Birding in Rengit - Aug 2012

Bukit Rengit or better known as the "Land of Trogons" among the birding community here is always a great place to see many exotic birds. After about an hour and 45 minutes of continous driving from KL, we reached the place at close to 8.00am. The road leading to the area was quite misty and luckily the sky clears up at around 9.30am. This time we saw quite a number of babblers and a few lifers. Unfortunately there were no calls of the Great Argus but we heard a few calls from a Red Junglefowl close to noon. Here are some of the better images taken in this trip.

We started birding from this Deer Land area.

A glimpse of the main trail which should be a comfortable walk. You can see birds from both sides of the road.

If you are a bit more adventures you may try some of the trails off the road side like this one. Although it looks quite dry but leech socks is certaintly required at these places.

Black Hornbill

Babbler? - nope  its a Rufous-Winged Philentoma (female)
as verified by the experts.

Buff-Necked Woodpecker (Male) - lifer

Sooty-Capped Babbler

You will likely hear this babbler rather than seen one.

Brown/Plain Throated Sunbird

Rufous-Crowned Babbler

Raffles's Malkoha (Female)

Blue-Eared Barbet

Yellow-Breasted Flowerpecker

Grey-and-Buff Woodpecker

Orange-Backed Woodpecker (Female)

Cream-Vented Bulbul

Black-Naped Monarch (Male)

Black-Naped Oriole (Female)

Black-Naped Oriole (Male)

Spectacle Spiderhunter

All in all we saw close to 30 species of birds in just about 5 hours of birding. It was surely a record for me and this also proves that Bukit Rengit can be visited at any time of the year for birding.

MNS should erect this signage at this place !

Templer's Park - Aug 2012

I went to Rawang today to buy a few stuff and on the way back i did a pit stop at Templer's Park. I decided to do some birding at the stream below but did not have the time to check the hill top trail. The first bird which i saw was a Blue-Eared Kingfisher zipping across the stream. Just watched the bird in awe without even trying to lift my camera. There were quite a lot of bulbuls today esp red-eyes. Here are some of the bird images which i managed to capture during an hour and a half birding session.



Red-Eyed Bulbul

Rufous Woodpecker

Could these be Barn Swallows or Grey_Rumped Treeswifts?

Another Red-eyed Bulbul

Also saw many Yellow-Vented Bulbuls, an Asian Fairy Bluebird, Javan Mynahs, a White-Throated Kingfisher and Asian Glossy Starlings. Oh yes there were also a lot of Plantain Squirrels like this one below:

Plantain Squirrel

Sg Gabai and Sg Lepuh, Hulu Langat - Aug 2012

Today me and Mr CY Tan went to check-out a birding site at Hutan Lipur Sungai Gabai. The road leading to the area goes through a Malay kampung with many chempedak and other fruits trees along the way and ends at the entrance to a waterfall recreational area. We started very early and reached the location at about 7.30am. We started to "bird" at the junction which turns to an "orang asli" settlement. The first bird we saw in a misty morning was a great surprise.

Purple Heron

Although there is a man-made pond nearby you won't expect this purple heron to travel so far inland.(Note: it was reported that these herons will likely frequent marshlands rather than tidal mudflats. So that explains its existence here).

  These pigeons will certaintly go to my little file called "Mystery Birds"

Here are some of the birds seen inside the waterfall area:

Chestnut-Breasted Malkoha (female)

We saw this Red-Eyed Bulbul trying a piece of these partially destroyed "Chempedak"

Whiskered TreeSwift

Black-and-Red Broadbill

After seeing this broadbill we drove out and stopped at some locations which we have passed thru in the morning.

Grey-Rumped TreeSwift

Although said to be fairly common, you won't find this swift every where.

Greater-Racket-Tailed Drongo

Gold-Whiskered Barbet

This barbet perched just right above our heads.

Since we still have time, we decided to drive to Sg Lepuh which was not too far away. Although we reached the place at about 10.30am the birds were still there. Some of them which was seen by myself two weeks ago can still be located.

Drongo Cuckoo

This cuckoo bird which was seen by me previously was still there.

We saw a number of Asian Glossy Starlings grabbing these fruits. Wonder whether the Netherlands people would like to have this as their national fruit.

Black-Capped Babbler

This babbler was seen at exactly the same location previously. It was seen flicking some leaves and then managed to grab a cricket.

Bamboo Woodpecker (female)

This woodpecker was an interesting find at Lepuh. I have seen a male at Gg Nuang a few years ago. So this sighting completes my series.

Grey-Headed Canary Flycatcher

Yellow-Eared Spiderhunter

This spiderhunter was seen together with a few of its own kind on this rambutan tree

White-rumped Munia

This munia concludes our adventure for today.