On the 17th and 18th of June 2023, the annual Fraser’s Hill International Bird Race or FHIBR was held for the 34th time in the state of Pahang, Malaysia. Here is my Fraser’s Hill International Bird Race trip report for this year’s event.

Being one of the premier birding events in Malaysia, the Fraser’s Hill bird race is the only international birdwatching competition in Malaysia that has been organized consistently by the Pahang Tourism Board for the past 35 years. This year’s event attracted large numbers of participants, including many international teams.

Fraser’s Hill International Bird Race Trip Report

This is my third time participating in the Bird Race at Fraser’s Hill. My first experience was when I was still studying in secondary school. Although I was a student, I was not allowed to participate in the Student Category as only invited schools were allowed to participate. As a result, I took part in the Novice Category at that time.

This year, I participated in the Bird Race in the Advanced Category. Apparently, for last year’s edition, the Organizers decided to categorize people who have been birding for more than 1 year as being eligible to participate in the Advanced Category and no longer eligible for the Novice Category. This was done in order to make the competition fairer.

In order to participate in the Fraser’s Hill Bird Race, participants need to form a team of 3 people. Teams need to register themselves by submitting their completed registration forms as well as the RM 60.00 registration fee to the Organizers by 11.00 am on the 17th of June.

This year, I formed a team together with my Birdwatching Asia associates David Hogan Jr and Ashraf Anuar Zaini. It was the first time for all 3 of us to participate in the Bird Race as a team. It was also the first Bird Race experience for my 2 teammates. Overall, it was an exciting experience for all 3 of us.

At about 11.30 am on the 17th of June, the participants gathered at the Concourse Area at Fraser’s Hill to listen to the briefings on the rules and regulations of the competition by the Organizers.

Among the rules for this year’s race that stood out was that all participants were not allowed to drive/use cars during the race. An additional rule that was added this year was that participants were not allowed to bird at the Gap and Jeriau Waterfall area. Another rule that was important to note was that all birds recorded need to be seen by at least 2 members of the team. Only then will the sighting be counted.

Of course, there is no way to fully verify if the team saw the bird (although photographic evidence may help). The entire competition is mainly based on trust in the honesty and sincerity of the participants.

At about 1.00 pm on the 17th of June, the competition officially flagged off. The competing teams started walking around Fraser’s Hill to spot and identify as many bird species as possible. On the first day, our team walked from the Town Area to the Bishop’s Trail entrance, and then we walked by the Paddock before coming back to the Town Area.

It was generally a quiet afternoon, but we did see some interesting birds that we added to our list. This includes birds such as the Mountain Fulvetta, Chestnut-Capped Laughingthrush, Blue Nuthatch, Rufous-Browed Flycatcher, Long-Tailed Broadbill, and others.

After covering the loop back to the Town Centre, we decided to check out the High Pines area. We did not see that many birds, but we did see some to add to our list, including the Black-Browed Barbet, Grey-Chinned Minivet, Verditer Flycatcher and the iconic bird of Fraser’s Hill, the Silver-Eared Mesia!

By the evening, we had recorded about 38 bird species. Not bad for a half-day session of birding. During the time we spent birding, we met other participants and made lots of new friends, including with birders from different countries. Meeting people from different backgrounds who share the same passion for birds was wonderful!

At night, several talks were being held that were birding related that were pretty interesting. While many participants attended the talks, some teams did not waste the night and ended up doing nocturnal birding to look for owls. Some members of the public joined a night walk session organized by the Malaysian Nature Society.

Our team decided to spend our night looking for the 2 owl species that are known to be at Fraser’s Hill, namely the Brown Wood Owl and the Mountain Scops Owl. We were successful in sighting the Brown Wood Owl and were glad to add this bird to our list. We could hear the bird very close by the Mountain Scops Owl, but we could not see it. As a result, we did not include this bird in our bird list.

The next morning, our team woke up early to walk to a site where we felt we could increase our bird sightings. By about 6.30 am, we were near the Bishop’s Trail entrance. During our early morning walk, we were lucky to encounter some civet cats still awake! Close to about 7 am, we started our morning birding.

We were lucky enough to encounter the White-Tailed Robin, Red-Headed Trogon and Sultan’s Tit. Our walk around the surrounding area was very fruitful as we finally encountered some bird waves, which helped to increase our numbers!

On that particular morning, we were pretty surprised to encounter some lowland rainforest birds at Fraser’s Hill. Among the birds that we did encounter were the Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot, Red-billed Malkoha and Velvet-Fronted Nuthatch. These birds are usually found in lower elevations but occasionally are seen at Fraser’s Hill too!

As the morning went on, we sensed that the deadline to submit our list was fast approaching. In our last attempt to add more birds to our list, we decided to focus our final stretch of birding on the road leading to Richmond Bungalow, as it was pretty close to the Concourse Area, where we were to submit our bird list. We did manage to add a few more birds to our list at the last hour!

This includes the Greater Yellownape Woodpecker and Fire-breasted Flowerpecker. As we neared the end, we were lucky to see the Pygmy Cupwing and Malayan Laughingthrush! We submitted our list of 59 bird species seen for the duration of the bird race! Our list was submitted to the Bird Race Competition Booth before the deadline, which was 12.00 noon on the 18th of July.

While waiting for the results of the Race, we managed to visit the booths of the other nature-based organizations, tour companies, and camera and optics companies which were promoting their activities, tour packages and merchandise. There were some booths set up which were purely informational as well, such as the booths set up by FRIM and Perhilitan, which were educating the public regarding nature.

At about 2.30 pm in the afternoon, all the participants gathered at the Concourse Area to listen to the results. The winners of all categories, including the Bird Race and Photography Competition, were announced! Our team did not win the competition, but we were really happy to be a part of it and do our best! Congratulations to all the winners and participants of the race for making it a success!

You can also see the list of winners for the Fraser’s Hill Bird Race which was published immediately after the event by us at Birdwatching Asia.

Conclusion

It was wonderful to meet people from other countries and different parts of Malaysia to forge friendships and share experiences with. It is also heartening to see so many people from around the world sharing our passion for birds!

Definitely looking forward to participating in more birding events in the future! Kudos to the organizers for continuing to make this bird race an annual event that all birders look forward to. And I hope you enjoyed this Fraser’s Hill International Bird Race trip report.