Natma Taung National Park is more widely known as Mount Victoria, and this mountain, in the Chin Hills in Western Myanmar was one that we focused upon as a location which would turn up a lot of exciting, range-restricted species as well as a few endemics. Well, it certainly did not disappoint us with a vast area for birding along a mostly quiet dirt road which took us through a variety of beautiful forest types and never stopped giving with its prolific birdlife. There were only two down sides to our stay at Mount Victoria; the cold at night and the fact that we could have easily enjoyed further days birding on the mountain. Highlights included White-browed Nuthatch, Mt. Victoria Babax, Burmese Bushtit, Chestnut-headed Tesia, Assam Laughingthrush, Black-bibbed Tit, Red-faced Liocichla, Chin Hills Wren Babbler, Scaly-breasted Wren Babbler, Brownish-flanked Bush Warbler, Striped Laughingthrush and many more. Mount Victoria proved to be the right location to build a birding tour of Myanmar around.

White-browed Nuthatch

One of the main target birds at Mount Victoria was the endemic White-browed Nuthatch. Our first morning on the highest areas of the mountain left us very concerned about our chances due to strong winds but after a slow start the birds began to come and after Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker, Brown-capped Laughingthrush, Grey Sibia, Rufous-bellied Woodpecker and Rufous-gorgetted Flycatcher got us warmed up we soon enjoyed great views of our first White-browed Nuthatches busy in the mossy branches. In fact it turned out that this species was fairly common in the right habitat and we had several other encounters with them in our time on the mountain.

Several species were very notable by their abundance with Buff-barred Leaf Warbler, Fire-tailed Sunbird, Rufous-bellied Woodpecker, Chestnut-vented Nuthatch and Grey Sibia being the most common at the highest altitudes.

Grey Sibia

The variety of colourful species in this mossy, moist forest was wonderful and even though it was windy we racked up a big total of species including Green Shrike Babbler, Black-headed Shrike Babbler, Black-throated Tit, Ashy-throated Warbler, Rusty-fronted Barwing, White-browed Fulvetta, Whiskered Yuhina and a wonderful Scaly-breasted Wren Babbler which made us work hard but we eventually all got good views of this tiny but noisy bird. Fruiting trees gave us periodic flocks of small birds feeding on them including Grey-sided Thrush, Eyebrowed Thrush and this colourful Red-tailed Minla.

Red-tailed Minla

One of the great things about Mount Victoria is the variety of forest habitats available to the birder with mossy forest at the top, mixed forest and pine further down with scrubby forest edge close to our accommodation. The pine forest was the most scenic in my opinion and the open aspect of this forest made it fairly easy to spot birds which included some fantastic Mount Victoria Babaxes (potential split from Chinese Babax), extremely colourful Assam Laughingthrushes, Little Bunting, Bar-tailed Treecreeper, Buff-throated Warbler, Yellow-breasted Greenfinches, Darjeeling Woodpecker, Spot-breasted Parrotbill, Aberrant Bush Warbler, Green-backed Tit and lots more; birding here was very relaxing although we did do a lot of walking.

Black-bibbed Tit

 
Pine Forest at Mount Victoria

White-browed Fulvetta

We spent long days in the field at Mount Victoria which involved some nice packed lunches but as all the walking was downhill it was not as tiring as it otherwise might have been and the vehicles were never far away if anyone needed a rest or a cup of tea/coffee.

The areas around our accommodation provided some great birding too with a good variety of birds including some very memorable ones. Rusty-capped Fulvetta was very difficult to tease out of the undergrowth but eventually they gave themselves up as did several Chin Hills Wren Babblers that after much work performed superbly for us, the quality of the sighting being enough for this species to end up in our top three birds of the trip. Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers showed extremely well here too as did the colourful Silver-eared Mesia, always one of my favourites, and species such as Chinese Leaf Warbler, Nepal Fulvetta, Grey-hooded Warbler, Large Niltava, Green-backed Tit were all great. An early morning appointment with Striped Laughingthrush gave us lovely views of this surprisingly smart bird and Crimson-faced Liocichla was certainly not a disappointment either. Some very obliging Spot-winged Grosbeaks made a nice photographic subject.

Spot-winged Grosbeak

All in all our stay at Mount Victoria had been very enjoyable and profitable in terms of the species we saw. A few surprises are always welcome on birding trips too and a very close fly-by from a Himalayan Griffon was wonderful but it was topped by a Song Thrush at our accommodation as we were getting ready to leave. Not only a first for Myanmar but a first for the whole of Southeast Asia! In the excitement I got the camera settings wrong and got a blurry photo.

Song Thrush

I will certainly look forward to my next visit to Mount Victoria and another tour to Myanmar.If you would like to join me on a birding tour to Myanmar you can see the next upcoming itinerary here – Myanmar Birding Tour