In search of the Barau (31/05/2012)

The Royal Belum State Park is part of the Belum-Temenggor forest landscape located at the northern-most corner of Perak state and is one of the largest forested areas in Malaysia. This was my third only visit to this particular area and every single one of them concluded quite satisfactory. 

Unlike Taman Negara, it has managed to maintain accessibility by boat only and this helps to keep the park relatively as wild as it should be. Anyway, the four of us chartered a small boat for the day to explore this pristine birding locality and most of the birding and photography from this trip were done from the boat. 

The Lesser Fish-eagle is rather scarce everywhere and the Temenggor Lake is probably one of its last strongholds where it can still be seen quite regularly. Unfortunately, it is rather shy and I was only able to obtain record shots despite crossing paths with this eagle a couple of times throughout the trip. And the constant movement of the boat did not help much in improving my photographs.

If you are a big fan of hornbills, and to be totally honest who isn’t, Royal Belum is one of the best places to observe these majestic and regal birds. It is the only place in Malaysia where all the 10 species of hornbills have been recorded. On this trip, we managed to record 3 species and obtained record shots of 2 of them – a flying male Wreathed Hornbill…

And a resting Black Hornbill.

We had our lunch at Sungai Kejar base camp. It is one of the few basic accommodations can be found within the park. There are no big resorts here and I sincerely hope it will stay that way. 

Anyway, the base camp was quite rich in bird life and a nearby fruiting tree was really luring in the forest birds – much to our delight. Unfortunately, the tree was quite tall and good photographic opportunities were rare. A rather confiding male Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher eventually prevented me from leaving the base camp empty handed.

The indigenous people of Belum-Temenggor are also one of the attractions for visitors to the park but not quite so for a quartet of birders from Penang. We are solely here for the feathered residents only.

The star performer of the trip is a species of bulbul that I have not seen in more than 17 years and one of the main targets for this trip – the Straw-headed Bulbul. By the way, the local name is Barau and hence, the title of this post. It may be the largest of all the bulbuls in Malaysia but sadly, it is also one of the rarest as well. Being a highly-prized songbird in the illegal bird trade is the main reason for its scarcity. And that is a real shame because not only does it sing beautifully but it is also visually stunning. This bulbul favours riverside vegetation and it is not particularly shy as we were able to approach it reasonably close by boat.

Despite all the threats that this bulbul is facing, we discovered that there is still hope…

Like all young birds, this fledgling had a ravenous appetite and the parents had to work hard to keep it happy.

A Praying Mantis is certainly not beyond their means. 

Before I end this post, I would to share this image of a family of Black-thighed Falconets taken along the Kupang-Gerik highway a few days before our trip to Royal Belum. The birds were having some quality time together as the day draws to a close but like all loving families, occasionally there may be one that is just not in the mood to cuddle up.

22/04/2010: Past reflections re-visited

When I was first started to photograph birds during birding trips, I was using a modest digi-scoping setup. Good images were hard to come by due to the moderate quality of my telescope and compact camera. And to make things worse, I had to hold my camera against my telescope with only the aid of a home-made adaptor. Despite all the hassle, I was quite happy at the time that I was able to capture permanent memories of my birding trips. With time and a whole lot of practice, I did manage to make the best out of my setup like this shot of a resting Black-winged Kite taken at Kuala Muda.

Digi-scoping active moving birds can be quite frustrating as it was quite difficult to follow the movement of the birds. I considered myself quite lucky when this image of a male Blue-winged Leafbird taken at Temenggor forest reserve turned out better than I had expected.

One of the advantages of using a digi-scoping setup is the reach of the optics when compared to a DSLR setup. I can still recall the time I had to photograph this foraging male Laced Woodpecker from quite a distance at the mangroves in Kuala Gula and thanks to the reach, I was quite happy with the images.

Sometimes I do regret not venturing into bird photography earlier because there are quite a number of species that presented themselves to me only once so far like my one and only sighting of the Indian Roller at Kuala Gula – a species that is locally common only at the north-eastern region of Peninsula Malaysia.

And how can I forget about my Hoopoe sighting in my home state. The same individual was seen only twice in the same season at Sungai Burung. This is not only an attractive species but it is also a rare one as well. Now all I can do is hope that one day I will be able to capture its images with my current DSLR setup.

The Indian Pond-heron is one of the more recent additions to the Malaysian checklist. I had the privilege of photographing the first ever record for Penang Island and of all the places, this mega rarity decided to winter at the air field of the Penang International Airport. It took a while for the airport security to realize that it was the “feathered birds” that I was after.

As per Choo Eng's request, here is my natural shot of all 3 species of Pond-herons in a single frame...

Here is a digitally altered shot to show the differences between the Chinese (L), Indian (M) and Javan (R) in full breeding plumage - the only time when you can safely tell the 3 species apart.

The Milky Stork is a globally endangered species and encounters with this species were far and few. However, I did manage to enjoy a few close encounters and capture quite a few decent shots of the birds that were re-introduced back into wild at Kuala Selangor Nature Park and Kuala Gula Bird Sanctuary. These birds are quite accustomed to humans and are not as wary as the completely wild birds.