Dartford Waffler

Independent Birding at Zaamin National Park | Birding in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is a surprising country with a wide variety of landscapes, ancient historical monuments, some interesting food and drink as well as good infratructure that makes the country easy to travel in independently. However, my wife and I pushed this a little further than most travelers to the country by visiting Zaamin National Park where [...]

City Park Bird Abundance | Birding in Thailand

For those of us lucky enough to travel internationally to see birds it quickly becomes apparent that in some countries birds are abundant while in others birders have to work harder to see a wide range of species. This was brought home to me most recently spending a morning at Sri Nakorn Kuean Khan Park [...]

Touristing & Birding at Petra | Birding in Jordan

For those of us who travel with non-birding partners it can sometimes be tricky to balance enjoying time together somewhere interesting and the craving to maximise the opportunity to see new birds in new places. Personally, having a good holiday with my wife is the most important thing when planning trips together but doing some [...]

Rainy Season Birding at Pathum Thani Rice Research Centre | Birding in Thailand

There can be times of the year when bird watching hits a trough because a lack of activity, unhelpful weather or overfamiliarity with a smaller selection of species than at other times. In Thailand these factors are all true in the rainy season with a large number of species absent, on their breeding grounds further [...]

Mountain Birding from Chimgan | Birding in Uzbekistan

I have always loved immersing myself in mountain landscapes but over recent years my opportunity to do so has been limited with much of my time spent in tropical forests and wetlands in Thailand so when the opportunity presented itself to spend some time birding in mountain habitats in Uzbekistan I took it without having [...]

Last of the Migrants? – Thailand Birding

April 23rd, 2014

Nick

This morning I spent a few hours at Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan park to see if I could find some interesting migrant birds – there is always the chance of something really rare at this time of year. Despite arriving early the heat and humidity was very uncomfortable from the beginning (7am) and there were few migrant birds to see until around 8.30am, which seems to be normal. Spending around 4 hours birding the park it was obvious that the number of migrant birds passing through were significantly fewer than on my last visit on 9th April; again, this is to be expected as it is getting towards the end of migratory period.

Even with this lower level of activity I managed to find a good number of species including one very scarce species – Green-backed Flycatcher.

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Some Bird Sightings From Thalebun National Park – Thailand Birding

April 21st, 2014

Nick

Last week I made two short visits to Thalebun national park in Satun province. This national park does not seem to receive visits by many bird watchers, probably because it is a long journey for many people and a lack of information. These facts coupled with the difficulty of accessing good habitat and that many people will think that Satun is one of Thailand’s southern provinces mean that there is little recent information on the birds to be found at Thalebun.

My short visits provided me with sightings of some good birds including Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot, Malayan Banded Pitta, Grey-and-buff Woodpecker, Banded Woodpecker and Green-backed Flycatcher with plenty of other commoner birds to make for some interesting birding.

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Migrants in Bangkok’s Parks & Elsewhere: Thailand Birding

April 8th, 2014

Nick

This morning I received a text message from Sukanya Thanombuddha telling me that she had found a male Narcissus Flycatcher at Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan park. over the last few weeks I have seen some interesting migrants at the same location including a female Narcissus Flycatcher, a male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, Himalayan Cuckoo and Chestnut-winged Cuckoo. Dave Gandy has also been reporting some interesting migrants on his blog – Bangkok City Birding – from Suan Rot Fai and nearby. With migration now in full swing it is time for birders in Bangkok to visit their nearest park and see what they can find. Read more »

Birdwatching from the Roof: Thailand Birding

March 22nd, 2014

Nick

Yesterday afternoon I spent an hour and a half on the roof of my apartment block watching birds from this elevated position. The building has 9 floors and is located in Pracha Utid road, a busy part of Bangkok on the west side of the river. It is one of the highest buildings in the area so I had a good view of passing birds and a few species in wasteland down below.

Migration has already started and although it is probably a little bit early to see large numbers of birds moving I did witness fair numbers of Blue-tailed Bee-eaters on the move, perhaps as many as 50 birds in total, as well as a single Black-naped Oriole. In a week or so it may be worth trying in the morning to see if I can observe any large movement of birds on migration.

Apart from these migrants, I managed to see quite a few resident species of birds, several at very close range as they passed by the roof. Read more »

Black-collared Starling In Bangkok: Thailand Birding

March 18th, 2014

Nick

Yesterday afternoon I spent an hour at Sri Nakorn Kuan Kan park in Bangkok. The humidity was quite uncomfortable and clear weather did not seem to be the right recipe for migrating birds to land with just a couple of Hair-crested Drongos, an Ashy Drongo, 1 Asian Brown Flycatcher and a Black-naped Oriole. However, for the first time in this park I saw a pair of Black-collared Starlings; I was alerted to their presence by their rather discordant singing.

Recently some visiting birders mentioned to me that although Black-collared Starling’s range map in Robson’s Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand covers most of the country they had not seen even one! Casting my mind back it occurred to me that this species used to be rather more common in the central region and while it remains common in farmland habitats in northern Thailand, it may be in decline in and around Bangkok. Read more »

A Successful Birding Tour: Thailand Birding

March 17th, 2014

Nick

From 11th January to 4th February 2014 I led a birding tour of central and northern Thailand. We all have high hopes when starting a birding trip but all those who have been bird watching for some time will know that it is not always easy to find the species that make the trip a success. With this in mind it was very pleasing that things came together well for this trip and we found a large number of excellent birds as well as enjoying spending a lot of time photographing many species close up at the many stakeouts around the country. Indeed, it was enjoyable for all to study many birds at length and to see them at close range as well as enjoying a lot of good food and a lot of laughs along the way.

I will talk about the birding and mammal highlights of the trip here; Read more »

Dry Dipterocarp Forest at Doi Inthanon: Birding in Thailand

March 14th, 2014

Nick

Dry dipterocarp forest has a high number of bird species that are specialists to this niche and the dry forest at the bottom of Doi Inthanon has long been a location for visiting birders to catch up with a number of these species. For most birders resident in Thailand the dry dipterocarp forest at Doi Inthanon is extremely poor in bird abundance with locations such as Mae Ping and Nam Nao far better places to catch up with many of the birds associated with dry woodland. However, on the morning of 11th March 2014 I took a walk along the road at Km 13, Doi Inthanon, with Hugues Dufourny, Guy Mirgain & Patrick Derennes as we did not have enough time to travel to Mae Ping national park.

My warning that we would experience extremely low levels of bird activity proved to be accurate, but with a lot of patience and effort we managed to find quite a few of the species that we had been hoping to see. Although Black-headed Woodpeckers are fairly common along this trail it took us quite some time before we managed to see a group of at least six birds. At one point they became quite agitated and fluffed up their red rump patches – quite a sight! We all felt like we deserved to see these birds after having chased several groups of them that we had heard; they were all completely unresponsive to call playback. Read more »