The summit of Thailand’s highest mountain, Doi Inthanon, is always a lovely place, with its mossy, fern-covered trees and fantastic, colorful birds. On 24th and 25th January I made a couple of visits to the summit where it was really quite cold in the early morning and late afternoon. What this meant was that as soon as the sun reached the forest, bird activity was quite high and over the course of two visits a lot of nice birds were seen including some scarce migrants. 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 [...]
Doi Lang: Thailand Birding
January 23rd, 2013 
Nick I have just spent three days at Doi Lang in Chiang Mai province and thought others would like to know of some of the amazing sightings from the location. Now that the breach in the road has been repaired and that the mountain is accessible from Fang, there is even better birding on the mountain than before. On the road up from the Fang side there is a lot of great pine forest and we saw Mrs Hume’s Pheasant and Giant Nuthatch on the way up. This forest is good for flycatchers and we found Ultramarine, Sapphire, Pale Blue and Slaty-backed Flycatchers. However, it is the photographic stakeouts that make for a really spectacular visit. Read more »
Thailand Birding: Boat Trip at Bueng Boraphet
January 3rd, 2013 Nick Last week I took a boat trip on the lake at Bueng Boraphet to see the large numbers of waterbirds that occur there. At the “Nok Nam Park” on the southern side of the lake Mr Phanom has been taking birders and photographers out for many years and he always knows what is to be seen on the lake.
Our trip was spent mainly taking photographs of the commoner waterbirds; I have been out on the lake many times but it is always a beautiful sight to see so many birds among the colorful water lilies and lotus flowers. Read more »
Thailand Birding: 2012 Year List
January 2nd, 2013 Nick Every year I like to keep a record of the number of bird species I see; I don’t go chasing birds for my year list but it is interesting to record what I see from year to year and provides me with a way to keep enjoying seeing birds that I have seen many times before. In 2012 I ended up with a total of 743 species having spent 3.5 months in UK and the rest of the time in Thailand. Read more »
Thailand Birding: Eared Pitta at Khao Yai
December 31st, 2012 Nick Eared Pitta is one of the most sought-after birds in Thailand and also a very tough one to find. It does not seem to call very often and I find it mostly unresponsive to call playback; one of the best ways to find it is to walk quietly through the forest and listen for it foraging in the leaf litter, with luck one can detect it by ear and walk close enough to get a view as it seems to be fairly tolerant of human activity. Read more »
Photographing Insects In The Heat Of The Day
December 28th, 2012 Nick Recently bird activity has been at its lowest that I can remember during the dry season, making for some frustrating times looking for birds. I think that this is mostly due to the strange weather patterns that have produced late rain and hotter temperatures than normal and which are now followed by wind; these weather conditions make it very difficult to find birds for large parts of the day. Read more »
Thailand Birding: Khao Yai Stakeout
December 27th, 2012 Nick The well-known stakeout behind the toilets at Pha Gluai Mai campsite, Khao Yai, produced a few birds yesterday morning. Most of the Thai photographers are camped out on Doi Lang and Mae Wong these days so there seems to be little feeding of the birds at this stakeout in Khao Yai and consequently birds that have visited in previous years are not performing right now: most notably Blue Pitta and Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo.
Although Phil Round had told me that the Ground Cuckoos had been calling a week earlier (although not seen) we neither heard nor saw this species at the stakeout and these days there are very few sightings at this formerly reliable spot. However, there were still some really nice birds to see there. Read more »
