North Malaysia
Northern Malay Peninsula: 'Hornbill Heaven'
One of the most diverse bio-geographical regions on earth, the Northern Malay Peninsula is a treasure house of some of the most varied fauna and flora, both terrestrial and marine, on the planet. The area reverberates with the whooping call of the gibbons and the strange cries of the hornbills - of which we would hope to see six of the ten species - the pheasants, the babblers and the barbets. It's a fantastic destination for British birders.
Our holiday starts in the northwest of the country where our hotel overlooks one of the largest lakes in Asia. We spend the next few days here exploring the islands on the lake as well as some of the nearby primary forest. Oriental Magpie Robins sing from the breakfast balcony, Giant Hornbills act as an alarm clock and Black-naped Orioles are never far away.
Moving west across the country, we stop to explore each new habitat including a night at one of the Hill Stations where a new range of birds can be found in the cooler climate. Barbets and hornbills are some of the more striking species we will be looking for but we would also expect to see several types of swift including Brown-backed Needletailed Swift, one of the fastest flying birds in the world.
From our base back in the lowlands we will be visiting a coastal area famed for the globally endangered Lesser Adjutant Storks and we'll drive down 'Kingfisher Alley' where there seems to be a kingfisher every few hundred yards. The mangrove-surrounded mudflats are home to many species of wader and Milky Storks are also to be found here, as are a wide variety of birds from sunbirds to woodpeckers and from drongos to Dollarbirds.
Our holiday will finish on the island of Langkawi where we spend our time relaxing in very comfortable accommodation and exploring coastal mangroves that contain the enormous Brown-winged Kingfisher as well as being home to White-bellied Sea Eagles and Brahminy Kites. We will also be visiting a reedbed looking for Purple Swamphen, Watercock and both Yellow and Cinnamon Bitterns. One evening will be spent in the hills watching and listening for the hornbills coming into roost. Our partner and co-leader, Irshad Mobarak, won the title of "Amazing Malaysian" for his conservation work on Langkawi and we will be making a financial contribution to his work from operating this tour.
