In normal years anyone going birding in Thailand to see a variety of thrushes would be sincerely disappointed. Although there are a large number of species on the Thai list, many of them are very rare migrants that are not even seen annually. A few species do regularly visit Thailand and a few others are even resident species, but all can be tricky to connect with much of the time. However, in late 2019 and the first few months of 2020 a phenomena occurred that I cannot remember having previously happened, in that something of a thrush festival took place at Mae Fa Luang Arboretum at Doi Chang Moob in the Doi Tung area of Chiang Rai province in the north of Thailand. I was lucky enough to make three visits to this site over the course of early 2020 and here I have compiled a set of photos of thrushes from those visits.

One of the species that first attracted a lot of Thai birders to the site was the discovery of a Dusky Thrush. This species is exceptionally rare in Thailand and I have only previously seen it once in the country so it was very exciting to not only catch up with this bird but to be able to obtain some really nice photos of a beautiful individual.

Another bird that spent a few months wintering at this location was Chestnut Thrush. This species is a scarce winter visitor to Thailand, a species that I see about once every two years on average so this was another special bird in terms of its rarity and the colour of its plumage.

One of the more regularly seen thrushes in Thailand is Eyebrowed Thrush. This bird can usually be found in various parts of the country during the dry season although in some years their numbers can be very low and at all times they are more commonly heard rather than seen so it was fantastic to see them at such close range at Mae Fa Luang.

For anyone who was not lucky enough to visit this site in the period of early 2020 I should explain that these thrushes were attracted to a feeding station which is how these photos were obtained although after a month or so they frequented the nearby trees, feeding on fruit and flowers more than coming down to feed on mealworms.

One species that I did not see on my visits was Naumann’s Thrush. This is an extremely rare visitor to Thailand with (I think) only two previous records of which I was lucky enough to see the second. Others photographed two birds claimed as Naumann’s Thrush but the bird that stayed for a few weeks looked very much like a hybrid to me. Naumann’s Thrush and Dusky Thrush commonly hybridize and I asked the opinion of someone who studies these birds a lot who agreed with my assessment of a hybrid.

Another species that I did see, however, was Grey-sided Thrush. This bird looks quite similar to a female Eyebrowed Thrush at a cursory glance so a decent view is essential. This another scarce, but annual, visitor to Thailand but on my visits I never saw them come down to feed at the stakeout so getting a good sighting and photo of this species was a little harder.

In most years birders head to Doi Ang Kang to see Black-breasted Thrush but certain changes there resulted in them being hard to see at that location this year so it was great that at least one bird was showing well at Mae Fa Luang. This male was not in full adult plumage but still a handsome sight and very welcome to those birders with me for whom it was a lifer.

On the last of my three visits this year to Mae Fa Luang there was a surprise for us in the form of Scaly Thrush. We came across this bird as we were walking around one of the more out of the way parts of the arboretum. I did get a photograph, which allowed me to identify the bird from the very similar White’s Thrush, but the quality was very poor so I will not display it here.

The final species of thrush here that I was able to get good photographs of was Grey-winged Blackbird. There were at least two males and one female (although I did not get a shot of the female which always remained in the trees) and the more I looked at these birds the more I appreciated how stunning they are. Take a look for yourself.

In some years there are almost no thrushes for birders to enjoy in Thailand. An average year would provide some sightings with one or two of the rarer species scattered around the country but never in the years that I have been birding in Thailand have I seen so many species in one place. Mae Fa Luang was fantastic this year but I wonder when we will see a similar spectacle again?

For those birders who enjoy thrushes and would like to know more about this lovely group of birds I thoroughly recommend the book “Thrushes” by Peter Clement & Ren Hathaway.