Thaibirds and more

There are 2 BIG TIME rarities in this photo. See if you can tell what they are! BINGO IKE! There has been a single Black-faced Spoonbill in the area for a few weeks now. That huge 'spatula' of a bill really stands out. Black-faced Spoonbill is an endangered species and shows up in Thailand as a vagrant in very small numbers. A few years back I got very close to a pair of them. http://www.pbase.com/peterericsson/blackfacedspoonbill The Milky Stork is even rarer. Mainly confined to Sumatra where a few thousand exist. In Thailand it is extremely rare. There were 2 birds mixed in with 6 Painted Storks.

The dry season is a good time to look for partridges in the forest as the rustling of the birds feet give them away. Still, it is very difficult to get any shots. These shots were taken from a blind by a waterhole where some bird feed had been put out as well. First to the feast was the rather non descript Scaly-breasted Partridge. Easily the most common and vocal partridge in the Central region. What I was hoping for was to be able to get close views of Bar-backed Partridges. I associate these birds with moderate levels of mountains but they had been reported from Ban SongNok which is a forested area almost at sea level. Scaly-breasted is a daily visitor but the Bar-backed coming in is a new happening. Perhaps the abundance of food and water helped to bring them to the area? These birds are so nicely decorated. A group of 4 showed up to my delight. A visit to Ban SongNok is a most rewarding experience.

I went to Kaengkrachan with my son Jaime and a friend from Sweden: Bengt Legnell. We mainly wanted to target owls. We heard 8 different species in the evening: Barred Eagle Owl, Brown Hawk Owl, Asian Barred Owlet, Collared Scops Owl, White-fronted Scops Owl, Oriental Bay Owl, Collared Owlet and Mountain Scops Owl.......the WFS was our main target and we were very close to it but failed to see it. It called for hours but wouldn't show. However, a Javan Frogmouth was a much overdue lifer for me. So happy to finally see one. Blue Pitta showed well on a trail and then in the late afternoon a Leopard gave views on the road. I have seen the black version before but this was my 1st time with the spotted one.

The new year started out with a big surprise. The Spot-winged Starling is a bird normally only seen within the forest of Thungyai Nareusuan World Heritage Forest complex in Western Thailand. It requires a 4 WD and take up to 10 hours to get there. Instead, I was tipped off that a few of these birds had been showing in some flowering trees near a sub-station of Kaengkrachan. I waited quite some time and then at around 5:30 3 birds showed up. No good pictures but a lifer and an unexpected species. The birds are resident in Northern India but have a somewhat of a western - eastern movement in winter when a few birds are found in Northern Myanmar and Thailand.

I was out birding with Richard and Liz King from Australia when we recieved a tip off some unusual Starlings at a garbage dump at Lampakbia. A short wait and our bins were on the very rare Brahimy Starling as well as a Common Starling. The former a lifer for me and the latter a Thai tick. I only had time to document the sightings but later home that night I posted the images on a Thai website. In a couple of days no less then 50 photographers had invaded the garbage dump and were showing their works online. A week later I had the opportunity together with Roland Graf from Germany to put myself in a blind. This is the result. The bird has now taken to free hand outs of meal worms and hopefully it will remain throughout the season for more visiting birders to see.

Most folks get excited at seeing the remarkably decorated Heart-spotted Woodpecker. By no means a guarantee but not necessarily left without on a birding trip. However this WP, the Black and Buff is a lot harder to see and easily confused with the Heart-spotted. It has a rather restricted distribution range stretching from Northern and Central Myanmar all the way to Vietnam but not reaching into China. The nape and the hindneck is all white which is the easiest way to tell the birds from Heart-spotted. The male has a read submoustachial strip something the female is not adorned with. 1600/IMG_2689.jpg"> 1600/IMG_2679.jpg"> Not a bird but never the less a lifer. The rare Fea's Barking Deer. Much darker in complextion then the regular Barking Deer so often seen.

The forest is as we all know a real challenge to photograph birds. (Yes, I know, even seeing birds can be very hard at times)......so it was with great anticipation I set behind a blind at Bahng Songnok waiting to see what would show up. I was under the impression that the Red-legged Crake is a wet season visitor at Kaengkrachan so I was surprised to see this bird show up. This bird was the definite highlite of my day as I have been wanting to photography it for a long long time. Often encountered on a birding walk but seldom seen. Large Scimitar Babbler. Also from Bahn Songnok. This lovely resident warbler has an easily recognized voice. It likes bamboo in the hills. Yellow-bellied Warbler. The Golden Babbler likes it in the thick scrub. This one was lured out with playback Likewise the Red-bearded Bee-eater is a hard to find bird at Kaengkrachan. With its striking colors a definite highlight of my day at Panern Thung.