MALAYSIAN HIGHLANDS
27 – 30 September 2024
MOUNTAIN PEACOCK PHEASANT is a ‘one site bird’, although it occurs more widely throughout the highlands of Peninsular Malaysia, it can only be seen regularly at one place in the world - Bukit Tinggi in Pahang state, around an hour and a half drive from the Kuala Lumpur’s international airport. In a nutshell it took me three days to see one! Things have changed at Bukit Tinggi. Whether it is the fact that fewer Malay bird photographers now visit this spot (so the food put out to lure the peacock pheasant has diminished), or the disturbance caused by a large fallen tree, or the establishment of an ill-considered second screen (where any watchers are silhouetted by the rising sun), or simply that the birds’ behaviour has been changed by some other factor, who knows? What I can say is that it did not appear on two of the days I spent at the tiny feeding station screen. I had seen so
many images of these beautiful birds against the backdrop I was now looking at, that it felt like I had already seen one. Imagining what it would be like if and when one turned up during the many hours I spent staring at the same scene, it was a very exciting moment when a fine male finally walked out of the forest and onto the old trail. WOW! The traversing of KL’s ridiculously complex traffic system (I did wonder if it might be possible to go round and round and run out of petrol before following the correct off ramp), the very odd accommodation in Bukit Tinggi’s Colmar Tropicale resort (modelled on the Alsatian town of Colmar!) and many hours of sitting on the muddy forest floor watching nothing most of the time proved worthwhile. I do wonder how long it might last at Bukit Tinggi before something brings this wonderful opportunity to a close, so sooner rather than later probably applies yet again. Every now and again there were some nice distractions while waiting for the peacock pheasant. A beautiful male Siberian Blue Robin was present each morning (but not in the afternoon), freshly arrived for the winter from Russia, Buff-breasted Babblers and Ochraceous Bulbuls also showed an interest in the feeding station and Brown-backed Needletails zoomed around high over the forest. On one afternoon a group of gorgeous Dusky Langurs moved noisily through the trees overhead. On another occasion a small mammal was rooting around under the fallen tree trunks, I thought it must be a rat of some kind but I was surprised to see that it had a long snout like a treeshrew. It was actually a Gymure, a soft-furred hedgehog, presumably Max’s Hylomys maxi on distribution/altitude. It was nice to be back in the forest in this region after 20 years! I also met some very nice birders from Singapore, Sebastian Ow, Eunice Kong and their friends. All incredibly quiet and polite! Unlike the couple who spent one morning blasting playback from the other screen, seemingly oblivious to the main position and I heard later from James Eaton that Ferruginous Partridge does not like incessant playback anyway. The partridges have not visited regularly in recent months. There were
Siberian Blue Robin & Buff-breasted Babbler. Pages 1-7 Mountain Peacock Pheasant (Mike Watson)
also some flashy butterflies around, but unfortunately not the big one I was hoping for, that would have to wait until Fraser’s Hill in a couple of days time. I could hear Siamangs calling while up on the ridge and I descended down through the Japanese Garden in their direction but their far carrying whooping calls were coming from somewhere out of reach way down in the valley below. Driving back to the highway I was happy to finally catch sight of a family group of this impressive large black gibbon, the huge male swinging through the trees. A brief experience of the hotter lowlands followed while I descended from the forest to drive north towards Fraser’s Hill. While it was sunny down there, the highlands remainded shrouded in clouds. It was typically 29 degrees Celsius and humid, is it every anything else here? The winding road took me back up into the trees and eventually to the famous ‘Gap’. It had taken me a long time to get here since I first read about it when I was
a kid. This was also unusual that my no.#1 target was a butterfly rather than a bird. I saw Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing butterfly in the xxxx Brooke Bond tea card set, an enormous black and green insect with a red head. Well it does look like a bird in flight! It took me some time to find one at the gap but then a couple of other sightings followed quickly. Exciting stuff but they were very mobile , never close and therefore difficult for the AF on my camera to follow againsr the complex rainforest tree background. There weren’t many flowering trees either so they all (or maybe it was just the same one?) moved through the canopy very quickly on their way somewhere. The first was opposite the old gap buildings, complete with snake warning signs - I didn’t venture inside! Then another flew over the toilet block and
finally one was under the derelict footbridge in the junction area. It zoomed uphill quickly and away into the misty shadows. I t was disappointing not to get a sharp photo, so I will return here one day. The gap also produced an excellent new bird, Pin-tailed Parrotfinch. This Southeast Asian nomad is a tricky one to catch up with. Thankfully the birds, which Pete Morris had seen a couple of weeks before were still in the same clump of seeding bamboo by the roadside. They weren’t there all the time though, as I had a quick look on my way downhill the following day. Their presence betrayed by their high pitched calls, c.20 were feeding on the seeds and resting in the centre of the clump, the only seeding bamboo for miles along this road as far as I could tell. Fraser’s Hill is a crumbling relic of British rule, a hill resort refuge from the heat of the plains. many remnants are decaying where they stand. Established in 1922 as a tourist resort, the former tin mining establishment stands at 1456m ASL, higher than anywhere in the UK. It is a welcome cool relief from the heat of the lowlands and is home to many interesting higher altitude birds. Thanks to an unwelcome change of flight schedule I had less than 24 hours at Fraser’s Hill. A small herd of Wild Boars with many piglets crossed the road at the entrance to Fraser’s Hill and I had a close encounter with some of them later near the toilet block. One of the adults approaching to within a couple of metres, way too close for comfort! It casually wandered off with the rest of them. I still managed to see some new birds: Malayan Whistling Thrush (1 by the entrance to Fraser’s Hill); Fire-tufted Barbet (three by Ye Olde Smokehouse); Black-browed Barbet; Large Cuckooshrike; Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush; Rufous-browed Flycatcher and White-crowned Forktail. Other birds included Long-tailed Broadbill; Stripe-throated and Mountain Bulbuls; Black-throated Sunbird; Streaked Spiderhunter of note. Another Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing flew by along the high street but did not land. A traditional English breakfast at Ye Olde Smokehouse was very nice! This mock tudor building was a former Red Cross rehabilitation centre.
Pin-tailed Parrotfinches & Rufous-browed Flycatcher (Mike Watson)
