Birds in Tanjung Mentong, Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

From a total of 785 species of birds documented in Malaysia, 670 species can be found in Peninsular Malaysia with four endemic species and at least nine are classified as endangered (MNS Bird Conservation Council, 2015). A bird survey was conducted at Tanjung Mentong, Tasik Kenyir (Figure 1) from 7th to 13th of March 2015 with the objective to provide a checklist of bird species at Tanjong Mentong. There is a lack of published literature on the birds of Tanjung Mentong, with only one preliminary survey of bird assemblage available by Sulaiman et al. (2015). Tasik Kenyir covers an area of 202 hectares and is located in the South West of Terengganu. It is well known as the largest man-made fresh water lake in South-East Asia. In 1978, the surrounding area was flooded as a result of the Sultan Mahmud Hydro Electric Dam (Mazlan et al., 2015; Norfaizal et al., 2015). The lake is surrounded by a total of 4,975 hectares of tropical lowland forest and has 340 islands after the inundation (Norfaizal et al., 2015).