9. Back to Malaysia. Mountain Peacock Pheasant & Malaysian Rail Babbler

A leisurely breakfast in Pedang, for a change,  before taking the mini bus to the airport and catching our Air Asia flight back to Kuala Lumpur where we'd go our separate ways. Mika was heading to Borneo whilst Tony & Steve headed back to Southern Sumatra & Dan was heading back to Brisbane and a well earned few days rest before continuing his research into Plains Wanderer! 

Fred & I were spending a few days with a guide in Kuala Lumpur as he had unfinished business with a couple of species he'd missed on previous trips. Namely Malaysian Rail Babbler and Mountain Peacock Pheasant. Our guide, Raymond, had booked us into a 'spa retreat' where he'd arranged to pick us up in the morning.  Given we had a few hours to kill before it got dark we got a taxi to take us to the same spot we'd visited two weeks previously where Rail Babbler had been reported on eBird! No sign but it turned out we were in almost the right spot!

With Raymond picking us up in the dark, and driving us in his magnificent 30 year Toyota Landcruiser for breakfast (rice and chicken again!), we were full of anticipation when we arrived at the Japanese Gardens at Bentong Pahang. A short walk through some dense undergrowth and we came to a small blind set in a clearing where the pheasants and Ferruginous Partridge were coming to a feeding station. 

Settling in for the duration we were kept amused by the antics of the local Oriental Magpie Robins, White-rumped Sharma, Buff-breasted Babbler and Orchraceous Bulbuls coming in to feed. 

All nice birds but not what we were waiting to see. Suddenly, and with no warning, a Mountain Peacock Pheasant appeared and started feeding in the clearing whilst we held our breath and started taking photos. Those blue peacock-like markings on the back were stunning making the bird look like it was liberally sprinkled with little sapphires. 

Success! All we needed now was the Ferruginous Partridges to show up. After sitting for almost 2 hours we both felt the need to stretch our legs and go for the inevitable 'bush wee'. Just as we sat down again the partridges appeared to be joined by the pheasant for an encore.

We continued watching for another hour before all the birds just melted back into the undergrowth. We carried on birding the area before going for lunch and making a plan for the afternoon. Raymond wasn't keen on going for the Malaysian Rail Babbler in the afternoon as he said it was better early morning but, with nothing else planned, we took a punt! 

We drove up the track that Fred and I had previously walked twice and stopped at an area that I'd looked at and apparently commented ' that looks ideal for Rail Babbler! We were that close to finding the bird ourselves! 

Settling in the chairs Raymond had thoughtfully provided we watched whilst he baited the area with mealworms and started playing the Rail-babblers call. Something we were very familiar with after listening to it ourselves and trying call back on our previous visits. 

We only had to wait for 20 minutes when Fred noticed a movement behind a clump of greenery and in walked a Malaysian Rail-babbler. The only species of the genus Eupetes and a shy and reclusive species not seen very often! This one bucked that trend. We didn't even have to use a blind.

An absolutely stunning bird and a surreal experience. I was pleased for Fred as he'd managed all his target species on the trip so far. One more to go in the morning! 

Happy Rail Babbler observers with Raymond our guide

After a bit more birding in the area we had dinner before Raymond dropped us off at th hotel arranging ot pick us up at 6 am the following morning to try for Blyth's Frogmouth.

Footnote: It turns out we were extremely lucky with the Rail Babbler. Raymond didn't see it on three subsequent visits and a mate of Freds dipped it twice and spent a total of 10 hours waiting for Ferruginous Partridge to appear.