Malaysia 2022

Peninsular Malaysia: September 8-18, 2022 Callyn Yorke

Scroll down for an Annotated Bird List

Introduction

I expected changes, about forty-two years worth. Malaysia has famously become one of the fastest developing countries in Southeast Asia. What I found, particularly in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, was scarcely recognizable. This brief memoir, focused primarily on birds and natural history, is based on a reunion with a country where I was a US Peace Corps volunteer from 1977-80.

In the 1970’s, Malaysia was losing a grip on its pristine lowland rainforest – the oldest rainforest ecosystems in the world. Most of those forests had been targeted for routine commercial logging. Alarming as it was to the international community of wildlife conservationists, economic development was a national priority, whether visiting biologists liked it or not. Peace Corps insisted on maintaining a politically neutral position and if any volunteers took issue with that, they would likely find themselves on the first flight back to the States. I simply had to accept the fact that while I lectured Malaysian university students on zoological diversity and ecology, other volunteers were assisting Malaysian agencies as civil engineers and bulldozer mechanics.

I had been assigned to the National University of Malaysia (UKM), Department of Biological Sciences in Kuala Lumpur. The university provided complimentary housing for the half dozen Peace Corps volunteers working as lecturers in various departments. Initially we lived in the luxury flats on campus. Later, some of us shared upscale, single family homes in Petaling Jaya.

We learned the bus routes around the city and suburbs. First impressions of our new environment ranged from shockingly primitive to wonderfully exotic. My view remained about in the middle of that spectrum. I was one of the few volunteers who couldn’t wait to get out of town and into a rainforest.

Kuala Lumpur (“KL”) was not entirely without charm. It was a cosmopolitan Asian city that ignored my rudimentary Bahasa (English was widely spoken) and cautiously welcomed me like a distant relative who had misplaced his return ticket. It became the foster hometown that I learned to love. My Peace Corps buddies and I enjoyed meals at a banana-leaf-for-a-plate Indian kedai, took in an occasional Western movie (sex scenes edited out) made friends with a Chinese camera store repairman and checked in with the post office for care packages from home. We knew most of the backstreets and landmarks and could get around town cheaply day or night using the Sri Jaya public bus system.

* * *

I suppose that I was hoping to relive some of those fun times. I was dreaming, of course. Gazing out the window of an eleventh-floor hotel room, there was a dizzying maze of new freeways, billboards, overpasses, causeways and boulevards — a mosaic of contemporary architecture, including impossibly tall buildings that blocked the sun and probably confounded the daily weather forecast.

It was soon clear that those languid Peace Corps days were mostly irrelevant historical anecdotes. In four decades Kuala Lumpur had been transformed into a formidable jungle of glass, metal, marble and concrete. Standing by a busy street in front of the hotel, I was a disoriented time traveler – like a guy expecting to be lovingly embraced by his heavily caffeinated ex-fiancée. I might as well have been using sepia photos of old San Francisco as a roadmap for locating the new Giants baseball stadium.

In the shadow of KL, the quiet little suburb of Petaling Jaya (PJ) was now a strange new network of roadways and multi-level housing. The old Bukit Kiara plantation, where my students and I had conducted field studies in avian ecology, was replaced by upscale homes and apartments, memorialized by a freeway offramp sign.

The day before my return flight I hired a taxi driver to help me find the house where I had lived in Petaling Jaya. It was somewhere in Section 17. That was about as much useful geography as I could remember. I had forgotten the numbered street address, resulting in the adventurous driver and I being equally disoriented while patrolling the streets.

This middle-aged fellow of southern India ancestry, who was probably a descendant of the rubber tree workers from colonial times, had a good command of English and friendly disposition. The scope of our mission had captured his imagination on a geological time scale. Forty-two years ago, he was a small boy living in Kuala Lumpur. I was a young lecturer at UKM. Perhaps we had shared a bus ride somewhere in the city. The world is full of forgotten coincidences and lost connections.

We seemed to be driving around in circles. Nevertheless, all of my uncertain instructions were gracefully followed.

“Let’s try this street. No, this isn’t it. That gas station wasn’t here before. Over there looks good. Turn right, please.”

At last we were in what appeared to be remnants of my old neighborhood. We slowed down and passed a home that looked vaguely familiar.

I got out of the taxi and approached the gated front yard. A lonely dog came out quietly to greet me, tail wagging, as if it had recognized an old friend. A wave of nostalgia swept over me. Yes, the roof angle, front porch, doorway and large, louvered living room window – everything looked right. It was one of the few homes in the neighborhood that appeared to be the original construction. I made a couple of snapshots with my cell phone and convinced myself that it must be the home where three young American Peace Corps volunteers lived while lecturing at the University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). This was almost a homecoming, except the old neighborhood was now inhabited by complete strangers. These folks, many of whom had not been born before I left in 1980, would have no idea that some of the most formative years of my career as a biologist occurred while living in Petaling Jaya. I should explain.

* * *

The quaint, middle-class neighborhood of Petaling Jaya also housed several biologists from Cambridge University. Among them was Dr. Michael Kavanaugh, senior primatologist, who supervised student researchers, including Joules Caldecott, studying the Pig-tailed Macaque. Bristol University was represented by the late Dr. Clive Marsh, specializing in comparative primate behavior and ecology. Clive, a sharp-eyed field biologist, was a great companion on field trips into relatively remote forested areas of the capital state.

In another section of PJ lived several British graduate students and post-doctoral fellows working on field biology projects connected with the University of Malaya (UM) a separate school adjacent to UKM. It wasn’t long after my arrival that I was introduced to them and an academic social group was formed.

Professor David Wells, the leading resident ornithologist at UM, took an active interest in my bird surveys of the Bukit Kiara plantation and helped me with bird identifications. Geoffrey Davison, one of Dr. Well’s students, was doing pioneering fieldwork on the Great Argus pheasant, a large, showy yet highly secretive forest bird. When not in the field, Geoff assisted me with the zoology labs at UKM and eventually obtained a teaching post there. He became a permanent ex-pat resident and published two field guides to the birds of Malaysia.

The “PJ gang” in those days was composed of young, highly motivated field biologists. Between the weeks of outstation fieldwork, we met at each other’s homes for socials and discussions regarding our research projects. An American couple, Dr. Wendell L. Wilson and his wife Jasmine, from the University of Washington, lived a few doors down from me. Their place was often the focal point for our get-togethers. Wendell, a well-trained behavioral ecologist, had studied under Dr. Gordon Orians, a first-rate scientist in the American ornithological community. We soon became acquainted with each other’s academic background and current work. Thereafter, using constructive criticism, we refined our thought processes regarding the methodology and significance of our research objectives.

Those discussions were influential in shaping my avian ecology studies. Aside from occasional written correspondence with Professor Douglas A. James of the University of Arkansas (who would become my doctoral thesis advisor after I left Malaysia), my fieldwork was largely independent of academic supervision. Very beneficial were the helpful suggestions and words of encouragement given by my PJ neighbors. Those folks, combining American and British expertise, comprised one of the finest informal assemblages of field biologists I had ever known. As one of the youngest and least experienced students in the group, it sometimes seemed as though I had been provisionally inducted into a local chapter of the Royal Society. The Brits in particular were unapologetic critics who were extremely well versed in their academic subject areas. If you wanted to talk shop with any of them, you had better have your shit wired tight. Usually, I kept quiet and listened carefully to their well articulated points and counterpoints.

Fieldwork in the tropics was challenging for beginning and advanced students alike. Accurate identification of the groups with similar species required many preliminary hours of careful observation and demonstrable expertise before reliable data could be collected. Because rainforest bird species diversity was generally high and populations small, learning the key field marks and vocalizations often involved multiple visits to remote locations, jungle trekking and extraordinary perseverance. Scorpions, spiders, mosquitoes, leeches and an astonishing variety of venomous snakes, were the ordinary rainforest hazards one needed to be mindful of when doing fieldwork in Malaysia.

* * *

My head was spinning on a merry-go-round of recaptured memories. The driver and I high fived. Satisfied with the PJ historical challenge, we were as happy as a team that had just won the World Cup. When we arrived at the Hotel Majestic entrance, the doorman, wearing a pith helmet that perfectly matched his gleaming white officer’s uniform, was looking like he stepped out of a Jumanji film sequel. Although this wasn’t much like the Kuala Lumpur I remembered, it was a distant time of my life in Malaysia that I had touched in a profound way.

During this visit I wanted to see what remained of Malaysian rainforests and their animal inhabitants. A road trip to Taman Negara, located deep in the central Peninsula, would provide a contemporary sample of Malaysian biogeography. A notebook and camera were stuffed in a backpack, and I was ready for a highly anticipated reunion with Malaysia.

At higher elevations like Ulu Gombak we sped by patches of mature rainforest. Montane forests, as far as I could determine from the car window, remained largely intact. Elsewhere, we sailed through a rolling sea of oil palm, the premier cash-crop for both Malaysia and Indonesia. Oil palm had only partly transformed the Malaysian landscape by the end of my Peace Corps days. In the interim it had become the dominant monoculture – ubiquitous, zoologically impoverished and replacing thousands of hectares of lowland rainforest.

Alongside the plantations and remnants of secondary forest, villages had become towns and towns small cities. Cross-country roads and highways were enlarged and re-engineered for high-speed traffic. Gone were the endless lines of logging trucks, antique British cars, rickshaws, bicycles, barefoot pedestrians and open-range livestock. We had to travel quite far – more than 100 km from Kuala Lumpur – to find an example of the traditional Malay rural lifestyle. For the most part, Malaysia was now living in the fast lane.

* * *

I chose the Hotel Majestic in central Kuala Lumpur for the first and last days of my visit. Built in the 1930’s, the Majestic was a fine old establishment with a fair measure of colonial integrity and charm. Best of all, the hotel was a five-minute walk from a birding spot, Tasik Perdana. My bird list for the Malaysian trip was incrementally enhanced from an afternoon and morning survey of Tasik Perdana (see Annotated Bird List). I definitely wasn’t complaining. Hotel Majestic was a first-class historic hotel with excellent service and reasonable rates ($200 US/day).

Three weeks prior to my arrival in Malaysia (September 8, 2022), I had booked a few nights in the country’s premier national park, Taman Negara, Pahang. It was a four-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur. Hotel Majestic arranged my transport. The Taman Negara segment of my journey was the lengthiest and most rewarding in terms of being reacquainted with Malaysian natural history.

My final day in Malaysia on September 18, 2022, included a full agenda, that began with a search for a carrom board and a few travel-kit items. There was a visit to my old neighborhood in Petaling Jaya (described above) and a late afternoon trip to a nature park in Kuala Selangor (see below). All of the objectives were met for that quite remarkable day. Dass, the Hotel Majestic concierge, made my transport arrangements with the utmost efficiency and lowest fares possible, e.g. $78 US for the 140 km roundtrip to the Kuala Selangor Nature Park.

Everything on my shopping list was found in the multilevel, multi-hectare, Mid-valley Mall in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Obtaining a carrom board was another ‘mission nostalgia’ objective during my Malaysian journey. Although there was an old carrom board at home in California, I really missed being able to play the game at my current residence in the Vietnam highlands – especially during the protracted rainy season. I combed through Internet listings. There were evidently no carrom boards sold in Vietnam or Thailand. Same for Cambodia and Laos. Culturally, that almost made sense. Malaysia, with a sizeable population of Indian descent –many of whom still enjoy their original board game — was the only nearby country where a carrom board might be purchased. Notwithstanding an encouraging Internet discovery, finding a specialty game store involved making several inquiries in Kuala Lumpur. There again, Hotel Majestic staff workers came to my rescue and directed me to a shopping mall where I would be most likely to find a carom board.

In fact the huge AEON store (Malaysia’s answer to Walmart) inside the Mid-Valley Mall had several carrom boards; I selected one that looked perfect and brought it back to the check-out counter. Some of the customers in line were amused. But there was still one problem remaining: getting the board back to Vietnam on the plane.

The following day at the check-in counter, Vietnam Airlines requested nearly $100 US(cash only) to include the carrom board as an oversized item with my luggage. I was miffed. The carrom board plus a few accessories had cost me only $35 US. I must admit to having been a little impatient with the airline supervisor, summoned for assistance. Wearing a surgical face covering and with the right side of his glasses rapidly fogging up, the young man unilaterally dismantled the Skyteam partnership of Vietnam Airlines with Delta Airlines (USA). It appeared as though I had lost the argument and had only two options: pay the excess baggage fee, or abandon the carrom board at the airport. But when brought up online, the numbers provided by my Delta Skymiles account conclusively resolved the issue in my favor. The shiny new carrom board is presently awaiting its opening season tournament, just as soon as I can show my Vietnamese neighbors how the game is played!

On The Road: Survey Areas, Materials and Methods

I visited three principal areas for birding and wildlife photography, Tasik Perdana, Kuala Lumpur (two surveys); Taman Negara, Pahang (multiple surveys); Kuala Selangor Nature Park (one survey). At all of those locations, I used a Zeiss 10 x 42 binocular, Nikon D3X camera with a Nikon 200-500 mm lens. A Google Pixel 3X cell phone was also used to document locations, signage, etc.. Birding surveys were conducted on foot, using a pocket field notebook; field notes were reviewed and recopied each evening into a larger format, loose-leaf notebook. When bird identifications were in question, descriptive notes and digital images I captured in the field were compared with information and images gleaned from reliable internet sources, i.e. Birds of the World, Cornell University, USA.

1. Tasik Perdana, Kuala Lumpur (TPKL). Elevation, 94m. I made two walking surveys, visually covering approximately 70% of the 91-hectare park, on 8 September, 2022 (1700-1850 hrs.) and 9 September, 2022 (0700 hrs. – sunrise – 0920 hrs.). Weather during the surveys was overcast with little or no wind; temp. 29C to 32C. Many joggers and other visitors were present on the pathways through the park during the surveys, though most birds appeared to be fairly well habituated to human presence. A lake (Tasik Perdana) with a large fountain and small islet at the north end, initially appeared suitable for waterbirds but supported only a few domesticated ducks, as far as I could see. The west and especially northwest sections of the park, had pathways bordering a closed canopy of tall rainforest trees, where most passerine birds were found. Elsewhere, birds were found in flowering shrubs and trees; those bearing small fruits were especially favored. A large aviary in the southeast section, enclosed by nylon mesh netting, attracted several species of waterbird unseen elsewhere in the area, e.g. Painted Stork and Hadada Ibis. Those birds were free-ranging and evidently spent several hours each day standing on the nylon roof netting, visiting their incarcerated relatives.

2. Taman Negara, Pahang (TN). Elevation, 85m. I made walking surveys each day, during the morning and late afternoon, visually and collectively covering a total area of about twenty-five hectares in the Mutiara Resort gardens and adjacent boardwalks through a closed-canopy, riverine rainforest (10 -17 September, 2022); the Sungei Tembling and Kuala Tahan river sections next to the resort were also surveyed visually each day. Weather during the surveys ranged from heavy overcast with light rain to fair and warm; temp. 26C to 32C, with occasional light afternoon winds (2-5 kph). Stationary surveys, e.g. from the dining area and floating restaurant across the river, were made daily. Evening walking surveys were made; those were focused mainly on attempting to identify nightjars foraging around the outdoor lamps and porch lights.

Trails in the Mutiara Resort area consisted primarily of fiberglass boardwalks, often in disrepair due to tree-falls, elephants and ordinary wear and tear from thousands of visitors using those walkways each month (several hundred people were present at the resort during my visit).

Creaky, loose and broken fittings between boardwalk planks, made walking quietly through the forest on designated trails, nearly impossible. That, combined with noisy groups of visitors, who appeared to have little interest in observing nature, resulted in a number of my surveys being interrupted; there were multiple instances of birds frightened away before they could be identified and photographed.

Trails I frequented (see above map) included Swamp Loop (SLT), Tahan Hide (TH) and Lubuk Simpon (LS). I made less frequent surveys on other trails, e.g. leading to the Canopy Walkway (CW – an extremely narrow, wobbly suspension bridge, unsuitable for wildlife observation and photography).

The best area for bird photography was generally around the resort gardens, where flowering and fruiting trees attracted numerous species. There, birds were accustomed to human presence (except for an hour or two, early every morning, when a gas-powered leaf-blower was being used, apparently to awaken the dead). But even with a habituation advantage on the resort grounds, lighting conditions were seldom optimal, as an upward angle of the camera into a tree canopy, often incurred harsh backlighting. Overall, I was mildly disappointed by the lack of photographic opportunities. Similar reports were found online among photographers visiting Mutiara and Taman Negara.

A daytime bird feeding-photography station, set up at one of the nocturnal, mammal-viewing hides (e.g. Tahan Hide), would likely solve that problem. Mealworms (beetle larvae) are a safe, nutritious food, eagerly consumed by many kinds of wild birds and small mammals. A mealworm colony of sufficient size can easily be established and maintained using plastic storage containers and food left-overs. Once birds learn the whereabouts of the supplementary food stations, they habituate quickly to human presence and can be observed photographed at close range in their natural habitat. This occasionally results in sightings and photo-documentation of rare species. Of course, the frequency of supplemental feedings must be closely monitored and controlled to avoid adverse ecological impacts on birds and other wildlife. Generally, most wild animals will continue to search for a variety of their favorite, natural foods, even when supplemental food is available.

When I suggested a feeding station option to one of the park officials, I was reminded that, except for saltlicks, supplemental feeding of birds and other wildlife in Taman Negara is expressly forbidden by law. Alright, fair enough.

If only that same resolute ideology was uniformly applied to wildlife conservation and education in Taman Negara, significant improvements to the park facilities and services might be made. And therein lies one of the major shortcomings of the National Park system in Malaysia. The government relies on a high volume of traffic in the park. Ninety-nine percent of visitors are there for socializing and recreation; ecology and guided wildlife education programs would not generate much income and therefore are given little if any attention by the park authorities.

My booking at Mutiara included a series of emails with the staff. They responded by asking which of the many recreational activities I would like to sign up for, such as river-rafting, caving, canopy walkway, trekking, e.g. to Peninsular Malaysia’s highest peak, Gunung Tahan (seven days). None of those activities appealed to me. I simply wanted to observe and photograph birds and wildlife.

If a park guide was available for a half-day bird walk, that would be fine with me. But there was no definitive reply to my request. Apparently, Taman Negara was not providing that service, which was confirmed after my arrival at Mutiara.

Naturalist guides were unavailable in Taman Negara. Park rangers and other officials in residence were unable to assist me with information regarding specific localities where I might find interesting birds and obtain photos. A white-board with out-dated, fragmentary notes of sightings in the park, was secluded in the corner of the ranger station and apparently seldom used. I discovered it after four days into my visit. Park officials were clearly overwhelmed by the hoards of tourists. They had their hands full issuing hiking permits, arranging boat trips and other recreational activities. I was on my own to find whatever I could in Taman Negara.

Two professionally led birding groups came through the park during my stay. A World Wildlife Fund group with a pair of field biologists (one stationed in Nepal, the other in Cambodia) were in the park for an organizational meeting. They kindly shared information about recent bird and wildlife sightings. It became clear that serious birders in Taman Negara should plan to arrive with their own guides, independent of park services and facilities.

Lodging at the Mutiara Resort included a relatively new development of 108 cabins. An abandoned bunk house with a badly damaged roof was elevated on blocks in the middle of the cabin area. I guessed correctly that it was where our UKM classes stayed during field trips. There was also a visitor log book that I trusted would be in safe storage at the ranger headquarters. Those logbook pages documented our field observations as well as those made by visitors from all over the world. I was keen to have a look at them.

Alas, searching for the Taman Negara logbooks was a fool’s errand. I was told that the logbooks had been destroyed in a flood many years ago. That was indeed a great loss. Included with logbook signatures, nationalities and dates, were many interesting details of wildlife sightings and other noteworthy experiences. I recalled that visitors had made sketch maps, drawings and other creative contributions. The logbooks contained an irreplaceable, first-hand record of Taman Negara natural history. Sometime following the great flood and rebuilding of the facilities, the park service had discontinued the use of visitor’s logbooks.

I was assigned to chalet #97. The rustic design and interior facilities were clean and serviceable, except for tricky, three-pronged, 210-volt electrical outlets, a leaky roof and a portable safety deposit box, small enough to be concealed in a backpack. The good news: This place was far removed from the central reception area and usually a pleasant retreat from all the commotion. More good news: the cost for lodging and most of my meals for a week-long stay was reasonable (about $100 US/day).

Outside my window, a resident Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) issued a dawn wake-up call. Part of Malay folklore – it was a familiar bird of towns, villages and rural areas throughout the lowlands of Southeast Asia – including our yard in Petaling Jaya. Unfortunately, Magpie Robin populations have since declined in the region due to its popularity as a cage bird. City and national parks are among the few places where these birds are still commonly found.

The dominant announcement of a new day was the hauntingly beautiful Muslim call to prayer. Wafting in from a mosque loudspeaker across the river, the acoustics recalled old-time radio broadcasts, Carefully articulated Arabic phrases alternately pierced the silence then faded into the heavy, predawn air. This was a familiar early morning event in Malaysia I experienced decades earlier. Hearing it again in Taman Negara brought back sublime memories of my youthful days in an exotic new land. The faithful practice of Islam certainly qualified as one of the few unchanged aspects of contemporary Malaysian life. I could be wrong, but after staring at the ceiling in my room one evening, I concluded that an arrow above the ceiling fan pointed to the direction of Mecca.

Most of my meals were taken in the Mutiara Resort dining area, where a buffet-style service supplemented a decidedly limited kitchen menu. The quality of prepared food was satisfactory — mainly rice with Malay-style meats and vegetables cooked and stewed with heavy sauces.

The daily salad and fruit selection was fresh but lacked much variety. However, that deficiency failed to discourage non-paying visitors. One very determined Long-tailed Macaque boldly raided the fruit bar. Alerted by shouts and hand-clapping, the uninvited guest was chased out of sight by restaurant workers, waving serving trays and brandishing crude sling-shots. The arrival of reinforcements and heavy artillery appeared to have settled the dispute. The macaque sought refuge in the nearby eaves.

Then there was a scene that might have surprised even the monkeys. The sliced fruit that the macaque perpetrator had been fingering, should have been removed immediately from the dining area. Instead, it was simply repositioned and left for future guests.

Beer and wine were available to non-Muslim guests. A sign at the bar upheld Islamic law, presumably as a reminder specifically for Malay guests. Curiously, the universal admonition to “Please Drink Responsibly” printed on the back of beer cans, was given in Bahasa Malaysia. Seriously? Was I the first Irishman to notice that?

Usually, when finishing a meal at the Mutiara Resort dining facility, I was still a little hungry. Certainly not starving, to be fair. Asian and Western style desserts were usually the first items to disappear from the buffet selections. Those were among the most creative and tasty treats on the lunch and dinner menu. Included were flan-like puddings, multiple-fruit Jello, and notably, a hot banana fritter with ice cream – prepared to order – that was impossible to resist.

Malaysians were definitely into their desserts, big-time. Tragically, as in America, obesity had reached epidemic proportions in Malaysia. To put it bluntly, fatties were everywhere – resulting in cardiologists getting rich and airlines going broke. Seeing overweight children was especially disheartening. It was the omnipresent signal for me to be mindful of my daily food intake.

After doing some mental math, I reasoned that lugging around heavy camera gear all day in the heat and humidity, left me with a caloric deficit. So, like a boxer after a title fight, I accepted the risk and dove on the yummy, high-calorie dessert selections.

How did the math work out? Not bad, really. Stepping on the scale when I returned home was almost a relief. I had stayed within one-percent of my optimal body weight. That was sometimes a challenging task when traveling in countries with limited menus, e.g. Costa Rica: rice & beans, or beans with rice. Obesity also happens to be a big health concern in Costa Rica.

For variety at dinner time, I usually took a motorboat ferry ($ 0.22 US each way) across the river to the Family Floating Restaurant. Their chicken satay was arguably the best in Malaysia. An added attraction was a close-up view of Germain’s Swiftlet and Pacific Swallow, coursing back and forth over the river, frequently skimming for a drink.

The Malay family operating the floating restaurant was friendly and welcoming, increasingly so with each of my visits. This was the most popular of the three riverboat restaurants in Kuala Tahan. Local fish were caught, live-tanked, and grilled to perfection. The owners knew exactly how to prepare a variety of delicious, Asian and Western style meals. Evidently, they also liked Harley Davidson motorcycles; two faded posters featured classic bikes as decorative memorabilia. This was my kind of place – a spicy, laid-back, old river ambiance, reminiscent of the deep South. Nothing was missing — okay, well, maybe ‘“Proud Mary“ by John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival.*

These were simple, honest-to-goodness back-country river folks. They knew enough English to serve foreign customers, though I preferred speaking with them in Bahasa. Like most Malays, they were delightfully surprised to meet a Westerner who could speak their language. Of course, that usually unleashed a barrage of rapid-fire questions and idioms that often required of me an extra moment to process and formulate a relevant response. No matter. Our small-talk, chit-chats were always a lively cross-cultural exchange, though I sometimes misunderstood them and answered the entirely wrong question! I’m sure they were amused; perhaps a tad more so than would have been my Peace Corps language instructors.

* Born on the Bayou -The Fogerty brothers, John and Tom, and their Creedence Clearwater Revival band, actually originated in El Cerrito, California. Coincidentally, the Fogerty brothers (there were five of them) and I attended St. Mary’s High School (an all-boys Catholic school founded by the Christian Brothers) in the adjacent city of Berkeley. At the time (mid 1960’s), while only a blip on my radar, the two older boys, a few of years ahead of me and subsequently transferring back to El Cerrito High School, were emerging onto the San Francisco Bay Area music scene.

Long disbanded now, the familiar vocals and guitar of CCR comes through loud and clear in the live performances and recent recordings by John Fogerty, (e.g. Deja Vu All Over Again, 2004), the group’s lead singer and songwriter. Regardless of their bayou-less, east San Francisco Bay Area origin, CCR is unquestionably ranked as one of America’s top classic rock groups – one that continues to twang just the right strings for me, whenever or wherever one of their old songs is playing.

3. Kuala Selangor Nature Park (KSNP). Elevation, 7m. I made a single, walking survey of the park on the afternoon of September 18, 2022 (1600-1720 hrs.). The park is located about 70 km northwest of central Kuala Lumpur and an hour’s drive in relatively light traffic. I spent most of the time in secondary forest area surrounding the visitor center, where the birdlife was relatively conspicuous. Several other visitors were in the park, some with small children. The staff in the visitor center was friendly and helpful, offering me a senior discount ticket ($0.50 US). They also recommended their orientation talk. I politely declined due to the late hour (the park closed at 1830 hrs.). I continued on westward pathways about 300m into the mangrove and canal area, without seeing much besides a troupe of the endangered Silvered Leaf-monkey (Trachypithecus cristatus) and the ubiquitous Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis). Mosquitoes were abundant and persistent throughout the park; I probably would have continued my survey westward in the park for another hour or so, had I remembered to bring repellent.

Photo opportunities of birds were few but best around the visitor center. A habituated troupe of at least thirty Silvered Leaf-monkey in the trees and on the ground were easily observed at close range. Some of these monkeys were being hand-fed by people in the parking area. One of the monkeys held a partially consumed candy bar, apparently unsure whether it should be finished or kept as a souvenir (photo).

The Silvered Leaf-monkey, as the name indicates, has a highly specialized digestive system for processing foliage, which comprises 91% of their diet; the remainder of their diet is a small proportion of flowers, fruit and seeds. Unlike the Long-tailed Macaque, leaf-monkeys, while intelligent and curious, are poorly adapted for an omnivorous diet – a physiological limitation that probably has contributed to their regional decline in numbers. Feeding them packaged foods, such as candy and other sweets, is definitely ill advised.

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Annotated Bird List: Kuala Selangor Nature Park, Taman Negara, Tasik Perdana, Kuala Lumpur, Peninsular Malaysia 8-18 September, 2022 Callyn Yorke

Abundance: Numbers following each species entry are the maximum count for a single survey, when multiple surveys of an area were made Age, sex and molt (when known): ad = adult; imm = immature; m = male; f = female; bsc plmg = basic (non-breeding plumage; alt plmg = alternate (breeding) plumage.

Frequency: C = Common, i.e. found during all or more than half of the surveys in appropriate habitats; UC = found on fewer than half of the surveys; R = found only once. Note: these nonparametric categories are most appropriate for the Taman Negara (TN) area, where multiple surveys were made. The other two principal localities were surveyed only once, KSNP or twice, TPKL.

Localities & Distribution: Kuala Selangor Nature Park (KSNP); Taman Negara (TN), including Mutiara Resort and gardens (MR), adjacent forest trails, Canopy Walk (CWT), Lubuk Simpon (LS), SwampTrail Loop (STL) and adjacent segments of Sungei Tembling and Sungei Tahan; Tasik Perdana Kuala Lumpur (TPKL); see above Introduction for further location details; ubiquitous in the appropriate habitat (ubiq).

Ecology and Behavior: aerial insect hawking (ah); taking fruit, berries or parts of flowers (fr); gleaning insects from foliage (ig); estimated height (m) above ground (agl); gregarious (greg).

Systematics and Nomenclature used herein, primarily follows current (2022) online resources, i.e. Birds of the World, Cornell University, USA.

• Muscovy Duck Cairina moschata (exotic) 10 greg. swimming near the north islet in the main lake, C, TPKL
• Mallard Anas platyrhynchos domestic hybrid ? 1 the bird appears to be an immature in prebasic plmg. ; swimming with exotic MODU in main lake, TPKL (photo).

• Malay Crested Fireback Lophura rufa 8 (6m, 2 f) greg. a cohesive covey, walking steadily and quietly on the forest floor, then briefly onto and across the boardwalk about 10m in front of me, and continuing downhill through the forest; unfortunately, only poor-quality photos obtained due to constant movement and dim lighting, R, TN-STL (near junction with the Tahan Hide).
• Feral Rock Pigeon Columba livia 30 greg. on ground in north children’s playground, C, TPKL; ubiq. in cities and towns.
• Spotted Dove Streptopelia chinensis 6 vocal, greg. often paired, on ground, readily flushed to trees, C, ubiq. (not observed in TN).
• Zebra Dove Geopelia striata 12 vocal, greg. often paired on ground, C, TPKL; ubiq. (not observed in TN)
• Pink-necked Green Pigeon Treron vernans 5 on exposed and concealed perches in trees at edge of lake and pathways, C, TPKL (photo).

• Thick-billed Green Pigeon Treron curvirostra 4 greg. fr keeping well concealed while foraging in large fig tree with abundant small, yellow fruits attracting several other bird species, near cabin #50, UC, TN-MR
• Greater Coucal Centropus sinensis 2 vocal (usually unseen) in second-growth, tall grass, C ubiq.
• Red-billed Malkoha Zanclostomus javanicus 1 seen at close range in an ornamental tree adjacent to a home and Labu Sentral riverboat launch near Jerantut, Pahang; we made a 15-minute stop for boat passengers going to Kuala Tahan.
• Green-billed Malkoha Phaenicophaeus tristis 1 hopping through subcanopy in tall, fruiting tree in nw woodland, TPKL
• Asian Koel Eudynamys scolopaceus 1 vocal (unseen) in w wooded edge, TPKL
• Plaintive Cuckoo Cacomantis merulinus 1 vocal (unseen) in garden trees, UC, TN-MR
• Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis variolosus 1-2 vocal (unseen) in garden and forest edge trees, C, TN-MR
• Nightjar Caprimulgus sp. 2 variegated light brown, medium size and proportions, no conspicuous white markings showing in flight, while hawking insects around outdoor lights (free-standing lamps and porch lights); on evenings when absent, bats foraging at the same lights, UC, TN-MR
• Black-nest Swiftlet Aerodramus maximus 4 loosely gregarious, flying 20-60m agl over open areas and secondary forest, KSNP
• Germain’s Swiftlet Aerodramus germani 15 loosely gregarious and in pairs, flying 1- 30m agl over open areas and water (e.g. dipping into river surface), C, ubiq.
• House Swift Apus nipalensis 10 circling over wide areas of forest, river and parkland, 30-100m agl (lowest with heavily overcast skies and light rain), C, TPKL, TN
• Asian Palm Swift Cypsiurus balasiensis 2 often paired, flying 2-30m over small forest clearings and over open areas with low second-growth woodland, C, TN-MR, KSNP
• Painted Stork Mycteria leucocephala 20 greg. standing on aviary roof with other large waterbirds, C, TPKL
• Pink-backed Pelican Pelecanus rufescens (exotic) 2 a pair resting together with other large waterbirds on the aviary roof, TPKL
• Intermediate Egret Ardea intermedia 1 on aviary roof with other large waterbirds, TPKL
• Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis 12 greg. in pasture and open fileds between oil palm plantations, highway near Kuala Selangor; 7 greg. on aviary roof with other large waterbirds, TPKL
• Black-crowned Night-heron Nycticorax nycticorax 3 greg. in flght over main lake, TPKL
• Striated Heron Butorides striata 1 perched on low metal crosspiece in main lake, TPKL
• Hadada Ibis Bostrychia hagedash (exotic; status uncertain; possibly locally established as a breeding species as escapees or their descendants) 2 a pair standing on aviary roof near other large waterbirds, TPKL
• Brahminy Kite Heliastur indus 3 loosely greg., circling 30-60m agl over area, KSNP
• Oriental Bay Owl Phodilus badius 1 flushed from large, riverside trees next to the dining area one evening, R, TN-MR
• Spotted Wood-Owl Strix seloputo 1 vocal (sound-matched closely with recording of this species- unseen) in trees at edge of resort, R, TN-MR
• Scarlet-rumped Trogon Harpactes duvaucelii 1 (f) perched quietly on small limb in the upper middle level of the forest, R, TN-LS (photo).

• Stork-billed Kingfisher Pelargopsis capensis 1 flying low, upriver at the terminus of the trail, Sungei Tahan, R, TN-LS
• White-breasted Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis 1 vocal on tree limb overhanging lake, west side, TPKL; C, TN-MR; 1 on low limb over brackish pond at park entrance, KSNP (photo).

• Coppersmith Barbet Psilopogon haemacephalus 2 vocal in garden and forest edge trees, C, TPKL, TN-MR
• Yellow-crowned Barbet Psilopogon henricii 1 vocal, fr, in tall, garden tree (Ficus sp.?) near Chalet #50 with abundant, small yellow fruits; with several other frugivorous bird species, over a period of several days, UC, TN-MR
• Gold-whiskered Barbet Psilopogon chrysopogon 1 in same fruiting tree described in previous account, taking fruits briefly and flying off toward the forest, R, TN-MR
• Maroon Woodpecker Blythipicus rubiginosus 1 vocal, seen briefly from about 15m as it flew to a an upper-middle tree trunk, then off into the forest, R TN-SLT
• Orange-backed Woodpecker Chrysocolaptes validus 1 vocal, seen at close range (5m) as it alighted briefly on a lower-middle tree trunk, R, TN-SLT
• Common Flameback Dinopium javanense 1 (f) foraging in upper middle and subcanopy of tall trees surrounding parking area, KSNP (photo); 1 in middle on trunks, moving up, se parking and woodland, TPKL.

• Greater Yelownape Chrysophlegma flavinucha 1 flying quickly and alighting briefly on a series of small diameter tree trunks and limbs in forest understory next to a clearing, R, TN-LS
• Black and Yellow Broadbill Eurylaimus ochromalus 1 alighted in the subcanopy of tree overhanging the Tahan Hide; another seen in the canopy of a tall garden tree, UC, TN-TH, MR (photo).

• Dark-throated Oriole Oriolus xanthonotus 1 in large, garden fruiting tree with barbets and other frugivorous birds, near cabin #50, R, TN-MR
• Black-naped Oriole Oriolus chinensis 4 vocal, loosely gregarious in canopy of tall fruiting tree, nw woodland edge, TPKL
• Black-winged Flycatcher-shrike Hemipus hirundinaceus 1 in msf with bulbuls and other insectivores, forest understory, R, TN-SWT
• Rufous-winged Philentoma Philentoma pyrhoptera 1 (f) flushed from lower mid-level in forest understory, R, TN-LS
• Common Iora Aegethina tiphia 1 vocal (unseen) forest, UC, TN-SWT
• Greater Racquet-tailed Drongo Dicrurus paradiseus 1 with one missing tail streamer, understory clearing, sallying to ground, TN-LS; 1 with complete tail streamers, 20m agl in subcanopy at forest edge, UC, TN-MR
• Blyth’s Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone affinis 1 (m) sallying in forest understory at edge of clearing, R, TN-LS
• Crested Shrike-jay Platylophus galericulatus 3 vocal, greg. seen at close range (5m) alighting briefly in understory palms and flying into the forest, R, TN-SWT
• House Crow Corvus splendens 30 vocal, greg. abundant and conspicuous in Kuala Lumpur; widespread in coastal towns and villages, C, TPKL
• Southern Jungle Crow Corvus macrorhynchos 1 vocal, flying 30m agl over Sungei Tembling toward Kuala Tahan, UC, TN-MR; KSNP
• Common Tailorbird Orthotomus sutorius 3 highly vocal, but rather secretive in dense second-growth, gardens and forest edge, TPKL; C,TN-MR
• Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 2 flying back and forth, low over river, UC, TN-LS; TPKL
• Pacific Swallow Hirundo tahitica 4 greg. flying low, dipping into surface of river, C, TN, MR; 1, flying 20 m agl over open area at park entrance, KSNP
• Stripe-throated Bulbul Pycnonotus finlaysoni 3 vocal, greg. fr in second-growth and forest understory, canopy of fruiting trees, C, TN-MR
• Yellow-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus goiavier 10 vocal, greg. in garden shrubs and trees, C, TPKL; KSNP
• Olive-winged Bulbul Pycnonotus plumosus 2 vocal (unseen) edge of secondary forest-mangrove; second-growth at edge of riparian lowland forest, KSNP; TN-MR (photo).

• Cream-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus simplex 1 in fruiting trees at edge and interior of forest; R, TN-MR
• Red-eyed Bulbul Pycnonotus brunneus 3 vocal, greg. often in fruiting trees with other bulbuls, forest edge and gardens, C, TN-MR (photo).
• Finsch’s Bulbul Alophoixus finschii 2 forest understory and lower mid-level in msf with babblers, UC, TN-SLT
• Ochraceous Bulbul Alophoixus ochraceus 2 greg. pairs in understory and lower mid-level of forest in msf with babblers, UC, TN-SLT
• Gray-cheeked bulbul Alophoixus tephrogenys 2 a pair in lower mid-level of the forest, R, TN-SLT
• Buff-vented Bulbul Iole crypta 4 vocal, greg. in fruiting garden and forest trees, understory to canopy, C, TN-MR
• Arctic Warbler Phylloscopus borealis 1 (ID with aid of digital photos; pale greenish brown upperparts, whitish undersides; bold, whitish supercilium extending to hind-crown) ig very busily in outer, sun-lit, foliage of large tree next to dining area, UC, TN-MR
• Pin-striped Tit-babbler Mixornis gularis 2 vocal (usually unseen) in garden trees and forest edge, C, TN-MR
• Sunda Scimitar-babbler Pomatorhinus bornensis 1 in msf with other babblers, mostly subcanopy in upper-mid level of forest, R, TN-SLT (photo).

• Southern Gray-throated Babbler Stachyris larvata 2 greg. in pairs in forest understory, lower to mid-level, often in msf with other babblers, UC, TN-SLT; LS
• Chestnut-rumped Babbler Stachyris maculata 1 in msf with other babblers, forest understory, R, TN-STL
• Gray-headed Babbler Stachyris poliocephala 1 seen very briefly in dense understory tangles, msf with other babblers, R, TN-LS
• Rufous-crowned Babbler Malacopteron magnum 1 in large msf with babblers and flycatchers, understory to lower mid-level in the forest, UC, TN-SLT (photo).

• Abbott’s Babbler Malacocincla abbotti 2 vocal, active in understory and forest edge, C, TN-LS, STL
• Horsefield’s Babbler Malacocincla sepiaria 2 greg. active in understory of forest, R TN-STL
• Black-capped Babbler Pellorneum capistratum 2 a pair busily foraging on the shady forest floor, behavior suggesting small quail; found the following day at about the same time and place, near the Tahan Hide junction, UC,TN-SLT
• Short-tailed Babbler Pellorneum malaccense 2 a pair, pitta-like in profile and posture moving through understory an lower mid-level of forest, perched on small diameter limbs, R, TN-SLT
• Asian Glossy Starling Aplonis panayensis 6 (m,f) greg. in canopy of tall fruiting tree, nw, TPKL; 50 (m,f) greg. presumably an evening pre-roosting flight over tall trees at the park entrance, KSNP
• Purple-backed Starling Agropsar sturninus 12 greg. pairs engaged in interspecific flight- chases in and around canopy of fruiting tree, nw TPKL
• Common Myna Acridotheres tristis 12 greg. pairs on lawns and on wet ground in woodland, C TPKL (photo).

• Javan Myna Acridotheres javanicus (exotic) 20 greg. often in pairs, foraging on ground and lawns; one albinistic individual foraging alone in grass, C, TPKL (photo).

Oriental Magpie Robin Copsychus saularis 6 vocal (dawn), greg. at dusk in garden and forest edge, C TN-MR; 4, C, TPKL; 2 KSNP

• White-rumped Shama Copsychus malabaricus 1 flew from ground at trailside to concealed perch in understory palm, R, TN-STL

• White-crowned Forktail Enicurus leschenaulti 1 vocal (alarm call when flushed) drinking and walking along shallow, swamp stream beneath palms, R, TN-SLT
• Yellow-rumped Flycatcher Ficedula zanthopygia 2 (m,f) a pair flashes of yellow and black, in understory of dense tangles in a msf; recently reported in the area by a visiting birding group R, TN-LS, SLT
• Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker Diceaem cruentatum 1 (m) in fruiting garden tree, UC, TN-MR
• Orange-bellied Flowerpecker Dicaeum trigonostigma 1 (f) in same tree with SBFP, UC TN-MR
• Thick-billed Flowerpecker Dicaeum agile 1 fr in fruiting tree with SBFP, R, TN-MR
• Purple-naped Spiderhunter Kurochkinegramma hypogrammicum 2 a pair moving quickly through the lower mid-level of the forest, alighting briefly on a small limb, R, TN-SLT
• Thick-billed Spiderhunter Arachnothera crassirostris 1 fr on yellow bottlebrush tree, shared alternately with SPSH two days in a row, UC, TN-MR (photo).

• Spectacled Spiderhunter Arachnothera flavigaster 1 fr in same flowering tree but at different times as TBSH, UC, TN-MR (photo).

• Asian Fairy Bluebird Irena puella 2 (m,f) fr in heavily fruiting garden tree near cabin #50, msf with several other frugivorous birds for three to four consecutive days, C, TN-MR
• Lesser Green Leafbird Chloropsis cyanopogon 2 a pair in outer canopy of tall garden tree, UC, TN-MR
• Blue-winged Leafbird Chloropsis cochinchinensis 2 a pair alternating fr in small berry tree next to reception area for several consecutive days, C, TN-MR (photo).

• Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus 30 (m,f) vocal, greg., on ground and in trees, disturbed habitats, villages, towns & cities C, ubiq. (not observed in TN).

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