Brahimy Starling

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.

Comments

Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok said…

Such a nice opportunity for Thai birders! I wonder why there are still so few photos of the Common Starling...

January 10, 2011 at 1:44 AM

Ike said…

Beautiful photographs of a remarkable bird ... I still would vote this one as the most handsome of all starlings in Thailand! -Great work with teh camera Peter!

January 19, 2011 at 9:21 AM

Wut Tum Prathoon, Chonburi

About an hour and 20 minutes drive from my home in Bangkok there is a temple on a little hill. The hill is surrounded by a forest that hold both resident and migratory birds. At the temple there is a permanent hide with seating for about 8 people. The hide is for free. A hose with dripping water and a bath is set up for the birds. This hide has some regular species that make use of the water as continuously. I have visited the hide a few times, mainly mid day when birds are hot and come to bath. Here is a sample of birds I have seen of late. Siberian Blue Robin, female Emerald Dove Amur Paradise Flycatcher Streak-eared Bulbul Black-headed Bulbul Racket-tailed Treepie Sooty-headed Bulbul Eye-browed Thrush Chestnut-flanked White-eye Orange-headed Thrush Black-crested Bulbul Verditer Flycatcher Oriental Magpie Robin

Emerald Cuckoo

This shiny little bird always causes excitement. Quite easy to observe at Pah Gloaymai campsite at Khao Yai during the right time of year. It is simply very busy gleaning grubs from the fairly low trees found at the campsite.

Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler and Lanceolated Warbler

It took me quite some time to develop an interest in various types of Warblers. There are so many other more obvious birds full of color and easier to see then this often rather skulky group of birds. But evidently one starts to wonder what is making all those sounds that eminate from the reed beds so armed with curiosity and a lot of trial and error the quest began. This spring before these bird migrated to their breeding grounds in Siberia etc I spent more time getting to know them and trying to learn both sounds and behavior a bit better. One of the more attractive one is the Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler aka Rusty-rumped Warbler. It belongs to the family of Locustella warblers but this family which now has been split in to 2 clades. Helopsaltes is a genus of passerine birds in the grassbird family Locustellidae . A comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the grassbird family Locustellidae published in 2018 found that the genus Locustella consist...

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