On the morning of 5th June I joined Gabby and Alex Vargas for a trip to Bang Pra in Chonburi province in the hope of finding some Quail. Unfortunately, we arrived rather later than hoped which reduced our chances of finding these tricky birds due to the human disturbance that had already begun. However, in the fringing woodland we managed to find 2 Asian Barred Owlets, a pair of Rufous Treepies feeding young, several Greater Racket-tailed Drongos and a group of splendid White-crested Laughingthrushes: Bang Pra is one of the easiest places to see this common but secretive bird.

Finding Quail
Rain Quail, Barred Buttonquail, Yellow-legged Buttonquail, Small Buttonquail and Blue-breasted Quail all occur here, but seeing them is becoming increasingly difficult due to severe habitat degradation. Raised water levels, over grazing, over use by locals and vegetation compaction by birdwatchers’ vehicles has seriously reduced the amount of quail habitat at this site. The below picture illustrates the poor condition of grassland and marginal habitat.

Even with these problems it should be possible to find some of these species by walking around the grassy areas and scanning amongst the vegetation for the birds coming out to feed. Listening out for the call of the Rain Quail is also a good tactic. However, it takes some considerable effort and in the heat and humidity at Bang Pra it can be difficult to persevere; this was the case on this occassion and after a few Indochinese Bushlarks, a single Australasian Bushlark, Zitting Cisticolas and Paddyfield Pipits enthusiasm was low. Patience, perseverance and tolerance of extreme heat and humidity are the keys to finding difficult birds in Thailand so that our brief stroll only produced common birds such as Oriental Pratincole, Great Egret, Little Egret, Black-winged Stilt and Red-wattled Lapwing.

Large Waterbirds
A number of large waterbird species are present at Bang Pra, either feral colonists from the nearby zoo or as releases from the nearby waterbird breeding facility. On this visit we saw a single Spot-billed Pelican circling in the sky and 5 Painted Storks in the shallow water, both of these species have established breeding colonies after escaping from the open zoo at Khao Khieo.

Other good waterbirds seen in the past include Oriental Darter and Malayan Night Heron but on this trip we had to settle for the common birds such as Little Cormorant and Cattle Egret; we did get some nice views of Yellow Bittern however.

Some Common Birds at Bang Pra
Leaving Alex in the car to recover from the heat, Gabby and I walked along a trail to see what we could find. In fact it amounted to very little as by this time it was 10am – hot and low on bird activity. We found a number of the more common birds for the location:

• Long-tailed Shrike
• Sooty-headed Bulbul
• Streak-eared Bulbul
• Plain Prinia
• Common Iora
• Green Bee-eater
• Green-billed Malkoha
• Spotted Dove
• Peaceful Dove
• White-throated Kingfisher
• Asian Pied Starling
• Common Myna
• White-vented Myna
• Pied Fantail
• Greater Coucal
• Oriental Magpie Robin
• Yellow-vented Bulbul

We did find a few less common species too, an immature Chinese Sparrowhawk was most impressive, perched in a tree consuming prey before flying away and a few Brown-backed Needletails amongts the House Swifts and Asian Palm Swifts, soaring overhead.

This relaxed pace did give me time to take a few photographs of the habitat at Bang Pra.

With that we found it was time to leave for some food and refreshment. Arriving late, walking very little and leaving early is not the best policy for birdwatching in Thailand but with so many birds available it is always possible to see something of interest.

Another interesting e-mail arrived in my inbox today, this time from Alex Vargas to let me know that he had spent some time updating his photo galleries on pbase.

Alex has a growing gallery of not only Thai birds but others from around the world. However, his Thai birds photo gallery is the one I spent most time looking at and he has some really nice photos of some really nice birds. Of course, the nature of birdwatching in Thailand means that he still has many species to add to his catalogue, which should allow him to maintain an interest for a long time to come.

I have reproduced here a few of Alex’s photos of birds of Thailand.

Take a look at all of Alex’s photos: http://www.pbase.com/alex_vargas

thailand, birds, birding, nature, photography

Excuse the terrible pun but I just received a very interesting e-mail from Ian Smith, of Viang Yonok Hotel in Chiang Saen, which I thought I would share. 

“We have noticed how agressive the Common Mynas are. Every day they dive bomb one of our cats when she walks out into the garden. At first we thought it was just because she was in the vicinity of their nest, even though this is high up in the roof our our entrance gateway. Then this got worse until they divebomb her wherever she is in the garden. They even do it to the dogs sometimes. 30 minutes ago, our gardener came running with a female Koel which was being attacked by two Mynas. He rescued her and I’ve put her in a cardboard box for a couple of hours. A male was also attacked but is still in the tree.”

Here are the two pictures Ian sent me.

 What is the Explanation for this?

These two birds appear to be juveniles, the first a male and the second being a female. Koels are nest parasitic in the same way as Cuckoos, and Mynas are often used as host species; in early May I saw 2 male Koels being fed by a pair of Black-collared Starlings close to Kaeng Krachan National Park. It is strange that the Mynas which could be the host parents were seen attacking the Koels as once the host species has accepted the parasite they usually take care of them until fully fledged, indeed the two males I saw being fed were in virtual adult plumage. It could be possible that another species has hosted these Koels and the Mynas recognise them as nest parasites, although I would have thought that Ian would have seen the real host parents,  or that as the chicks get close to adult plumage the Mynas have realised their mistake.

From Ian’s description of the Mynas attacking cats and dogs it certainly seems like he has a particularly aggressive pair on his property. Another example of what makes birdwatching in Thailand so interesting.

birds, birding, nature, thailand

Pheasant-tailed Jacana is a species that many visiting bird watchers ask me about. It is one of those colourful and strangely-shaped birds that capture people’s imagination and although it is fairly widespread in Thailand, found in the better quality freshwater wetlands, it is not a common species by any means and in order to see it birders usually need to visit one of its strongholds.

Pheasant-tailed Jacana by Peter Ericsson

Where to see Pheasant-tailed Jacana
Pheasant-tailed Jacana prefers marshy wetlands, overgrown fishponds and areas with floating vegetation. In winter they can be found at many sites throughout Thailand, from the far south to the far north but only breed at a few sites in the Central Plains. Below is the distribution map from Craig Robson’s Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand.

Some of the best sites to see Pheasant-tailed Jacana on a winter birding trip to Thailand are:

• Chiang Saen Lake

• Yonok Wetlands

• Bung Boraphet

• Tung Bang Jak

• Muang Boran Fishponds

• Bang Poo Soi 119

Pheasant-tailed Jacana breeds at the last four sites listed and can be seen all year round; breeding close to Bangkok was only discovered relatively recently. At Tung Bang Jak small numbers of breeding Pheasant-tailed Jacanas can be seen and they can be found throughout similar freshwater wetlands all around Bangkok; there are probably dozens of sites where they breed in small numbers but, at Muang Boran Fishponds in Samut Prakarn, I counted at least 80 birds in  breeding condition just a few days ago.

In Phil Round’s new book, The Birds of the Bangkok Area, he has quoted my sighting of 120 birds at Muang Boran Fishponds on 23rd February 2003 as the largest single count in Thailand. Going through my records though I noticed that I counted 165 on the 1st January 2004 and 192 on 22nd February 2004; it seems perhaps this site is the best place in Thailand to find this species in large numbers?

A Few Interesting Pheasant-tailed Jacana Facts

• The species has reversed sex roles with the female defending a territory and building the nest. The male incubates the eggs and tends the young.

• The alarm call is a strange, high-pitched mewing sound

• The chicks are able to swim at just 1-2 hours old

• Most migrants have left Thailand by late April

Pheasant-tailed Jacana Links
Peter Ericsson, Johan Svensson and Alex Vargas all have photographs of Pheasant-tailed Jacana in Thailand.

There are 3 video clips of Pheasant-tailed Jacanas here: Hydrophasianus chirurgas.

The Wikipedia entry for Pheasant-tailed Jacana is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheasant-tailed_Jacana