Dartford Waffler

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 [...]

Doi Lang Bird Photography – Thailand Birding

December 4th, 2013

Nick

Last year opportunities for photographing birds at Doi Lang were spectacular with a number of stakeouts created by local birders where birds were fed with mealworms in order to lure them out into photographable situations.

Recent visits to Doi Lang have revealed that a number of signposts have been placed by national park authorities requesting that usage of mealworms, call playback and staking out of nests stops and that there are officials patrolling who will ask offenders to leave. However, a visit to the checkpoint area revealed that the border police stationed there are continuing to provide fruit and rice at feeding stations and that Scarlet-faced Liocichla, Silver-eared Laughingthrush, Dark-backed Sibia and Spectacled Barwing are all still visiting and are easily seen and photographed. Read more »

Gulls at Bang Poo | Thailand Birding

November 19th, 2013

Nick

Every “winter” the gull flock at Bang Poo is more than 2000 birds strong and with ever-increasing numbers of Thai day trippers feeding the gulls this large flock of gulls is likely to remain a feature of birding in Thailand. A Lesser Black-backed Gull had been seen there a few weeks back, only Thailand’s second record, and although it had not been seen since I decided to spend a lazy afternoon on the pier to see if I could find any rare gulls for myself.

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Return of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper – Thailand Birding

November 16th, 2013

Nick

Last week I made my first visit to Pak Thale this “winter” to see Spoon-billed Sandpiper. The first record of this highly sought-after species this season was on 27th October at Khok Kham where Mr Tii found one bird. A total of 7 Spoon-billed Sandpipers have been found at various sites around the Gulf of Thailand in the last few weeks with a maximum of 3 at Pak Thale but on my visit on 12th and 13th November they were much harder to find than they would normally be.

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Spoon-billed Sandpiper Recording Information Pages

September 12th, 2013

Nick

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force of East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership has published a nice, 4-page, fact sheet on this critically endangered species.

The fact sheet contains illustrated information on Spoon-billed Sandpiper plumage details and ages as well as the known areas and times of the year that it occurs. The fact sheet is designed to encourage birders to submit detailed observations of this species from the field. With this in mind there are details on how to record observations of this species and where to send the information. Read more »

Thailand Birding: Nesting Birds

June 25th, 2013

Nick

The majority of Thailand’s breeding birds nest between March and July, making this a great time to see many resident species as they construct nests, display and feed their young. In the forest this means that many of the resident species that can be very hard to find for much of the year suddenly become easier to see.

From 17th to 21st June I spent time at Kaeng Krachan national park and rice fields close to Petchaburi where I saw a lot of tricky to see forest birds as well as a lot of nesting species with young. Read more »

Birds In Bangkok | Thailand Birding

June 9th, 2013

Nick

Although I have lived in in the city since 1996 I am always amazed that there remain lots of birds in Bangkok. I am not talking about the birding sites just outside of the city, I am referring to the birds which somehow manage to make a living within the concrete jungle itself. There are many species of birds that are adaptable and are able to do well from the scraps of land between buildings, gardens and city parks. Thailand’s capital city is somehow a good place for observing urban birds, with many of the birds in Bangkok being very colourful and impressive in a variety of ways. Here I will talk a little about some of those I have seen this week while I have been going about my business in the city. Read more »

Thailand Birding: A Day In Petchaburi

June 3rd, 2013

Nick

A couple of days ago I spent the day with Phil Round touring around a few sites in Petchaburi province. We began with Khao Look Chang, to look for Black-headed Woodpecker, then moved on to Laem Pak Bia, Wat Khao Takrao and then, finally, Nong Pla Lai.

Although early June is not the time of year that most people would choose for birding in Thailand over the course of the day we saw a fair number of good birds and enjoyed watching some species in breeding plumage and feeding young. Read more »