The lack of tourism pizazz makes it rather attractive to birders, and some have been making regular visits over the last 15 years or more.
I arrived in Taiping, after driving from Kapar, at the dead of night. Well, actually, it was only 10.30pm, but the streets were as deserted as they might be at 3 in the morning, such are the home-loving folk of Taiping. The town is built more or less in a grid format, which means that it is the Town of a Hundred Traffic Lights - or possibly a Thousand. I know, because I waited at most of them while trying to find my way to the hotel I had booked for the night.
Next morning I took a ride in one of the landrovers provided to ferry people up the hill, and met up with a group of Penang-based birders staying at Speedy's resthouse.
My main goal was to try to see the Rusty-naped Pitta which had been seen briefly a week or two previously, but, sadly for me, it had shut up by the time I arrrived.
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A walk up to the summit produced a curious party of Sultan Tits. With their fine spiky crowns and royal yellow colours, they are certainly aptly named.
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The two-tone tail is caused by moult. The older, browner feathers are being pushed out by the new glossy black ones.
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A male Black-throated Sunbird - a familiar sight at all the hill stations.
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A solitary Malaysian Hill Partridge eluded my efforts to improve on my shot of one at Fraser's Hill recently, and a pair of Pygmy Blue Flycatchers were also rather shy and elusive. This is the male. This is apparently the first record of this species at the hill for some years.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-7U2tpa4Rb9Tg2mVCbnZMwjqGVbOj66VljZ8ubcRZCDn8SjERe-hc890Q5ifm_Oiv4hngg4PPpEEQsHfRzBL3wv_54fCJIvccmasHXUCWlYpoVRh_4uDgxWSsY-BMOYSr697a/s400/Bushy-crested+Hornbill_Maxwell+Hill_210608_IMG_9012.jpg)
I disturbed a small party of Bushy-crested Hornbills feeding on some fruiting trees near the road.
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A Horsfield's Baron posing for me on a roadside fern.
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This was the view from our resthouse after dark - Taiping in all its splendour.
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At night the pair of White-bellied Swiftlets nesting in the house came to roost with their two almost-fledged young.
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This fine Masked Palm Civet came to help itself to the leftovers of our dinner left out specially.
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This Atlas Moth beat itself to oblivion on one of the outside lights. In front of it is a 'normal' sized moth!
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The local Brown Wood Owl was very obliging, coming to call just outside our house after dark.
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The Mountain Scops Owls weren't nearly as accommodating, but while out on a walk to try to see one, we came across this beauty,which is apparently a juvenile Vertebral Slug Snake (Pareas vertebralis). Thanks to Muin for the id!
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