Langkawi (Malaysia), 13 – 18 March 2017

Sarah and I spent a week on the island of Langkawi, in north west Malaysia (Kedah state) on the way back

home after a big southern hemisphere trip. Our daughter Rachel joined us for the week and flew back to the

UK with us. We’d read that Langkawi is less developed than Penang and it seemed to have opportunities for

seeing some wildlife, alongside the main objective: having a relaxing and fun week.

Monday 13 March – Gunung Raya

We’d arrived at our accommodation at Alamanda Villas (near Ulu Melaka) after dark the previous evening. Our

flight had arrived shortly after Rachel’s, so we’d left the airport together and been met by the friendly

Austrian temp staff from Alamanda Villas, who took us to a supermarket for supplies and showed us the best

places to eat.

Our villa was comfortable and the morning revealed the villas were in a beautiful hillside setting, surrounded

by forest and overlooking paddy fields. Naturally I was out early and keen to find out what was around: first

birds on the list were Asian koel, black-headed bulbul, greater racket-tailed drongo, brahminy kite, baya

weaver, spotted dove, Pacific (house) swallow, white-breasted kingfisher and black-nest swiftlet, all of which

were commonly seen or heard during the week. Our hire car arrived in the morning (a Proton Saga – fairly basic

but it was perfectly fine for the roads on the island) and we set off on an orientation tour of the island.

Without a sat nav it took us a while to learn how to navigate, but we soon worked it out with the help of a map

showing road numbers. Route 112 is a circular route that helps get you around the island. Gunung Raya, at 900

metres the highest mountain on the island, is only 10 minutes from where we were staying and driving up we

saw dollarbird, black-naped oriole, grey wagtail and long-tailed macaque from the car. You can drive right to

the top of the mountain, but the best habitat is at lower levels.

Back at Alamanda Villas in the afternoon I had another stroll round the surrounding area and added common

tailorbird, brown-throated sunbird, white-headed munia and yellow-vented, black-headed and red-eyed bulbul

to the bird list.

Olive-winged bulbul, nr Alamanda Villas SkyBridge, Mt Manchincang

Tuesday 14 March – SkyCab/SkyBridge and Datai

We drove to the west of the island to take the SkyCab cable car to the summit of Manchincang (700 metres).

It’s an impressively long and steep ride, said to be the longest free-span cable car in the world. On the way up

Rachel found us an oriental pied hornbill, flying over the forest canopy below. From the top station you can

walk across the equally impressive SkyBridge, climb to viewing platforms at the summit, and have an ice cream

while you enjoy the view. A couple of white-bellied sea eagles drifted over and a small group of fork-tailed

(Pacific) swifts flashed past. Down at the Oriental Village shopping/restaurant complex at the base were a

couple of chestnut-headed bee-eaters. This is a very commercial place but it’s fun, and does have birdlife.

After an excellent lunch from the Sole Café in the Oriental Village food court we drove on to Datai Beach, a

scenic drive that takes you through a very exclusive-looking golf course, which a pair of red-wattled lapwings

called home. There is good-looking forest all around here, with intriguing bird noises, and apparently you can

hire a golf buggy to go round the golf course. We stopped at Pebble Beach for a while and thought about

taking the footpath up to Temurun Falls but decided it was too hot, so we headed back to Alamanda Villas.

Late afternoons seemed to bring the birds out, and I found a place along the road with a tiny stream, which

was always busy with red-eyed, yellow-vented and olive-winged bulbuls. A little further on, in a small rubber

plantation at the entrance to Sunset Valley villas, I found a pair of crested goshawks and a pale-legged leaf

warbler. An oriental honey-buzzard drifted over the forest and another raptor, possibly a juvenile Japanese

sparrowhawk, flew into a tree where it eyed me suspiciously for a while before heading off. It had rather long

wings, unlike the short rounded wings of crested goshawk, had a prominent white supercilium, seemed to be

entirely streaked below including the thighs, and had no apparent mesial stripe. My pictures are poor but I’ve

put one in below in the hope someone can help with its identification.

Crested goshawk and unidentified accipiter – both near Alamanda Villas, Ulu Malaka, Langkawi

Wednesday 15 March – Kilim Geoforest

Langkawi’s other big tourist attraction is the Kilim Geoforest Park, an area of mangroves and karst outcrops in

the north of the island. There are several tour companies; ours picked us up from Alamanda and we were on

the water by 9.30 am. The first stop, the bat cave, was quite busy with people and a ‘reception committee’ of

long-tailed macaques, but after that we had the water to ourselves. Our local guide gave us a good account of

the geology, plants, wildlife and history of the island and, even if he didn’t know the birds, he and the boat’s

captain pointed them out and stopped for anything interesting.

Long-tailed macaques and striated heron – Kilim Geoforest Park

Lots of brahminy kites and white-bellied sea eagles gather around the mangrove edges; we also saw striated

herons, black-capped kingfishers, collared kingfishers and a common sandpiper. Our boat tour included a quick

stop at a beautiful isolated beach and lunch in a floating restaurant near the Thai border. We were caught in a

true tropical downpour while out in the open water: despite the cover we all got thoroughly wet, but it soon

stopped and within minutes we were dry from the hot sunshine that followed.

Immature white-bellied sea eagle and collared kingfisher – Kilim Geoforest Park boat trip

That evening when I went to the road to take the rubbish out a large-tailed nightjar flew past in the gloom

and gave a few bursts of song across the road.

Thursday 16 March – Tanjung Rhu and Gunung Raya

Early morning there was a small movement of oriental honey buzzards over the villas, heading north towards

southern Thailand.

You can drive into a different part of the Kilim Geoforest area by heading north to Tanjung Rhu. There’s a

great beach at the end with parking and a few small cafes and restaurants; this was by far the nicest beach

we saw and doesn’t seem to be widely used. By the roadside on the approach we watched a family party of the

delightful dusky leaf monkeys. The young of these dark grey monkeys are bright orange, and we were

delighted to see that the mother was cradling a youngster. Around the beach I saw some large-billed crows,

common mynas and some rufous-bellied swallows.

Later I went back to Gunung Raya and stopped at some of the roadside pull-ins to look for birds. The first,

large, layby on the left as you go up gives good views of the hillside above, and from there you can walk to a

second layby, which gives good views across a forested valley as well as upwards. I never failed to see or hear

a hornbill here: on this occasion I had one great and one wreathed hornbill. The wings of these large birds

make a wonderful whooshing sound which can be heard from some distance, even when they are just gliding

from one tree to the next. I also saw at least three dollarbirds, two hill mynas, a crested serpent-eagle, a

brown shrike (of the pale lucionensis race) and an orange-bellied flowerpecker. The three of us went back in

the evening and had good views of at least five wreathed and one oriental pied hornbill, and there were some

fork-tailed swifts and silver-rumped needletails higher up the road.

Dusky leaf monkey family – Tanjung Rhu Brown shrike (lucionensis) – Gunung Raya

Friday 17 March – Tanjung Rhu and Gunung Raya

Back up the mountain in the early morning, with more wreathed hornbills, including my first settled bird, an

Asian fairy bluebird and a small group of pin-striped tit-babblers. The hornbill flew into a tree above the road,

occasionally throwing its head back to emit a loud rasping bark.

At Tanjung Rhu we didn’t see any more rufous-bellied swallows, but I added dark-necked tailorbird and scaly-

breasted munia to the trip list. There are some Hindu and Buddhist temples to the north of Kuah (although

90% of the island’s population are Malayan Muslims, there are Chinese, Japanese and Thai people who live

there); in the grounds of Wat Koh Wanararm we saw a remarkable-looking greater racket-tailed drongo, with

its back appearing bright blue and its tail white. All the others I saw looked black but this was a very colourful

bird, whether due to a trick of the light or genuine aberration.

Kilim Geoforest Park from Tanjung Rhu beach Greater racket-tailed drongo - Wat Koh Wanararm

Saturday 18 March – Gunung Raya

On our last morning Rachel and I went back to Gunung Raya to look for hornbills, and were rewarded with good

views of oriental pied, great and wreathed. Also from the road we had good views of a female blue-throated

flycatcher. Higher up the mountain we watched a party of 12 dusky leaf monkeys, with another orange baby.

We spent the rest of the time before our flight enjoying the pool and garden at Alamanda Villas, which had

proved an ideal setting for our week’s holiday. We were all impressed by Langkawi: the roads are easy and

drivers are sensible, the food is great, people are friendly and there is plenty to see and do, especially if you

hire a car. The weather was perfect – hot in the middle of the day, pleasantly warm mornings and late

afternoon/evenings. I haven’t mentioned the craft market that contains quite a good free museum, the

waterfalls we visited, or the night markets, where you can get great street food for next to nothing in a

different place each day of the week. Also the excellent Nasi Dagang Pak Malau restaurant in the paddy fields

near where we were staying, where at lunchtime they have just three stewpots of wonderful flavoursomeness.

And of course there are birds to see. I only saw 52 species, of which 11 were lifers (out of a possible 21), but

with more concerted effort and time I’m sure I could have found many more – others have reported Jerdon’s

baza, mountain hawk-eagle, white-browed crake, watercock, chestnut-breasted malkoha, brown-winged

kingfisher, three woodpeckers and plain-backed sparrow. Apart from the main island, there are 98 others in

Langkawi, including Dayang Bunting where boats go to take day trippers to see the ‘Lake of the Pregnant

Maiden’; apparently there are 90 species recorded from that island alone. Altogether, our week here was a

perfect way to conclude our big trip and I recommend it for anyone wanting to combine a relaxing and fun

holiday with a bit of birding. Birds new to me are shown in bold.

Birds seen in Langkawi, 13 – 18 March 2017

Species Ulu Melaka area inc

Alamanda Villas

Mt Gunung Raya Kilim Geoforest Tanjung Rhu Elsewhere

Eastern cattle egret c20 Ulu Melaka

c10 Cenang

- - - -

Great egret - - - - 1 nr Mahsuri Mausoleum

Javan pond-heron 5 Alamanda

1 Ulu Melaka

- - - 1 nr Mahsuri Mausoleum

Striated (little) heron - - 2 - -

Species Ulu Melaka area inc

Alamanda Villas

Mt Gunung Raya Kilim Geoforest Tanjung Rhu Elsewhere

Oriental honey buzzard 17+ Alamanda - - - -

Crested serpent-eagle - 1 - - -

Crested goshawk 2 Sunset Valley - - - -

(Japanese sparrowhawk) (1 probable nr Alamanda) - - - -

Brahminy kite 2+ Alamanda

2 Ulu Melaka

- 10 - -

White-bellied sea-eagle 2 Alamanda - 6+ - 2 SkyBridge

1 Datai

Red-wattled lapwing 2 Alamanda

2 Ulu Melaka

- - - 2 Datai golf course

6 nr Mahsuri Mausoleum

Common sandpiper - - 1 - -

Spotted dove 9+ Alamanda, abundant

elsewhere

- - - sev seen around island

Asian koel 1+ heard Alamanda - - - -

Greater coucal 2+ Alamanda - - 2 -

Large-tailed nightjar 1 Alamanda - - - -

Black-nest swiftlet c100 Alamanda - - - -

Fork-tailed (Pacific) swift - - - - 4+ SkyBridge

Silver-rumped needletail - 3 - - -

Dollarbird - 3+ - - -

White-throated kingfisher 2+ Alamanda

3 Ulu Melaka

- - - 1 nr Mahsuri Mausoleum

Black-capped kingfisher - - 2+ - -

Collared kingfisher - - 2+ 1 -

Blue-tailed bee-eater 1 nr Alamanda - - - -

Chestnut-headed bee-

eater

- - - - 2 Oriental Village (base

of SkyCab)

Oriental pied hornbill - 2 - - 1 from SkyCab

Great hornbill - 2+ - - -

Wreathed hornbill - 6+ - - -

Black-naped oriole 1 Alamanda 1 - - -

Greater racket-tailed

drongo

4+ Alamanda 6+ - - 1 Wat Koh Wanararm

sev from roadside

Large-billed crow - - - 2+ sev from roadside

Brown shrike - 1 (ssp lucionensis) - - -

Brown-throated sunbird 4+ Alamanda - - - -

Orange-bellied

flowerpecker

- 1 - - -

Asian fairy-bluebird 1 Alamanda 1 - - -

Baya weaver c10 Alamanda - - - -

Scaly-breasted munia - - - 4 -

White-headed munia 2 Alamanda - - - -

Grey wagtail - 1 - - -

Common hill myna - 2 - - -

Common myna c10 Alamanda - - - many in villages

Blue-throated flycatcher - 1 (female) - - -

Black-headed bulbul 3 Alamanda 2 - - -

Olive-winged bulbul 2 Alamanda - - - -

Red-eyed bulbul 4+ Alamanda 2+ - - -

Yellow-vented bulbul 3 Alamanda - - 2 -

Pacific (house) swallow 2 Alamanda - sev 5+ 2 SkyCab/Sky Bridge

Rufous-bellied swallow - 2+ - 4 -

Pale-legged leaf warbler 1 Sunset Valley - - - -

Pin-striped tit-babbler - 5+ - - -

Common tailorbird 2 Alamanda 2 - - -

Dark-necked tailorbird - - - 1 -

Geoff Upton, Southern England