Seeing these did involve a 4am wake up and some incentivising of my children, but I think they were glad to have made the effort 😬. Thankfully it wasn’t still dawn at this point and the lighting had improved, though still challenging with lots of shadow.

I’m in two minds about hide birding in Asia. The feeding is unnatural and no satisfaction that you found a bird yourself. But you get to see birds like this, which would be very hard to see otherwise…

I also hope that a few people earning income from spots like this mean the habitat is protected

Taxonomy fans: - the male Cyornis flycatchers are generally blue and colourful, whereas Jungle flycatchers are brown and drab. However, it turns out they are very closely related and some authors call this one a Jungle rather than a Blue FC.

Another cool sighting from KK Lee’s hide at Trus Madi. Endemic to Borneo and found in forest understory at mid-altitudes (400-1,200m). M blue - F brown.

For the taxonomy fans, this is Rollulus rouloul, monotypic and the only Sp in its genus within the Jungle / Wood partridges, which are mostly Asian apart from two outliers in Tanzania. The name derives from the Malay word for this bird.

They have a large range from S Thailand / S Myanmar down the Malaysia Peninsular, Sumatra, Borneo and a few small islands. However, they are Globally Vulnerable and that is largely due to habitat loss through logging and conversion to palm oil.

A mix of males (blue with red crest) and females (green). They were about the first birds to arrive at dawn in very low light, all at very high ISO. Hence the photos are a bit weird looking and not as crispy as I’d hoped. Nevertheless, they are lovely, striking looking birds….

I’ve heard these one every early morning trip to Panti Forest (peninsular Malaysia) but even with dedicated effort to follow their whistles I couldn’t see one… So actually seeing some in the wild at KK Lee’s hide at Trus Madi was a treat. In the end there were around 20.

Obviously these were pretty hard to count. But I estimated at least 2000.

Quite why they chose this corner of a small town we’ll never know, but no doubt these couple of trees are quite important.

End…

From 18.00, small numbers of swallows flew round chirping. Numbers grew slowly, then large swirling flocks came in from a distance… Within about 30 mins two trees, washing lines, electric cables and ledges were covered in birds.

Both endemic to Borneo and pretty common in (sub) montane areas. We saw plenty at several spots, though these are both from Gunung Alab.

Yeah 😬, the eagle & cat is a bit grim. Circle of life and all that…

Indeed, though my patience level is pretty low. Just ask my family 😂

🙏 thanks.

Thanks Rob. It does help being in the right place at the right time.