January 11-February 1, 2025 with Jay VanderGaast & Uthai Treesucon
In the depths of winter, with snow covering the ground and temperatures below freezing, I can think of no better place to be than Thailand. Warm, sunny days, tropical forests, a rich and varied avifauna, and of course, delectable Thai food, is just what the doctor ordered to keep the winter blues at bay. This year's tour was a little short on warm, sunny days in the north, thanks to a persistent cold front pushing down from the Tibetan plateau, but all the other elements I love about Thailand were present in abundance.
As always, we kicked things off in the bustling capital city of Bangkok, with most folks making their initial acquaintance with such widespread but attractive species as Coppersmith Barbet, Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, and Blue-tailed Bee-eater, right on the hotel grounds. After a casual afternoon in the city ticking Alexandrine and Red-breasted parakeets at Wat Suan Yai, and Spotted and Asian Barred owlets at Rot Fai Park, we were on the road out of town, destination: the coast at the western edge of the Bay of Thailand and its teeming shorebird sites. Of course, our main goal here was to find one of a handful of Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers among the throngs of more numerous waders, and after much searching, we were ultimately successful, again! Before we left the coast behind, we'd tallied nearly 40 species of shorebirds, including scarce species like Asian Dowitcher, Nordmann's Greenshank, and Malaysian Plover!
Uthai had a surprise for us as we headed for Kaeng Krachan National Park and our first taste of Asian forest birding, as we were able to visit a productive hide in the foothills adjacent to the park. And what a treat that was, as we were able to see a bunch of shy, difficult species that we usually struggle to see at all, saving us a lot of time and aggravation later in the tour! A partial list of the highlights here included Kalij Pheasant, Bar-backed and Scaly-breasted Partridges, Asian Emerald Dove, a brilliant female Blue Pitta, and both Lesser and Greater Necklaced laughingthrushes, giving us an incredible opportunity to compare these two similar species. It was a memorable afternoon, indeed, and one that I hope we can repeat on future tours!
Our next couple of days were spent in Kaeng Krachan NP itself, an incredibly diverse place, and one of my favorite venues of the entire tour. Attesting to the incredible richness here, despite this being my 7th tour here, we tallied several species here that I had not seen before. Among these was a magnificent male Pin-tailed Parrotfinch in a clump of seeding bamboo, with a bold Red-billed Malkoha hopping about in a nearby tree at the same time (the malkoha having stirred up a swarm of bees just moments before, creating an exciting encounter, with everyone but Jiang coming away unstung, surprisingly!) The next day we encountered another scarce malkoha, the hulking Chestnut-breasted Malkoha, another species unrecorded on my previous trips here! The more expected species here were no less exciting, with things like Great and Wreathed hornbills, a pair of Orange-breasted Trogons excavating a nest, the chunky Red-bearded Bee-eater, several excellent woodpeckers, ranging in size from the tiny White-browed Piculet to the massive Great Slaty Woodpecker, the elusive, and local, Ratchet-tailed Treepie (for some), Collared Babbler, Orange-headed Thrush, Siberian Blue Robin, and so many more. A nice assortment of mammals (Lar Gibbon, Dusky and Robinson's Banded langurs, a group of Guar that scurried across the road at dusk) and some awesome butterflies were among the other creatures to capture our attention here.
Next up was the equally fantastic Khao Yai National Park, where the birding was as good as I've ever seen it. One of the key targets, the showy Silver Pheasant, played hard to get initially, but eventually we tracked down a handsome male with three females. Impressive Buffy Fish-Owls were nesting in the same tree as last year, and seemed quite nonplussed by the many camera lenses trained on them. Other key targets we found here included Black Eagle, Great Eared Nightjar, Black-and-Buff, Laced, and Rufous woodpeckers, the oft-heard but difficult to spot Collared Owlet, brilliant Van Hasselt's Sunbirds, and Black-throated Laughingthrush. And despite the silence of broadbills in general and Banded Kingfisher, our hard work paid off and we ultimately tracked down both the kingfisher and Banded Broadbill at the same spot! But what really made Khao Yai stand out this year was a trio of seldom-seen species that performed well for us on our second day in the park. We started off at dawn with decent looks at a massive Spot-bellied Eagle-Owl with some sort of small mammal in its talons. We them managed to score some excellent looks at an Eared Pitta foraging on the forest floor-best views I've had at this species! And then we capped things off with some quick, but really good, looks at a pair of huge Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoos that flew back and forth across a quiet roadway, only the second time I've laid eyes on these behemoths! We'd done so well in the park that we opted to bird a new site on our final morning here, picking up some good open-country species like Chestnut-capped and Yellow-eyed babblers, Red Avadavat and striking Pied Harriers.
Returning to Bangkok, we flew to the northern city of Chiang Mai, enjoying a fascinating cultural show and dinner on our one night in town before heading south to the dry dipterocarp forests of Mae Ping NP. On the way there, a stop in some rice paddies netted us a quintet of scarce wintering eagles: Steppe, Imperial, Booted, Greater Spotted eagles, plus Short-toed Snake-Eagle! The park itself offered up some good specialties like White-bellied and Black-headed woodpeckers, Gray-headed Parakeet, Red-billed Blue-Magpie, Rufous Treepie, and Burmese Nuthatch, and then it was back north to Doi Inthanon, with a stop for some stunning Green Peafowl along the way.
Over the next couple of days, we birded a number of different sites at varying elevations on this, the tallest mountain in Thailand. At the summit we tallied Speckled Wood-Pigeons at their roost site at dawn, then walked the bog boardwalk trail for species like Pygmy Cupwing, the delightful Yellow-bellied Fairy-Fantail, Slaty-bellied Tesia, Rufous-winged Fulvetta, the fancy Chestnut-tailed Minla, and brilliant Green-tailed and Mrs Gould's sunbirds, to name a few. And a return visit to the top rewarded us with a Rufous-throated Partridge behind the men's urinals. At somewhat lower elevations, feeding flocks swirled through the treetops, giving us White-browed and Clicking shrike-babblers, jaunty Yellow-cheeked Tits, Mountain Tailorbird, Rufous-backed and Dark-backed sibias, colourful Silver-eared Mesia, Spectacled Barwing, and an array of minivets-Scarlet, Rosy, Gray-chinned, Long-tailed, and Short-billed, among many others. Lower still, a feeding area brought in both Large and Small minivets, the secretive White-gorgeted Flycatcher, and both Himalayan and Lesser shortwings, two often difficult to see forest understory species. Further down still, we managed to track down some tiny Collared Falconets in the dry dipterocarp forests on the lower slopes, Black-backed Forktail along a rushing river, and the scarce Blossom-headed Parakeet at the base of the mountain at Inthanon Nest. It was a great introduction to the avifauna of the northern mountains.
Things got a bit tougher as we moved north of Chiang Mai, as a cold front from the north dropped temperatures and brought in a fair bit of wind and fog, subduing bird activity and making things tougher to find, and see, than in a normal year. Still we persevered, and found many of the species we were hoping for. On the west slope of Doi Lang, dense fog plagued us for much of the day, but we still came away with a respectable list of key species, including Gray Treepie, Gray-crowned, Martens's, and Buff-throated warblers, a baker's dozen of charming Black-throated TIts, Red-eyed Scimitar-Babbler, the very local Giant Nuthatch, gorgeous Rufous-bellied Niltava, Slaty-backed, Slaty-blue, Rufous-gorgeted, and Ultramarine flycatchers, and Siberian Rubythroat and more. Another day was spent of the east slope of Doi Lang, where the hoped for Scarlet-faced Liocichlas played a bit hard to get but were ultimately seen by most, and Golden-throated Barbet, Black-eared Shrike-Babbler, Bianchi's Warbler, the shy and beautiful Chestnut-headed Tesia (my best views ever in Thailand!), Brown-crowned Scimitar-Babbler, and Himalayan Bluetail were among the day's highlights.
In between these two visits to Doi Lang, we also made a trip up neighboring Doi Ank Khang, straddling the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Here we were able to stroll into Myanmar territory and compile a short list of birds for that country, and add a handful of new species to our tour totals. A day-roosting Hodgson's Frogmouth, expertly tracked down by Uthai and Jiang, was one of the standouts here, while Speckled Piculet, Maroon Oriole, Streaked Wren-Babbler, Chestnut-bellied Rock-Thrush, White-tailed Robin, Daurian Redstart, Spot-winged Grosbeak, Brown-breasted and White-headed bulbuls, White-necked Laughingthrush, and Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker were some of the other new species we tallied on a full day on the mountain.
Our final venue was the Golden Triangle region, where Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos come together along the banks of the mighty Mekong River. This was a bit of an off year for interesting wintering species, with few reports of any noteworthy vagrant waterfowl or Passerines, so realistic new targets were few. One of the few vagrants in the region was a lone Common Shelduck, which we tracked down at a lake near Chiang Rai after our visit to the spectacular White Palace. Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Ferruginous and Tufted ducks, and a solitary Cotton Pygmy-Goose were also tallied here before we took ourselves to nearby Pha Chang Park. It took a long time here to track down our only target, the local Annam Limestone Babbler, but we were ultimately successful. We rounded out our visit to this area with Small Pratincoles and Gray-throated Martins along the Mekong, Striated Grassbird, Chestnut Munia, a vagrant female Falcated Duck, and the spectacle of 100+ Pied and Eastern Marsh Harriers at Nong Bong Khai, and the locally scarce Pied Kingfisher, our final new bird of the trip, at Wiang Nong Lom.
As always, this trip was a joy to guide, not just because Thailand is a beautiful country with great birds and scrumptious food, but also thanks to the amazing people who work with our tours to ensure a fantastic experience. Many thanks to this years crew- Uthai, with his encyclopediac knowledge of Thailand's birdlife, our energetic and skillful drivers/film crew of Jiang and Lif, and our incredible ground operator Wat, his wife Kaew, and their assistants Sunisa (Goong) and Nin who took care of our every need and kept us a little too well fed! It was a pleasure working with all of them again. It was also a pleasure to travel with all of you, and I thank you for joining us on this year's Thailand tour. Hope to see you all again on another tour soon!
Mammals seen on the tour:
Lyle's Flying Fox (Pteropus lylei): In the mangroves along the Laem Phak Bia canal.
Northern Treeshrew (Tupaia belangeri): the pointed-nosed, squirrel-like critters were widespread, but especially numerous at Rot Fai Park.
Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis): aka Crab-eating Macaque. Seen by some along the coast south of Bangkok, and by all of us at Wat Phra Phuttabat Noi.
Southern Pig-tailed Macaque (Macaca nemestrina): Lots at Khao Yai, where they are a bit of a nuisance.
Dusky Langur (Trachypithecus obscurus): the common langur, with the large, soulful eyes at Kaeng Krachan.
Robinson's Banded Langur (Presbytis robinsoni): a few in the higher parts of Kaeng Krachan. This one has a dark tail, unlike the pale gray tail of the Dusky Langur.
Pileated Gibbon (Hylobates pileatus): as is often the case, heard only at Khao Yai.
Lar Gibbon (Hylobates lar): aka White-handed Gibbon. We had some incredible views of these at both Khao Yai and Kaeng Krachan.
Black Giant Squirrel (Ratufa bicolor): several at Khao Yai. They really are enormous!
Finlayson's Squirrel (Callosciurus finlaysonii): Widespread, including on the grounds of our Bangkok Hotel. Highly variable, and we saw them in a wide variety of colours.
Gray-bellied Squirrel (Callosciurus caniceps): Quite common, and easily told by the black tip to their tails.
Himalayan Striped Squirrel (Tamiops mcclellandii): the tiny, speedy, chipmunk-like squirrels that we saw and heard regularly throughout.
Indochinese Ground Squirrel (Menetes berdmorei): Also striped vaguely like a chipmunk, but noticeably chunkier. We had one at Wat Phra Phuttabat Noi.
Greater Indo-Malaysian Chevrotain (Tragulus napu): Also called Greater Mouse Deer. One of these tiny deer visited the feeding area at Dab Toon's Hide.
Southern Red Muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak): One on the road at Kaeng Krachan, and several at Khao Yai.
Sambar (Rusa unicolor): The large deer seen commonly at Khao Yai.
Brow-antlered Deer (Rucervus eldii): aka Eld's Deer. Reintroduced into Thailand after having been extirpated in the country. We saw a few of these reintroduced deer at Mae Ping NP.
Gaur (Bos gaurus): a group of 4 that dashed across the road ahead of the pickup trucks at dusk in Kaeng Krachan were a bit of a surprise, and my first sighting in the park. We also visited the Khao Paeng Ma Non-Hunting Area to see a bunch leave the forest to graze in the surrounding grasslands at dusk.
Mainland Serow (Capricorni sumatraensis): My first in Thailand and the biggest mammalian surprise of the trip. One stood, statue-like staring down at us from a nearby rocky ridge as we searched for babblers at Wat Phra Phuttabat Noi, and didn't budge until after we'd left. Well, it probably has budged since!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/319273
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/tha25TRIPLIST.pdf
- - Jay