Launching of the book, “The Birds of the Forests of Peninsular Malaysia: a photographic guide” by Rosli Omar
Launching is by Dr David Wells, a renowned bird expert of the birds of Peninsular Malaysia to be held at Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 4 May, 9-11am
Title of Dr David Wells presentation and background
Title:
‘What are they doing and where are they going? a few ideas about forest birds arising from long-term field studies in Malaysia’.
It will be in two parts, connected by different interpretations of the title wording. The first will be a fresh look at some of the results of the 1960s/70s night migration study at Fraser’s Hill, focusing particularly on pigeons. The second will be a background explanation of the theory behind extinction risk, nature reserves and the future of Malaysia’s forest bird communities – with some real observations (something that naturalists, including birders, should be aware of).
Speaker’s background:
Came to (then) Malaya in 1961as a graduate student in the University of Malaya zoology department. After a spell of lecturing in Nigeria in the mid-60s, returned to join the department staff in 1967. Member of Malaysian Nature Society since that time (one-time treasurer and Selangor branch chairman), also a one-time trustee of WWF Malaysia and chairman of Asian Wetland Bureau. Author of ‘The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula, 1999, 2007, and currently has fun helping out on the MNS Bird Conservation Council record review committee. Retired from Malaysia in 1994 and now lives in Norfolk, UK
Book Author: Dr Rosli Omar
Rosli was a lecturer at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Malaya till 2012. When de was diagnosed with glaucoma, fearing a deterioration in his eyesight he decided to focus on what he loved best – bird watching and rambling in the forests. Thus, ended his academic career. He decided too to start photographing the birds for posterity since they were declining fast especially the forest birds because their habitat, the forests, were and are disappearing fast. He has been birding (bird watching) for 20 years and has a great passion for conserving the forests and other natural habitats.
Some Background of the book
The book was 6 years in the making. Three just taking photos and three, writing till the final printing. During the photo shooting stage, I was spending half of each month in the field, in all forest types, lowland, highland and mangrove, including Taman Negara Kuala Tahan, Sg Relau to Kuala Juram, and Kuala Koh. Also, in Fraser’s Hill, Panti, Gunung Telapa Buruk, Kuala Selangor Nature Park etc
The writing took longer than expected. I kept adding new info. And of course, once it was done for a species it has to be redone for all. And because it took so long to write I had to recheck all the various bird organisations that I referenced to ensure that the names, common and scientific, were not changed. And indeed, there were frequent enough changes.
Because the book follows the names used by the then new MNS bird checklist, the same as eBird website of Cornel University, I decided to also add names used by Birdlife International that our birders were more used to. I decided later too to add bird names used by others – Oriental Bird Images, HBW, and Jeyarajasingam and Pearson’s 2012 field guide.
I focused only on forest (and forest edge) birds to emphasise the threats facing them given that their habitat, the forests, especially the lowland, were and are very much threatened. The idea was that the readers would come to love the birds, would want to conserve the birds and thus the need to conserve the forests, the ultimate aim of the book.