Birding Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore (Part 2)

This is the second part of our Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia trip report, covering our first few days of birding in Peninsular Malaysia after crossing the border from Singapore and collecting our rental car in Johor Bahru. You can read Part 1, covering our time in Singapore, here.

Sites visited: Gunung Panti Recreational Forest  

We checked out of our accommodation and took the bus to Woodlands Checkpoint, the border crossing between Singapore and Malaysia. At the checkpoint, we cleared passport control, switched to a new bus, crossed the Johor Strait, and entered Malaysia in Johor Bahru. We purchased SIM cards, had breakfast, and drew cash with ease at the shopping centre at the border, before taking the bus to the SIXT car rental branch in Johor Bahru. After picking up our Proton Saga, we made the short 40-minute drive northeast to the smaller town of Kota Tinggi, where we briefly looked at accommodation options before settling for the Kota Heritage Hotel.

It was unbelievably hot and humid; however, we decided not to waste any time and made our way to Panti Bird Sanctuary after dropping our bags off at the hotel. First, we drove in at the main entrance to the reserve (turnoff at 1.879338, 103.922042), where we found the gate guard asleep in a hammock. He reluctantly dragged himself towards the car and told us that we had to organise a permit to enter the reserve. After a brief back-and-forth, we were told we would not be allowed to enter without a permit; however, obtaining one seemed overly complicated, so we decided to drive the gravel public-access road that cuts through the forest instead.

This road turned out to be spectacular, and we never bothered to get a permit to access the actual “reserve” section of the forest. The turnoff to the public-access road appears just before the turnoff to the reserve (turn here: 1.876305, 103.925015) when coming from Kota Tinggi. Not only do you have access to a much larger area of forest along this road, but you also get to bird the forest from a road, as opposed to the trails and overgrown paths in the reserve, which makes seeing birds much easier. We did not find the odd truck or car passing along this road to hamper our birding in any way, and we spent much of the next three days birding here. Our strategy here was simple: we made regular stops and cruised slowly along the road, searching for bird waves. For our target species, we often used exploratory playback.

We birded the first section of the road this afternoon (eBird checklist) (turning around where the main access road meets the overgrown path at 1.868661, 103.911397), which yielded several new additions, including Chestnut-breasted Malkoha,flocks of Edible-nest Swiftlets, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Hairy-backed, Buff-vented, Grey-bellied, Cream-vented, Spectacled,and Asian Red-eyed Bulbuls, Fluffy-backed Tit-Babbler, Scaly-crowned Babbler, Yellow-breasted and Crimson-breasted Flowerpeckers, and Lesser Green and Blue-winged Leafbirds. The undisputed highlight was a Zappey’s Flycatcher, our only one for the trip.

We soon ran out of light and made our way back to Kota Tinggi, eager for a full day of birding at Panti tomorrow.

Overnight: Kota Heritage Hotel, Kota Tinggi

Sites visited: Gunung Panti Recreational Forest, Tanjung Sedeli Mudflats

We left Kota Tinggi before dawn and made our way to Panti, where we spent the entire morning birding the first 5 km stretch of the public-access road (eBird checklist). Practically upon arrival, we heard the high-pitched, drawn-out whistle of our main target – Rail-babbler, just past the first bend in the road (1.872696, 103.923228). After a round of playback, the bird appeared to be substantially closer, but even determining which side of the road the bird was calling proved to be challenging, due to the ventriloquial quality of the call. We walked a few meters into the forest, placed the speaker on the forest floor, and waited. Despite hearing the bird, it didn’t appear to be getting any closer, so we made our way back to the road. Suddenly, a bird started calling very close to the road, and after a frantic shuffling to get into the best position, we all had good views of a pair of Rail-babblers from the road as they walked along the forest floor only a few meters in. We even had good views of the bird doing its characteristic bow while calling. What an experience!

After our success with arguably the main target of the trip, we continued birding along the road and added several new birds, including the stunning Banded Broadbill, Chestnut-bellied Malkoha, Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo, Oriental Dollarbird, Red-crowned and Yellow-crowned Barbets, Scarlet Minivet, White-bellied Erpornis, Green Iora, Crow-billed Drongo, Moustached Babbler, White-rumped Shama, and Orange-bellied Flowerpecker. Another stand-out sighting was a gorgeous Blyth’s Hawk-Eagle, which gave us a low flyby, and we found our second Mugimaki Flycatcher for the trip in one of the bird waves.

We returned to Kota Tinggi for lunch, before heading to the coastal town of Tanjung Sedelito bird the mudflats during the heat of the day (eBird checklist). We parked at a restaurant on the beach (1.920307, 104.108139) and walked out over the mudflats to get closer to the birds, which were foraging way out at low tide. Here we saw Grey Plover, Tibetan and Greater Sand Plovers, Bar-tailed Godwit, and large numbers of Terek Sandpipers, among a few other waders seen in Singapore. A large tern roost held Little, Lesser Crested,and Greater Crested Terns, while a pair of Brahminy Kites cruised overhead. After scanning through several Little Egrets, we found our target, the scarce Chinese Egret. Target acquired, we made our way back to Panti, arriving just as a large thunderstorm had passed over the forest (eBird checklist).

We drove along the road in the gloomy overcast weather when we spotted a bird crossing the road in the distance (1.872254, 103.922094). We lifted our bins to find that it was a female Malayan Crestless Fireback – a critically endangered species and one of the rarest birds in Peninsular Malaysia. We were thrilled with our incredible sighting of this near-mythical species, which appeared to be feeding on corn spilt by a truck. The only other new bird we added was a single Changeable Hawk-Eagle perched on a lamp post on the way back to Kota Tinggi.

Overnight: Kota Heritage Hotel, Kota Tinggi

Sites visited: Gunung Panti Recreational Forest

We were back at Panti just after sunrise today and birded the same stretch of road as yesterday (eBird checklist). The morning started with a bang when we had repeat views of what we assumed was the same female Malayan Crestless Fireback in the same spot. Other new additions included Raffles’s Malkoha, Rufous Woodpecker, Dark-necked Tailorbird, Yellow-bellied Bulbul, Malayan Swamp Babbler, Little Spiderhunter, and Asian Fairy-bluebird. The highlight of the morning, and our main target today, came in the form of a pair of Grey-breasted Babblers, and we had good views of this tricky species (1.869312, 103.913546) after finding a responsive pair. We also saw our first troops of Dusky Langurs, and Southern Pig-tailed and Long-tailed Macaques this morning.

After a brief break for lunch over the heat of the day, we were back at Panti (eBird checklist). An early mammal highlight was a troop of rare Raffles’s Banded Langurs, which provided us with brief views. We also had our first look at the hulking White-bellied Woodpecker, the skulking Chestnut-rumped Babbler, and Pale Blue Flycatcher, in addition to many of the species seen over the past few days.

We waited until nightfall and had a Silver-rumped Spinetail flying past in the evening light. We then spent a few hours spotlighting along the road (eBird checklist), which yielded several Malaysian Eared Nightjars, a Blyth’s Frogmouth (we heard several), and a vocal Barred Eagle-Owl, which we saw well. The night drive also yielded a Malay Civet.

Overnight: Kota Heritage Hotel, Kota Tinggi

Sites visited: Gunung Panti Recreational Forest, Mersing Beach, Kampung Tanjung Genting Mudflats, Summerset Road – Green Pigeon Stakeout

We packed up early this morning, checked out of our hotel, and made our way back to Panti for our final birding session at this spectacular site (eBird checklist). To our sheer amazement, the female Malayan Crestless Fireback was back in the same area this morning, and we had our best view yet of this exceptionally rare bird. We also had our first good views of Lar Gibbons this morning, along with the two langur species seen already.

Regular stops along the road yielded a few new birds, including Buff-necked Woodpecker, Blue-rumped Parrot, Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot, and another of our most-wanted birds – the monotypic Crested Jayshrike. We explored further along the road this morning, turning around after about 8 km, which produced Black-bellied Malkoha, Violet Cuckoo, Checker-throated Woodpecker, Black-and-yellow Broadbill, Amur Paradise Flycatcher, Cinereous Bulbul, Chestnut-winged Babbler, Black-winged Flycatcher-Shrike, and Crimson Sunbird (eBird checklist).

Panti had been an excellent start to the trip, and we set off on the drive north to Kuala Rompin, stopping in the coastal town of Mersing for lunch. It was raining fairly heavily, but we decided to check out the mudflats along Mersing Beach (2.432922, 103.84447), which didn’t produce anything of note, apart from two Malaysian Plovers and our first Amur Stonechat. We then investigated another area of expansive mudflats north of Mersing (2.476987, 103.823209), and despite the presence of good numbers of waders, the rain made birding somewhat challenging. Still, we did pick up a pair of Far Eastern Curlews, along with many of the waders seen earlier in the trip (eBird checklist).

After finding a place to stay in Kuala Rompin, we made our way to a spot where Cinnamon-headed Green Pigeons seem to roost from time to time and are often seen perched in dead trees at sunset (2.921732, 103.429040). Despite seeing large flocks of Pink-necked Green Pigeons and our first Little Green Pigeons, there was no sign of our main target. We did add a few other birds here, including Common Flameback and Coppersmith Barbet. We made our way back to Kuala Rompin for dinner and discussed our strategy for tomorrow.

Overnight: Rompin Beach Resort, Kuala Rompin