A Malaysian Birder

HK birders - May 2018

"My husband and I went for 6D5N birding with Weng Chun (first two days with his assistance Adam as Weng Chun with another guests) at the area of Peninsula Malaysia which included Bukit Tinggi, Krau Forest, Fraser’s Hill & in Kuala Lumpur area. Weng Chun is absolutely amazing at spotting (both by ear and sight) & locating the birds. He can drive (safely)as well as hear the birds call and stop the car to find the birds where situation is possible. Before the tour, we communicate thru email with Weng chun and he asked us about our target birds and we named a few. But after 6 days, we have over 129 species of birds seen and most of them able to photograph and video too. On the way of our tour, we kept senting some of the bird’s photos to our family to share our findings, and all our family members were amaze by the beauty of the birds. Really thank you Weng Chun to show us the nature beauty of Malaysia !!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!! "

Back-to-back trip. Tired ... exhausted but still want to enjoy guiding and going out to the field looking for birds for enthusiastic birders like Janet and Ray.

First, they covered the forest of Hulu Langat which is the most productive birding spot around Kuala Lumpur. Next we head up to the highlands for the usual targets of Mountain Peacock Pheasant and Ferruginous Partridge before going down to a nearby lowland forest for babbler, trogon, broadbill, woodpecker and hornbill. A birding trip in Peninsular Malaysia is never complete without making a trip to the premier birding spot at Fraser's Hill.

I think I have stretched them a little too much, birding before dawn while extending the birding hours until night (just like what I normally did with all my guests, and my guests from France from recent trip also experience the long birding hours, and jet lagged but I am sure they all wanted that and enjoyed it although exhausted).

Early morning at the stake out for the target species

Observing movement in a fruiting tree, we found Sooty Barbet, Black-browed Barbet and Black-crested Bulbul here

Woodpeckers high up in the tree

Also found a few Whiskered Treeswift in the morning

A few species of babbler and bulbul showed up for a short observation and photography

Scarlet-rumped Trogon was calling when we we about to leave the spot

Can you locate the bird in this photo?

Ray was trying to find that bird in a small gap among the leave

The next morning, we had a Crimson-winged Woodpecker. Ray got a video

Awesome looking bird, impossible to miss it. It has incredible striking color.

Green Broadbill with iPhone SE + Kowa TSN-501

Black Hornbill

Together with a few local birders and another group of HK birders, we waited for almost 2 hours but it finally decided to showed up

We met the same group of HK birders the next morning

Everyone sharing observation and helped each other to see the target species. Only a female individual, oh well....we can always try tomorrow.

We were back to the same spot in the afternoon, and seems like we don't need to come back tomorrow morning for the male bird....we got the male...finally

Janet admiring the male individual

Green Magpie for our last morning session in the hill station

Again, we saw the Green Magpie with just-arrived birders

"We could not be more appreciative of nor ask for a better birding guide than Weng Chun. I tried for several months to reach him after reading many great reviews. I tried through Birding Pal site but it wasn't working correctly. I finally reached him though this site or Facebook and it was so worth the wait and effort. From our initial contact it went smoothly and he was very accommodating with planning and his recommendations were right on. He picked us up at KLIA2 and we were off. His sense of humor was delightful and we had fun everywhere - whether driving, dining or birding. We always felt safe and well-cared for and our time with Weng Chun will be remembered.

We did not have a specific list of birds to see - we just put ourselves in his keeping. Weng Chun knows his birds!!! He could tell minute differences in their calls and appearances and at night we were amazed he could rattle off what we'd seen that day! He worked diligently to ensure I saw a hornbill on Peninsular Malaysia - a huge desire of mine.

Birders - if you are lucky enough to be able to schedule with Weng Chun on the Peninsula - do it. He is knowledgeable, professional, committed to your quests, and fun. We are ready to return! Thank you, Weng Chun!"

Another fun birding trip filled with laughter. This time I was guiding a couple from USA to Fraser's Hill (yes, again!) and Hulu Langat. Weather was generally good and we had pretty good birds for this trip checklist. Lots of woodpeckers! Obviously many birds we saw on this trip are different from the ones they saw while birding in Langkawi.

After meeting up with Doug and Melissa in KL, we went up to Fraser's Hill. Along the way, we made several birding stops with unforgettable sighting of a Blyth's Hawk-eagle. We stayed up in the hill station for 2 nights and another night near KL. While birding in Fraser's Hill is very comfortable with nice weather, it is always a challenge to many of my guests to go birding in the lowland where it is warmer and humid, but still getting many new birds. We were fortunate to find a few fruiting trees in the lowland forest. Not forgetting an incredible sighting of a hornbill at the end of the trip.

Lots of amazing birds perching on the trees nearby. New birds for them, of course.

Fire-tufted Barbet through the Kowa TSN-501 spotting scope

Observing the forest canopy for Blyth's Shrike-babbler previously known as White-browed Shrike-babbler

A start of a new day in Fraser's Hill

In the morning, we went to look for the Rufous-browed Flycatcher, White-tailed Robin and Red-headed Trogon

A quick scan of the densely covered area for broadbill, and we got one!

White-eye, Cuckoo-dove and Flycatcher seen here within 1 minute

a portable spotting scope helps a lot during our birding trip

Continue walking around Fraser's Hill and keep looking around for birds ....

.... and we saw Mountain Imperial Pigeon perching quietly, almost miss it!

Now in more open space, we look up those birds flying fast in the sky

Town Centre was decorated that day

A Large Niltava was very cooperative - it allows us time to observe and taking a few photographs too

Large Niltava (male)

in a more hot and humid situation, birding in the lowland forest near Kuala Lumpur

A day rest at home and then followed by a photography trip with 3 Taiwanese. Energetic and fun being with them for 8 days.

Another trip with Henk. Yes, he is back in KL. We have traveled to several different habitats before but this time we are covering the open country and small patches of mangrove at the coast. Highlight for this trip is the 3 species of Pitta in a short period of time. Amazing and it was lots of fun birding with him. Very determined and birding with patience.

"This is the first time for my wife and I to visit Peninsular Malaysia, and we want a professional guide to strengthen the success of this trip, so we contact Weng Chun for the arrangement. He answered our questions quickly, also tried to understand the way we used to birding and take photos, also given a detail plan for us, we had a very good first impression and decided to have this tip with him. As flexible birders we brought binoculars and hand-held camera gears without tripods. Weng Chun adjusted the trip plan with more flexibility to meet our demands, which made us to see and take photos of more bird species even some tough targets. He also paid lot of attention to our food and accommodation situation and make sure we're fine and comfortable for all the logistic arrangement, very considerate. Weng Chun has expertise and rich knowledge as a birding guide, and also excellent eyesignt and hearing that always can find hidden birds or calling, which helped us to find a lot new species that we were not aware, so impressive! In a word, we quite enjoyed this 7-days fruitful trip with Weng Chun, couldn't be better. If you want a professional birding tour guide in Peninsular Malaysia, Weng Chun is highly recommended!" - Jimmy, Taiwan

I only guided 2 birders. This photo at the top of this post shows my guests were surrounded by 2 big groups of photographers from China and Taiwan, as well as 2 local couples. For 7 days, we covered the highlands, lowland forest and coastal grassland / patches of mangrove trees. Lots of good birds because we managed to cover more grounds walking around without tripods. Ok, I had a tripod but it was a lightweight tripod for my spotting scope. :D

Guided my first Philippines guest today! Benjamin is an avid bird photographer and he has his favorite species of birds. So we went out looking for Kingfisher and Pitta.

Sudip was on a family trip and he contacted me for guiding in the hill station. He arrived on the day when I was leaving on 25th March. Yes, it's a back-to-back trip at Fraser's Hill. Tiring? Yes, definitely but it is the joy of meeting new birding guest (friend) and seeing happy faces encourage me to continue my work as a bird guide. His daughter already showing an early sign of becoming a birder, she is so interested with the birds and she can even remembered the names very very well.

Out in the field again for another 3 days covering the mangrove of Kuala Selangor and the highlands of Fraser's Hill. Exciting trip too! Broadbills, Barbets, Partridge and of course not forgeting a close encounter with the Brown Wood Owl twice!

I went to check out Krau forest early morning. Met a birding tour group and a local photographer there. It is good to see some keen birders around.

2 sites in a day. Possible. But make sure keep track of the time. Met a few avid birders in the highland where we were targeting the Mountain Peacock Pheasant and Ferruginous Partridge. DIPPED on the partridge! We left around 9-10am after getting no sign of the partridge. The info I received from other local photographers who stayed on until middle of the day, the partridge eventually came out but very very late. Oh well, we need to cover another site which is another 1 - 1.5 hours away from the highland. Target in the lowland forest.....Rail-babbler. But instead we were rewarded with several babblers, bulbuls and a magnificent view of a Green Broadbill!

Hulu Langat is Great!

The forest in Hulu Langat is just incredible. This place is just short of 1 hour drive from my home and technically my new 'office' :D

"My wife and I are serious birders from the USA. We frequently find ourselves in Bangkok for work assignments, and one of our favorite birding destinations while in Asia is Peninsular Malaysia. There a tremendous variety of quality birds and habitat within a few hours of a major international airport at Kuala Lumpur. There is also a fantastic guide, Weng Chun, based out of KL, who can maximize your success in the area. We have now taken two birding trips in Malaysia with Weng in the past thirteen months. Both trips have been very good; the first trip being our introduction to birding in this country, and the second being aimed at a broader range of habitats and the goal of picking up some of the tougher species not seen on the first trip. I sent Weng a long list of targets and he came up with a detailed plan that was very successful. Weng has an extensive knowledge of the area and knows specific places that yield specific birds; he also is a great 'ear-birder' and never misses a vocalization - I frequently record songs and calls while birding and then compare with xeno-canto after (and share them there if they are high enough quality) - and verified that Weng was always spot-on with his IDs. And importantly for me, he has the patience to help me find obscure or well-hidden birds that challenge my poor eyesight. We will be in Bangkok for the rest of 2018 and will certainly go out with Weng again. Very highly recommended." - Michael, USA

2nd birding trip with Michael and Claire! It's always nice to have birders coming back and be able to guide them again. We only had a day in Fraser's Hill during our 1st birding, but this time, Michael gave me a list of birds that he wanted to see. I recommended Krau / Bukit Rengit and Fraser's Hill. In the morning, we managed to get a good species off from the target list which include Large-tailed Nightjar, Black Hornbill, Little Green Pigeon, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot, Little Bronze Cuckoo, Banded Bay Cuckoo, Sooty-capped Babbler, Black Magpie, Grey-and-Buff Woodpecker, Banded Broadbill, Black-and-Yellow Broadbill, and a few others.

It was almost middle of the day, so we took a short break at the bird hide and joined a part of 7-8 bird photographers there.

Upon arrival at Fraser's Hill, we wasted no time and headed to the spot for Malaysian Partridge. We were not alone. This partridge is an attraction to many bird watchers and photographers. There were 6 photographers with us for almost 1.5 hours but they left after not getting any response from the partridge and it started to drizzle. We were the reluctant birders! We stayed on ..... then I heard Large Cuckooshrike and quickly alerted Michael and Claire. We retraced our steps back to the "blind" and got a better view of Emerald Dove. Suddenly the partridge called! and it popped up and gave us a few minutes look at it.... well worth the wait. After dinner, we nailed 2 Grey Nightjar. No owl....everything so quiet....very windy. We called it a day.

In the morning after breakfast, we drove towards our birding stop.....unfortunately a tree fell and blocked the road. It was a very....very....very windy last night and this morning. So we had no other choice but turn around and use the other way to reach our birding stop.

This is the look from the other side of the road. Anyway, I told Michael and Claire to stay focus on our targets. We just need a White-tailed Robin. But Mugimaki Flycatcher came out first, got chased away by Rufous-browed Flycatcher. Large Niltava was calling but never show up. Then, Claire pointed out a silhouette of a bird at a distance. Can't see much details ... I had to take out the scope and luckily the bird was still there. It was an Orange-headed Thrush (unexpected but it is inside the list of targets). After a few more minutes, The robin showed up! Great view!!!! can't complaint. Drove down to the Gap and back up the hill station in the next few hours. It was pretty quiet. Although we managed to ticked a few targets. Then, I suggested that we depart early to the airport and stop by a botanical park to get Pitta(s). They agreed because they have never see a Pitta before (who would ever say NO to Pitta).

We walked quite a bit to reach the stakeout for the Blue-winged Pitta and yes, like any other birds, we waited for a while...entertained by a family of Dusky Leaf Monkey. Next, our target is Hooded Pitta which requires to walk a little bit more but along the way, we ticked Grey-breasted Spiderhunter and Spectacled Spiderhunter. After getting the Hooded Pitta, we also had Little Spiderhunter and Green-backed Flycatcher. That ended our birding chase for this time. Hope to see Michael and Claire again after they completed their planned trips to several countries in Southeast Asia.