A little research on eBird showed me that a few interesting sightings had been made at the National Races Village in the eastern suburbs of Yangon. With some time to kill in the city I decided to take a taxi out there and see what I could find. Although the name of the location sounds like some sort of race course this spot is actually some sort of open-air cultural museum. In actuality the place is very run down with large parts of it overgrown; a sort of scruffy wooded park. On the day I visited the park was quite well-used by locals coming for a picnic but the overgrown edges of the park proved to be very birdy indeed. The good numbers of birds were probably a result of the general scruffy and dirtiness of the site. I enjoyed a very nice few hours of the morning here with the most interesting birds, for me, being Alexandrine Parakeet, Forest Wagtail, Freckle-breasted Woodpecker, White-throated Fantail and Black-capped Kingfisher.

I arrived at around 7.45am and there was a mist coming from the river and the temperature was refreshingly cool. After paying the 3000 kyat entry fee I started birding close to the gate where I immediately found a couple of Dusky Warblers ‘ticking’ in the undergrowth while a nearby flowering tree held Black-naped Oriole, Black Drongo, Red-whiskered Bulbul and Ayeyarwady Bulbul.

This location is right next to the river and there is some mangrove/swamp woodland alongside the water. This overgrown area was full of birds including a pair of handsome Chestnut-capped Babblers, a Yellow-bellied Prinia, several Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers and Black-naped Monarchs and a couple of Freckle-breasted Woodpeckers foraging in dead branches.

The best birding in the park was all along this riverside strip of woodland with lots of Dusky Warblers, a single Radde’s Warbler, 2 Black-browed Reed Warblers, numerous Thick-billed Warblers and a couple of colourful Black-capped Kingfishers. The call of an Asian Barred Owlet alerted me to its presence while a flock of feeding birds included several Ashy Minivets, a Brown-rumped Minivet and a Hair-crested Drongo.

Due to the numbers of birds I was making very slow progress around the park. Lots of Black-naped Orioles, Black Drongos and Ayeyawady Bulbuls were everywhere as well as smaller numbers of Red-vented Bulbuls. I found a dark morph Ashy Drongo as well as a leucogenis Ashy Drongo and was pleased to find a few Forestr Wagtails on the woodland floor. These little birds with their side-to-side wagging tails are always nice to watch.

One bird that interested me a lot was White-throated Fantail. In much of Southeast Asia this bird is associated with highland forest while Pied Fantail is the fantail that occupies the lowlands, especially waterside parkland. At first I thought I had misidentified this species but I saw quite a few of them and managed some photos.

Further on I added Green Bee-eater, Eastern Cattle Egret, House Sparrow, Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, Blue-tailed Bee-eater and Common Iora to the morning’s list. As things began to warm up, around 10am, the bird activity started to slow down but I still managed to find new birds before leaving including Chestnut-tailed Starling and a few Olive-backed Pipits bathing in a puddle.

National Races Village turned out to be a good birding location for any birders who find themselves in Yangon with time to kill. I found it to be better than People’s Park or Kandwagyi Lake, both of which are freqently visited by birders. From downtown Yangon it cost me 5000 kyat for the taxi although it took quite a while to find a taxi driver who knew where to go, even when I showed them the location tagged on Google Maps. I added the site as an eBird hotspot so other birders can find it more easily. Here is my full list for the morning - https://ebird.org/checklist/S63866525