February 1-17, 2025 with Phil Gregory & Chea Seab
Our third post-pandemic foray into Cambodia was another very rewarding tour, with Angkor not too crowded despite the new airport now being open, though visitor numbers are edging upwards.
Cambodia Bird Guides (CBGA) still has its key conservation initiatives functional. The wetlands at Ang Trepeang Thmor (ATT) are intact and have their local guides, as does the grassland site at Pro Lay near Kompong Thom, the 4 vulture restaurants and the very important dry dipterocarp forest at Tmatboey, last haven for the two critically endangered ibis, though the situation here is not so encouraging and population pressure is taking a toll.
We began in Siem Reap with a morning out at Phnom Krom paddyfields as an introduction to Cambodian birding, with a recently established colony of Asian Golden Weaver nearby as a very good sighting.
Next came a very successful day trip to the blinds at Changkran Roy ecotourism reserve, where we saw Scaly-breasted (Green-legged) Partridge, Banded Broadbill, White-crested Laughingthrush, Siberian Blue Robin and a wonderful female Bar-bellied Pitta at the last gasp, whilst Sid and Randy had seen the pitta earlier, so opted for Siamese Fireback at another hide.
Ang Trepeang Thmor (ATT) was good with 57 Sarus Cranes and several Indian Spotted Eagles, as well as Greater Spotted Eagle, Spotted Wood Owl, Western Barn Owl, and a male Pied Harrier. Some migrants were on a wet area later that afternoon, with a distant big flock of Black-tailed Godwit, and some surprises, including a vagrant Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Ruff, Red-necked Stint, Marsh Sandpiper, and a gorgeous full summer plumage White-winged Black Tern, as well as a large flock of Garganey, Knob-billed Duck and many Whiskered Tern.
Angkor Wat and the surrounding temple complexes made for a fantastic cultural experience, with our expert guide reeling off details of the Hindu cosmology and the bewildering outbreaks of Hindu and Buddhist religious fanaticism that led to the building of these truly extraordinary vast monuments. This must have been the New York of its time, with a huge population. We learned about nagas, devas, garudas, the sea of milk, avatars of Vishnu, and the amazing variety of gods and mythical creatures associated with them. Birds here were also quite rewarding, with Asian Barred Owlet, Brown Boobook, Spotted Owlet, Hainan Blue Flycatcher, White-throated Rock-Thrush, and Forest Wagtail among the stars. 3 Wreathed Hornbill at Angkor Thom were unexpected too.
The boat trip to Prek Toal on the vast Tonle Sap lake was a very different day out among the floating villages, and we did see Greater Adjutant and for a couple a single Milky Stork. We also saw Painted Stork, Lesser Adjutant Asian Openbill, Spot-billed Pelican, and many herons, including Purple Heron, Cinnamon and Yellow Bittern, Grey-headed Fishing-Eagle, and both Glossy and the rare Black-headed Ibis.
Preahout Grassland Reserve area near Kompong Thom was a new site for us, mainly for the rare Yellow-breasted Bunting which we saw nicely, and we did get onto a Manchurian Reed Warbler here after some effort; the photos from John and Sid were very helpful to clinch it. Oriental Pratincole and Oriental Skylark showed well, and we had good flight views of Blue-breasted Quail. The florican however was not around, so we made a last effort trip to the nearby Pro Lay grasslands, and thanks to Mr. Ry (our usual local guide), we came up with Bengal Florican within minutes, avoiding what would have been a major dip.
Tmatboey is a trip highlight, though this year we stayed at a resort about 30 minutes away at Phnom Tbeng, which had the benefits of good air-conditioning and wifi, and no noisy Khmer weddings. The Tmatboey ecolodge is being redeveloped, but I am concerned at the habitat degradation and disturbance; it is still good, but worrying for the longer term. The star birds here are, of course, the Giant and White-shouldered ibises, and we had very good experiences, with both being seen at nest. White-rumped Falcon also showed well, and we enjoyed great looks at Green-billed Malkoha. Rufous-bellied, Yellow-crested, Gray-capped Pygmy, a wonderful noisy group of 6 Great Slaty, Grey-headed (Black-naped) and Black-headed woodpeckers. Brown Boobook and a pair of flighty Brown Fish-Owl were nice finds, and we had fine views of Savanna Nightjar and Orange-breasted Trogon, the latter by the Stueng Chhuek River. The woodlands at the resort at Phnom Tbeng were also rewarding, with many seeing a Blue Whistling Thrush (sorry John!), Van Hasselt's Sunbird, Little Spiderhunter and a Collared Scops Owl that evening.
The vulture restaurant at Baeng Toel was next, with a pleasant cool night in the large tents. White-rumped and Slender-billed vultures showed well, and we had 2 of the very rare Red-headed Vulture, plus a vagrant Himalayan Griffon; our timing was perfect. Owls here were great too, with wonderful views of an Oriental Scops rufous morph coming in almost immediately, and a fine Brown Wood Owl for those who made the foray out afterwards.
Kratie and the Mekong boat trip were good, with the rare Irrawaddy River Dolphin seen well, plus Mekong Wagtail, Small Pratincole, Little Ringed Plover and yet more swiftlet condos, the huge blocks built for Germain's Swiftlets and the harvesting of the saliva nests now a very big business indeed. Pallas's Grasshopper and Black-browed Reed Warbler showed well on a late afternoon walk in the fields, and we had brief looks at Watercock.
The final few days over in the cooler highlands at Seima and Dak Dam on the Vietnam border were interesting and added a lot of species, though tourism here is very much on the up-swing, and the scale of new developments is worrying. This area gave us two fine new barbets in Red-vented and Annam (Indochinese), Heart-spotted Woodpecker, Lesser Yellownape, Gray-faced Tit-Babbler, Silver-eared Media, Crimson and the eminent splittable Dalat/Langbian form of Black-throated Sunbird, Yellow-vented and Thick-billed Flowerpecker, Golden-crested Myna, and Rufous-bellied Eagle. A major highlight was with a troupe of 7+ Black-shanked Douc (Langur) in trees not too far from the road and for once not fleeing away at first sight of us, with another smaller group later, a great find and one especially suited for primatologist Dick. One morning we struck out at a dry and dusty hilltop site, but then tried a nearby area near an old cemetery and here we got lucky with the little-known Annam Prinia, saving us a flog around a hot, dry and dusty hillside grassland later!
Dak Dam later that afternoon had some surprises, as Chea took us to the site where Orange-breasted Laughingthrush has just been discovered in Cambodia, hitherto a Vietnam endemic. It was very responsive and came right in amongst dense shrubbery; with hindsight, I wish we'd tried to one side where we could see in better, but as it was, we heard it singing beautifully and saw leaves shaking as it was so close! Driving out, a large bird with whitish outer half of the tail flashed across the road- a male Silver Pheasant; what a shame it did not linger. We then tried a spot where we'd seen Green Peafowl late afternoon the previous year; no luck this time but instead our first Lesser Yellownape, and what proved to be a Black-hooded Laughingthrush singing. This meant Phil now has 5 species of heard-only laughingthrushes on his list, more than heard-only owls, and he got 4 lifers today!
Heading back to the capital, we avoided the traffic, and had good views of Cambodian Tailorbird just after lunch this time as the final mega of the tour, with Brown-cheeked Sunbird the last species addition here.
It was a fun trip with a very compatible and good-humored group replete with excellent spotters, and we did well for the birds. I know many good photos were taken and look forward to seeing some. Thank you all for coming; I hope our paths may cross again in the future, and safe travels.
Chea Seab from CBGA was a skilled, hardworking and helpful guide who knew where to find most things; he did well by us, and our thanks to him and our safe and hard-working drivers Fi, Ben, Pov and Kin, who routinely did long days without complaint. Thanks also to Karen at Field Guides who got it all put together. Sadly, I am not doing 2025, but it should be an excellent trip with Doug Gochfeld, with some fine-tuning after this year; the lodge at Phnom Tbeng is a keeper.
—— Phil Gregory (Sicklebill), Topaz, Feb 2025
Mammals
Lyle's Flying Fox (Pteropus lylei) by the Royal Residence in Siem Reap as usual, with several hundred this year
Black-bearded Tomb Bat (Taphozous melanopogon) A small colony in one of the towers at Tah Prohm, provisionally this species.
Northern Treeshrew (Tupaia belangeri) Great views from the blind of two drinking at Changkran Roy
Rice rat (Rattus argentiventer) Some folks saw some small rodents at the Sarus Crane site, likely this species; a delicacy in Cambodia, and they are trapped in large numbers to feed a growing export market. Considered healthy-eating because they are free-range and eat a mostly organic diet.
Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) Only at Angkor Thom this year, very few
Germain's (Silver) Langur (Presbytis germaini) Pamela and Garret saw one from the boat at Prek Toal
Black-shanked Douc (Pygathrix nigripes) Wonderful views of a troupe of at least 7 as we came into Seima Protected Forest, not shy this year and we were able to watch them for some while, with another smaller troupe later.
Pallas's Squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus) This was the grey one some folks saw at Tmatboey and Seima
Finlayson's Squirrel (Callosciurus finlaysonii) The lovely deep chestnut one with the white basal tail band, seen nicely at Angkor
Cambodian Striped Squirrel (Tamiops rodolphii) This tiny, very striped, chipmunk-like squirrel was seen at Phnom Krom and Tmatboey
Indochinese Ground Squirrel (Menetes berdmorei) The small less stripy squirrel which we saw at the ground-cuckoo blind at Changkran Roy
Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) A great boat trip this year, as we had them more or less to ourselves, with at least 5 animals, including youngsters, surfacing and blowing quite close to the boats; a rare species with about 50 in this particular section of the Mekong.
Herps
Ornate flying snake (Golden Tree-snake) (Chrysopelea ornata) was the rather beautiful gold, green and black snake we found seemingly injured in the track at Phnom Krom
Indochinese rat-snake (Ptyas korros) A quite large pinkish-grey snake with pale underparts being carried by a fisherman at ATT was called a rat snake by locals and seems likely to be this species in this habitat
A stripy black and golden brown snake was in the grassland at Preahout
Tokay Gecko was very noisy in the cabins at Nature Lodge, I will see if I can attach a recording
Butterflies: We had several folks besides Phil get into this and attempt photos where possible. Species seen included Golden Birdwing, Blue-spotted Archduke, Blue Kaiser, Double-branded Blue Crow, Painted Jezebel (great name), Psyche, Common Bluebottle, Lime Swallowtail for some at Tmatboey, Grey Pansy, Common Sailer, Common Tiger, Great Orange-tip,
Birds of the trip were very varied, and included Giant Ibis, White-shouldered Ibis, Bengal Florican, Pied Harrier, White-bellied Woodpecker, Great Slaty Woodpecker, Black-headed Woodpecker, Bar-bellied Pitta, Eurasian Hoopoe and Scaly-breasted Partridge, with the Black-shanked Douc sighting also rating very high.
We had several poetry fans on the tour, here are a few of the haiku inspired by it:
Tractor cart-the whole family on board-even the dog - by Linda Weir
Vulture restaurant-Cambodian beef- $500 per order - by Linda Weir
Temples surround us- Mystery, Healing, Beauty- Cambodia's pride - by Randy Beaton
Ancient ibis forest-smoky, dry, dusty-leaves crackle - by Phil Gregory
Angkor Thom faces-equanimity, compassion, sympathy, kindness-Four boundless qualities - by Phil Gregory
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/329795
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/cab25TRIPLIST.pdf
—Sicklebill (Phil Gregory)