Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Thailand Birding: Khao Yai

From 27th to 29th January I spent time at Khao Yai national park with a group of birders from UK. Despite the terrible unseasonal weather which resulted in a lot of rain and poor visibility, we managed to see a lot of good birds.

The very obliging White-throated Rock Thrush and Mugimaki Flycatcher at the Boonson Lekagul camp entry road were a very good start to our first day, but there was no sign of any Orange-headed Thrushes at Pa Gluai Mai campsite. Presumably the wet weather means that the thrush no longer needs to hang around the damp spot behind the toilets.

White-throated Rock Thrush

Over the rest of our time in the forest our highlights were a hard-earned male Blue Pitta which was all the better for the long period of anticipation in seeing the bird, Red-headed Trogon, Collared Owlet, Van Hasselt's Sunbird, female Banded Kingfisher, Dusky Broadbill, Long-tailed Broadbill, Banded Broadbill, Great Hornbill, male Silver Pheasant, several Siamese Fireback Pheasants, Black-and-buff Woodpecker and Heart-spotted Woodpecker.

In addition to our bird sightings we had several elephant sightings including one while we were on foot and a stampeding herd of 13 elephants crossing the road in front of our vehicle; three Pileated Gibbons were also a welcome sighting.

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