A beautiful sunrise, thousands of birds, the sound of the sea; all the ingredients for one of the world’s birding hotspots, but in reality this is the atmosphere I was able to enjoy on a short morning excursion from Bangkok when visiting the “Red Bridge” coastal boardwalk in neighbouring Samut Sakhon province. Rather than being a cutting edge birding location the “Red Bridge” has become a well-known local tourist spot where people come to escape the city, enjoy the sea view, take photos on the boardwalk and connect with nature by feeding a flock of up to one thousand wintering Brown-headed Gulls. When things get busy here, at the weekend, the car park can be full and the restaurants without a free table but I arrived at dawn and with disturbance at its least I saw a good selection of birds along the boardwalk and surrounding mangrove fragments but, of course, it is the gulls that make the biggest spectacle. Read more »
Gull Feeding Frenzy at Samut Sakhon | Birding in Thailand
A beautiful sunrise, thousands of birds, the sound of the sea; all the ingredients for one of the world’s birding hotspots, but in reality this is the atmosphere I was able to enjoy on a short morning excursion from Bangkok when visiting the “Red Bridge” coastal boardwalk in neighbouring Samut Sakhon province. Rather than being [...]
Birds in a Park in Bukhara | Birding in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is one of those countries that is great for birding and at the same time extremely interesting in touristic terms too; an ideal place to travel with a non-birding partner and then to find time to go birding in locations near the tourist spots and to visit some really spectacular scenery. In late April [...]
Top 5 Birds of Vietnam Birding Tour 2025 | Birding in Vietnam
Vietnam is the country in mainland Southeast Asia with the highest number of endemic species and the best place to see a number of regional endemics too as well as a fantastic supporting cast of more widespread birds. Leading the Calidris Birding Tours trip to Southern and Central Vietnam in March/April 2025 gave all participants [...]
A Day Birding in Qatar | Birding in Qatar
My annual migration between Thailand and UK has not only seen the cost of direct flights rise dramatically but I have grown very tired of sitting on a plane for twelve hours, if only I was able to make the journey under self-powered flight like a Bar-tailed Godwit! Indirect flights are, of course, a solution [...]
Parakeets & Peafowl | Birding in Thailand
One thing I have learned over the years that I have been bird watching is that there are many different ways for people to enjoy birds. I started birding by going on long country walks in England with birds being perhaps the most accessible category of wildlife to enjoy along the way. Friends of mine [...]
Birds in a Park in Bukhara | Birding in Uzbekistan
January 2nd, 2026 
Nick Uzbekistan is one of those countries that is great for birding and at the same time extremely interesting in touristic terms too; an ideal place to travel with a non-birding partner and then to find time to go birding in locations near the tourist spots and to visit some really spectacular scenery. In late April 2025 I found myself in the historic city of Bukhara, enjoying the sites this amazing location has to offer, with my wife. Having visited Uzbekistan before and done a fair bit of birding this trip was most certainly not planned to maximise the birding potential, however, I still found time to look for birds in the early morning before our hotel served breakfast. Staying at Hotel Atlas we were placed at the heart of Bukhara old town and it was only a ten minute walk to Samonids Park, the closest place that might attract birds, particularly at this time of the year when migrants were passing through.
Join me on my next Central Asia birding trip - Central Asia Birding Tour.
I visited this park on two consecutive mornings and was pleasantly surprised how many species I was able to find, including the first adult Barred Warblers I had ever seen.
Top 5 Birds of Vietnam Birding Tour 2025 | Birding in Vietnam
August 27th, 2025 Nick Vietnam is the country in mainland Southeast Asia with the highest number of endemic species and the best place to see a number of regional endemics too as well as a fantastic supporting cast of more widespread birds. Leading the Calidris Birding Tours trip to Southern and Central Vietnam in March/April 2025 gave all participants the opportunity to see a wide variety of fantastic birds in this interesting country. With high quality species such as Siamese Fireback, Blue-rumped Pitta, Vietnamese Cutia, Rusty-naped Pitta, Silver Pheasant, Spotted Forktail, Grey-crowned Crocias, Green Peafowl, Pale-headed Woodpecker, Black-crowned Barwing, Chestnut-eared Laughingthrush and Short-tailed Scimitar Babbler all being seen but not making this list it is clear that this Vietnam birding tour provided some exceptional birds.
Join me to see the best birds of Vietnam on next year’s trip - Vietnam Birding Tour.
At the end of this successful trip I asked all members of the group and our local guide, Tai, for their birds of the trip. Using the order in which they ranked their favourite species I allocated points and constructed this list of the top five birds of this Vietnam birding tour.
A Day Birding in Qatar | Birding in Qatar
August 21st, 2025 Nick My annual migration between Thailand and UK has not only seen the cost of direct flights rise dramatically but I have grown very tired of sitting on a plane for twelve hours, if only I was able to make the journey under self-powered flight like a Bar-tailed Godwit! Indirect flights are, of course, a solution to this and while fiddling around in a second airport is also annoying it provides birders such as myself the opportunity to go birding somewhere along the way, with stopovers of one, two or even three days often being cheaper than simply boarding the next plane. On this note I found myself in Qatar, with around twenty four hours to play with and a few key target birds to look for as well as several more species that I have seen only a few times as additional distractions. It was easy to deal with a hotel for the night, car rental and driving around Qatar and despite the brutal heat in early August I got great views of species I was hoping for such as Egyptian Nightjar, Greater Hoopoe-lark and Cream-coloured Courser with plenty of others thrown in for good measure.
Parakeets & Peafowl | Birding in Thailand
June 20th, 2025 Nick One thing I have learned over the years that I have been bird watching is that there are many different ways for people to enjoy birds. I started birding by going on long country walks in England with birds being perhaps the most accessible category of wildlife to enjoy along the way. Friends of mine enjoy sitting in hides for long periods to photograph and observe birds at close range while others drive the length of the country to see rarities. Done with respect to the birds and to other people, all of these methods, or any other, is the right way to go birding if that is what you enjoy. However, another thing I have learned is that it is good to combine different methods of birding, sometimes walking, sometimes sitting and waiting or sometimes covering a lot of ground quickly but standing in an observation tower and waiting for birds to arrive is a birding style that does not present itself to most birders very often. However, at the base of Doi Inthanon, over the course of several visits in early 2025, doing exactly this resulted in great views of a lot of birds, including highlights such as the magnificent Green Peafowl and Blossom-headed Parakeet. Read more »
Independent Birding at Zaamin National Park | Birding in Uzbekistan
May 24th, 2025 Nick 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 the Turkestan mountain range forms the border with Tajikstan. The taxi ride from the city of Samarkand took around 4.5 hours and took us through some amazing landscapes, with vast areas of wilderness with snowy peaks as a backdrop for the last two hours of the journey, along some fairly rough, unpaved roads, making for a real sense of adventure. Once in the national park our hotel was situated with an imperious view of the mountains and it didn’t take long, taking a short walk to take some holiday photos, to find birds that included Rufous-naped Tit, Blyth’s Rosefinch, Rock Bunting and Azure Tit. And over the course of the next couple of days there would be plenty more good weather, great views and excellent birds.
If you would like to join me on a birding trip in Uzbekistan take a look at the dates, itinerary and all the details of my next tour to the region – Central Asia Birding Tour.
City Park Bird Abundance | Birding in Thailand
April 16th, 2025 Nick 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 within the Bangkok greater area, Thailand, seeing almost sixty species of birds within a few hours on a recent morning; it reminded me of how lucky I am to live in a country where birds are abundant. This came just a few days after returning from leading a birding tour in Vietnam, where we saw a lot of extremely high quality birds but where they came rather more slowly than is typical in Thailand.
Parks in and around Bangkok can always produce a high total of species, so long as birders are out early, before it gets too hot, but at this time of the year the number of species, and the quality of those species, is increased by passage migrants. Stormy weather is usually quite good for grounding migrant species and my morning in the park coincided with this type of weather which brought me some interesting passage migrant species, albeit in small numbers. With birds such as Black Bittern, Yellow-rumped Flycatcher and Crow-billed Drongo it was an interesting morning of birding.
