic parrotfinch encounter back in May).

The WBCP teams (plus me as a 7th wheel)

The teams all had to be back to the town center by noon to turn in their lists, so we started walking back. Along the way we briefly ran into Djop, Gid, and Christian, another Philippines contingent who were joining the race on the photography side, and I was happy to see the Philippines so well represented. As we walked back we saw a young White-browed Shrike-Babbler being fed by its parents, a few cute Rufous-browed Flycatchers, a Mountain Bulbul hanging out next to the road, and a little group of beautiful Grey-chinned Minivets. To my surprise I also saw a Streak-throated Bulbul, much higher up than it was usually supposed to be. There were good non-bird finds too: a Malaysian birder group pointed out a solitary Siamang Gibbon eating fruits up in a palm tree, and Ens spotted an enormous stick insect clambering around in the the bushes. 

White-browed Shrike-Babblers

Rufous-browed Flycatcher, surprisingly common at Fraser's

Mountain Bulbul

Grey-chinned Minivet

Siamang

Anarchodes annulipes- this one was at least 6 inches long

Trengganua sibylla, an enormous cicada endemic to the Malay Peninsula

Blue Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum glaucum)

Powdered Baron (Euthalia monina)

I realized I needed to get back to my hotel in order to check out in time, so I left the others behind to drive back. I didn't get too far before I screeched to a halt by the road as I saw a mixed flock passing by in front of me. This one proved to be one of the best of the day, with Grey-throated Babblers, Black-throated Sunbirds, Blue-winged Minlas, Golden Babblers, Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrushes, and Fire-tufted Barbets. I was even able to get some of my only halfway-decent pictures of the day. A number of other Bird Race groups walked by and I was able to get several of them some last-minute new birds for their lists. 

Grey-throated Babbler

Black-throated Sunbird

Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush

Fire-tufted Barbet- I've seen the introduced population in Java many times but it was nice to see them in their native range in Malaysia

Himalayan Striped Squirrel

Grey-bellied Squirrel

Back at my hotel, I got out of the car only to find the air reverberating with the ear-splitting hoots of a group of Siamangs! Eventually they made their way into the trees right next to the parking lot and I spent the next 20 minutes watching as they swung through the branches, the dominant male and female at the treetops inflating their throat pouches and singing to another group further away. It was one of the coolest wildlife sightings I've had, and certainly my favorite mammal lifer of the year. 

Imagine this, except going on for like 20 minutes

I headed back down into town to meet the others for lunch, although the town was so crowded for the bird race that I had to park my car a solid 15 minutes away from the restaurant. There was a White-thighed Surili sitting next to the road when I got out of the car, and some Long-tailed Sibias flying over as I walked down, so I didn't mind too much. After lunch we headed to a spot that had been recommended to look for the endemic Malayan Laughingthrush, but alas the only laughingthrushes we saw were more Chestnut-capped Laughingthrushes and Long-tailed Sibias. I drove around a bit to look for some more last-minute birds and ended up seeing Timmy and Cha along the road watching a gorgeous pair of Orange-bellied Leafbirds chowing down in a fruiting tree!

White-thighed Surili refusing to get its picture taken

Long-tailed Sibia

Orange-bellied Leafbird

I had to be back at the KL airport by that evening to fly to Jakarta, so I had time for just a couple more stops. My plan was to head to a site for Slaty Forktail then get to a nearby hotel that would put out food for Malayan Partridges in the mid-afternoon. Unfortunately when I got near the forktail spot it turned out to be along the one-way road leading out of Fraser's, and I had no way to get back. As soon as I pulled up to the creek where I'd been told to go, a Slaty Forktail darted across the road and down the valley. After some waiting it few back up and perched briefly, giving me good views but no time for pictures. There were a few cool plants and insects around the creek to distract me anyway.

Chocolate Demon (Ancistroides nigrita)

Euphaea ochracea

Fluffy Tit (Zeltus amasa)

Largeflower Pink-sorrel (Oxalis debilis), beautiful but unfortunately invasive in Malaysia

As it turned out it was a good thing I only made that one stop, as the gas light came on in my rental car as soon as I turned it back on. The little tracker on the car told me I had enough to make it another 30 kilometers, and the nearest gas station was... 55 kilometers away. I spent the entire drive down the curvy, one-way road trying to game out plans for what I would do if I ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere, and how I would possibly make it to the airport on time if I needed to get towed. Thankfully the car's estimates were wrong and I made it to the nearest gas station instead of getting stranded in unfamiliar territory for the second time in a row. 

I finished my week in Malaysia with a grand total of 115 species- not exactly impressive, but not bad either for two mornings of birding. 70 or so of those were new for my year list, which has put 2024 on track to possibly surpass 2023 as my best year of birding yet. Mostly though it was just a fun weekend of birding, visiting cool spots, seeing cool wildlife, and getting a chance to hang out with new and old friends. I spent the next week in Java and managed to see possibly one of my new all-time favorite birds, but that will have to wait for the next post.