Birding Thailand - 2010


On January 21, the trip I had been planning to Thailand since November got cancelled. Rapidly scrambling through the internet fortunately turned up one last spot on a Rockjumpers trip leaving a couple weeks earlier. Nabbed that spot and successfully changed plane reservations, and so off to Thailand from mid-February through early March. Led by Uthai Treesucon, maybe the best birding guide in Thailand, our small group included two guys from Canada, two from Florida, a couple from Puerto Rico, and for the first few days a guy from Australia. Great group, excellent guide, and overall a super trip.

This trip was more intensive (relentless?) birding than my other trips, starting each day around 5 am and not stopping until around 7:30pm. In 17 days, the group saw or heard a total of 475 species of birds, as well as several kinds of monkeys, gibbons, mongoose, sambar, muntjac, mouse-deer, and sundry other flora and fauna.

Here are some of my pictures from the trip, using my Nikon D90, usually with the 70-300mm lens at 300mm, with a few using the standard 18-105 mm lens. As always, some things are only captured as memories, such as the wonderful wai greetings, way-overloaded pickup trucks, omnipresent pictures of the benevolent king and glittering temples everywhere, and did I mention the leeches?

Click on any of the thumbnails below to see a larger view of any of the pictures in a new window


After a quick visit to a small marsh, we spent a good part of the first day at the salt harvesting area of Samut Sakhon, before cooling off at an enviromental research park, and then heading on to Kaeng Krachan National Park.

Birding the Flats

Salt Harvesting

Salt Flats

Salt Workers

Off they go

White-throated
Kingfisher

Plain
Prinia

Water
Monitor

Red-wattled
Lapwing

Dusky Leaf
Monkey
Kaeng Krachan National Park rewarded us with some excellent views of hornbills and dusky leaf monkeys.

Great
Hornbill

Great
Hornbill

Great
Hornbill

Great
Hornbill

Dusky Leaf
Monkey

Dusky Leaf
Monkey

Red-bearded
Bee-eater

Brown
Hawk-Owl

Market
After several days at Kaeng Krachan, we drove back through Bangkok on our way to Khao Yai National Park, spending a few more hours at Samut Sakhon unsuccessfully searching for the spoon-billed sandpiper. Based at Juldis Khao Yai Resort, we spent several days being entertained by more monkeys, gibbons, and hornbills, and in tracking down quite a few new birds.

Flower

Silver
Pheasant

Pipe
Vine

White-rumped
Shama

Chestnut-headed
Bee-eater

White-handed
Gibbon

Pig-tailed
Macaque

Pig-tailed
Macaque

Pig-tailed
Macaque

Banded
Kingfisher

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