January 4-24, 2025 with Doug Gochfeld & Lê Quý Minh
This year’s Field Guides Vietnam tour began, as ever, with us meeting up in the old city of Hanoi for a walk through the narrow streets to Hoan Kiem Lake, for our first few birds, and an opportunity to see the embalmed versions of the last known giant turtles. We then had an excellent dinner at a classic north Vietnamese restaurant, complete with Bun Cha and all. This tour took place just before Tet, or the lunar new year, and we could see signs of the upcoming festivities everywhere we went in the streets of Hanoi (and indeed at most other places we visited, all the way south to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)).
Aside from the bustling charm of the old city, the other main reason we visit the north of Vietnam is to go to Vietnam’s first national Park: Cuc Phuong. We spent a few nights staying just inside the park gates, which gave us a great chance to get out birding nice and early, as well as some good opportunities to prowl at night a little bit. This is where the real birding kicked off, and we found highlights aplenty, from nice views of secretive birds like Bar-bellied Pitta and Large Scimitar-Babbler, to the habitat-specialist Limestone Wren-Babbler (also now known as Gray Limestone-Babbler), and nice treats like Pied Falconet (multiple times). Thrushes also showed really well, with the usual Gray-sided, Japanese, and Orange-headed thrushes, and excellent views of a male of the more difficult Black-breasted Thrush. We even got multiple prolonged views of White’s Thrush, which is unprecedented in my experience with these cryptically patterned and exceptionally shy birds.
Leaving Cuc Phuong, we had time for a short stop at the Van Long reservoir. We were here specifically to search the evocative karst hills for the Delacour’s Langur, one of the rarest primates in the world. After some nice birding at the site (Daurian Redstart, Blue Rock-thrush, White-browed Crake to name a few), the langurs appeared. They emerged from the vegetated sections of the slopes and ended up sitting up on various exposed rocks for a while. We eventually had to walk away from the monkeys (which are missable here, it was great that we got them) in order to catch our flight from Hanoi to Pleiku.
We landed in Pleiku and headed over to Dak To, with dinner en route. This night was a short one, and in the early morning, well pre-dawn, we loaded into our smaller vans for the ride up to the very special forest on the slopes of Mount Ngoc Linh. In addition to the specter of upcoming new year festivities, another factor that we ran into at most turns of this tour was the weather. There was a late winter cold front that passed at the beginning of the tour, and while this made the Cat Tien and Dalat sections really lovely, it made for some cold and overcast weather in the central highlands. This was the fog section of the tour. Sometimes fog breaks up a little when it interacts with forest, but that was not the case, and we hacked away at seeing some really cool new birds one by one as they emerged from and disappeared back into the soup. Black-crowned Barwings gave excellent views and were around most of the time we were in the woods, while Snowy-browed Flycatcher and both Rusty-capped and Rufous-winged fulvettas presented themselves for close perusal. A quick final stop below the fog gave us much better visibility on a collection of birds highlighted by White-throated Rock-Thrush and Taiga Flycatcher. The next day, we birded another section of Ngoc Linh, and found ourselves once again in the soup, but Red-tailed Laughingthrush was a sought-after highlight.
We then headed to Mang Den, where we found less fog, though the color gray still prevailed in the sky. Our two nights here allowed us to explore several patches of forest in the area, which yielded such treats as Eyebrowed Wren-babbler, Rufous-backed Sibia, Yellow-browed Nuthatch (yes!!), and a shocker of a mammal: a Colugo!! Then it was down to Dalat, one of the centers of endemism in the country. A few nights in Dalat let us get to some really nice locations, and see some excellent birds. We had at least three encounters with Gray-crowned Crocias, including my longest ever opportunity to watch them (several minutes, including some fun courtship I hadn’t seen before), plenty of Black-headed Sibia, the endemic forms of Mrs. Gould’s (Annam) and Black-throated (Langbian) sunbirds, and great views of Dalat Crossbill, Indochinese Green Magpie, and Gray Nightjar. Our time here also featured my most productive ever visit to Mt. Langbian, with excellent views of all the targets: Collared Laughingthrush, Vietnamese Cutia, Black-crowned Fulvetta, Hume’s Treecreeper, and more. The good thrush theme continued here, as we were treated to an appearance, seemingly out of thin air, of a boldly patterned male Siberian Thrush, which was a lifer for yours truly!
Once we finished up at Dalat, we headed south towards Cat Tien, but we had one night in between around the town of Di Linh. This is so we could have a couple of shots at birding the nearby Deo Nui San Pass, and came with the side benefit of staying at a lovely lodge overlooking a coffee and macadamia nut farm with delicious food. The birding in this area was good, with views of Silver-breasted and Long-tailed broadbills, Red-billed Scimitar-Babbler, Streaked Wren-Babbler, Maroon Oriole, Alström’s Warbler, and more at the pass, and the recently described endemic, or near-endemic, Annam Prinia close by as well.
Then it was down to the tropical lowlands and on to Cat Tien National Park, the most bird-diverse site that we visit on the tour. We said goodbye to our bus driver who had been with us since Pleiku, loaded our luggage and our selves onto a wooden ferry boat, and motored across the Dong Nai to the park headquarters, which would also be our headquarters for the next four nights. Cat Tien often gets quite hot, making for slow birding during the middle of the day, but the same cold front that gave us some chilly willys in the north, made the birding conditions in Cat Tien very pleasant, extending our useful birding hours later in the morning. The forests of the park proved very fruitful, with such treasures as Germain’s Peacock-Pheasant, Banded Kingfisher, Black-backed Dwarf-Kingfisher, Pale-headed Woodpecker, Green-legged Partridge, a sweep of the three possible broadbills (Dusky, Black-and-Red, and Banded), Forest Wagtail, Orange-breasted Trogon, and even a tiny Lesser Mouse Deer. Our afternoon in the grasslands gave us repeated views of Green Peafowl (including a displaying male) and Lesser Coucal, as well as Chinese Francolin, Lesser Adjutant, Red Muntjac, and Sambar deer. We hiked three miles to Crocodile Lake, where we were treated to an impressive lunch spread at the remote lake while we enjoyed the wildlife. We saw several showy individuals of the thriving population of Siamese Crocodiles that call the lake home, as well as Collared Falconet, Gray-headed Fish-Eagle, Bronze-winged Jacana, all while the local rangers set some impressive controlled burns around the lake. We also did some night birding here, scoring Blyth’s Frogmouth and Brown Boobook, and hearing Oriental Bay Owl and Spot-bellied Eagle Owl. It was then finally time to leave our tropical finale and head down to Ho Chi Minh City (still called Saigon by most Vietnamese) for our final dinner and flights home.
Despite the bush meat culture that unfortunately pervades Vietnam, we still had some good mammal-watching opportunities. Cat Tien in particular gave us some excellent larger-than-squirrel mammals and other non-birds. The rest of the time, a good diversity of squirrels kept us company from the start. Here is a list of the mammals and reptiles that we identified during the tour:
Northern Smooth-tailed Treeshrew (Dendrogale murina) - Several of these seen around Cat Tien.
Sunda Colugo (Galeopterus variegatus) - This one could eventually be recognized as a different species of Colugo than the ones most people see, in Borneo and Peninsulat Malaysia. Very poorly known from this part of the world, and by far our biggest mammal shocker!
Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis)
Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta)
Southern Pig-tailed Macaque (Macaca nemestrina)
Black-shanked Douc (Pygathrix nigripes)
Delacour's Langur (Trachypithecus delacouri) – An exceptionally small worldwide population, and really striking appearance, make this one of the most sought after mammals in the region, and we were treated to a great encounter!
Southern Yellow-cheeked Crested Gibbon (Nomascus gabriellae) - We had a really nice experience watching a family of these gibbons playing around near the Cat Tien HQ one morning, shortly after sunrise.
Pallas's Squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus)
Finlayson's Squirrel (Callosciurus finlaysonii)
Inornate Squirrel (Callosciurus inornatus)
Cambodian Striped Squirrel (Tamiops rodolphii)
Maritime Striped Squirrel (Tamiops maritimus)
Indochinese Ground Squirrel (Menetes berdmorei)
Asian Red-cheeked Squirrel (Dremomys rufigenis)
Asian Small-clawed Otter (Aonyx cinereus) - A small troop of these scurried across the road in front of us as we drove out the road in Cat Tien one morning. One of them had second thoughts and initially went back, so when it did decide to ultimately cross and join its compatriots, we were ready, and got good views!
Javan Chevrotain (Tragulus javanicus) – You'll know this one as Lesser Mouse Deer
Southern Red Muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak) - We even saw a fully horned male, which lent some impressiveness to that particular iteration of this diminutive species of deer.
Sambar (Rusa unicolor) - Several of these large deer included one youngster nursing from its mother right next to the road just after nightfall one evening.
Indochinese Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus chaseni) – This appears to be the identity of the bat that was inside the tree trunk along a trail at Cat Tien.
Herps:
Siamese Crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis)
Spotted Forest Skink (Sphenomorphus maculatus)
Asian House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus)
Flat-tailed House-Gecko (Hemidactylus platyurus)
Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko)
Spot-legged Tree Frog (Polypedates megacephalus)
We also ran into a good diversity of arthropods on the tour, with butterflies the most visible and striking of these. Here is a partial list of butterflies we saw in country (only those photographed well enough for ID), as well as a few other arthropods that we took note of along the way.
Butterflies (for scientific names, see iNaturalist):
Chocolate Demon
Common Pierrot
Clipper
Gray Pansy
Yellow Pansy
Blue Pansy
Bamboo Treebrown
Lesser Grass Blue
Psyche
Lemon Migrant
Golden Birdwing
Metallic Hedge Blue
Paris Peacock Swallowtail
Striped Blue Crow
Great Windmill
White-spotted Judy
Indian Oakblue
Common Albatross
Striped Albatross
Chestnut Bob
Tailed Jay
White Dragontail
Painted Jezebel
Red-based Jezebel
-A couple of the large, showy moths we saw at the accommodation in Cuc Phuong were Hypochrosis iris, and Cyclidia orciferaria
-The termites that we watched crossing the path at Cat Tien were apparently Hospitalitermes bicolor
-The flattened large scorpion that we saw upon arrival at Cat Tien was Heterometrus Silenus
-The scorpions we saw at Yok Don were mostly, or all, Chinese Swimming Scorpions (Lychas mucronatus)
Last but absolutely not least, thanks to each and every one of you for sharing this Vietnam birding adventure with me – you were the reason that this year’s tour was such a delight, and it made my biennial pilgrimage to this fascinating country even more special than usual. I look forward to seeing all of you again somewhere on this bird-laden globe. Until then, be well, and good birding!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/317193
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/vet25TRIPLIST.pdf
- - Doug Gochfeld (Treeswift)