Great spot for bird-watchers in Pahang

Despite hosting the Pahang circuit of bird-watching competition for the first time, organiser Resort World Awana Genting Highlands has managed to prove that its area, located at 3,000ft above sea level and surrounded by 130 million-year-old rainforest, is a potential destination for bird watching.


All this while overlooked as a holiday resort, it is now known as an alternative place for nature lovers.Well known Bukit Fraser is presently the world class bird-watching spot and has hosted many bird race competition.

Training the eye: Participants in the competition sighting for the birds using binoculars.

Recently, Awana Genting High-lands with the cooperation of Bukit Fraser Development Corporation (PKBF) and Tourism Ministry successfully gathered 150 bird lovers consisting of secondary school students and adults to take part in the Awana International Bird Race Circuit competition 2012. The participants’ tried their skills of identifying the birds species found and spotted in the area and recorded their finds. Experts or the arbitrators were around to prove their findings.

A few hundreds of birds of various species were recorded flying around and stopping at branches of trees of various faunas in the area. According to Genting Malaysia Bhd executive vice-president Datuk Kevin Sim, about 30% of the 750 bird species in the country could be found in the Genting Highland areas.

Small one: One of the species of a bird spotted in Awana Genting Highlands.

Sim said it was a good effort to create a bird-watching competition as it was a healthy and academic outdoor activity for both locals and foreign tourists. He said it was important to document the bird communities living within the vicinity and the competition held will boost not only Genting Highlands as a prime bird-watching destination and an eco-tourism destination but also the entire state of Pahang.

”As part of an important bird area under the birdlife international site located under the Hulu Gombak site, we are confident that this prime site will offer birdwatchers and nature lovers alike a diversity of unique bird species such as the Great Hornbill, Hanging Fairy Bluebird and many more,” he said.

While Tourism Ministry director general Datuk Mirza Mohamad Taiyub said birds have shown to be effective indicators of biodiversity in other animal groups and plants especially when used to define a set of sites for conservation. He said in terms of mainstream economics, the Awana Genting was one of the World’s Important Bird Areas (IBA) attracting interest from bird-watchers, conservations and planners and the site has become the travel destinations and targets for eco-tourism projects and scientific study.

Zooming in: Mirza looking through the lens to spot for the bird after he officiated the Pahang circuit of the competition. Looking on Sim and Hanafiah.

“The International Bird-Watching Race is not new as it is popular around the world. ”It could be the benchmark for Pahang as a bird-watching destination equivalent to the famous British Bird Watching Fair at the Rutland Water Nature Reserve in United Kingdom annual bird watching race that attracts nearly 25,000 people and raising nearly RM1mil for the birdlife works,” he said. Mirza said as first time organisers of the competition, the event was a good start to increase the interest of leisure holidays and tourism through watching birds.

Pahang Exco member Datuk Shafik Fauzan Shariff said Pahang was certainly rich in its natural resources with more than half of the state still covered with pristine forest which is a home and sanctuary to varieties of bird species extending from the mountains to the lower land and to the wetlands. He said another potential area for the bird-watching site is the South East Pahang peat swamp forests and as one of the largest wetland reserve in Asia, with more than 233 bird species recorded while out of the 10 hornbills species found in this country, eight were recorded here including the rare Winkled Hornbill.

Gaining knowledge: Participants concentrating on some readings to identify the birds.

Shafik also presented prizes to the winners which were divided into two categories of novice and advance. Nor Aliah Mohd Yusof, Aizan Othman and M. Jayasilan who teamed up as Burung Hantu emerged champions in the novice category with 39 species of birds found while Jason Nathan, Mohd Azhar Mohd Arshad and Frolena Kumar from team Niltava were the champions in the advance category with 64 species of birds found.

The winners took home trophies, certificates and hampers. The competition was launched by Tourism Ministry director-general Datuk Mirza Mohammad Taiyib and closed by state Arts, Tourism, Women’s Affairs, Family and Com­munity Development Committee chairman Datuk Shafik Fauzan Sharif.

Throughout the two-day competition, PKBF general manager Datuk Mohd Hanafiah Abdul Mutalib and his deputy Ishak Mokhtar, Pahang Tourism Ministry Office general manager Idros Yahya, Tioman Development Authority general manager Datuk Hashim Mat Tahir, Tourism Pahang director Amran Abdul Rahman, Genting Malaysia Bhd senior vice-president of public relations and communications Datuk Anthony Yeo and Awana Genting Golf and Country Resort general manager Datuk Ruddin Salim were present.
-thestar online.