Thailand Winter 23/24

[Jon]

SUMMARY


This was not a birding trip but I managed to get a little bit of birding done... This post may be a bit long, so treat it how you will. It did take a long time to type so hopefully it’s of some enjoyment or interest! 🙂


Since Ben is in Thailand (TH) I decided to join him for his Christmas break. I arrived on his last day of work, and left the day he started again.


I did many hours of studying before the trip, even *trying* to get some of the calls and songs memorized of the 100s of possible birds in the area. For prep work I mostly used the field guide -- one thing that I found very beneficial was to cover up the birds that were "impossible" at the places we were going by using sticky notes. This way you limit the number of birds you get distracted by (or start comparing for differences) when some aren't really options anyways. eBird and thaibirding.com (and some other sites) were also very valuable sources of information on locations. And the eBird photo quiz was great for giving a fuller idea of what the birds look like. I even created a webpage to help with studying the leaf-warblers (there are over 15 species of these tricky birds that winter in Thailand) but it didn't help that much and we have "Phylloscopus sp" on 15 checklists (which doesn't mean much because we probably skipped some haha).



We did 99% of our birding on our own, though we hired a guide for 1 day because we needed a vehicle to reach the upper elevations at a certain park (bad road). Food is reasonably priced, 7-elevens are everywhere, getting a phone plan costs next to nothing (8$ for a SIM card and 50+ GB of data for a month), driving a rental was an interesting experience because the driving in BKK (Bangkok) is pretty crazy. A pedestrian should not think that using a zebra crossing means that vehicles stop for you – they don’t. Rental price was reasonable at just less than $25 per day, though it wasn't necessarily a “reputable” company (that said, very friendly and we had no issues at all). Hotels range in price, but you can find some for about $16 per night, so quite reasonable, and if you like camping – in the parks it costs about $1. The majority of people don’t speak any English, some know a basic amount, and very few know it well.





Our time was broken up into ~3 chunks.

Day 1-4: birding around BKK

Day 5-18: birding loop to Northern Thailand

Day 20-24: birding SW of BKK - going to Kaeng Krachan



To finish the summary, we managed to find ~466 different species of which 350 were new to me and 205 new for Ben. I’d been to Thailand once before when still in highschool at which time I’d seen 63 different birds, and there are some more global species which I’d seen before hence the 116 non-lifers. Okay, so… this was a bit of a birding focused trip, and Of the 27 days I was in the country I didn’t bird on 4 of them.



I had imagined that Ben and I would have ended up missing birds that the other had seen, but to my surprise we both saw basically every bird. (There was a time when Ben had Eyebrowed Thrush and I didn’t which lasted for over a week, but I got it later; and Ben has an un’ID’d Buteo that if ID’d would likely be new – anyone care to take a stab at the ID ?)







More detailed report:

We were mostly doing bird spotting instead of photography; and Ben took most of the photos regardless of what name it has.



Day 1 [Bangkok, Nonthaburi] - I arrived in BKK around 8am. I pulled 5,000฿ out of the wall, and using airport wifi ordered a Grab (basically an Uber but much more cost effective). In BKK they have toll ways that are basically highways that are raised above the city. These are fantastic for getting you places faster, though the cost will end up adding up if you use them a lot. Using the toll road usually costs somewhere between 2 and 5$, but can be more if you stay on longer… The Grab driver asked me if I wanted to use the tollway which I did, so I paid the tolls. In total my ride (50ish minutes) cost me about $25. My first lifer was an Asian Openbill on the ride. With Ben we got some street food for breakfast (pork and rice with an egg) and he showed me where I should buy a SIM card and plan (they weren’t open yet), and then he went to work. The rest of the morning ebird.org/checklist/S156723846 I birded his local hotspot, where I picked up some more lifers (the common city birds) like Red-collared Dove and Lineated Barbet. Ben also told me exactly where to look for Spotted Owlet, so finding that one was easy. I joined Ben for lunch and stayed with him at school till 4 when we went back ebird.org/checklist/S156730525 to bird the same spot a little bit more. We picked up some more lifers for me, getting almost as many species in about half the time. Time of day, and having Ben (who knows way more of the calls and where to look) helped. In the evening we received our rental car – a toyota yaris sedan – so we’d be ready to go further places tomorrow.



Day 2 [Bangkok, Chachoengsao] - We went to ebird.org/checklist/S156783011 the paddies in NE BKK, and then to a larger area of similar habitat and scrub. Here we had my only Watercock of the trip early in the morning and a high count of 5200+ Bank Swallows (aka Sand Martins). ebird.org/checklist/S156783047 Also lots of other lifers like Pin-tailed Snipe and White-browed Crake. After ebird.org/checklist/S156782754 checking the scrub we were trying to decide what to do as it was about 2pm–we could either drive back to the apartment, or perhaps go straight to the ocean for some salt-pan birding. We chose the latter, which was a good choice because we ended up ebird.org/checklist/S156791093 seeing a White-faced Plover. Ducks are not very common in Thailand in general with only a few species being common (Lesser Whistling Duck, Cotton Pygmy Goose), but here we found some Northern Shoveler and Pintail. 6 species of plover (15 shorebird species total), so a decent stop. We walked out on the dikes to try and get some better views of a very distant flock of ducks and shorebirds that we had seen, and chose a poor path on the way back, ending up getting muddy shoes (and the mud stinks) because we didn’t want to try and force our way through thorny vegetation. Once the sun set, we were conflicted as how to proceed, since we were planning on birding SE of BKK the next day, and we were already basically in that area, so our options were to go back and spend more time traveling (and paying tolls) or to go find a random hotel in the area. We opted for the hotel which was probably the best move. We located a spot on google maps and went equipped with google translate to ask for a room. Ate streetfood at a spot right near the hotel.




Asian Golden Weaver at Lat Krabang--Thap Yao paddies & aquaculture ponds by Jonathan Pap



Eastern Yellow Wagtail at Lat Krabang--Thap Yao paddies & aquaculture ponds by Jonathan Pap



Whiskered Tern at Lat Krabang--Thap Yao paddies & aquaculture ponds by Jonathan Pap



Chestnut-tailed Starling at Lam Toi Ting overgrown woods, paddies, & golf courses by Jonathan Pap




Day 3 [Chon Buri] - Bang Phra is the name of a lake and non-hunting area SE of BKK in Chon Buri province. Ben had been here once before (on global big day), so had some idea of the places to go birding at. We started driving in the morning while it was still dark, and we drove to a few of the places marked on eBird as hotspots. However, we got there too early, and the one place looked like a government office, so we just skipped it. We ended up ebird.org/checklist/S156835646 starting our birding day on the east end with a heard-only Indian Nightjar and the ubiquitous Red-wattled Lapwing calls. The birding here alternated between somewhat slow to active with a few new species showing up in flocks sometimes. I located Ben’s first lifer of the trip - a Red-billed Blue-Magpie. Here we also had our first probably wild chicken (it flew and was scared of us). Determining if the Red Junglefowl are wild or not is a bit of a guessing game, but this one seemed pretty classic phenotypically and behaviorally. Later we would see more within the forest parks which surely were wild. Already at this point we had our Trip List started, and even if a bird wasn’t new (like Pied Kingfisher) we were still happy to “add it to the trip list”. And with our goal of seeing 450 different species of bird, each new one for the trip list counted 🙂. After this area of the lake we did some driving to find the other hotspots around the area. ebird.org/checklist/S156836829 At the Fisheries Research center we had some Indochinese Bushlark, and I saw some swallows far out that the scope revealed to be our trip-list’s only Pacific Swallows. We drove back toward the east end, and were going to enter the headquarters of the park area to look for Lesser Adjutant (re-introduced, and provisional in the area). But we found out the cost to enter was more than expected (costing 8$ per person when we thought it’d be free haha–might sound cheap, but for Thailand standards and for a short stop did not feel worth it), so we turned back out and ebird.org/checklist/S156842890 found a different trail a bit north of the first place we’d stopped. Here we went back and forth a bit, not really going anywhere, but while in the hot day watching a tree that had produced a Green-billed Malkoha and Racket-tailed Treepie and a few other birds, overhead we saw an Adjutant flying over! Fantastic! Since we’d kind of been waiting for that, we were now ready to go to a different location. The plan was to drive up to the nearby small mountain and do a little forest birding. On the way we ebird.org/checklist/S156839775 stopped for lunch near a reservoir, where we had our first Red-rumped Swallow. Lunch was good here and quite cheap considering how fancy the place looked. On the way to the forest, google maps was somewhat deceptive (it often is in Thailand) showing roads that don’t actually exist (or suggesting ones you shouldn’t take) we drove over the end of a branch, which flicked the branch upwards and scratched the passenger side of the car (the left side). This was concerning since it’s a rental and we now had a worrying thought of “how much will this end up costing” on our mind… Nevertheless, we made it, and ebird.org/checklist/S156842618 in the forest here we had our only Gray-breasted Prinia of the trip, and lots of firsts that we’d see again later (bulbuls, woodpeckers, flycatchers, leaf-warblers etc). In the forest the trail here was OK at first, but we also took a “branch” of the trail, which required pushing through some bamboo, long grasses, and general dry forest floor brush. With shorts on, this wasn’t the most pleasant experience, but also not too bad. The heat sure does make you sweat though. When leaving we saw an accipiter fly into a tree. I thought “meh, probably a shikra since that’s the only option” but later realized this was probably a mistake and it could well have been a Japanese or Chinese Sparrowhawk, but alas we skipped it and will probably never know. (we never saw either of these during our trip). In the late afternoon we made it to ebird.org/checklist/S156846053 some more salt pans on our way back home. Here Ben managed to pick out an Asian Dowitcher among the 100s of Black-tailed Godwits, and once found, they popped up everywhere and we had at least 5. Huge numbers of Black Drogos flew past in the evening (we had over 300) but apparently it’s not all that unusual considering that eBird did not flag it.




Little Egret at Bang Phra Non-hunting Area--Fisheries Research & Development Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Little Egret at Bang Phra Non-hunting Area--Fisheries Research & Development Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Indochinese Bushlark at Bang Phra Non-hunting Area--Fisheries Research & Development Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Lesser Adjutant at Bang Phra Trail by corner by Jonathan Pap



Paddyfield Pipit at Khao Khieo – Khao Chomphu Wildlife Sanctuary--trail NE from Pong Din Dam Reservoir by Jonathan Pap



Black-crested Bulbul at Khao Khieo – Khao Chomphu Wildlife Sanctuary--trail NE from Pong Din Dam Reservoir by Jonathan Pap



Gray-breasted Prinia at Khao Khieo – Khao Chomphu Wildlife Sanctuary--trail NE from Pong Din Dam Reservoir by Jonathan Pap



Greater Flameback at Khao Khieo – Khao Chomphu Wildlife Sanctuary--trail NE from Pong Din Dam Reservoir by Jonathan Pap



Whiskered Tern at Khlong Tamru--1 Alley salt pans by Jonathan Pap



Marsh Sandpiper at Khlong Tamru--1 Alley salt pans by Jonathan Pap




Day 4 [Samut Sakhon, Nakhon Pathom] - Spoon-billed Sandpiper is a critically endangered shorebird, and Thailand is famous in the birding world because it has a few that overwinter every year. This bird was our target for the day. We went down to Khok Kham in Samut Sakhon province (just over an hour away from Ben’s house). This location is one of the most reliable in Thailand to see Spoonies and it did not disappoint. Upon arrival we saw several groups of birders already out on the saltpans. As we walked out, most of them left and one passing individual gestured in the direction of a nearby pan and let us know that there was one there. We took our time getting there, and I was getting antsy to find it before the birds flush and finding it becomes a chore. Ben on the other hand wasn’t in a rush. We made it to the spot and Ben quickly located it among the stints and Broad-billed Sandpipers. After giving this unique bird an appropriate amount of time, we spent the remainder of the morning trying to pick up as many other shorebirds as we could, though the strong heat + reflection from the salt pans did not make it comfortable. Over the next hour we scanned through another 4000+ shorebirds that were making use of the salt pans for resting and feeding while the tide was high. Among the 3000 Tibetan Sand-Plovers (recently split from Lesser SP) were at least 2 Greater Sand-Plover, new for me (and new for the trip list for Ben). Searching through 800+ Red-necked Stints we found 1 Long-toed and 1 with potential for being Little – if anyone would like to take a stab at it, all help and opinions are appreciated. While not a record by any means, we tallied 12 species of shorebird here before ebird.org/checklist/S156901057 checking a few more sites ebird.org/checklist/S156902520 along the shoreline just to see what else we could find. High tide meant that there was very little beach and we decided to make our way back towards Nonthaburi. We thought it might be worth it to ebird.org/checklist/S156922832 “stop by” Phuttamonthon (a very large park just west of BKK) because there had been some recent reports showing some good birds–we walked around for nearly 3 hours–very hot and tiring–-before we finally made it back ebird.org/checklist/S156922615 to the car with very little to report birdwise… Quite a disappointment. To top it all off, we’d forgotten about a church Christmas party, which we could have attended instead haha.




Spoon-billed Sandpiper at Khok Kham--Bird Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Red-necked Stint at Khok Kham--Bird Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Spoon-billed Sandpiper at Khok Kham--Bird Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Brahminy Kite at Khok Kham--Bird Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Little Egret at Khok Kham--Bird Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Tibetan Sand-Plover at Khok Kham--Bird Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Black-winged Stilt at Khok Kham--Bird Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Painted Stork at Khok Kham--Bird Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Red-necked/Little Stint at Khok Kham--Bird Center vicinity by Jonathan Pap




Day 5 [Pathum Thani, Chai Nat, Nakhon Sawan] - We took half of this morning off to rest, go to church, and pack for our major trip up into Northern Thailand. Around 1pm, after filling over 25 liters of drinking water (no drinkable tap water in TH) we set out for our first main stop, Bueang Boraphet, which is about 3hrs north in Nakhon Sawan province. Along the way we stopped at ebird.org/checklist/S156986818 Pathum Thani Rice Research Center, which in the past has offered a large variety of reed birds including birds like Manchurian and Blunt-winged Reed Warbler. Shortly after parking and walking in, we realized that it would probably be most ideal to drive the car around the site. While Ben was on his way to get the car and drive around to the main entrance, I heard what I was almost sure was a Baillon’s Crake. When Ben made it back about 10 minutes later, we waited another 10 minutes for the bird to call again. After ensuring we had a decent enough recording, we found out we were actually listening to frogs, not birds XD (a word of caution–even though Baillon’s Crake sounds *like* a frog, don’t get tricked by the frogs). While none of the specialty reed birds were around (not surprising given the later afternoon heat), we did find our only Java Sparrows of the trip here (which is one of the most reliable locations for this introduced species). Continuing on, we made several checklists along the highway (gotta color in those eBird maps ), and also made a brief stop in Chai Nat to check out ebird.org/checklist/S156993273 some “sandbars & reedbeds”. This unplanned “province-coloring” stop turned out to be well worth the time. Whilst scanning the banks of the river and finding birds like Little Ringed Plover, Black-winged Stilt, Marsh Sandpiper, etc. Ben noticed that some of the “rocks” were actually birds. Pratincole! Looking a little harder we realized that there weren’t just a few–we tallied at least 93 Small Pratincole, a nice way to spend the remaining minutes of sunlight before continuing our drive to our hotel for the night. While checking-in Ben had to quickly run to the car to grab our passports (an essential piece of ID for anyone traveling to Thailand–beyond entering the country, you need your passport to check into hotels, to buy a sim card, sometimes even to park your car at a condo). He heard some owls, so right after getting to our room, we went right back out and ebird.org/checklist/S156993230 saw an Asian Barred Owlet, heard Savanna Nightjars, and at least 3 other owls (likely Collared Scops). A good start to the trip!




Red Collared-Dove at Pathum Thani Rice Research Center by Jonathan Pap



Java Sparrow at Pathum Thani Rice Research Center by Jonathan Pap



Great Myna at Pathum Thani Rice Research Center by Jonathan Pap



Asian Barred Owlet at Nakhon Sawan - Beverly Hills Hotel by Jonathan Pap




Day 6 [Nakhon Sawan, Kamphaeng Phet] - Today was Christmas. So we spent it just like every other day on the trip – birding 🙂. The stop was Bueng Boraphet, a large lake in central Thailand. I was hoping that here we would find some of the uncommon ducks, specifically rare diving ducks like Common, and Baer’s Pochard and Ferruginous Duck. But alas, did not see any diving ducks. With the lake being so large it’s quite possible they were around, but we did not see them. Instead we saw the more common Lesser Whistling Duck, Garganey, and Cotton Pygmy Goose. There were many new birds for the trip list, and a few lifers like Striated Grassbird. We spent much of the time ebird.org/checklist/S157060050 at the south end in the “waterbird park” which has many statues of the now-extinct White-eyed River-Martin. The scope was heavily used here due to the distance of most birds. After this spot we went around the lake counter-clockwise checking ebird.org/checklist/S157060030 various rice paddies, a ebird.org/checklist/S157056753 fish ponds area (highlights here were Siberian Rubythroat, Eurasian Wryneck, and Ruddy-breasted Crake), and another spot where the lake was visible from. ebird.org/checklist/S157057862 At this last spot they had a crocodile enclosure oddly enough. Once we’d had our fill of the lake (and since it was hot) we traveled further since we wanted to make it to Mae Wong in order to camp in the park, and We’d seen on Google that the gate closes at 6pm. We made it before then and paid the entry fee (foreigners pay over 10x more to enter parks than local people, though for Western standards, $12 isn’t overly unreasonable–Thais get in most parks for $1-2, and foreign prices range from $8-16), set up our tent and gear that we’d brought, and then went for ebird.org/checklist/S157068152 a walk down the road a bit. Almost immediately we had a nice male Red Junglefowl cross the road. Other good birds followed since it was our first bit of forest birding, with lifer Gray-headed Canary-Flycatcher coming in to some pishing (most birds in TH did not respond well to our pishing omit Yunnan Fulvetta, leaf warblers, and this bird), Rufescent Prinia, and flyover Common Hill Myna. With the sun setting there wasn’t too much about. In the evening ebird.org/checklist/S157068097 we heard some Scops-Owl, Large-tailed Nightjar, and Asian Barred Owlet. I was quite sure I heard a hornbill flyover, but Ben didn’t think so. We did manage to spot the Asian Barred which was nice. We also found some frogs and spiders which both have eyeshine. I convinced Ben that we should take a shower, so we did that. It was cold, but refreshing. Ben thought it was the worst idea ever. Despite the fact that we were at the lower campsite, and only at about 350m, the night was cold, and the sleeping bags we’d bought were rated to 10-20C which should have been fine, but of course the ratings are usually for colder than I think. At the campsite we saw a WWF truck for Tiger conservation, and apparently Mae Wong is home to at least some of these cats.




Eastern Marsh Harrier at Bueng Boraphet Non-hunting Area--Waterbird Park by Benjamin Pap



White Wagtail at Bueng Boraphet Non-hunting Area--Waterbird Park by Benjamin Pap



Striated Grassbird at Bueng Boraphet Non-hunting Area--Waterbird Park by Benjamin Pap



Oriental Darter at Bueng Boraphet Non-hunting Area--Waterbird Park by Benjamin Pap



Black-winged Kite at Bueng Boraphet Non-hunting Area (general area) by Benjamin Pap



Black-winged Kite at Bueng Boraphet Non-hunting Area (general area) by Benjamin Pap



Amur Stonechat at Bueng Boraphet Non-hunting Area--Ban Thung Waen fish ponds ("Pramong Panit") by Benjamin Pap



Freckle-breasted Woodpecker at Bueng Boraphet Non-hunting Area--Ban Thung Waen fish ponds ("Pramong Panit") by Benjamin Pap




Day 7 [Kamphaeng Phet, Tak] - Ben asked what time the gate opened, so we were up before then to start the drive up to higher altitude as early as possible. We had some flavorless oatmeal for breakfast (quick oats with cold water), packed up the tent, and headed up. On the drive up in the dawn light we saw a Golden Jackal on the road. It ran in front of us for a few hundred meters till we finally sped up in an effort to help it decide to turn off the road. Also along the road we had to stop the car to prevent from driving over an Orange-headed Thrush that was eating an invertebrate on the road. It didn’t seem to mind the car, so it’s a good thing we stopped. On the way to the top ebird.org/checklist/S157139841 we stopped at a spot a bit before the top because we’d flushed 2 birds from on the road. I right away thought they were forktail, and we agree that they probably were with their long tails showing white “bands”, but there are a few of these and with the views we had they could have been any of them. But where we stopped we started pickup up all types of birds. Heard-only Peacock-Pheasant, Mountain Imperial Pigeon, Mountain Bulbul, Wedge-tailed Green-Pigeon, leaf warblers, and all sorts of goodies were around. It was hard to know where to look! Once the birds slowed a little bit, I was ready to make it up to the top of the hill. There is another campsite up there, but this one was packed! We were happy to have been camping at the bottom with only a handful of others. At the top we hiked a short trail, finding some more cool birds like Black-throated Sunbird and Velvet-fronted Nuthatch. We also heard a Collared Owlet from the top. We then went down a forest trail that was quite unused. Here there was Emerald Ground Dove, some Blue Flycatcher sp, and we also ran into a mixed flock with Yunnan Fulvetta, leaf warblers, a Striated Yuhina and more. Then later we ran into a larger-bird mixed flock with Common Green-Magpie, our only White-necked Laughingthrush, and Silver-eared Laughingthrush. After this we went back to the car and headed to the spot along the road that had lots earlier. Checking it again we had some more good birds with stunning Silver-eared Mesia, Long-tailed Sibia, Black-backed Sibia, Mountain Hawk-Eagle, and other lifers. We were finding new birds nearly every minute it seemed. Large Woodshrike, Maroon Oriole, and more of the same birds as earlier. ebird.org/checklist/S157143879 On the way down we saw more good birds like Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Rosy Minivet, Ashy Bulbul… the heat of the day was coming though, so the number of active birds was down. At our campsite we checked once more for the possible Crested Kingfisher, but no dice. We did get some Black Baza instead. At this point Ben was eager to get a quick move on, because there was a very-rare-for-thailand shrike in a nearby province and we would be passing by on our way further north. We navigated the roads to get to the location where it had been seen, and luckily 1 person reported the sighting with a personal location instead of using the nearby hotspot (at least 1 km further away). ebird.org/checklist/S157142467 We had hardly stepped foot out of the car when Ben said “got it!” A nice looking shrike was sitting on a fence post directly opposite to where we had parked the vehicle. We snapped a couple photos and then ventured across the barbed wire and into the pasture to get a little closer (in Thailand people are not bothered at all by walking on private property and while birding isn’t very well known, we never had anybody upset or concerned as is so common in Canada–Ben has heard that there are no rules against trespassing in the country due to an ancient system wherein monks used to be allowed to freely enter fields to gather food for their own). Shortly after, we found out that there were in fact 2 (and then 3) shrikes in the area. A classic mistake of not having done our homework beforehand, we were under the assumption that the first bird we saw was the bay-backed, and the second was a long-tailed shrike. However, the third shrike we found ended up looking much too similar to the first, which didn’t make sense. At this point, we realized that the first (and third) were actually Burmese Shrike (much less exciting, though still new for Jon and the trip list). A little disappointed, we drove out in the dark, having spent the last hour of sunlight looking for “the real Bay-backed Shrike”. While driving Ben uploaded the photos onto the laptop right away and began doing a bit of research. Soon found out that Long-tailed Shrike had never been recorded in the area and that the second shrike we saw was in fact the Bay-backed as the pictures revealed! What a relief We had planned to camp tonight at Mae Ping, but we were too late so we spent the night at a hotel.




Yunnan Fulvetta at Mae Wong NP--Chong Yen (upper campsite vicinity; 1300 masl) by Jonathan Pap



White-necked Laughingthrush at Mae Wong NP--Chong Yen (upper campsite vicinity; 1300 masl) by Jonathan Pap



Velvet-fronted Nuthatch at Mae Wong NP--Chong Yen (upper campsite vicinity; 1300 masl) by Jonathan Pap



Mountain Imperial-Pigeon at Mae Wong NP--Chong Yen (upper campsite vicinity; 1300 masl) by Jonathan Pap



Bay-backed Shrike at ถนนทีไมมีชือ, Tambon Pong Daeng, Chang Wat Tak, TH (17.057, 99.375) by Benjamin Pap




Day 8 [Lamphun] - Mae Ping is made up largely of mature dry dipterocarp forest. This type of habitat is very good for woodpeckers, and this was the main reason this spot was added to the trip plan. We got up early to make it there when it opened, and found that another group was just ahead of us. We didn’t talk much to this group but they were also birders with a guide. Near the entry gate we paused for some reason, but it was a fortunate stop as Ben spotted a Bamboo Woodpecker (Ben was the expert woodpecker spotter, as I found almost none and Ben found many. In fact my Bay Woodpecker sighting is a glimpse of a bird flying away, whereas Ben managed to get decent views of this bird more than once). I got some brief views and we got a good recording of it drumming. This was the only time we saw or heard one. We made a lot of checklists and stops along the road. The next woodpecker was Gray-headed, then Gray-capped Pygmy, and then White-bellied, Black-headed, and then the woodpeckers slowed down. With about 16 species possible this was disappointing. That said, we did have some other nice birds like Black-hooded Oriole, Gray-headed Parakeet, and Golden-fronted Leafbird. The road we were on had 2 “lanes” but each lane was about half of a car’s width so stopping along the road was a bit annoying because you had to pull right to the edge but not too far since it had a bit of a drop, pull in the mirrors, and hope that anyone who came along could pass. Fortunately, it wasn’t busy on that road (it just goes to a camping area), and we didn’t have too many extra car moves. Before we made it to the camp area Ben found 1 more woodpecker - a sussy-viewed Greater Yellownape (we would see more later in the trip though). At the camp we went for a walk along some old tracks, with the hopes of locating the Chinese Francolin that apparently should have been possible and the White-rumped Falcon and Collared Falconet that are fairly common. We did not get the Francolin or Falcon, and the hot sun made it a warm and almost birdless walk. There were another 2 non-new woodpeckers (Greater and Common Flameback), so the woodpecker list did make it to a reasonable 7. At the end of the loop we walked we found the most birds, as they were just in the more cultured camping area, with some fantastic views of the Collared Falconet, some Lapwings, drongo, a Thick-billed Flowerpecker and more. I knew that the Falconet would be small, but not quite *that* small! It’s smaller than an American Robin, and we got to watch it hunt from a perch for dragonflies and swoop down to try and catch them. We then wanted to go to the waterfall in the park to look for forktails. On the way back along the road as I drove I saw what looked like large gray woodpeckers, likely they were Great Slaty but they all flew without us getting an ID’able view, and Ben didn’t even see them. This was a bummer because this was a bird we’d really hoped to see, and this was the location with our best odds for them. We did find more White-bellied and Black-headed woodpeckers here but it wasn’t what we were looking for. On the way to the waterfall Google took us down a bad “road” and we had to backtrack and go the official way. By the waterfall they have an entry gate and we were worried we’d have to pay to enter, so we turned around before the gate (remembering our experience at Bang Phra) and here we found Crested Treeswifts. After watching these for a while, we decided we could at least see how much it cost to go to the waterfall. And to our delight the park entry tickets covered the entry to the waterfall–it’s all the same park, so it makes sense. We started by checking the river below the waterfall (not knowing where the waterfall even was) and walked up the stream. We heard a high piercing whistle. Comparing with the forktail calls, we determined it was very much like the White-crowned Forktail. We did not find the bird even though we tried. We checked all over the river but didn’t find any birds. The water was very pretty though with the limestone in it making a vibrant teal color. Lots of Thai tourists were here taking photos. But the birdlife was disappointing. Later on the trip we heard Blue Whistling Thrush and the call can be very similar to the White-crowned Forktail so we didn’t count it. After this we went back to the place where we might have seen the Great Slaty Woodpeckers, but couldn’t find them or remember the exact spot. Then we left the park to go further north.




Orange-headed Thrush at Mae Wong, lower section of road by Jonathan Pap



Black-headed Woodpecker at Mae Ping NP (general area) by Jonathan Pap



Rufescent Prinia at Mae Ping NP--Km7–8 vicinity by Benjamin Pap



White-bellied Woodpecker at Mae Ping NP--Km7–8 vicinity by Benjamin Pap



Collared Falconet at Mae Ping NP--Thung Kik by Benjamin Pap



Collared Falconet at Mae Ping NP--Thung Kik by Benjamin Pap



Orange-breasted Trogon at Mae Ping NP--Suan Hin (Km5.4) vicinity by Benjamin Pap




Day 9 [Chiang Mai] - Doi Inthanon is the highest mountain in Thailand and reaches 2,565m. This park was exceedingly busy, I suppose because it was around the holiday season. This park was the most expensive one we went to costing iirc 16$ per person, and you buy your ticket at the bottom of the hill but have to “use” it when going to the summit. So while we thought we’d be saving on the entry fee by camping up here, you don’t (We believed that once “used” you wouldn’t be able to get in to the higher elevation section again–over a week after I left Ben found out from a friend that the tickets are actually valid for 5 days and you can enter and exit with the small slip that the rangers return to you). Anyways, we drove up in the dark to get to the summit area around dawn. On the way up hundreds of people and cars lined the road, but they were all there to take a picture of the sunrise. At the summit it was also a bit of a gong show with hundreds of people and lots of food stands and such. There is a large radar station up there and security and fences so you can’t really go everywhere. There was also a nice (and less busy) boardwalk. We saw some beautiful birds, and a few that we saw nowhere else (there are a few specialities that only are seen here in Thailand) like Chestnut-tailed Minla, Ashy-throated Warbler, and Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker. We had a poor view of some pigeons that flew past, and heard one that Ben concluded must be Ashy Wood-Pigeon. We also got to see Rufous-throated Partridge (our first views) and some great views of Silver-eared Laughingthrush. We were hoping to find Green-tailed Sunbird here as this is the only spot for them, and I thought I’d seen one, but the view was very bad and I doubted myself and now think it could well have been a young male Mrs. Gould’s Sunbird (which are stunning birds too, but we saw many of these and wanted the Green-tailed haha). We worked our way down the mountain birding the hotspots – some being more productive than others. Along the spot where people had taken their sunrise photo we had Black Bulbul (a white-headed subspecies, not to be confused with the White-headed Bulbul), Crested Goshawk, and a good number of White-eyes. We stopped at the emergency parking / rest area spot at km 40, and here we had a blast with seemingly constant new birds showing up; It started slow, we walked to the end and found a spot where someone had relieved themselves. We were about to leave and spotted Striated Bulbul. While watching it more birds showed up - There’s a White-browed Shrike-Babbler, and look: Rufous-winged Fulvetta, a Hume’s Treecreeper. Gray-chinned Minivet! Oh look also another type (it was Short-billed–minivets are surprisingly similar birds for being so vibrant and bright!). Okay… it wasn’t that fast, but it was quite a number of lifers (13 ish) we had within the 1.5 hours here. We then went to near the checkpoint where they take your ticket, and walked the “jeep track”. At the start of the trail we heard and “saw” the Slaty-bellied Tesia (saw in the sense of that you saw a bird flit in the dense shrubbery, but didn’t get a “real” look at it), also got our only Small Niltava (a type of flycatcher) and Chestnut-crowned Warbler. We walked a pretty long way here, and the birding was best near the start of the trail. We did see some thrushes, but despite Ben having seen the body, and me seeing the head we weren’t certain on which species it was. It was either Gray-sided or Eyebrowed with Ben leaning Gray-sided; but it’s one that got away. At this point we weren’t sure if it would be worth it heading up to the top again, since it was now 4pm. In hindsight it probably would have been a good idea because instead we went to a “high-species hotspot” called ‘Mr Daeng's vicinity’ and this seemed like a bit of a joke. The location was right in the town-ish area of the mountain, and did not appear to have any good habitat or birds. We saw 2 species and gave up. We then determined that we should look to see where we’d eat and spend the night. By the campground was a restaurant where we ordered some cashew chicken for an ok price. The campground was too busy for us too, and we didn’t buy a ticket at the bottom. We could have purchased one online for $3, but it was confusing and we didn’t like how busy it was anyways. So we decided to spend the night in the car. With this decided we went off to look for owls. This was quite successful, though we only heard the owls – Brown Wood Owl and a few Mountain Scops-Owl. I did not sleep well in the car, but Ben thought it was fantastic (“much better than in the freezing cold tent on the air mattress that puts a crick in your neck and you don’t get a wink of sleep”).




Chestnut-tailed Minla at Doi Inthanon NP--summit (Ang Ka) by Jonathan Pap



Silver-eared Laughingthrush at Doi Inthanon NP--summit (Ang Ka) by Jonathan Pap



Silver-eared Laughingthrush at Doi Inthanon NP--summit (Ang Ka) by Jonathan Pap



Rufous-throated Partridge at Doi Inthanon NP--summit (Ang Ka) by Jonathan Pap



Black-backed Sibia at Doi Inthanon NP--Km 40 rest area by Benjamin Pap



Yellow-cheeked Tit at Doi Inthanon NP--Km 40 rest area by Benjamin Pap



Gray-chinned Minivet at Doi Inthanon NP--Km 40 rest area by Benjamin Pap




Day 10 [Chiang Mai] - Our second day on Doi Inthanon was mostly spent below the second checkpoint because we thought we wouldn’t be allowed through. The morning started with our only Besra, and then we were off to look for forktails and other river birds. We found them too this time Plumbeous Redstart, White-capped Redstart, and Slaty-backed Forktail (the forktail were tricky to locate and quite skittish). Other lifers included Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, a beautiful Asian Emerald Cuckoo, and Gray Bushchat. Another location we found stunning Long-tailed Broadbill and Silver-breasted Broadbill (not together) but at this point in the trip we’d already started to get tired of carrying around a 3kg camera so we have no photos of these. We also ran into a nice mixed flock – being alerted to it by the Yunnan Fulvettas, and saw some nice birds like Golden Babbler, Blue-winged Minla, Brown-crowned Scimitar-Babbler, and Pin-striped Tit-Babbler. Ben again spotted us some woodpeckers with one being a Lesser Yellownape. At this spot we also saw 2 Crab-eating Mongoose. After this spot we went to look for a trail called “Km 34.5 Jeep Trail” eBird listed a hotspot, and we found out this eBird spot was the same place we’d spent the night. Certain we’d got the wrong location because of what thaibirding.com stated about it, we went to look for the real Km 34.5. But we ended up discovering after driving up and down the road that it was indeed the right spot. But despite the glowing review and good eBird list we found it disappointing, though we may have been in the wrong spot. While driving up looking for the spot we ended up in the line to go through the checkpoint, and could not turn around… So we thought, we’ll just tell them we need to turn around. But the ranger did not understand and wanted to see our ticket. So we passed the un-ripped ones from Mae Wong, and he let us through. Since we were in, we decided to check the same Jeep track as the day before to try for Himalayan Shortwing which was best found there. With some significant effort and playback we managed to hear and catch glimpses of one! We also saw another Silver-breasted Broadbill here, and I got my glimpse of Bay Woodpecker. Not very satisfying to have only a glimpse of a bird, but at least it’s not “heard only” – though perhaps you might still consider it as that. We again decided not to drive all the way to the summit since it had felt like a letdown, and went back down, and wanted to stop at low elevation to look for White-rumped Falcon and Black-backed Forktail. We got lucky on the latter, Ben flushed the bird and it flew past me, clearly a forktail. It also called which was good because both Black-backed and White-fronted look very similar, but this was Black-backed. So Doi Inthanon ended, and we did see a good number of birds here and only here. But I would say it was my least favorite park to bird. In fact the entire birding up in the north felt a bit slow, and had a good number of “major misses” if you can call them that. But I have been told that I should be content, and I won’t bore you with the birds that we didn’t see haha 🙂. We went to the Blossom-headed Parakeet pre-roost “site”. But it seems that it’s been bad at producing results so the birds must now use a different spot or have moved. We were waiting at the location when a local drove up and asked if we were there for the parakeets. He directed us to the spot and pointed out the trees that the people normally look at, so that was very nice of him. We waited here and finally our patience paid off with a single flyby parakeet. ID’ing the bird was a bit of a science as we had to do it based on call, and not having studied these calls. Black-capped, Red-breasted, and Blossom-headed are all possible, but the call was best for Blossom-headed so we were happy to claim it. We spent the night at the Smile Home hotel for just $16.




Asian Emerald Cuckoo at Hydro, Gardens, and Waterfall by Jonathan Pap



Slaty-backed Forktail at Hydro, Gardens, and Waterfall by Jonathan Pap



Orange-bellied Leafbird at Hydro, Gardens, and Waterfall by Jonathan Pap



White-capped Redstart at Hydro, Gardens, and Waterfall by Jonathan Pap




Day 11 [Chiang Mai] - this day we were traveling even further north to the city of Fang. We had a few spots we wanted to check on the way, based on recent rare bird alerts, and because Ben wanted to see Green Peafowl. I was sure we would have seen them by now (at Mae Wong), but I was wrong. We started with some rice paddy birding to look for Spot-winged Starling. We didn’t see any, but had a Wire-tailed Swallow. I didn’t pay too much attention to it thinking we’d see lots later. But no, this was the only one we saw. Going through some scrubland Ben found our lifer Yellow-eyed Babbler. We then went to some Doi Lo Paddies to look for crake/rail birds since a Brown-cheeked (aka Water) Rail had been reported there. The road here was definitely not good enough for a yaris, and a pickup or something with some clearance would have been much better. It also was a narrow road so vehicles cannot pass. This made things stressful. We also scratched the car against brush on the edges of the road. This all coupled with the heat of the day had me in a bad mood. We didn’t stop much and didn’t find any rails. But we did stop thanks to a pickup blocking the road. It was another birder who said there was a Dunlin (rare in northern Thailand), so we spotted that bird and other shorebirds like Spotted Redshank, Kentish Plovers, and Temmink’s Stint.

Next up we went looking for eagles. We headed to the eBird hotspot, and spotted a spec of a bird in the far, far distance. This was what we were looking for, so we took the roads we could to try and get a closer view. Once there we setup camera and scope to check it out. With lots of pictures and searching we had 5 different eagles pass over, and Ben did the hard work of IDing them - successfully pulling 3 different species from the black specs including the rare Steppe Eagle (check the pictures 😂 ebird.org/checklist/S157469770). I was more interested in the Red-throated Pipits (also lifers) that were foraging in a burned rice field. We also had Oriental Skylark here.

Then we went to the “backup” Green Peafowl location. It turned out to be a zoo. We thought, “this must be a joke. These peafowl are in cages” as were other cool birds like Kalij Pheasant, Gray Peacock-Pheasant, Silver Pheasant, Brahminy Kite etc. But there were wild birds around, though not many. A Red-billed Blue-Magpie was one of the first wild birds I caught a glimpse of. We walked about and found a trail to a photography hide. The rangers let us in, and on the way we scared some Red Junglefowl and other birds. The hide itself was sounding birdy, but spotting anything was impossible. We walked a bit, waited a bit, saw a bit, but it wasn’t much. We did hear our target Green Peafowl. We gave up here and went back into the zoo. Now things had changed, we right away came across a free Peafowl, Red Junglefowl, and more Peafowl! Very skittish and capable of flight, we were sure these were wild. Leaving the zoo area we saw another one allowing for better photos, and a bit further along the road we found a large number (28!) near a small lake with both males and females. Then we were off to Fang. Google determined we should cross the mountains, then cross those same mountains again later; I’m not sure it was the most efficient route. We made it to our pre-booked hotel at about 9pm but there was no one at the reception. There was a sign, but of course in Thai. We ended up calling the number and eventually getting help and directed to our room.




Asian Green Bee-eater at Doi Noi scrublands by Jonathan Pap



Asian Green Bee-eater at Doi Noi scrublands by Jonathan Pap



Red Avadavat at Doi Noi scrublands by Jonathan Pap



Spotted Redshank at Doi Lo paddies (general area) by Jonathan Pap



Green Peafowl at Huai Hong Khrai by Jonathan Pap



Green Peafowl at Huai Hong Khrai by Jonathan Pap



Green Peafowl at Roadside Pond by Jonathan Pap



Red Junglefowl at Huai Hong Khrai by Jonathan Pap




Day 12 [Chiang Mai] - Doi Angkhang is a mountain (range?) right on the border with Myanmar. We drove up here and I suggested we fuel up since we were at about ¼ tank. Ben thought that logically we should be able to make the 100kms of driving on this amount of fuel. Once we’d made it up to the top of the mountain, the first place we stopped we noticed the fuel light on. This was a disheartening problem, and one that tainted my day with worry since it was quite a distance to the nearest gas station. Despite the fuel situation we still drove on, and drove up to where the road goes along the Myanmar border, up to where a military checkpoint prevents anyone from going further. We did a bit of watching into Myanmar. Interestingly the map on eBird has Thailand continuing quite a distance into Myanmar, so the point we plotted had to be placed a bit further. When I checked last, 8/10 of the recent checklists for that province in Myanmar were all made by people who were in Thailand. We also birded some nearby forest trails, finding a bunker, and a nice dump of sweet potatoes. These potatoes were spoiling and collecting bugs, which brought in birds. Here we saw Black-breasted Thrush, had sweet views of Silver-eared Mesia, and Ben saw an Eyebrowed Thrush that I missed. I thought I may have seen a Gray-winged Blackbird. However, I only had a brief look and wasn’t certain so this one got away. We should have checked here again later as it was the best spot we had for thrushes. Near this spot we saw some Greenfinches fly over. There are 2 species that have been reported here, but one of those had only been seen as a single individual – so while our views were enough to ID to greenfinch sp, we based the remainder of the ID on the fact that one was “out of range”, and we’d seen a fair number fly past. We went to the Royal Gardens to try for some thrushes and White-tailed Flycatcher that apparently hang out by the restaurant. We didn’t find them, or the right spot either probably despite walking about the eating area. This spot didn’t produce much for us, and did have an entry fee. But we got some nice views of the gardens and plants. Next we were trying to decide if we could make yet one more detour without leaving us stranded without gas. It was one of our best spots, since we got our targeted Crested Finchbill and Brown-breasted Bulbul right away. We also had a bonus lifer Common Rosefinch. This was at the Chinese graveyard. We also checked the nearby dump, but that one was unimpressive. On the way down we stopped at a pullout to let the engine/brakes cool (they are steep hills!). We took a picture of the emergency assistance sign, and also got our lifer Gray-backed Shrike here, and the first Great Barbets that we’d heard and ID’d (later we found we’d actually already heard them before at Mae Wong). We made it to the gas station thankfully, so it all turned out well!




Silver-eared Mesia at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--stakeout greenfinches on Doi Angkhang by Jonathan Pap



Silver-eared Mesia at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--stakeout greenfinches on Doi Angkhang by Jonathan Pap



Black-breasted Thrush at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--stakeout greenfinches on Doi Angkhang by Jonathan Pap



Hill Prinia at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--stakeout greenfinches on Doi Angkhang by Jonathan Pap



Orange-bellied Leafbird at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--Doi Angkhang Royal Agricultural Station by Jonathan Pap



Mrs. Gould's Sunbird at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--Doi Angkhang Royal Agricultural Station by Jonathan Pap



Mrs. Gould's Sunbird at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--Doi Angkhang Royal Agricultural Station by Jonathan Pap



Crested Finchbill at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--Chinese Cemetery & dump on Doi Angkhang by Jonathan Pap



Crested Finchbill at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--Chinese Cemetery & dump on Doi Angkhang by Jonathan Pap



Brown-breasted Bulbul at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--Chinese Cemetery & dump on Doi Angkhang by Jonathan Pap




Day 13 [Chiang Mai] - Today we headed up Doi Lang West, which is technically within the same park as Doi Angkhang, but seems to have a completely different set of unique birds to be targeted. Ranked as the 5th top hotspot in all of Thailand (for the “general area”) there were certainly high hopes for finding many species here–but continuing our theme of forest birding though, we didn’t see overly many species of birds. The road up Doi Lang has many potholes and the road is quite narrow due to plants and grasses creeping their way onto the road. On the drive up, we made two brief stops. The first got us lifer Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler (my views were like this: “Jon, it’s the one going up the hill right now” because I had gone down to get the car) and at the second we saw Giant Nuthatch. Our first main stop of the day was at a level area which attracts many birders and we met several groups there (and in theory many birds like this area too, but the birding was slow to start). After a while, we did find our first White-browed Scimitar Babbler, but not feeling like waiting around, we continued down the road a bit. This seemed like a worthwhile choice with us soon finding Grey-headed Parrotbill, Spectacled Barwing, and Slaty-blue Flycatcher. Returning to the car, we drove down towards the military checkpoint that would connect you to the eastern portion of the road (though it has been blocked to civilian traffic for years). On the way we came across a Danish birder who informed us that he had just seen Scarlet-faced Liocichla at the checkpoint. This species is one that is more often seen on Doi Lang East, but the road up that side was closed so we knew this would be our best odds at the species. We proceeded to the area he said he had seen it (and where Thai photographers had been feeding it mealworms), but there was no sign of the bird and no sign of the mealworms or photographers either. A real bummer. We returned to the “level area” but the heat was increasing and bird activity seemed to have come to a standstill. It was only a bit past noon, but it was seeming like a lot of our main targets (Hume’s Pheasant, Mountain Bamboo Partridge, Himalayan Cutia, several species of laughingthrush and flycatchers) were not going to be seen. We opted to descend the mountain and go to Fang Hot Springs instead, having read that there are good odds of Spot-winged Grosbeak there. They apparently come to lick minerals off of plants nearby a man-made geyser. We spent a full two hours at this site but the Grosbeaks were not to be had either. We did have a few birds that were nice to get some better views of including a Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Violet Cuckoo, Plumbeous Redstart, and our first Thailand Olive-backed Pipits (we had seen a few on Angkhang, but they happened to be on the Myanmar side of the road). Feeling a bit bummed out by the day, we returned to our accommodation to plan out a little more how the next few days would be spent. By now it was January 1 and we knew we had to be back “home” at least by the 7th, because we had pre-booked accommodation at a location Southwest of Bangkok for the 8th, and wanted to spend some good time in Khao Yai (at least 12 hrs drive from where we were).




Plumbeous Redstart at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--headquarters & Fang hot spring by Ben



Plumbeous Redstart at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--headquarters & Fang hot spring by Ben




Day 14 [Chiang Mai] - We went to Doi Lang in the morning. The reason for this was we wanted to give the birds we missed the previous day another shot. We did get a few new ones, but despite waiting at the Mrs. Hume’s Pheasant location for a long time the birds did not show. The highlight at this stop was Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher. Further up we got the local celebrity White-spectacled Warbler (a long-staying rarity), I got fantastic views of the Rusty-cheeked Scimitar Babbler, and Ben found a Rufous-bellied Niltava. At around noon we headed down since we wanted to bird some other spots on our way east. We went to Mai Ai [rice] paddies, and then the same kind of thing at Thaton. It was a bit of a joke; it was hot and we didn’t do a good job of birding it, so unsurprisingly we didn’t see much except a single lifer: Citrine Wagtail. We looked up a place to spend the night near the Arboretum–the spot we wanted to go to tomorrow–on google and found something reasonably priced. The reviews on Google were quite funny but also accurate. Food here was nice and cheap ($2 for a plate).




Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--Doi Lang (W), AKA Doi San Ju (general area) by Benjamin Pap



Yunnan Fulvetta at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--Doi Lang (W), AKA Doi San Ju (general area) by Benjamin Pap



Chestnut-bellied Rock-Thrush at Doi Pha Hom Pok NP--Doi Lang (W), AKA Doi San Ju (general area) by Benjamin Pap



Long-tailed Shrike at Mae Ai paddies by Benjamin Pap



Gray-headed Lapwing at Mae Ai paddies by Benjamin Pap




Day 15 [Chiang Rai] - Having spent almost a full week in the Chiang Mai province (6 days), we only had space for 1 day to explore the neighboring Chiang Rai province. I think this area is well worth 2 full days though. Our first stop was at the Mae Fa Luang Arboretum which is known to be an excellent location to find wintering thrushes in Thailand with records of Dark-sided Thrush, Scaly Thrush, Siberian Thrush, Gray-winged Blackbird, Black-breasted Thrush, Gray-sided Thrush, Eyebrowed Thrush, Chestnut Thrush, Dusky Thrush, and Naumann’s Thrush. However, this was not a good year for Thrushes in Thailand generally, and none had been reported so far here (and we also did not find any). That said, the location is also known to attract Himalayan Bluetail, Daurian Redstart, and Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher, of which we had fantastic views of all as they came to check out some mealworms placed by a friendly Thai birder we met there. Having checked these off, we proceeded down the hill to check out the touristy area of the “Golden Triangle” - a location where Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos meet at a convergence of 2 rivers. After looking around a bit and making sure that we could tick at least a few species from Laos (scoping across the river) we continued to Rim Khong River Restaurant, an area known to have Gray-throated Martins. We ate lunch here and then checked out the river. We were very pleased to have a pair of River Lapwings fly in and land on a sandbar. This was a species that had evaded us thus far, and this site used to be a good location for them, but in recent times they have become more difficult. There were some martins flying out over the river but a bit far. Once we had acceptable views to make sure they were indeed Gray-throated and not Sand Martins (aka Bank Swallows), we continued to our next stop: Nam Kham Nature Reserve. When we arrived at the spot where the Nature Reserve was, we couldn’t drive our car to the parking spot and instead parked on the road. It was blazing hot, and Ben wanted to have time to spend at a lake, but we decided to give it a try. The area is not particularly maintained with some trails being completely overgrown and bridges being out. We didn’t go too far, but we did manage to find some of our targets for this spot. Both very skulky birds, we only managed glimpses of a bird moving in dense foliage. Baikal Bush Warbler made some nice Tik calls, and a Dusky Warbler also made some Tiks so we could compare and note the similarities between the two. The other bird was easy to ID based on the call, but spotting them was not really possible–Chestnut-capped Babbler. We then went to Nong Bong Kai for ducks, the one hotspot by the headquarters had some good numbers of ducks, but we didn’t enter the “park” here because it would cost us a significant chunk and we could see at least most of the birds from outside the paid area. We were specifically trying to locate the Fulvous Whistling Duck and Eastern Spot-billed Duck, both of which are needles in the haystacks of Lesser Whistling and Indian Spot-billed Ducks. We didn’t manage to locate either, but we did find a diving duck! This was exciting because it looked like Pochard or Ferruginous Duck! ID’ing the bird was a bit of a tricky problem as Baer’s Pochard and Ferruginous Duck can be surprisingly similar. We managed to get some flight shots too, which were quite helpful. If someone with experience wants to give their opinion that would be nice. Just don’t turn it into a hybrid haha 😀. I actually lean toward hybrid. We Identified the bird as a female Baer’s Pochard based on the amount of white in the first 2 primaries, and the head-shape looks good for Baer’s too. The points in favor of Ferruginous are the browner head, with a less clear distinction between the breast and head and flanks, and limited amount of white on the flanks. Looking at photos on eBird of female Baer’s I was able to convince myself that it’s within variation. However, the eBird reviewer (who is a good birder and is even working on a new field guide) said it looks within range of female Ferruginous so we’ve taken it as that. We then worked our way over to a harrier watch site that we wanted to stop at before dark. Based on what we’d read online it sounded like it can be a great place to view 50+ harriers as they gather before roosting. What we arrived at was a deteriorating (and not very safe) viewing tower, and a hide on someone’s property. We opted not to stay in the hide because it looked confusing as to whether there was expectation of payment (though there was nothing posted about cost) and climbed the partially rotten tower. This spot was pretty good actually for birds that we’d missed thus far, specifically a Laced Woodpecker and at dusk a Cinnamon Bittern. The harriers were around, the challenge was that most flew “in” from all different directions and most were a large distance away. ID’ing Harriers is a bit of a science too with 4 potential species - Eastern Marsh, Pied, Western Marsh, and Hen Harrier being potentially possible. We ID’d the common ones - Eastern Marsh and Pied, but couldn’t pull anything else out of the ones we saw well. As it got dark the bugs came out, and we went down. I’d seen that this area was the best in Thailand for Grass Owl, so we did a little bit of night birding, finding Night Herons, Large-tailed Nightjar, and 0 grass owls. We may have been in the wrong area as it wasn’t really grasslands and we ended up by some pineapple fields. We started driving south - as far as the end of the next province.




Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher at Doi Tung--Mae Fa Luang Arboretum (Doi Chang Moob) by Jonathan Pap



Himalayan Bluetail at Doi Tung--Mae Fa Luang Arboretum (Doi Chang Moob) by Jonathan Pap



Daurian Redstart at Doi Tung--Mae Fa Luang Arboretum (Doi Chang Moob) by Jonathan Pap



Blue-throated Barbet at Doi Tung--Mae Fa Luang Arboretum (Doi Chang Moob) by Jonathan Pap



Buteo sp. at Doi Tung--Mae Fa Luang Arboretum (Doi Chang Moob) by Jonathan Pap



River Lapwing at Rim Khong Restaurant by Jonathan Pap



Gray-throated Martin at Rim Khong Restaurant by Jonathan Pap



Gray-headed Swamphen at Nong Bong Khai Non-hunting Area--headquarters vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Ferruginous Duck at Nong Bong Khai Non-hunting Area--headquarters vicinity by Jonathan Pap



Ferruginous Duck at Nong Bong Khai Non-hunting Area--headquarters vicinity by Jonathan Pap




Day 16 [Nakhon Sawan, Nakhon Ratchasima] - This turned into a primarily driving day with a few mostly unplanned stops and detours along the way. Leaving by 7:30 after sleeping in a bit, we made our first stop at 10am in Uttaradit. Checking the hotspot map on eBird, we found a location called “Thung Kalo--southern part / waterfowls stakeout”. In previous years, some nice ducks had been seen there and we figured it would be worth a quick stop as it was only a few hundred meters off the main highway we were on. The duck situation wasn’t overly thrilling with a couple hundred Lesser Whistling Ducks and not much else, but we did get our first visual of Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler and tallied 37 species within the 40 minutes we were stopped here. Continuing our drive, we realized that a known site for Black Storks (which we had accidentally forgotten about on the way North) was “only” going to be about a 45 minute detour. Not feeling too optimistic we had a hard time deciding whether the drive out there would be worth it. Eventually we decided we would give it a shot and we altered course to head back into the Nakhon Sawan province. We stopped at 7-eleven on the way to make sure that we would have some “mood-improvers” (i.e., snacks, lunch, and Yakult) for the eventuality that the storks wouldn’t be there. Arriving at the hotspot location “Dai Tan Junction paddies” we realized that the birds could quite literally be anywhere–including back in the province we had just driven from. Disappointed and a little grumpy, we pulled over and tried to figure out which roads we would be able to take through the paddies that would not end up with more damage to the vehicle. Quite happily, we found what we figured must be “The electricity towers” where the storks had been previously reported. Heading a small distance in that direction we soon saw some specks sitting in the distance on the towers. After getting out and scoping them to confirm they weren’t Asian Openbill (phew, whatta relief), we drove closer for some better views. After satisfactory views and some lunch, we continued on towards Khao Yai very happy to have seen these birds, which unlike many were “new for the trip list” for both of us–we had a record on eBird from almost 20 years ago in Uganda when we were very young, but at this point neither of us really remembered the sighting and were glad to get these. From here we drove directly until we reached Khao Yai where we made one last stop at a rest area in the park briefly before nightfall. We had a distant flock of Needletails which we unfortunately couldn’t confirm as Brown-backed or Silver-backed and also my first Great Hornbill. Google Maps and thaibirding showed there being two campsites and we opted to go to the further one having seen that the first was packed with people. Arriving there in the dark we were confused by the lack of vehicles and marked off areas that said “no camping”. After figuring out that there were no suitable locations for camping that did not have a “no camping” tape, we decided we better just return to the other area–but this wasn’t before collecting some heard-only Great-eared Nightjar, Mountain Scops-Owl, and Collared Owlet. Returning to the main camp site, we got some food at the small restaurant, set up camp, added Asian Barred Owlet to the “Khao Yai list” and then went off to sleep–relatively successful for a “driving day”!




Black Stork at Khok Duea--Dai Tan Junction paddies by Benjamin Pap




17 - Khao Yai is the most famous park in Thailand with the best chances of seeing Asian Elephants and some other large mammals. We started our day by going to a lookout tower that has a good view over a small lake, grassland, and a salt lick. At this hide we met someone who does a bit of birding and his young kids. The good birds that we had here were Oriental Pied-Hornbill, Moustached Barbet, Gray-eyed Bulbul, Stripe-throated Bulbul, and Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush. On the walk back we ran across a nice mixed flock of Minivets, Warblers, Iora… After this stop we headed up the hill to a boardwalk where we hoped to forest floor species–specifically Silver Pheasant, though Siamese Fireback would have been a welcome sight. Here we didn’t see much at all, but on the way up we came across some Wreathed Hornbills bringing us up to 3 species of Hornbill after having seen 0 until yesterday! We only missed the Brown Hornbill from this park. There had recently been a Green Warbler reported near this area so we looked for it and came up empty. I wasn’t too sad about it though since it’s just another old-world warbler that looks pretty much like all the other ones. At the closed campground we heard Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoo! Despite attempting to bring it out and look into the forest we could not get a glimpse of this bird. In the past photographers would attract it with food, but apparently they’d gotten bored of it so there was no reason for it to come out. We had Cambodian Flowerpecker at the campsite too, which is a recent split from Scarlet-chested. We walked a trail that leads along a river and goes to a waterfall. We didn’t do the whole trail, but the “waterfall” we did see was unimpressive. This was during the heat of the day, and for most of the walk we saw nothing. On the way back we did some pishing and brought in a nice number of birds. Our best birds along the trail were a Paradise-Flycatcher, Long-tailed Broadbill, and Barred Cuckoo-Dove. We then went down to the Headquarters where Ben’s friend had told him that Buffy Fish Owl was “very easy”. Which meant basically guaranteed. And indeed, the bird was right in its normal spot. Here we met the same guy as was at the tower in the morning. Ben chippy-chatted it up for a while. There wasn’t much to see, except I had my first views of Blue-eared Barbet. Barbets tend to be heard first, but when they are heard, you often don’t see them. Instead you come across them when they are silent and fly into a fruit tree. I also got to see Vernal Hanging Parrot here, but the Owl was the highlight. We then went for an afternoon walk along KM 33, where we hoped to find Great Slaty Woodpecker. We thought this trail was supposed to be a loop, but apparently it isn’t and connects to a different trail instead. We ended up at the same lookout tower. On the way we had some decent views of Scaly-breasted Partridge, chickens, and a nice Red-headed Trogon. We spent the last daylight at the tower hoping for some mammals to come to the salt lick. We did see one Muntjac Deer, and 2 hornbills make use of the lick. Walking back at dusk we also saw over a dozen Gaur (a sort of wild buffalo) from a distance. Now we had about 3 KM to walk back to our car, and it was getting quite dark. The rangers are not happy if you are out after dark (walking at least) because the elephants can be dangerous. We had someone stop to tell us in broken english that we should not be out and that we must be in a car. We explained that we were walking to our car. We did not see any elephants. At this point hunger was getting to us since it was dinner time, but at HQ the food area was cleaning up so we didn’t bother. However we heard a Brown Boobook here and were able to spot it high in a tree. At our campsite the basic restaurant was still open and we enjoyed a simple meal of rice and egg.




Oriental Pied-Hornbill at Khao Yai NP--Nong Phak Chi by Benjamin Pap



Wreathed Hornbill at Khao Yai NP--Khao Khieo Rd. beyond Chao Po Khao Khieo Shrine by Benjamin Pap



Buffy Fish-Owl at Khao Yai NP--headquarters vicinity by Benjamin Pap




18 - This morning we tried a second time for the ground species up at the boardwalk. It was even quieter than the day before, but we had a Siberian Blue Robin. On the drive down we stopped to take a picture from a viewpoint along the road, but before getting to that Ben spotted a Silver Pheasant crossing the road! We had some good views of ~5 birds, though only briefly because a group of motorbikes came up the road and the birds mostly disappeared into the forest. Trying once more for Green Warbler we realized we’d been missing Abbott’s Babbler and could hear one just there. With some playback we got a response from a closer individual that showed quite well. Now we went for one more stop at the lookout tower, where we had good views of Lesser Coucal, and decent views of skulky Lanceolated Warbler as well as many of the birds we’d seen before. Today we wanted to make it back to Ben’s place (about 3 hours driving) so we started our trip although it was still morning. Since it was only about a 30 minute detour we went to the temple by a limestone hill/mountain that often has the bird. We didn’t take the camera (a classic for the last half of our trip), so missed the opportunity for pictures but we did find the bird at the top of some stairs that led to a cave! It didn’t take long, but when we’d made it up the stairs to a dead-end without having found the bird, we thought we’d maybe ended up at the wrong spot. But the bird thankfully showed up shortly, so the stop was well worth it. The rest of the drive went well, omitting a wrong turn thanks to misinterpreting the google maps route.




Silver Pheasant at Khao Yai NP--Khao Khieo Rd. beyond Chao Po Khao Khieo Shrine by Benjamin Pap



Silver Pheasant at Khao Yai NP--Khao Khieo Rd. beyond Chao Po Khao Khieo Shrine by Benjamin Pap




20 - After a day of rest, we headed out for the SW trip on Monday early morning. Our first stop was planned to be duck ibis lake to look for birds that would be new for the trip list (mostly) but we ended up getting new birds instead which was a bonus. Driving to the location you drive along some smaller roads (still paved) with lots of turns and bridges because there is a lot of water around. And right as we got to the hotspot marker we had a rail cross the road! Our first one (if you don’t count Crakes or Watercock), and a goodie of a Slaty-breasted Rail! Upon first glance there didn’t look to be many ducks, but Ben saw that there were some further back (not many, but some) so he went with the scope to check those out, but before then he spotted a White-shouldered Starling on the wire! I stayed along the road and added a few birds for the stop, but nothing amazing. Some green-pigeons flew past which I thought looked interesting, but alas the views were not good enough. Further down the way we came across large numbers of Whistling Duck, and among them some Gargany and Shoveler. But no Eurasian Wigeon. Here we also had a nice mudflat area where first we spotted some Wood Sandpiper, and then looking closer had snipe, plovers, stints… Amazing how easy it is to overlook birds 😆. Next up we headed to Pak Thale, which is probably the most famous site in Thailand for shorebirds (including Spoon-billed). This is also a salt-pans area, and we arrived in the blazing sun. When we got there we met some birders leaving and they said that everything had been spooked by someone too eager with their camera. Nevertheless, we headed in the direction of where the birds probably were and found 1000s of them. There were tonnes of Knots, but we also managed 5 species of plover, Asian Dowitcher including a leucistic one, lifer Terek Sandpiper, Ben again found a Spoon-billed Sandpiper, and we also had gulls, terns, and even a Chinese Egret! The birds were very nice, but it did take some serious effort to find and ID them because they were not all in one spot, and the blazing sun was now getting strong so it was hot. We’d gotten haircuts over the weekend, and after this little trip in the sun we managed to get ourselves some good-looking Binocular-strap sunburn lines 😂. We also met another pair of birders who came after us which we shared the egret and spoon-billed with. They were saying that they’d come from Kaeng Krachan (KK) where we were headed next and had lucked out with White-crowned Hornbill, they also advised us that we could get a ride up the upper elevation from the middle campground for 2k baht (80$). Once we were done with the sun and shorebirds – having given up on trying to find (and ID!) a little stint, we went onwards. Next spot was the “Eagle viewing location” where we had high hopes considering our success up north. This was a total let down, as we only saw kites during our short stay (and while driving) so we left there as I was ready to make it to our accommodation. We stayed at Baan Maka which is a very famous (among birders at least) nature lodge. It’s a nice place, but also expensive in comparison with the other options around (camping being exceedingly cheap). If I were to re-do it, I would choose to camp, which also keeps you from having to pay an entry fee every day ($12/pp). But it was a holiday too, so I may as well spend some money, right? 😀. After checking into our room we birded the surrounding grounds. Nothing amazing here (HO Indian Thick-knee being the best one), and it was the warmer afternoon time, but by the time we went to bed we’d racked up a nice list of birds that were new for our day list. This ended up being our biggest day with 144 different species!




Collared Kingfisher at Bang Tabun Ok "Duck & Ibis" Lake by Benjamin Pap



White-shouldered Starling at Bang Tabun Ok "Duck & Ibis" Lake by Benjamin Pap



Chinese Egret at Pak Thale Nature Reserve (general area) by Benjamin Pap



Terek Sandpiper at Pak Thale Nature Reserve (general area) by Benjamin Pap



Asian Dowitcher at Pak Thale Nature Reserve (general area) by Benjamin Pap



Black-winged Stilt at Pak Thale Nature Reserve (general area) by Benjamin Pap




21 - Today was a fantastic day. This was our first day inside KK itself, and while Ben had been here once before, there were even lots of new things for him. KK is a park that consists of pretty much just 1 road going up to the top, but at about ½ way, the road becomes really poor requiring a 4x4 (or at a minimum some clearance) vehicle. Our car did not have the capabilities to even try it, so we were limited to the lower elevations - which we had planned on - and there are still many birds to be found down here. As usual we got up in the dark, had a nice breakfast, and headed to the park to make it to the camparea by dawn. This we achieved, and walking down the road we could hear lots of birds calling. We quickly picked up the calls of Abbott’s Babbler and Puff-throated Babbler. Merlin picked up one of the only birds it was useful at Identifying (mostly it just IDs Asian Koel and that’s it)--Square-tailed Drogo-Cuckoo. We did end up viewing some too. Along the road by the stream crossings we got some fantastic birds: Blue Pitta, Red-bearded Bee-eater, Rusty-cheeked, Wreathed, and Great Hornbill, Rufous-fronted Babbler, Bulbuls, my first Eyebrowed Thrush, Ruby-cheeked Sunbird, and other nice things! It was pretty great! We also checked a side trail where we heard Gray Peacock-Pheasant and had a mixed flock come through – but this mixed flock was very hard to view. I’m sure there was Necklaced Laughingthrush, and I thought at least one was a Greater, but unfortunately the views were not good enough nor was there any evidence taken to clinch the ID. Greater N Laughingthrush got away. On the road we met 2 dutch birders who had just arrived at the park too (they were camping) and we talked a bit and told them about the Red-bearded Bee-eater which they were eager to see, so we brought them to the spot and we eventually saw the birds. On the way back we came across a group of guided photographers who were taking photos of an owl. White-fronted Scops-Owl! I had not expected to see this bird (though KK is the best spot in TH for them) because of how hard owls are. We had some stunning views and left the bird to roost on its own. By this time it was hot-o-clock and lunch time. At the campground site we got lunch and ordered an extra one because portions were small (like most in Thailand). We took a long time to eat and just sat there in the shade since it was hot. We just chatted a lot with the dutch couple, and then one of the locals informed us that a Sun Bear was behind the kitchen eating scraps. We got some fantastic views as the bear didn’t care about us at all. After this we headed down the road to bird more areas. We stopped at KM 11 which had Gray-rumped Treeswift. Around KM 10 there were 2 huge fruit trees, which had some Stump-tailed Macaques and quite a few birds too. At KM 9 we saw a Dhole (a wild dog) as well as our first Thick-billed Green-Pigeons, some real views of Asian Emerald Dove, and then we walked around trying to locate woodpeckers. We found Flameback, Gray-headed Woodpecker, Ben spotted a Streak-breasted Woodpecker (while I only heard it), and we had some lucky flyby Great Slaty Woodpeckers! At night in the park we had Brown Boobook and 3 other owls.




Thick-billed Green-Pigeon at Kaeng Krachan NP--Km.9 vicinity by Benjamin Pap



Great Slaty Woodpecker at Kaeng Krachan NP--Km.9 vicinity by Benjamin Pap



Brown Boobook at Kaeng Krachan NP--Km.9 vicinity by Benjamin Pap




22 - Our plan for today was to do the same thing as yesterday, except to work our way up instead of down. We had toyed with the idea of visiting a hide, but sitting for a long time while seeing few species didn’t sound particularly fun to us. I regret it now in hindsight because what we did see this day was not very different from yesterday. From the bottom we saw some hawks flying, Oriental Honey Buzzard, but couldn’t ID the others. At KM 9 again we got looks of the Streak-breasted Woodpecker that I’d missed yesterday, and we also got to see the cute Heart-spotted Woodpecker. Plenty of other repeats from days before. The fruiting trees had Great Hornbill, Rusty-cheeked and Oriental Pied. Also Golden-headed Myna, Yellow-vented Flowerpecker and other stuff we’d seen. At the campground was our best views of Sultan Tit, also a few Brown-rumped Minivet. At the campsite we heard such interesting noises, but found out it was the photography group busy using playback. They were looking for Banded Kingfisher, and apparently Broadbills as I took a recording with Merlin before we knew it was them taping birds. We went along an almost dead trail for a long ways, and the best bird was 2 Banded Kingfishers that we heard. Climbing through the jungle to try and get a view of them, Ben and I managed a glimpse of “a bird” as it flew from the spot the kingfisher had been calling (and it was the right size). The dutch couple missed it. After lunch we checked another trail near the campsite, but saw nearly nothing. Ben picked up 5 ticks here and I got 1. The dutch guy had around 10! It was rough to hear that other groups had checked the trail right next to there and found cuckoos and collared babbler! Going back down again we were trying to find the Black-thighed Falconet and maybe a Malkoha or two at KM 9. The former we located as it flew over top of us, and we refound it perched a far distance away at the top of a tree! A great bird 🙂, but overall the day had felt unimpressive to me when compared with yesterday (like 3 lifers today compared with 20 the day before!) We went back to Baan Maka before dusk because I had hoped to see the Indian Thick-Knee as it flew by/in, but alas it was another heard-only night. However, we did have an unexpected bonus of a heard-only “oomp”ing Malayan Night Heron (hard to hear; relying heavily on an expert’s opinion “100%”). That night we did some owling as we had heard that Bay-Owl was possible. We did well with 4 species, but didn’t see any. We heard an Oriental Bay-Owl, and an Oriental Scops-Owl; both new for us.




Oriental Pied-Hornbill at Kaeng Krachan NP--Km.9 vicinity by Benjamin Pap



Sultan Tit (Yellow-crested) at Kaeng Krachan NP--Ban Krang Campgrounds by Benjamin Pap




23 - Partnering with an older couple staying at the nature lodge, and the Dutch couple, we hired a guide (with vehicle) to bird the upper elevations of the park. I had perhaps too high expectations. It was a very long day from 6am to 6pm, and we checked out before leaving. I should have used the toilet once more before going because I had to ask to stop the truck because I really had to go 🫢. We had an Orange-headed Thrush on the way up, and a “potential Jerdon’s Baza” both not new but we hadn’t seen in this park. On the drive up the bumpy road, the driver thought he may have seen Kalij Pheasant, but alas we did not. We did however get great views of a male Gray Peacock-Pheasant! This was my highlight for the day. KK upper elevation is famous for Ratchet-tailed Treepie, and this what we really wanted to see. On the drive up we passed 5 dutch guys who were birding the road too. We had HO Rufous-browed Flycatcher. At the summit campsite/area we had many of the species we’d seen further north like some bulbuls, imperial pigeon, spiderhunter etc. Lifers here were Humes White-eye and Little Cuckoo-dove: A nice one to complete the set of 2 possible. The white-eye we only ID’d later thanks to questioning and a picture taken by the dutch guy. The road is supposed to be 1 way traffic, so certain times are set for when you can be on it going up/down. But we checked the area that is usually best for Ratchet-tailed Treepie (around KM 27) but turned up empty. There was a nice small flock of Striated Yuhina. At lunch the dutch guys chatted it up and we heard that they had gotten the Treepie on their way up! That was tough to hear as we’d looked so hard in the same area but didn’t find it. They’d also seen Kalij Pheasant on the way up! But during lunch we did see a single (1) Brown-backed Needletail with lots of swiftlets. That was a nice one since the Needletails we’d seen at Khao Yai hadn’t been ID’able. After lunch we walked the road to try again for the treepie and knowing the exact area it had been seen earlier. Again we didn’t find it, but we did see an owlet which was a Collared! Finally after having heard it probably a dozen places we managed to see one. Unfortunately we were tricked at the time into thinking it was a Asian Barred (the dutch guy said it had barring above the eyes, but a later day showed a picture showing the false eyes that are not present on Asian Barred). We did see some nice Babblers and I saw a Red-headed Trogon which is a stunner. Then on the way down it was a really sad scenario. The group of 5 dutch guys were in front of us and they stopped on the road. I was inside the truck and couldn’t see anything, Ben also didn’t see anything, but the dutch guy managed to get a glimpse of the back half of a male Kalij Pheasant as it got off the road. Tough to be so close and yet miss it 😢. The rest of the way down was quiet but we stopped to look at some tiny bats roosting in the hollow of a bamboo stem. Overall it was a good day, it’s just too easy to focus on the missed things and to be un-content with what you did see… I think we just needed to make it to the upper elevations another day to get our missed targets (Kalij P isn’t a high-elevation only bird, but just have to be lucky), and perhaps another day or 3 at the lower elevation for Malkohas, Woodpeckers, Broadbills and other goodies. The park has tonnes of potential species, but with just a few days, there’s not enough time to find them all. We did have a good set of mammals at this park, though again it was annoying to hear of other people’s luck in seeing a black panther (melanistic Leopard).



24 - We went to Laem Pak Bia and then Pak Thale again. Our goal was to find Malaysian Plover and Nordmann’s Greenshank. This was a successful day and we got our targets. We started by heading to the sandspit which most people see the plovers at, but the tide was so high that there was no beach at all to walk. This wasn’t going to work, so we birded the saltpans nearby. Here we found a large number of Curlews, and we wanted to pick out a Far Eastern from the flock, but apparently they look nearly the same (at least if you look at pictures) but the ID features are best seen when the birds are in flight. We were perhaps unethical in causing them to fly, but we did manage to locate just 1 Far Eastern in the flock of 360 Curlews. We then checked a random beach spot further south and located a few of our target plovers on the break-water rocks. Heading up to Pak Thale we saw again lots of shorebird flocks. From the road we scoped some greenshanks and they looked promising. Unfortunately due to our lack of experience we were not confident to call them one way or the other, but we went around and walked a long way in the hot sun to get some better views. This was succeeded in, and we confirmed them as Nordmann’s! With so many birds we were lazy and put X’s for this list. Then we headed toward a spot where we were told that Yellow-breasted Bunting were just “all over in the bushes”. This was really close to the eagle viewing spot we’d checked 4 days before. On the way there we managed to get some eagles in the form of Greater Spotted, Imperial, and a Booted Eagle! The Buntings were exactly where they were said to be, so that was a fantastic detour! Here we also saw Red-throated Pipit, Oriental Skylark, and Black-headed Ibis… Very similar to the birds we’d had at the eagle spot up north. Next we drove back to BKK. We made ebird.org/checklist/S158688119 one last stop within BKK to find a final trip bird of flyby Alexandrine Parakeet in its native range. On the next 2 days we got cleaned up, handed back the car, and rested and packed. On Monday early morning I said bye to Ben 😢 and took a Grab to the airport. My flight stopped in Korea and the next flight was delayed by 3 hours. In Korea I saw 2 magpies, a flock of geese or cormorants, and a pigeon sp.







Booted Eagle at Ton Maphrao--paddies E of Hwy. 4 by Benjamin Pap



Red-throated Pipit at Ton Maphrao--paddies E of Hwy. 4 by Benjamin Pap



Black-headed Ibis at Ton Maphrao--paddies E of Hwy. 4 by Benjamin Pap





Overall I think we did a pretty decent job of birding the country. We skipped the South and a heap of other places we could have gone just because of lack of time. My favorite birds were probably the larger ones: Green Peafowl, Buffy Fish Owl, and Great Hornbill. Seeing Red Junglefowl was also pretty cool (and I didn’t have to study their call 🙂) but we didn’t get any pictures of the males.

[Ben]

Thanks for doing all the typing, Jon. A most wonderful trip report in my unbiased opinion 0: ]

For any who might just be wanting more stats and more details to read.
Trip report link: ebird.org/tripreport/183565
Some statistics: docs.google.com/document/d/1bNkpXYlU4FJupQY6OZxzPaKfCSNarZHORxW_mfj_72Y/edit?usp=sharing

[Ben]

Thanks for doing all the typing, Jon. A most wonderful trip report in my unbiased opinion 0: ]

For any who might just be wanting more stats and more details to read.
Trip report link: ebird.org/tripreport/183565
Some statistics: docs.google.com/document/d/1bNkpXYlU4FJupQY6OZxzPaKfCSNarZHORxW_mfj_72Y/edit?usp=sharing

[Chris]

What an excellent and detailed report! Thanks for taking the time to do it.

So many great species and photos. I do like the different species of nuthatches and would love to see some at one point.

A few of the locations you guys visited I recognize through fantasy birding.

[james]

Thanks for taking the time to put together this trip report! I learned a lot as I read it. The variety of birdlife in Thailand looks amazing. Also nice to get some idea of the practicalities of traveling there.

[Randy]

Awesome report!! Could that buteo be a common buzzard or something closely related?

[Ben]

Yes, Common Buzzard or something closely related is exactly correct

Northern Thailand is within the wintering grounds of three eastern buteos: Common Buzzard, Himalayan Buzzard, and Eastern (Japanese) Buzzard. I'm not sure how they're separated other than range during breeding season, because afaik there is potential for 100% overlap between all 3 species in terms of plumage... I have yet to find any published articles that definitively explain these species (and why they're split haha)