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.