When: August 2016 Weather : Hot 30C
Nikon P900 Leica Q
With one morning free, I engaged the services of a bird guide who took me on a 5 hour morning bird outing to seek out a couple of uncommon local birds away from the Datai area. The driver picked me up at 730am sharp and we headed off to a local jetty area about 15min drive away….
On arriving at the entrance road, we alighted and cast our eyes around…
A little grey heron greeted us
brahminy kites in the distance
female sunbird
the scenic jetty where my guide had found the brown winged kingfisher the day previously, perched across the water…..
a common collared kingfisher perched across the water
and another view of collared KF
The brown winged KF is not common and in all of Malaysia is only found on Langkawi island so I was very keen to see it…
We then saw a flash of brown across the water and having waited a while it flew a little closer….
and landed in the mangrove roots where its brilliant orangey brown plumage stood out amongst the grey mangroves
it posed obligingly for a few minutes…
the obvious brown wing easily seen here
and then it plunged into the water and caught his fish…awesome picture taken by my guide Wendy
Happy that we had found the one bird I really wanted to see, we headed off to gunong raya to try and find the Great Hornbill….
find it we eventually did, although he was high up and hidden in shade…magnificently coloured and big…the Great Hornbill of Langkawi
my famed ass shot!
there were a few other commoner birds…the Dollar Bird
racquet tailed drongo
red eyed bulbul
female common flameback woodpecker seen in the rubber plantation at Kicap
the rubber trees in Kicap…
a dusky leaf monkey bade us farewell…
It’s been said that Langkawi is not the greatest birding location in Malaysia and indeed Fraser’s Hill and Borneo have far more to offer but Langkawi’s accessibility and reasonable range of tropical birds makes it pretty good for anyone new to Malaysian birding. Having a guide also makes it easier to find the more challenging species.
My excellent guide was Wendy Chin wendynatureguide@gmail.com who was knowledgeable and accommodating.
The Natural Traveller 