Thailand June 2016

I had a nice couple of weeks back over in Thailand in June after finishing up with the consultancy work. It wasn't totally all about the birding on this trip but I did go down to the south of the country for a bit of birding around Krabi, Khao Nor Chu Chi NP and Khao Sok NP. It rained most of the time I was down here but I still managed a couple of nice birds during a couple of wet walks,such as the following highlights:

Mangrove Pitta
Hooded Pitta
Blue-winged Pitta
Ruddy Kingfisher
Brown-winged Kingfisher
Red-bearded Bee-eater
Oriental Paradise-Flycatcher (white morph with long tail)
Rufous-winged Philontoma
Vernal Hanging-Parrot

Also saw a couple of cool reptiles, such as Cross-bearing Tree Lizard and Crested Forest Lizard.

Ruddy Kingfisher

Cross-bearing Tree Lizard

Crested Forest Lizard

New Pitta

Just back from my month long birding trip round South Australia and Queensland. Recorded something in the vicinity of 435 birds, and saw an incredible range of other animals such as Duck-billed Platypus, Koala, Echidna, Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat, lots of Kangaroos and Wallabies and a range of cool lizards, snakes and frogs. I'll be writing up my report as I get time over the next few weeks and months and adding some photos here and there from what was a highly enjoyable trip.

For now, Pitta Number 11: Noisy Pitta. I had this bird in Lamington National Park near dawn. It's call which sounds like "walk-to-work" was easy to pick up and by following the call I was soon able to enjoy views of this rather large pitta. This bird was one of 4/5 birds calling from a small area of forest. I also recorded this species at several other locations throughout Queensland.

Noisy Pitta

Malaysia Birding March 2013: Summary

Just back from a 3 week birding trip to a few sites on Peninsula Malaysia: Kuala Selengor (KS), Fraser's Hill  (FH) and Taman Negara (TN). I've wanted to go to Taman Negara for years and it certainly lived up to it's reputation (199 species in 10 days).  There were many varied highlights from the trip from all locations.  I'll put a proper Trip Report together when I have time... but for now, some of the highlights included:

Rusty-naped Pitta: 2 heard FH (1 of these seen Bishop's Trail, FH) - note 3 Dutch birders and 1 Danish birder also had sighting of a RNP on the Maxwell Trail at FH either side of my sighting.
Garnet Pitta: 3 heard TN (2 of these seen TN)
Banded Pitta: 1 heard TN (not seen unfortunately)
Hooded Pitta: 4 heard TN (3 of these seen TN)
Blue-winged Pitta: 4 recorded. 1 heard KS, 1 heard TN and 2 others seen TN

Rail-Babbler: 3 heard TN (1 of these seen TN)
Goulds Frogmouth: 2 seen TN, one during daylight (+ 1 other heard at TN)

Malaysian Partridge: 3 seen FH
Malaysian Peacock-Pheasant: 3/4 heard/seen in TN
Malaysian Laughingthrush: several seen at FH

Rufous-collared Kingfisher: 3 seen TN
Banded Kingfisher: 1 seen TN (+ 1/2 others heard TN) and 1 seen near Kuala Lumpur
Blue-banded Kingfisher: 2 pairs seen along Tahan River TN

Green Broadbill: 2/3 pairs seen at TN
Banded Broadbill: 1 male seen at TN (+ others heard TN)
Black-and-Yellow Broadbill: 3/4 seen at TN (+ others heard TN) and 1 seen near Kuala Lumpur
Long-tailed Broadbill: 4/5 pairs seen at FH including 2 pairs found nesting FH
Black-and-Red Broadbill: Very common TN

A massive range of other species including 19 species of Woodpecker (including Bamboo at the Gap FH), 4 Trogons, 23 species of Flycatcher, 21 species of Bulbul (including Black-and-White and Finch's), 32 species of Babblers and a really good mix of migrants including Oriental Honey Buzzard (one flock of 126 was quite impressive over FH), Black Baza (KS), Siberian, Eye-browed and Orange-headed Thrushes, Tiger and Brown Shrikes, Asian Brown, Yellow-rumped and Mugimaki Flycatchers, Arctic, Eastern Crowned and Yellow-browed Warblers.

Plenty of other birds too.. sunbirds, flowerpeckers, spiderhunters, warblers, bee-eaters, raptors, owls, nightjars, cuckoos, barbets, hornbills, orioles, herons, kingfishers, swifts (inc Whiskred and Grey-rumped Treeswifts), forktails, leafbirds, pigeons etc... the list goes on.

I think I recorded in the region of 320 species in 3 weeks - note I didn't do the rice paddies/estuaries while near the coast which would have upped the 'trip-list' considerably by providing a large range of waders (most of which I've already seen so not that fussed)... I got around via taxi mainly which worked out a lot cheaper than hiring a car and was generally not a problem.

An interesting range of animals also seen including several snakes (almost stood on a 10ft long Black Cobra!), Tapir, White-handed Gibbon, Siamang, Langurs, Macaques, Orb-spiders, Bird-eating spiders (all spiders huge and hideous!), giant millipedes, tonnes of butterflies - some huge, some tiny, many incredibly colourful, plenty of moths - some big ones!, lizards - some flying, geckos, huge Monitor Lizards, bats, squirrels - tiny to giant, rats, tree shrews, deer (Sambar and Mouse), ants etc and the odd Mosquito and Leech!

A few pictures of some birds below: lots more photos of birds/animals/landscapes etc to sort through and will follow as and when I have time to go through them! Due to the conditions (e.g. dark forests etc many pics are taken on very high ISO, hence why they may be grainy, but in the most part I was just happy to get a record shot!)

I met some really nice visiting birders while in Malaysia (and a few local guides), all of who helped massively in finding birds, passing on gen etc and generally making the whole trip really enjoyable. Looking forward to heading back over there... Pittas are addictive!

Garnet Pitta - Taman Negara

Garnet Pitta - Taman Negara

Gould's Frogmouth - Taman Negara

  

Hooded Pitta - Taman Negara

Rail-Babbler - Taman Negara

Rufous-collared Kingfisher - Taman Negara

Malaysian Peacock-Pheasant - Taman Negara