Red-billed Scimitar Babbler

I recently had the honor of spending 12 days with Bob and Ann Walton in Central and Northern Thailand. They have birded 50 some years and seen over 8000 species so it was a challenge to find lifers for them. This Red-billed Scimitar Babbler was to be the last of the lifers with me which tallied up to 32 for the 12 days we had together.

Dave Sargeant had tipped me off to a place at Doi Lang where he had previously seen these birds. Sure enough, a pair of them came in to playback and stayed around for some time.

This was only my 2nd encounter of these birds in Thailand so I was very pleased.

I haven't been able to find many pix of the birds online so I suppose it isn't that common anywhere in it's range.

Comments

Linda said…

Lovely. Thank you for sharing.

March 26, 2012 at 8:22 AM

Wut Tum Prathoon, Chonburi

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lndian Thick-knee in Bangkok!

This is the first photograph of an Indian Thick-knee from Bangkok on eBird. I stumbled across it this morning on a site in Nong Chok district of Bangkok. A big surprise that brought about a grin on my face! Like a ray of light it gave me joy!

Small Pratincole, a first for Bangkok!

I didn’t go out this morning as I had some things to take care of at home. Checking eBird I noticed someone had 2 Red-necked Stints at Latkrabang. Since I haven’t seen them this year in Bangkok I thought I’d give it a go. Got there at 14:30 and the muddy field was full of little peeps. Loads of Little Ringed-Plovers, Long-toed Stints and Temminck’s Stint but no Red-necked. The field was very large so I thought I’d walk on a narrow bund for a bit. Scanning with my KOWA TSN 88 Prominar I suddenly saw something that caught my attention. I had seen several Oriental Pratincoles in my search for the stint but these two birds had slightly pinkish chests and strong eye ring. Could it really be what I started to think? Yes, Small Pratincoles on the mud resting in the scorching sun! Not only a first for my Bangkok list but a first for Bangkok period! My friend Sam Hambly also arrived in time to approach the birds a bit closer and he was as happy as I was and said 'a lot better then ...

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