My Short Visit To Tanjung Malim, Perak DarulRiduan !!!

I was very determined to visit a friendly party of whom I made friend with during the recent GAPH Seminar in Seremban.

The person I was referring to is Mr Jack of Swiftlet Equipment Supplier.

Started my journey from Kuala Lumpur at 9.30 am and reached Tanjung Malim exactly within one hour.

Jack pick me up somewhere in Tanjung Malim Town.


He was so quick that I did not realised that the meeting point was very closed to one of his birdhouse unit. The unit was on the top most floor of a four stories high building close to one of the traffic light. On the ground floor was a bank.

The house was opened about three months now and there were at least 30 nests. During the first month there were more then 6 nests. The numbers were increasing and the best was the effectiveness of using his fake nests.

He indicated that all the fake nests were tanented. He was planning to add a few more to beef up the population. Using of fake nests are temperory measures. Once the number of birds reached a certain figure, like 50 to 100 pairs, they can either be removed or move to another part of the nesting room. Once that is done, a new colony will start their nests in the new location.

The followings are some pertinent points that I would like to share with all my readers about this particular birdhouse unit:

1) The unit was on the top floor of a four stories high building in Tanjung Malim town area. Birds seem to prefer living in town areas as compaired to the outskirt. This is something that is very common in many Malaysian Towns. Main reason being they feel much safer and attracted to the bright lights.

2) There was nothing fancy about the building construction, outside and inside, however the room's darkness, temperature and humidity were perfect. There were two water pools and three humidifiers allocated on only one floor.

3) The nesting planks were well mounted and they were pretty wide. The thickness is more then 2 cm. In each column box there are a kind of dividers that was mentioned to act as colony dividers.

4) They placed many tweeters, more then 120 units per floor, and most of them were facing the bird entrance direction. Nearly all were those round face type tweeters which they claimed to provide an excellent sound output.

5) They seems to use the same tweeters for external sound calling system. Each entrance, they have two, there were at least two tweeters.

6) This particular birdhouse have two inlet windows about 40 cm by 60 cm. One facing the back (west)and one facing the side(north). The idea was to allow the birds to choose which window they prefer. Once the preferred window was determined, the other can be shut down. Not a bad idea, except currently the amount of light entering the house was a bit high.

7) The roving area was once a kitchen. It was about 12 feet by 12 feet. Quite bright but all the walls were colored black.

8) There were two pails of those activated insect breeding powder. A newly activated pail content was orange in color while the older one was dark in color (black). There were some insects flying around the room. You can clearly see the pupa sacks left by the matured insects on the top part of the plastic continer.

9) Immediately after the roving there was another roving cum nesting room. The two were connected by a window of about 40 cm by 40 cm. This small window limit the light entrance into the nesting areas.
(Pupa sacks left by the Insects: Bottom Picture)

10) There were two humidifiers in this 2nd roving area. The humidifiers are those chicken farm humidifier type. Both are connected to analogue timers. Jack indicated that they were being activated every hour for at least 20 minutes from 10 am till 5.00 pm. They also have a small water pool located in the middle.

11) In the main nesting room, they are also provided with a slightly larger water pool using a kind of circular water container. The container diameter was about 10 feet. Water inside the pool was about 1/2 a foot high.



12)One of the main attraction was the use of white colored fake nests. There were at least 10 fake nests. All were placed above the circular tweeters but at the corner end of the wooden planks (near the corners). The best thing to observe was that all the fake nests were occupied (showned by the birdshits signs just below all of them).

13) All the tweeters installed have a kind of wire mesh covers over their face. According to Jack the mesh covers will allow the birds to cling to the tweeters while resting. The mesh size will not allows the birds to make their nest on the tweeters but on the nesting planks. A genious way of tackling birds attraction to tweeters and I think this is a marvellous idea to be followed.



14) There were no corner covers installed in the whole house. Main reason being to let the birds make their nest where they prefer to. Once they have reached a certain number then the corner covers can be installed. Not a bad idea......

My personal opinion is that they are done a simple but good job to have about 30 nests within three months.

From this short visit I would conclude the followings:

1) The more the tweeters the marrier it will be and more birds will populate your new birdhouse.

2) The use of wire mesh to cover the tweeter's mouth areas is practical and advantegous. They encourage birds to easily cling onto it for resting only.

3) The use of fake nests are unmistaken and usefull to quickly populate your birdhouse. I recommend it to be used in all new birdhouses as a temperory measures. Once the number of birds/nests in the house reached a sizable numbers, they should be removed or relocated.

4) The nesting room brightness must be properly checked and monitored. They must be precise and around 2 lux. If U need to use a very sophisticated equipment to monitor this, just get it done.

5) Put in the water ponds to allow the room humidity to be within the maximum range. If U need to place more humidifiers do so. Make sure the water are not spill and does not wet the wall and also the floors.

6) I am very impressed with the idea of having two entrance holes facing two different directions. This is good for a new house. When you are not very sure which direction is the most preferred by the birds. Once they are determined you can shut the less preferred window. Well if both can do a good job you should leave both opened. Why not???

7) The introduction of insect breeding powder is something new and I have never seen before. They are pretty simple and it looks that they give your house an extra advantage for the birds to visit your house. This is considered a plus especially for newly build birdhouses.

8) Corner covers seem to be not usefull for a newbuilt house. Let the bird choose where they prefer to build their nests and once the house is partially full you may consider to install the covers. It is a choice that you can opt do at a later stage.

I love to pay a follow up visit within the next three to four months and I hope the house will do well. It will be very nice if Jack can prepare a chart indicating the exact number of nests populating this new birdhouse plus all the events that takes place every month.

Those who wanted to contact Jack please PM me.....