It is always nice to start a birding trip with some easy birding and a whole load of species, and on a recent tour to Peninsula Malaysia in March open areas, rice fields and mangroves around the town of Kuala Selangor provided this for us. More specifically, spending a morning birding in and close to Kuala Selangor Nature Park was very rewarding, finding many species that we were not to see again on our tour due to the habitat.

Species such as Mangrove Blue Flycatcher, Chestnut-bellied Malkoha, Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker, Mangrove Whistler, Little Bronze Cuckoo, Laced Woodpecker were all excellent and there was plenty more seen on a very enjoyable first full morning of birding in Malaysia.

Starting in the gardens of the comfortable De Palma Hotel there were plenty of species to wish us a good morning as the sun rose and hit the tops of the trees for the first time. As it often does, this induced a bit of a flurry of birds including two species of woodpeckers; Common Flameback and Laced Woodpeckers.

Common Flameback

Laced Woodpecker

Little Bronze Cuckoo was perhaps the least frequently encountered bird we saw in the garden, sitting out on the same bare tree as the woodpeckers and this tree also attracted Pied Triller, Pink-necked Green Pigeon and Olive-winged Bulbul as well as loads of the common open country birds such as Brown-throated Sunbird, Yellow-vented Bulbul and Common Iora. It was a good start to our morning.

Mangrove Blue Flycatcher was one of our main targets here and although we were waylaid by White-bellied Sea Eagle, Arctic Warbler, Ashy Minivet, a female Yellow-rumped Flycatcher it was very shortly after arrival at the Nature Park itself that we found a pair of these lovely bird, apparently looking for a nest site.

Male Mangrove Blue Flycatcher

Female Mangrove Blue Flycatcher

It is always nice to find one of the target birds quickly but there was plenty more to come; just around the corner we saw Himalayan Cuckoo and a couple of Common Hill Mynas.

There were a few raptors for us here too with a small group of Black Bazas being the best in my opinion. This smart bird always rates as one of my top raptors of any trip in this region but Oriental Honey-buzzard, Brahminy Kite and Crested Serpent Eagle were all nice too while a huge Lesser Adjutant swooping overhead may not have been a raptor it certainly had the same presence as one.

Crested Serpent Eagle

Birds including Oriental White-eye, Abbott’s Babbler, Blue-throated Bee-eater, Black-capped Kingfisher were all nice as we headed to our real goal ,the short mangrove walkway, where we hoped to find some more mangrove specialists. Birding as a group along the narrow boardwalk was a bit of a challenge but when we came across a flock of birds foraging in the mangroves we all managed to get good views of Cinereous Tit, Golden-bellied Gerygone, several Mangrove Whistlers, a couple of cute little Sunda Pygmy Woodpeckers and a pair of Chestnut-bellied Malkohas; very satisfying!

Chestnut-bellied Malkoha

As were leaving I heard the strong and repetitive call of what sounded like Kamchatka Leaf Warbler. Using the calls I have on my phone for reference I was able to confirm the identity and although, unfortunately, I did not manage to get a recording it sounded identical to this recording on Xena Canto.

Eventually we all managed to see this bird and it called a few times and uttered a short burst of song as some of us were watching it. Well, it turns out that this would be a first for Peninsula Malaysia and although I am satisfied that the bird was identified correctly without a recording it is understandable that it will almost certainly not be accepted by the records committee.

This was an exciting ending to our morning which gave us a nice introduction to many of Malaysia’s commoner species as well as a good number of habitat specialists that we would not see again. Of course, large numbers of species are always welcome too!

After lunch we visited a viewpoint, looking out over the Nature Park, where we also picked up Lineated Barbet in a fruiting tree as well as dozens of very well-behaved Silvered Langurs.

Silvered Langurs

I have never before seen monkeys that are habitualized to humans sitting and waiting so patiently to be fed without creating a melee of excited and boisterous behaviour. These langurs just sat quietly and took food very gently from people who gave them some vegetables. It was an interesting thing to see as we ate our ice creams before beginning the journey to Fraser’s Hill.

Kuala Selangor is a great birding location and you can join us there on future Peninsula Malaysia birding tours.