Stork-billed Kingfisher— Photo: Susan Myers

A combination of superb forests, an incredible wealth of wildlife, and friendly people. Our five nights in Taman Negara's vast lowland forests permit unparalleled opportunities to see large numbers of hornbills, trogons, kingfishers, woodpeckers, and babblers, in addition to a host of exciting but challenging pheasants, partridges, and pittas, perhaps better known as "Jewel Thrushes." We will also have several nights in the delightful environs of Frazer's Hill, with a very different suite of birds and mammals.

The Dipterocarp forests of the Malay Peninsula are among the world's oldest, most exciting, and most luxuriant. These wonderful forests support a diversity of animal and plant life surpassed in number only by the lowland communities of the Amazon Basin. Vast areas of undisturbed forest still remain, and a number of reserves have been established to protect a good cross section of habitat types. We will visit the best of these. From very comfortable accommodations set in the heart of the forest, we will search for some of the tropics' most exotic creatures, including exquisitely ornate pheasants, nine hornbills, kingfishers, trogons, barbets, broadbills, and woodpeckers, in addition to a host of challenging bulbuls and evocative babblers.

We will commence our exploration of the Malay Peninsula with an early morning sojourn to a rather birdy area of mangroves and swamps where, with a bit of luck, we may encounter our first pitta—the incomparable Mangrove Pitta. Just when the humidity begins to appear a little oppressive, we will ascend to Frazer's Hill, one of Malaysia's many attractive hill stations. Here, in the cool montane forests, we will relax in the delightful surroundings of a bygone era and search for some of the peninsula's most attractive birds, including its two endemics, Mountain Peacock-Pheasant and Malayan Whistling-Thrush. Other specialties include Yellow-vented Pigeon, Mountain Scops-Owl, Orange-bellied Trogon, the extraordinary Fire-tufted Barbet, Long-tailed Broadbill, Rusty-naped Pitta, Marbled Wren-Babbler, and White-headed Babbler.

Stripe-throated Bulbul on nest— Photo: David Bishop

From Frazer's Hill we will descend to one of our favorite places on the planet—Taman Negara. Five nights within the heart of this magnificent national park will give us time to walk forest trails, stake out salt-licks, ply forest-shaded creeks by boat, and familiarize ourselves with the peninsula's complex and rich lowland bird community. The pheasants are among some of the world's most spectacular birds, and although shy, we can hope to see the gorgeous Crested Fireback, the extraordinary Argus Pheasant (actually seen displaying on previous tours!), and the Crested Wood-Partridge, in addition to a number of other specialties, such as Finfoot, Banded and Garnet pittas, trogons, Red-bearded Bee-eater, and the elusive Malaysian Rail-Babbler.
 
One of the features of this tour is that unlike explorers of old, we will not have to hack our way through interminable jungles and sleep in leech-infested camps. Instead, we stay throughout in delightfully comfortable accommodations and bird along gently graded roads and trails in areas undisturbed by the twentieth century.
 
This tour may be combined with our Borneo tour. These tours complement one another nicely with their very different itineraries and the attractive balance of outstanding birding and great mammal-viewing.

Excellent accommodations and delicious food; roadside and moderate trail birding; midday breaks; hot and humid in the lowlands, cool and comfortable in the mountains.