“The UTAR [Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman] Campus at Kampar is a brilliant place to watch nesting/breeding herons. My wife and I went cycling there as well as to watch birds at the heronry.
“The campus authorities are sensitive to the nesting site which now sits almost in the centre of the campus. Much of the conservation and awareness work has been promoted by my bird watching colleague Tou Jing-Yi. He has been doing periodic surveys of the population there and unfortunately they are slowly declining; possibly due to increasing campus development as well as movement of birds. At his last survey (July 2012) he noted 34 Grey Herons (Ardea cinerea) with 9 active nests, 74 Purple Heron (A. purpurea) with 18 nests, 9 Eastern Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus coromandus) with 2 nests, 6 Black-crowned Night Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) with 1 nest and 2 Little Egrets (Egretta garzetta) with no nests.
“This heronry has Grey Herons in all stages – breeding and non-breeding adults, immature and juveniles at all stages of development (top, above, below left).
“The video link shows immature Grey Herons demonstrating the cooling mechanism utilised by egrets and herons. Note the rapid fluttering of the cheeks. Seen this often.”
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
UTAR Campus, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia
Habitat: University campus built in semi-urban environment around ex-mining pools
1st July 2012