The taman is a pretty huge living and foraging playground for a lot of birds, but woe betide the young and small ones that cross the Black-thighed Falconets' path, the most heart-rending victim (subjective here!) being the Banded Woodpeckers' week-old chick.
These Falconets have made their home in the taman now, leaving early to hunt and returning late to roost in their cavity nest, reportedly all six of them.
But today, surprisingly two appeared mid-morning in front of their nest for some together-time. It has been approximately 4 weeks now that the first one fledged, followed in succession days after by the next three.
Two of the siblings met for allopreening.
The female parent perched just below.
Btw, one couldn't be blamed for asking how I could differentiate the male and female parent.
And back to the juveniles -
It's not much fun preening alone - black is as black is, the pristine blackness of a plumage of presumably the youngest of the 4 siblings.
So it's to the elder sibling for some allopreening and togethermess.
And then came this news when the housing project for the Bukit Kiara Longhouse families was launched:
Whilst there was cause for celebration that the Bukit Kiara Longhouse families' housing issue was finally resolved, there was cause for gloom when it was simultaneously announced that the massive residential development that was planned adjacent to Taman Rimba Kiara would still proceed but scaled down (its development area and proportion remain very much a concern) - the following article of The Edge of 01 July 2026 traced the background to this issue and possible future development.
Source: The Edge, 01 July 2026
Bukit Kiara longhouse families get permanent homes as Taman Rimba Kiara development shrinks to 5.76 acres
This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 22, 2026 - June 28, 2026
A more than four-decade-long dispute over a plot of land in Taman Rimba Kiara in Kuala Lumpur has finally reached a resolution. Construction of permanent housing for 98 longhouse families is underway and the disputed development of the plot has been significantly scaled back.
On June 15, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the permanent housing project at the Taman Rimba Kiara carpark in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI), an event he described as historic. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Federal Territories Hannah Yeoh, who had championed the issue for the TTDI community as Segambut member of parliament (MP), said the 44-year wait by the Bukit Kiara longhouse community had finally entered its resolution phase.
The controversy began in 2014 when Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan (YWP), a Federal Territories foundation under Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), entered into a joint venture with Memang Perkasa Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Malton Bhd (KL:MALTON). Twelve acres of the 25-acre Taman Rimba Kiara Park were transferred to YWP, which then entered into a joint venture with Memang Perkasa to develop the parcel. Memang Perkasa was to pay RM160 million to YWP in stages.
The development plan that emerged back then was substantial, involving eight blocks of high-rise serviced apartments, alongside a 29-storey block containing 350 units of affordable housing for the longhouse residents. There were to be eight storeys of parking.
TTDI residents initiated the Save Taman Rimba Kiara campaign in 2016 after spotting a notice about Memang Perkasa’s plans to build several blocks of luxury condominiums on the 12 acres of parkland that had been designated as a green space for public use under the KL Structure Plan 2020. They argued there had been no proper consultation and that the project would gut one of the city’s last significant green lungs. Critics also noted a structural conflict of interest — Kuala Lumpur’s then mayor Tan Sri Mohd Amin Aziz sat on YWP’s board of trustees, the very body partnering with the developer whose project the mayor’s office would later approve.
What followed was a six-year legal battle. The residents lost at the High Court in 2018 but won at the Court of Appeal in 2021, before the Federal Court delivered a final, unanimous verdict against the project in April 2023. The apex court found that there was no merit in DBKL’s appeal to reinstate the development, with the bench concluding that a conflict of interest and bias had affected the mayor’s decision, since he was also a trustee of YWP. The court also held that the gazetted KL Structure Plan 2020 had zoned the area as public green space.
Crucially, the court noted that resolving the original development dispute and resolving the longhouse residents’ housing rights were two separate matters.
The judges found the state’s obligation to house the longhouse settlers was a distinct duty owed to them, separate from whatever happened with the wider commercial project. In other words, even with the initial condominium project shelved, the 98 families’ long wait for permanent housing remained unresolved.
Following the court rulings, the cabinet in 2024 directed DBKL to find a way to preserve Taman Rimba Kiara’s green space while still delivering housing to the longhouse families on the existing footprint, rather than reviving any large-scale commercial redevelopment. Various proposals were floated throughout 2024 and 2025 — including scaled-back versions trading parkland for smaller housing footprints — but progress remained slow, prompting continued advocacy from groups like Save Taman Rimba Kiara and from Segambut MP Yeoh, who had long argued that residents deserved low-density, landed permanent housing built without encroaching further into the park.
Where the original 2017 plan called for nearly all of the carved-out 12 acres to be developed, the final settlement announced by Yeoh on June 15 restricts development to just 5.76 acres. The remainder of the land will be returned to the government and officially gazetted as public open space. Other key terms include preserving the Sri Maha Mariamman temple site and officially designating it as a non-Muslim place of worship, as well as increased parking capacity at Taman Rimba Kiara from 80 to 150 bays. A joint audit involving DBKL, Friends of Bukit Kiara and Forest Research Institute Malaysia will also be carried out to protect trees within the development area. Aside from that, a special task force has been established under the Federal Territories Department specifically to protect and gazette green spaces, aiming to prevent similar disputes in future.
Permanent housing, finally
For the 98 longhouse families, the agreement delivers on a promise made back in 1982. The families working in a former rubber estate in Bukit Kiara had been relocated into longhouses sitting on 4.4 acres on the edge of what is now Taman Rimba Kiara. They were told the move was temporary, pending a permanent housing solution from the state authority.
Under the new terms announced by Yeoh, the developer will build and complete replacement homes on 1.275 acres behind the temple before the existing longhouses are demolished, meaning residents will move directly into permanent housing without facing temporary relocation.
The financial terms have also shifted in the residents’ favour. Under the original 2014 agreement, families were to receive one unit free of charge, with a second unit offered at RM175,000. Following the prolonged legal battle and recognising that the families fall under the B40 income group, the government has now agreed that both units will be provided free of charge. A three-bedroom unit has a built-up of 850 sq ft. The government will also channel a RM1 million grant through DBKL over three years to subsidise the maintenance charges once residents move in, easing the financial transition. The project is expected to be completed within three years.
What it means for Memang Perkasa
Memang Perkasa, which had pursued the original mega-development and fought the legal battle through to the Federal Court, will now be limited to developing a smaller 5.76-acre footprint. Anwar noted that he had asked the Kuala Lumpur mayor to consider incentives for the developer as part of the resolution, though specific commercial terms for the downsized project have not been detailed publicly.
A recent company search on Memang Perkasa shows its top shareholders as Malton (5.67%), Regal Marvel Capital Sdn Bhd (81.37%) and Tegap Dinamik Sdn Bhd (12.97%). Regal Marvel Capital is fully owned by Malton. A company search on Tegap Dinamik lists Ahmad Lazri Long Ahmad Zainal Abidin as holding a 49% stake, Rosmanira Junoh, 30%, and Mohd Khairuddin Nawawi, 21%.
If Tegap Dinamik sounds familiar, think back to 2017, when Prasarana Malaysia Bhd awarded a light rail vehicle package worth RM1.56 billion under the Klang Valley’s third light rail transit (LRT3) project to a consortium comprising CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co Ltd, Siemens Ltd China and Tegap Dinamik. The consortium was the only one — of five pre-qualified groups — that submitted a bid for the LRT package within the deadline.
In a nutshell, out of the 5.76 acres, Memang Perkasa will keep the 4.4-acre plot — on which the longhouses currently sit — for future development (see map). It is very close to Sime Darby Property Bhd’s (KL:SIMEPROP) upscale Jendela Residences at KLGCC Resort in Bukit Kiara.
The Edge is given to understand that development plans are still in initial stages. Local agents tell The Edge that it is a pretty large plot and considering that it is in such an affluent and desirable area, one can naturally expect plans for high-yield luxury skyscrapers to be revealed in due course.
The Collared Kingfisher chick that fledged suddenly came across as a surprise move as it was not seen to undergo a typical avian period of appearance and feeding at the nest entrance.
And more surprise was to unfold with the parents' behaviour with their new fledgling.
This one chick of the pair of Collared Kingfisher fledged one early morning approximately 21 days later, and was seen in the late afternoon quietly perched high on a tree.
However, with the parents' apparent knowledge that its chick had fledged, it was a surprise then that this one still brought a lizard prey to the nest later in the afternoon as if the chick was still inside.
It immediately exited to scan the surrounding, perhaps, for its fledgling. Unfortunately it couldn't be ascertained if this was fed eventually to the new fledgling.
Just as strange was the behaviour of another parent that caught a beetle and subsequently downed it whilst the fledgling perched close by. It would be natural to expect the new fledgling to be still fed.
All in all, it was pretty challenging to locate a fledgling that decided that all it wanted was to perch quietly and almost motionless for hours. However even stillness needed occasional flexing to relax the body and wings, whose movements finally revealed its location.
Yet, it was even harder trying to decipher the parent's behaviour as it sat quietly below the fledgling. Although it did fly off, could even be heard whacking a prey and was expected to return to feed the young, but it did not.
In fact the young could be heard to make tiny calls as if asking to be fed, which was totally ignored by the parent.
Eventually this parent left the young to perch away. Unexpectedly the young suddenly also took off to join the parent.
And then what unfolded came as a shock.
As the young looked up at the parent moving about above, the parent shockingly flew down and swiped it off the branch.
It landed on the branch below to be confronted again by the parent, and what looked like feeding certainly wasn't, as it was a locking of beaks, and an aggressive chase-off!
AI overview:
Parent birds bite, tap, or lock beaks with their fledglings for three primary reasons: to force the fledgling to forage independently, to signal that feeding time is over, or as an exploratory "beaking" behavior. In the wild, adults use this tough love to encourage fledglings to leave the nest and fend for themselves
And then it happened again.
This time the young refused to budge and the parent flew off, with the situation remaining as it was as evening fell.
A most unnatural parent behaviour with a new fledgling - instead of feeding its new fledgling, it came across as aggressively chasing its fledgling away, to find its own food, so soon upon its fledging!
And the next day it recurred.
When this parent caught a beetle it took it to where the juvenile was.
Instead of feeding it, it merely stayed apart.
Almost soon after, another flew in, and displayed the same behaviour, biting the juvenile's beak.
And so it's to the big bad world out there for this young one, although it did not seem to have the courage to venture beyond familiar territory yet.
Cutting a lonely, and lonesome figure as it came across as still hopeful for parental provision.
A couple of days later, the entire family was nowhere to be seen, or heard.
