Yesterday I returned to Thailand after leading a successful birding tour to Cambodia to see a number of mainland Southeast Asia’s most endangered species alongside Sophoan Sanh of the Sam Veasna Centre. We enjoyed great views of a very high proportion of our target birds including a point-blank encounter with a pair of Chestnut-headed Partridges on the penultimate day but preceded by superb birds such as Greater Adjutant, Lesser Adjutant, Giant Ibis, Sarus Crane, Bengal Florican, White-shouldered Ibis, Manchurian Reed Warbler, Cambodian Tailorbird, Mekong Wagtail, Woolly-necked Stork, Great Slaty Woodpecker, Yellow-crowned Woodpecker, Rufous-bellied Woodpecker, Black-necked Stork and many others.

If you would like to join me on a birding tour to Cambodia you can see the next upcoming itinerary here – Cambodia Birding Tour

Read on for photos and commentary from the trip .

Angkor Wat by Nick Upton

Bayon Face by Nick Upton

Our trip began with a visit to Cambodia’s most famous landmark, the World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat and associated temples. These impressive ruins are fascinating and tell the story of Cambodia’s ancient history featuring some really impressive engineering works; we tried to imagine how many labourers it would have taken just to dig Angkor’s enormous moat never mind to construct the temples themselves. The surrounding woodlands also provided a nice morning’s birding with our only sightings of the trip of Hainan Blue Flycatcher, Forest Wagtail, Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, Common Hill Myna, White-throated Rockthrush and Large Hawk Cuckoo.

Sarus Crane by Nick Upton

Greater Adjutant by Nick Upton

Woolly-necked Stork by Nick Upton

Oriental Darter by Nick Upton

Many species of large wetland birds have disappeared throughout Southeast Asia but still survive in Cambodia and some of these were main target species of this Cambodia birding trip. We saw large numbers of Painted Stork, Oriental Darter, Asian Openbill, Great Cormorant and Spot-billed Pelicans and we also had good views of much rarer species including a flock of over 20 Sarus Cranes, Woolly-necked Stork, Black-headed Ibis, White-shouldered Ibis, 2 juvenile Black-necked Storks as well as a wonderful dawn encounter with 3 Giant Ibis calling from their roost site. Seeing Greater and Lesser Adjutants side-by-side at Prek Toal bird sanctuary was another memorable moment.

Bengal Florican by Nick Upton

Horsfield’s Bushlark by Nick Upton

A visit to the “Florican Grasslands” was a pleasant birding experience. Having breakfast out in the field, watching the sun rise and several male Bengal Floricans strutting around was something I am sure everyone will remember for a long time. We had excellent views through binoculars and telescopes but we did not attempt to get too close to this critically endangered species at a time when they are displaying so as to minimize disturbance. The grasslands were productive for other species too including Oriental Skylark, Oriental Pratincole, Small Buttonquail, Manchurian Reed Warbler, Eastern Marsh Harrier and Horsfield’s (Australasian) Bushlark.

Chinese Francolin by Nick Upton

Neglected (Burmese) Nuthatch by Nick Upton

Rufous-bellied Woodpecker by Nick Upton

We spent quite a lot of time birding in lowland dry dipterocarp woodland looking for the many specialities which occur in this habitat and it was in this that we made several sightings of both White-shouldered and Giant Ibis, both critically endangered species and must-see birds of any Cambodia birding tour. This habitat was excellent for woodpeckers and we found Rufous-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-crowned Woodpecker, Freckle-breasted Woodpecker, Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, Great Slaty Woodpecker, Greater Flameback, Common Flameback, Lesser Yellownape, Greater Yellownape and White-bellied Woodpecker – all wonderful birds. We also found most of the other species that are associated with this habitat including Indochinese Cuckooshrike, Neglected Nuthatch, many Chinese Francolins, Rufpus Treepie, Common & Large Woodshrikes, Red-billed Blue Magpie, Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, White-rumped Falcon, Collared Falconet and many others.

Irrawaddy Dophin by Nick Upton

Mekong Wagtail by Nick Upton

At Kratie we took a morning boat ride on the Mekong river. Although there were not many birds we did obtain really good views of a a couple of pairs of the regionally endemic Mekong Wagtail, including the above male collecting nest material. There were also several Small Pratincoles, Little Ringed Plovers and some Indian Spot-billed Ducks as well as huge numbers of Little Cormorant. A small group of Irrawaddy Dolphins performed for us but how much longer they will hold in here is in doubt due to the construction of several dams on the Mekong river in Laos in addition to the ones already built in China; the already much-diminished ecology of the Mekong river looks like it will soon be completely wrecked by these projects.

Cambodian Tailorbird by Nick Upton

We visited a site for the recently described endemic species – Cambodian Tailorbird – just outside of Phnom Penh. We had excellent views of this attractive species as it called from various bits of vegetation but unfortunately due to its fast-moving nature I only managed this one, heavily-obscured photograph. Judging by the amount of development around Phnom Penh this species is likely to be under threat from habitat loss in the near future.

Chestnut-headed Partridge by Nick Upton

Birding at Bokor National Park was difficult due to thick forest habitat but we added quite a few species to our trip list here including Red-headed Trogon, Banded Kingfisher, White-browed Scimitar Babbler and this wonderful Chestnut-headed Partridge. This is another regional endemic and when you consider that the subspecies that occurs in nearby Thailand is very different, this bird is virtually endemic to Cambodia and being able to watch two of them at a distance of just a few feet away for more than half an hour was a fitting way to end our birding trip to Cambodia.

In total we recorded 263 species in Cambodia including an impressive 8 species of Owls seen – Brown Fish Owl, Oriental Scops Owl, Spotted Wood Owl and Brown Wood Owl being the highlight species.

If you would like to join me on a birding tour to Cambodia you can see the next upcoming itinerary here – Cambodia Birding Tour