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Kerau Game Reserve Acknowledgements: Many, many thanks to Choo and Terry for their generosity, hospitality and immensely enjoyable company! I said goodbye to Stu at KLIA (new lingo for Kuala Lumpur International Airport) and continued on my way with my Malaysian friends, Terry Ong and Choo Hua Lim to Kerau Game Reserve. We departed the airport at about 6pm and headed off down the Kuantan Highway to Mentakab where we booked into a small Chinese hotel, the cleanliness of which almost defied belief! Waking at 5am we headed north from Mentakab to Kuala Kerau. In the early morning we could see literally millions of migratory Barn Swallows perched shoulder to shoulder on every available aerial space - telephone wires, street signs and trees. Quite incredible. From the kampong of Kuala Kerau we headed west down a dirt track for about 5km to Kerau Game Reserve. Choo and Terry had organised for us to spend the next 2 nights at the headquarters of the game reserve but were worried about recent flooding which often leaves the HQ accommodation under water.
We arrived well before the ranger was due so went straight into the forest for the morning's birding. Almost immediately we heard a Banded Pitta. Walking in off the track I glanced to my left after a flash of orange caught my eye. Low and behold a simply gorgeous male Banded Pitta perched on a waist high liana was watching us. For the next ten minutes or so we were treated to one of the best shows in SEA as the bird turned to face us then away from us, then hopped on to the ground and moved in a wide circle around us before disappearing. We heard and Choo had a glimpse of a Malaysian Peacock-pheasant but they were very wary. The birding in this excellent forest was slow but high quality. That morning we also had Large Green Pigeon, Cinnamon-rumped Trogon, Helmeted Hornbill, Orange-backed and Checker-throated Woodpeckers and Chestnut-rumped Babbler. Sure enough on returning to the HQ we found the accommodation under water! After mopping it out and opening all the windows to allow it to dry out we birded around the HQ and surrounds for the rest of the afternoon. We watched a group of about ten Dusky Broadbills very noisily going into roost for the evening. Later we had two Brown Hawk-Owls calling nearby and were able to watch one for 20 minutes. Interestingly, the bird would purposely turn its head 180 degrees each time it called so that it sounded like two birds were calling. Malaysian Eared-Nightjars and Large-tailed Nightjars were also seen in reasonable numbers flying around the compound. Kerau Game Reserve is not huge - about 5000 hectares - but it abuts the Benom forest forming a large contiguous area of lowland tropical rainforest. The highly diverse vegetation is dominated by Tualang (Koompassia excelsa) and Dipterocarp trees and boasts a remarkable avifauna. Hunting by the local people and Orang Asli has apparently adversely affected the larger mammalian fauna however. On the second day of our stay we again walked the main trail and side trails for Malaysian Rail-babbler and Malaysian Peacock-pheasant in particular as well as anything else we may chance upon. We heard no rail-babblers or peacock-pheasants on this day but nevertheless had an excellent day. The best bird was a typically stunning pitta - Garnet Pitta, eventually tracked down on the strength of its call. A male was calling continually from a branch about 2 metres off the ground. Initially we had a lot of trouble pinpointing the direction it was calling from - this pitta has an almost ethereal call consisting of a single high pitched note uttered at regular intervals. We were also treated to a pair of bickering Large Wren-babblers not far along the main trail from the compound. About two kilometres up the trail is an ephemeral swamp that was quite full during the time of our visit - we were able to make it across this and entered an area of particularly spectacular forest with some of the largest Tualangs I've seen. We didn't see a lot of birds here, as it was getting later in the day, but Black-throated Babbler was a treat as was a stand of quite amazing Black Lilies. Two Lesser Fish-Eagles circled and called high above the canopy as we walked. On our last day we made a last attempt to find the rail-babbler and/or the peacock-pheasant. My attention was caught by another ethereal whistle that didn't quite sound right for a Garnet Pitta. Sure enough it was a rail-babbler and we spent the next hour looking for it. It is one sneaky bird! Eventually I got a brief but reasonable look at the bird's head as it poked about the low ferns on the forest floor. Not perfect but I was still very happy. You don't often get to see even that much of a Malaysian Rail-babbler!
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Peninsular Malaysia Trip Report March 2000
