‘Take up bird-watching’

Field trip: Lim (wearing hat) giving some tips to the course participants during a practical lesson on the use of a scope at the Kinta Nature Park in Batu Gajah.

BIRD-WATCHING is a healthy pursuit that entices people to the outdoors so that they can better understand the importance of nature and the surrounding habitat of wildlife and birds. It also helps people realise how the destruction of the wildlife habitat can affect humans too, said ornithologist Lim Kim Chye. “Birds are the most visible of wildlife and can be seen everywhere. Malaysia is an ideal place to take up bird-watching as we have more than 700 different species of birds,” said Lim who recently conducted an introductory course on bird-watching organised by the Perak branch of the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) at the YMCA in Ipoh.

Lim, who is bird group co-ordinator of the society, said the activity was a relatively cheap pastime as it could be pursued at any level from those who watch birds around housing areas to the highest level of those who travel all over the world to see birds. “Humans have an innate instinct for hunting from their caveman days. Bird-watching allows them to hunt with binoculars and cameras. They will get the feeling of success whenever a rare bird is found or photographed,” he said. Lim said data on the birds, such as their species, numbers and habitats, was collected by bird-watchers in Malaysia when they go out birding.

These data would be keyed into a database maintained by MNS where the public and government agencies can gain access to whenever they conduct research, environment work or development planning. For example, Lim said MNS bird-watchers visited wetland sites all over Malaysia to survey waterbirds in January each year and their data would be sent to Wetlands International under the Asian Waterbird Census. This is to monitor the health of the wetlands.

The introduction course on bird-watching attracted 20 participants aged from 11 to 70 in Ipoh. Participants were given lectures on bird- watching and were taught how to use the binoculars including on using guides to identify the birds. They also learned the techniques of watching and identifying birds. There was also a talk about the threat to Malaysian birds and what was being done to protect them. In the afternoon, the participants were taken to the Kinta Nature Park in Batu Gajah for a practical lesson to reinforce what had been taught earlier.

-thestar online.