Heavy rain yesterday morning foiled my attempt to go birding at Sri Nakorn Kuean Khan Park but today the skies were clear and I got a taxi from home to the park, arriving at 6.45am. Getting out of the air-conditioned taxi I was immediately hit with high temperatures and even higher humidity – the previous day’s rain along with the lush vegetation was responsible for this. Sweating at 6.45am made me wonder how long this birding session would last but a number of interesting migrant birds throughout the morning, along with good views of a number of resident species, meant that I had a good morning of birding with sightings including Asian Emerald Cuckoo, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Sakhalin Leaf Warbler, Vinous-breasted Starling and Crow-billed Drongo.

Vinous-breasted Starling

A pair of Vinous-breasted Starlings were the first birds I saw and these were investigating potential nest holes in trees. This species is very scarce in Central Thailand but a small number of them can reliably be seen here and are always a welcome sight. This time of year can be good for migrant species but I seldom see many of them in the early morning, most of them seem to become active/arrive a little later in the morning but on this occasion a migrant species presented itself to me straight away: Dusky Warbler.

Dusky Warbler

Although others have recorded Dusky Warbler in this park, this was the first time I had ever seen it at this location, so a site tick was a decent way to start the morning but I am not sure why it thought it could hide behind that one tiny leaf!

Another migrant bird nearby was an Asian Brown Flycatcher, one of the most common migrant passerines at this site, loosely associating with the Dusky Warbler – it is quite likely they were both driven to the park by yesterday’s storm.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Next it was time for some resident birds including a couple of Stork-billed Kingfishers, Brown-throated Sunbird, Coppersmith and Lineated Barbets as well as a few White-breasted Waterhens. Of course, one could hardly visit Sri Nakorn Kuean Khan Park and not take at least one photo of Pink-necked Green Pigeon.

White-breasted Waterhen

Pink-necked Green Pigeon

As I walked by the large pond I noticed a lot of House Swifts flying around quite low with some displaying to each other. The light was still a bit low to photograph such fast-flying birds but I spent half an hour trying; this was my best result after over 100 bad shots.

House Swift

There were also smaller numbers of Germain’s Swiftlets and Asian Palm Swifts joining the action as well as a single Barn Swallow but I did not get any good photos of them.

Over the course of the morning I came across quite a few Drongos including, of course, the resident Greater Racket-tailed Drongos as well as migrant Hair-crested Drongos, 2 Black Drongos, 2 Crow-billed Drongos, a few leucogenis/salangensis Ashy Drongos as well as one mouhoti.

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

Ashy Drongo

Crow-billed Drongo

Migrant warblers are also a feature of this time of year and although I did not see big numbers I found a nice variety with singing Radde’s Warbler, 2 singing Sakhalin Leaf Warblers, 1 singing Pale-legged Leaf warbler, 2 Arctic Warblers and the Dusky warbler previously mentioned. It was hard to get photos of any of them though.

Often I see migratory raptors in the park but today there were none, although soaring Asian Openbills did their best to make me think they were raptors.

Asian Openbill

The park was quite busy today with people riding their bikes and this seemed to reduce the number of birds I saw but I did find one quiet patch where a number of migrants included a small flock of Brown-rumped (Swinhoe’s) Minivets, a Square-tailed Drongo Cuckoo and, most exciting of all, a male Asian Emerald Cuckoo, another species I had not previously seen at this site.

Brown-rumped Minivet

Square-tailed Drongo Cuckoo

Asian Emerald Cuckoo

This site seems to have a lot of Collared Kingfishers during the breeding season and today I was able to get some nice shots of this colourful species as it sat silently in the “forest”.

Collared Kingfisher

Taking my time with some of the commoner birds was also nice and while I was watching a Dark-necked Tailorbird I heard the call of White-rumped Munias. A little searching revealed a group of them feeding on some bamboo seeds. This gave me a chance to watch them and get a few photos.

White-rumped Munia

A few Blue-tailed Bee-eaters and several more Asian Brown Flycatchers were other migrant birds along with good numbers of Black-naped Orioles throughout the morning. I also added Black-capped Kingfisher and Chinese Pond Heron as migrants before succumbing to the heat, my clothes drenched in sweat by 10.30am.

Black-naped Oriole

On my way out of the park cicadas started making a huge noise. This is usually a sign to stop birding and as the noise was deafening I took little persuading to call it a day. There was time, though, to photograph an Olive-backed Sunbird.

Olive-backed Sunbird

The full eBird checklist of what I saw in the park this morning is here – 17th March 2019, Sri Nakhon Khuean Khan Park