Telupid and Kampung Bestaria

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A cluster of community-run bird hides in central Sabah built on years of patient habituation work, and the most dependable place on Earth to see a Bornean peacock-pheasant — a bird that spent most of the twentieth century as a ghost in Sabah, missed even by camera-trap surveys running tens of thousands of trap-nights. The main hide is managed by a cooperative formed by residents of nearby Kampung Bestaria, alongside the Ulu Telupid Birding Centre. A second hide at a small wetland pond targets the critically endangered straw-headed bulbul, and a third, reached by a longer trek, gives access to blue-banded pitta. Reaching the peacock-pheasant hide means a short walk through forest at the end of a dirt road, in position well before dawn, and often a full day of quiet waiting.