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.

Thailand Birding: Eared Pitta at Khao Yai

Eared Pitta is one of the most sought-after birds in Thailand and also a very tough one to find. It does not seem to call very often and I find it mostly unresponsive to call playback; one of the best ways to find it is to walk quietly through the forest and listen for it foraging in the leaf litter.

A few days ago this is exactly what we did on the nature trail which begins at park headquarters, Khao Yai, and around the halfway point on the trail we located a pair of Eared Pittas which we were able to view and I was able to follow them through the forest obtaining one of the worst photos of an Eared Pitta ever taken - at least it is better than no photo!

Eared Pitta by Nick Upton

The only other Pitta detected in three days at Khao Yai was another Eared Pitta which called twice on the Km 33 trail at around 5.15pm but did not respond to call playback. Blue Pitta, which is fairly common at Khao Yai, was silent everywhere we looked for it.

Photographing Insects

Bird activity has been at its lowest that I can remember in a dry season, mostly due to the strange weather patterns that have produced late rain and hotter temperatures than normal and which are now followed by wind.

Bird activity has been virtually zero from about 10.30am until about 4pm leaving a huge time window to fill; this is when it is good to be interested in photographing butterflies as well as dragonflies and damselflies as they are at their most active in the heat of the day.

I photographed the above damselfly on the stream near Haew Suwat waterfall, Khao Yai, in the middle of the day after trying harder than should be required to find even the commonest birds on 27th December. Many other damselflies were present as were large congregations of butterflies, making this a good spot to visit in the middle of the day.

Thailand Birding: Khao Yai Stakeout

The well-known stakeout behind the toilets at Pha Gluai Mai campsite, Khao Yai, produced a few birds yesterday morning. Most of the Thai photographers are camped out on Doi Lang and Mae Wong these days so there seems to be little feeding of the birds at this stakeout in Khao Yai and consequently birds that have visited in previous years are not performing right now: most notably Blue Pitta and Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo.

Although Phil Round had told me that the Ground Cuckoos had been calling a week earlier (although not seen) we neither heard nor saw this species at the stakeout and these days there are very few sightings at this formerly reliable spot.

All is not lost, though, and this great Orange-headed Thrush was extremely tame, coming within a few feet of me allowing for these photographs using a point-and-shoot digital camera.

Other species seen at the stakeout were a male White-rumped Shama, adult male Siberian Blue Robin and a pair of Puff-throated Babblers.

Overall birding at Khao Yai right now is very slow but we have seen some nice birds in Red-headed and Orange-breasted Trogons, Great Hornbill, Siamese Fireback, White-throated Rock Thrush, Mugimaki Flycatcher, Black-throated Laughingthrush, Long-tailed and Banded Broadbills, Slaty-backed Forktail, Golden-crested Myna and Great Slaty Woodpecker.

Thailand Birding: Great Hornbill

There are lots of great birds to see in Thailand but one of the best, to me, is the Great Hornbill. Whilst it is not the rarest bird, it is certainly one of the most memorable and any sighting is a highlight in my opinion: a few years ago I did a survey and Great Hornbill was voted the third most wanted bird by birders visiting Thailand.

Great Hornbill Calling Poster Available on Amazon.com

Great Hornbills are striking looking birds but when you hear them flying over the forest canopy the sound is amazing. I have had people ask me in the past if a helicopter is overhead; the surprise on their faces when I tell them it is a Great Hornbill is quite funny.

I see Great Hornbills virtually every time I go to Kaeng Krachan or Khao Yai national parks, but it is one of those birds I never tire of seeing and every time it is one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Thailand Birding: Wetland and Forest Birds in July

July is not the time of year that most birders plan a visit to Thailand but if it is the only time that is available it shouldn't put you off. On 22nd July I visited wetlands at Muang Boran Fishponds, Bang Poo and Bang Poo Soi 119 with Mark and Jonty Hiley and it turned out to be a good visit too.

Wet Season Specialities
There are some birds that are just not around during the dry season or they are scarce and/or in drab winter plumage, but in the wet season they are easily found and/or in summer plumage. We enjoyed beautiful summer plumage Pheasant-tailed Jacanas, Javan Pond Herons, Asian Golden Weavers and Baya Weavers and also saw a couple of Black Bitterns and Oriental Pratincoles along with a male Watercock - these sights would not be available in the dry season, although one would see more species at that time of year.

Other Interesting Birds
Two Stork-billed Kingfishers at Muang Boran Fishponds were the morning's highlight, but Yellow Bittern, Asian Openbill, Painted Stork, Collared Kingfisher, Golden-bellied Gerygone, Striated Grassbird, Bronze-winged Jacana, White-browed Crake and a flight view of Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker were all nice additions to the above mentioned species.

A real surprise was a female Thick-billed Pigeon in a low tree at Bang Poo which was obviously exhausted. Perhaps it had got caught up in a storm and blown from some forest quite distant from Bangkok.

Off to Khao Yai
At around 1pm we moved on to Khao Yai, arriving outisde the park at about 4pm. We did some birding outisde the park, seeing Red-breasted Parakeet, Black-collared Starlings on a nest, Coppersmith Barbet, Lineated Barbet, Ashy Drongo, Spangled Drongo and a female Plain-backed Sparrow but perhaps the best bird was a juvenile Mountain Hawk Eagle near the bat cave which we managed to get perched and viewable in the telescope.

Khao Yai
On the 23rd we entered Khao Yai national park.

When spending just one day in the forest in the wet season the worry is that it will rain all day and there will be few birds, but apart from about 45 minutes rain in the monring we were lucky. The first sighting was an Asian Elephant feeding by the side of the road from the fire station lookout. We found out later that 2 silly people had stopped their motorbike and got off to take photos and were then attacked by the elephant. Luckily they got away unhurt but give some respect to these animals, they can be dangerous.

Great Hornbill
(Photo by Merl Arnot)

Although things were slow at times, patience and a positive attitude resulted in a lot of good sightings. The most enjoyable birds of the day were Great Hornbill, Oriental Pied Hornbill, Green Magpie, Laced Woodpecker, Black-and-buff Woodpecker, Red-headed Trogon, Orange-breasted Trogon, White-crested Laughingthrush, White-browed Scimitar-babbler, Green-eared Barbet, Moustached Barbet, Sultan Tit, Hill Myna, Golden-crested Myna and Thick-billed Pigeon, in fact it was a pretty decent list of birds, seen well, for just one day.

The journey back to Bangkok took about 3 hours.

Thailand Birding: Eared Pitta Photograph

Sometimes when you are birdwatching, you just get lucky.

One morning in March I was birding at Khao Yai National Park with Merl & Marty Arnot and it seemed that our luck was out with light but persistent rain and poor visibility. After watching a number of common birds like Black-naped Oriole, Green-eared Barbet, Asian Fairy Bluebird and Scarlet Minivet, I suggested a walk on the loop trail near the old HQ where I had seen Eared Pittas before.

Excellent Views of Male and Female Eared Pittas
We had walked only about 400 metres along the trail when a brownish bird flew from the ground along the trail in front of us and luckily landed within view. All three of us managed to get an excellent view of a female Eared Pitta, foraging around in the undergrowth. After some time I heard more rustling around a short distance away and saw the male. We watched both birds at a distance of about 10 metres for roughly 10 minutes before Merl asked if he could get closer for a photo. Given the light and the fact that he would have to be very close I didn't think there was much chance but the Pittas didn't seem concerned by us so I told him to go ahead.

The Photo
Merl sneaked forward a step at a time and unbelievably got to within about 5 metres of the male Eared Pitta. Even so, with the poor light conditions, the fact that Merl was not using flash and that the Pitta was constantly moving its head as it foraged I thought the chance of a decent shot was very slim indeed. Then, as if on cue, the Pitta froze, totally motionless, allowing Merl to get a photo even in very low light conditions - amazing.

Thailand Birding: Khao Yai in the Wet

Khao Yai national park is one of the busiest national parks in Thailand and at certain times (typically public holidays in the dry season) it can get uncomfortably busy. However, it was lovely to visit the park in mid May this year (16th-18th) and to see the park with very few other people around.

Now, very few birders make the trip to Thailand in the wet season and it is certainly true that a dry season visit will produce many more species, but I actually find the wet season very good for birding in the forest and this trip lived up to that.

In fact it wasn't really wet at all with only about 1 hour's birding being lost to rain.

Birds such as Red-headed and Orange-breasted Trogon were easy to find and broadbills were very vocal so it didn't take much effort to see Banded, Silver-breasted and Long-tailed Broadbills in one morning. Lots of other resident species were abundant and easily seen, species like Thick-billed Pigeon, Moustached Barbet, Green-eared Barbet, Oriental Pied Hornbill, Green Magpie etc were all nice. One of the highlights, as ever, were fantastic views of Great Hornbills. I have seen this species 100s of times but it is still always a highlight of any trip for me.

Another couple of nice birds which I wouldn't really expect to see outside the rainy season were a Stork-billed Kingfisher at Pa Gluai Mai campsite and 3 Hooded Pittas in a territorial dispute.

Other Wildlife

White-banded Hedge Blue by Nick Upton

Apart from an abundance of birds, this trip also turned up a lot of other wildlife, including this  White-banded Hedge Blue butterfly above which was feeding on rotting fruit.

The wet season is the best time to see elephants at Khao Yai and sure enough there was one sub adult at a salt lick by the side of the road one evening. The commonest mammals at Khao Yai are Variable Squirrel, Pig-tailed Macaque, Sambar, Muntjac and Cambodian Striped Squirrel and these were frequently seen. Other mammals that I saw included Yellow-throated Marten, Common Palm Civet, Golden Jackal, Grey-bellied Squirrel and a fantastic White-handed Gibbon laying back on branch taking an afternoon nap.

For the real wildlife enthusiast there were a whole range of lizards all around, including some water monitors and a wonderful python on the road one night.

All in all you shouldn't let the rainy season put you off of visiting Thailand for birdwatching, although the leeches were quite voracious!

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.