Help on Indonesian birding (1 Viewer)

I know that Sumatra isnt a often visited place and therefore I dont expect many respons on this, but I just started birding, I got a bird book for christmas and I have never understood what a diversity of birds Sumatra really holds.

I lives quite close to the famous Kerinci Seblat National Park, just a teen minutes walk from where I live, has anyone been there recently?

I wouls like to know a little bit about which birds you can expect to see there and of course good places to see them, my list is poor, during my life I have only been able to see around 40 kinds of birds.

Happy for some god advice :bounce:

Hi woodcock

Sumatra surely is a intresting island, glad to hear that you have started to bird as "your" island offers some of the best birding in the world.

After my trip to South America Iam going to move to Sumatra to work with a project there, Iam currently lives on Borneo which offers quite poor birding actually, most species is either rare or exclusive. Me and my family will be located further south on the island.

I have been birding in Kerinci Seblat only once, 1977 wish is a long time ago but that time the park offered us some exellent birding, I will try to post a list some other day with locations and such things.

Hi Woodcock, welcome! You are placed in one of the worlds greatest islands for birdwatching, Gunung Kerinci is a truely outstanding site. Try to get a hold of John MacKinnons Birds of the Greater Sundas, which shows all of Sumatras birds. If you go to Kerinci, stay at Pak Subandi's Homestay, he will help you with many of the birds and you can read his logbook, which shows other birders sightings from many years, this would be a perfect starting point. Next maybe go to Bukit Tapan, famous for its population of Tigers, or Way Kambas, home of Tigers and Elephants, along with many birds.

I will be back in Indonesia in April, visiting Sumatra for a few weeks, stay in touch and hopefully we can go birding at some of these sites if you would like some extra company.

All the best,

James

Birding Indonesia by Paul Jepson is excellent

Way Kambas as mentioned by James is a great place too

you are very lucky to live at Kerinci