This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Being a shy and skulking bird of the reedbeds, the Black Bittern is evidently rather a tough one to find, especially out of the breeding season. So I couldn’t make it through an entire post about birding in Thailand without having at least one photo of a bee-eater, broadbill, kingfisher or pitta. But I guess you guessed that.
Distributed across a broad swath of territory that includes India’s Himalayan foothills, Thailand, Indochina, peninsular Malaysia and western Indonesia, this species occurs in moist or semi-evergreen forests that may include secondary growth and degraded habitats in its native range. Common Hill Myna’s range in South Florida.
While this merganser does maintain a strong presence in China throughout the year, it may breed as far north as Russia and winter as far south as Thailand. It is also a species in rapid decline, considered vulnerable by some authorities and endangered by others.
This map shows the distribution of the World’s bird species, based on overlying the breeding and wintering ranges of all known species. Thailand (925 / 948). It makes me think what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything? Why am I here? And where all those birds are? Map by BirdLife International. The Oriental realm.
I saw one other species of stork on the river, the Lesser Adjutant , a species that can be seen in Borneo but one people aren’t sure even breeds in Borneo anymore. But the news isn’t entirely gloomy, as numbers of Asian Openbill Storks have recovered in Thailand after crashing. Greater Adjutants are even rarer.
The story is similar for the Red-breasted Parakeet – native and Near Threatened in Thailand and surrounding countries, but with an established breeding population in Singapore, quite likely established from escapees.
A target bird was next, the Pheasant-tailed Jacana, which was sadly not in breeding plumage but was still attractive. It’s actually a surprisingly nice location and one you can ge a lot of great birds that are hard to get elsewhere in Thailand. And if you are going to Thailand and need a bird guide be sure to look Peter up!
The first title of the ‘official’ series (there were two ‘prequels’) was “ Birds of Thailand “, published in 2018. For species with more than one subspecies in the region, the separate resident/breeding ranges of the distinct subspecies are indicated on the map.
A lovely looking and distinctive sounding bird (so they say, I sadly have not seen one…yet), the Kirtland’s Warbler can only be found during its breeding season in Jack Pine forests 5 to 20 years old in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. It’s clear that this is a writing project performed with avian devotion and love.
Such programs are somewhat inefficient anyway – in one study , the breeding success of wild male pheasants was 2-5 times higher than for hand-reared and released ones while for females, hand-reared birds were 3 times as vulnerable to predation as the wild ones.
In the 70s, with the survival of the species in jeopardy, the entire wild population was captured and brought into a captive breeding program in southern California. Thailand’s Adopt a Vulture Program – YC Wee, Bird Ecology Study Group. The California Condor has a story well-known by anyone with an interest in birds.
Apparently, when breeding, the two parents divide incubation duties, with one bird taking over the daytime duties and another one the nighttime. With a picture of the then-queen of Thailand on it, if I remember correctly. At between 4 pm and 6 pm, to be exact. Of course, many people still know exactly what they did when this happened.
The Brown-headed Gull is a bird of Asia, breeding from Turkmenistan to Mongolia, and winters along the coasts of Asia. This gull is closely related to, and necessary to separate from, the Black-headed Gull , a bird familiar to any birder from Europe (or even just anyone from Europe!). Notice the white iris.
I am not sure about the security situation in Iraq these days but at least some people do ornithological research there – resulting in papers such as one titled “Breeding observations of the Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus (Desfontaines , 1789) in Iraq” Impressive.
Perhaps you don’t know it yet, but with more than 1000 bird species, palm-fringed sandy beaches, developed tourism infrastructure, moderate prices and political stability, Thailand is a country you definitively want to visit. Binoculars and a field guide, perhaps a scope and anti-leech hiking socks too. Everything else is secondary.
On the way I managed to sneak in a manic day of birding in and around the capital of Thailand, Bangkok. I must confess I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time, as the related Australian White Ibis is something of a trash bird in Sydney, but this species is extremely rare in Thailand or for that matter South East Asia.
In Grey-backed Shrikes (at least those breeding on the Tibetan plateau), the eggs laid during one breeding attempt get larger with time – presumably an attempt to at least partly overcome the disadvantages the last chick faces ( source ). I lowered the volume and after a while they got used to it and slowly went back to sleep.”
I’ve seen Eurasian Wrynecks two times, once in India, not a very good look, and once in northern Thailand, a memorable encounter involving a chance glance from my third-floor hotel window down to a neighboring field, an unusual movement and silhouette, and a grab for my bins and camera. .”
I got to see a beautiful female and owlet on a trip to a secret nest location near Howard Prairie Lake (human-made nest structures have enhanced local breeding for these huge owls whose nest success is boosted to 83% on artificial platforms vs. 66% at natural sites). Larry’s BBOTY – Great Gray Owl.
Insofar as they relate to other bird families, they are perhaps closest to the thornbills, another family that is mostly Australian but reaches as far as Thailand and Fiji. Outside the breeding season they may tarvel in large flocks looking for outbreaks of these bugs. That isn’t to say it’s easy, however.
We have observed an individually marked Grey-tailed Tattler from Taiwan each year in the non-breeding part of their year since late 2012 and it is especially nice to see its safe return to Broome each year. Wherever you travel to for your Christmas holiday we wish you all the best and may some interesting birds cross your path!
My review copy (well, actually a contributor’s copy—more on that later) was waiting for me when I returned from the ABA birding tour of Thailand and Malaysia (more on that in a separate post) in early March. As I expected, there is a lot to talk about here. Range and Geographic Variation.
So, inspired by a similar article on road birding in Thailand, I present road birding in New Zealand. As with any kind of road birding, birding as a car passenger in New Zealand generally restricts the kind of birds you’re going to see.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 30+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content