Thailand Northern Specialties Tour report 2015

20th February - 5th March

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:
Either for rarity value, excellent views or simply a group favourite.

Mountain Bamboo-Partridge Rufous-throated Partridge Hume’s Pheasant Chinese Egret Milky Stork Black-faced Spoonbill Eurasian Bittern Eastern Water Rail Black Baza Pied Harrier Collared Falconet Asiatic Dowitcher Long-billed Dowitcher Nordmann’s Greenshank Spoon-billed Sandpiper Malaysian Plover Small Pratincole Oriental Pratincole Asian Emerald Cuckoo Blossom-headed Parakeet Hodgson’s Frogmouth Speckled Woodpigeon Indochinese Cuckooshrike Dark-sided Thrush

Vivid Niltava Pale Blue Flycatcher White-bellied Redstart Scarlet-faced Liocichla Burmese Shrike Slaty-backed Forktail Baikal Bush Warbler Lanceolated Warbler Grey-crowned Warbler Daurian Starling Red-billed Starling Giant Nuthatch Fire-capped Tit Slaty-bellied Tesia White-necked Laughingthrush Pygmy Wren-Babbler Clicking Shrike-Babbler Black-throated Parrotbill Grey-headed Parrotbill Spot-breasted Parrotbill Asian Golden Weaver Black-headed Greenfinch Spot-winged Grosbeak Crested Bunting

SUMMARY:

The focus of this tour is to enjoy the wonderful birds of Thailand’s northern mountains of Doi Lang, Doi Ang Khang and Doi Inthanon. Each tour we do to this wonderful country produces an enviable list of quality birds and we always seem to find quite a few extra special species. This particular tour certainly provided our keen group with quite a few highlights with a nesting Hodgson’s Frogmouth being a particular favourite, although a close flock of Black-headed Greenfinches was pretty good, and who could forget the male Hume’s Pheasant or the singing Baikal Bush Warbler? Photo opportunities at the numerous feeding stations were superb and sometimes the birds are just too close! With a post-tour extension to see Spoon-billed Sandpiper resulting in 40 species of shorebird including a Long-billed Dowitcher in a flock of Asian Dowitchers, some Nordmann’s Greenshanks and nesting Asian Golden Weavers we really had a fun time! For the most complete birding experience in Asia, then Thailand remains the no 1 destination.

 

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