Thailand Birding: Spoon-billed Sandpiper & White-faced Plover

On the 21st and 22nd January I made day trips to Laem Pak Bia/Pak Thale for shorebirds. Spoon-billed Sandpiper is still one of the main attractions at this area and the signposts which are on the road help people the find the right vicinity for this species. The birds are usually within a few hundred metres of the same place and on 21st I had the luxury of finding one very quickly indeed. In fact as I was showing Doug Kirwin a Red-necked Stint, a Spoon-billed Sandpiper walked into the field of view - perfect!

Unfortunately, Spoon-billed Sandpiper has recently been reclassified as critically endangered and one wonders how much longer they will be showing up at this spot. On the 22nd January, however, at least 4 birds were present at Pak Thale and I was able to show Brian and Claire Cox these birds.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper by Johan Svensson

Out on the sand spit at Laem Pak Bia on the 21st, we had the amazing sight of a Spoon-billed Sandpiper sitting right next to a White-faced Plover - they were just about 6 inches apart and both facing us - a superb sight.

White-faced Plover is now one of the stars of any trip to the Laem Pak Bia/Pak Thale area and it can usually be found on the sand spit. In fact I know that some others have had trouble finding this bird, but in around 30 visits in the last 12 months I have found White-faced Plover on the sand spit every time. It can be an elusive bird but by persisting and searching the whole beach I think the bird can almost always be found. In my experience it favours a small bay on the part of the spit which is connected to the mainland until it is disturbed by visiting fishermen and then it usually moves onto the island part of the spit or sometimes onto the rocks. I found a single White-faced Plover on the sand spit after much searching on both the 21st and 22nd January - at one point on 22nd I really thought that we were going to miss it, but persistence and patience got us great views.

White-faced Plover by Mike Buckland

A recent paper on White-faced Plover has proposed the scientific name Charadrius dealbatus if it turns out to be a distinct species. The paper also explains that this bird has been documented in the past by Swinhoe but inexplicably ignored since his time. The paper can be read here: Rediscovery of a lost Charadrius plover from South-east Asia.

Thailand Birding: Khao Yai 3-day Trip

These days I don’t get to Khao Yai National Park as often as I used to, so I was pleased to be spending 3 days there in the company of John Plampin from 14th-16th January. After picking him up at La Residence in Surawong Road, Bangkok the journey to the park gate took only about 2 hours or so; although waking up early is painful it is really nice to drive to Khao Yai with almost no traffic on the road.

Finding Birds
John had been birding a few times in Thailand before so we didn’t need to spend lots of time looking at all the bulbuls, drongos and other common birds that slow down the hunt for the difficult species such as pittas. This was quite interesting for me as it gave me the chance to track down some interesting birds: it is very hard to justify spending hours searching for hard-to-find species with visitors who can easily rack up 20-30 ticks in the same time due to the fact that they have never been to Thailand before - and I mostly go birding with people in this category.

Over the course of 3 days, John and I spent considerable time stalking along forest trails and sitting at stakeouts waiting for key birds. Frustratingly, we struggled to get good views of a number of our target species although we did get excellent, if fairly brief, views of Blue Pitta on the trail from Pa Gluai Mai campsite and Haew Suwat waterfall. We did also get excellent views of some other tricky forest interior species such as Red-headed Trogon, Orange-breasted Trogon and Silver-breasted Broadbill as well as all too brief glimpses of a number of other Blue Pittas, a very nervous Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo and a Siamese Fireback Pheasant that ran away before giving us a proper chance to see it.

The Highlights
Over the 3 days a number of birds stood out as highlights. These included White-crowned Forktail, Slaty-backed Forktail, Rufous Woodpecker, Orange-breasted Trogon, Great Eared Nightjar, Grey Nightjar, Large-tailed Nightjar, Silver-breasted Broadbill, Red-headed Trogon, White-crested Laughingthrush, Great Hornbill and Wreathed Hornbill.

Silver-breasted Broadbill by Alex Vargas

The Stakeout
The stakeout behind the toilets at Pa Gluai Mai campsite is well-known for attracting a variety of species including the very hard-to-find Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo. Unfortunately for us this species was not performing well and there was no sign of it at all on 5 long visits to the stakeout. On our 6th visit I saw it dash away into the undergrowth!

However, there were still an impressive assortment of smaller birds visiting the stakeout and we got very vlose-up views of a lot of them. The species we saw at the stakeout included Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, Puff-throated Babbler, Abbott’s Babbler, Siberian Blue Robin, Plain-tailed Warbler, Radde’s Warbler, Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, White-rumped Shama, Blue Pitta, Red Junglefowl and Orange-headed Thrush.

Silver-breasted Broadbill by Alex Vargas

All in all we had a great trip to Khao Yai, although the temperature was much colder than either of us had anticiapted with the temperature reading 10C at park HQ early in the morning. Even outside the park it was cold at night and I had to ask for extra blankets at our accommodation.

Thailand Birding: Greater Flamingo

Whilst Greater Flamingo is not on the Thai checklist of birds, it is a species frequently seen in the wild by many birders here. The reason for this is that a Greater Flamingo which has been resident in the Laem Pak Bia/Pak Thale region for a number of years now is in fact an escaped bird.

The above photograph was taken on mudflats at Pak Thale on 20th December, 2008 by Esa Keikka.

When this bird first turned up in the area in the early 2000s it was thought by many to be a genuine vagrant. However, when I went to the area with Phil Round we could clearly see that all the secondary feathers growing back in a straight line, indicating that at some point they had been cut and that the bird had escaped from a waterbird collection.

I get many reports of this bird from birders excited to find a new species for Thailand and whilst I have to inform them that it is an escape, it is still a beautiful bird to see.

Thailand Birding: Silver-eared Mesia

Johan Svensson kindly e-mailed me this photograph of a Silver-eared Mesia in a cherry tree; it is so nice I thought that I would share it with everyone.

Silver-eared Mesia by Johan Svensson

Johan correctly stated that it was one of my favourite birds, something that I have written about here: My favourite birds of Thailand.Silver-eared Mesia is a fairly common bird in the mountains of the north of Thailand but its amazing combination of colours always make it a welcome sight as far as I am concerned. I always encounter this species on my trips to Doi Ang Kang at various points around the mountain, but I find the Mae Per forest trail to be particularly reliable for it.