Lumthakhong Dam, Thailand

Water birds Galore, Lifers All

April 26, 2012

The visit to the Lumthakhong Dam, near Khao Yai, was exhilarating to say the least. The bird life there - mostly water birds - was very diverse and they were all over the place. What I saw easily puts Singapore's Sungei Buloh in the shade.

Here's a montage of some of the birds. Do excuse the poor quality of the photos. Morning light and excited hands do not great photographs make. The ID of the birds are in the photographs. 

Birds of Khao Yai, Thailand

Khao Yai is a bird watcher's paradise

All, except one (White-rumped Sharma), are my lifers

Here's a collection of photos of some of the birds I saw in the Khao Yai National Park (April 25-26, 2012). 

White-rumped Sharma

Collared Owlet

Great Hornbill (Female)

Moustached Barbet

Red-wattled Lapwing

Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters

Grey-backed Shrike

Great Hornbill (Male)

Slaty-backed Forktail

Pak Chong Park, Thailand

City Birds

First, Pak Chong is not a large town but the city park is very lively with the chirping and twittering of many kinds of birds. The town is just over 40km from the Khao Yai National Park.

However, the early sightings of the baby and adult Asian Barred Owlet (Glaucidium cuculoides) - a lifer for me - made me ignore the rest of the park's residents. And you can see why - they are sooooo cute and good looking. Small, compact and with gorgeous feather patterns.

Baby eyes the surroundings

Parent keeps watch from a neighbouring tree

On the way out, some birds were seen foraging on the ground. Pinkish-brown buff with long bills, broad black and white bands on the wings and with black-marked crests on their heads, this was another lifer for me for sure. They turned out to be the Common Hoopoe (Upupa epops). They eat non-stop and move from spot to spot very quickly. A photo and a short video of the bird are attached.

Here's looking at you kid

The Hatchlings

April being at the tail-end of Spring, it was with a bit of good fortune that I chanced upon two hatchlings - one in the Pak Chong Park, and the other at the Lumthakhong Dam, a haven for water birds. 

This cute baby is the Asian Barred Owlet (Glaucidium cuculoides). It is the size of a shot putt ball and was last seen perching quietly and stilly on a dead branch in the Pak Chong Park:

The second baby I saw was busy having breakfast alone in the shallows of the reservoir at the Lumthakhong Dam; it's a Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus):

Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

Great Hornbills rule the roost

The Khao Yai National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is Thailand's oldest and best-known national park. It is an ecological wonderland and boasts some 390 bird species. I am told it is larger than Singapore.

As for the bird life there, the king of them all for me is the Great Hornbill (Buceros bicornis)

Biometrics:

Length: 95-105 cm

Poids: Male - 26-34 kg; Female - 21.5-33.5 kg

Feeding the young inside a hollow of the tree trunk, Papa (left) with fruit in beak while Mummy gives instructions.

The Great Hornbill is the largest of the hornbills. They form life-long monogamous relationships.

Their distinctive call "kok kok" resonates through the valleys and hence are easier to spot.

Breeding pairs forage for food together and the feeding interval is about an hour. It is interesting to note that the female (whitish eyes and has less black on the casque than the male) arrives first but she waits in a neighbouring tree for the male, which is larger and has red eyes, to fly in. It is always a breathtaking sight to see this huge bird land, it was almost like watching an airplane land accompanied with the whooshing sound made with the flapping of its large wings. 

Interestingly, the male will feed the young first standing on the perch outside the nest. It regurgitates many berries and fruit (see photo above) and pokes its head into the narrow cavity of the tree trunk to feed. The female waits here turn on a lower brand. She feeds her young with insects which provide protein and calcium (picture on the right). The order of feeding may indicate what type of food should be ingested first.

Do watch the videos on the feeding process.

1. Papa feeding young with fruit:

2. Mummy waiting her turn:

3. Mummy feeding her young with insects:

4. Mummy's off to forage:

At another location, a lone male was spotted feeding fruit to the nesting female inside the tree trunk. It coughed out at least 20 berries. It, too, foraged for about an hour before returning to the tree to feed its mate, which has sealed herself and her young in with a barrier made mainly with faeces.

 Striated Heron (formerly known as Little Heron) 
(Butorides striatus)

(Note: a kind reader pointed out to me that this is the Striated Heron or Little Heron and not the Black-crowned Night Heron)


Revisiting one of my favourite bird watching sites, the Pasir Ris Park, after the Chinese New Year was somewhat of a let-down after all the earlier excitement of seeing the Mangrove Pitta, Spotted Owl and Pied Hornbill there.


It was quite late in the afternoon but the sun was still shining brightly through the mangrove trees with rays of brilliant light piercing the canopy. Not much was in sight except for small crabs and mud skippers, and the call of the kingfishers was in full blast.


Suddenly, a small movement momentarily caught my eyes. Standing still and quietly in order to not startle whatever it was, I spied a skinny hen-sized bird moving among the mangrove roots. Dark bluish on top with a white body and pointy beaks. Through the binoculars, I saw this fairly common water bird, the Striated Heron or Little Heron having a late afternoon snack, pulling long slimy things out of the mud.


Here's a video recording of it.

End

2012: Lifer No. 7


Watercock
This one's female but it's not called a Waterhen

Watercock (front), Waterhen (rear); they are not related

THE birders' forum was abuzz earlier this week with a new sighting of a rarely-seen bird, a Watercock (Gallicrex cinerea), in Singapore.

The water fowl was spotted at the Eco Park within the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Wikipedia says it is a "waterbird in the rail and crake family Rallidae.  It is the only member of the genus Gallicrex.


"Their breeding habitat is swamps across south Asia from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka to south China, Japan and Indonesia."

Gorgeous feather markings

Despite being endemic to this region, knowledgeable birders say it is rarely seen here. The one in the photo is a non-breeding female. 

The male "have mainly black-grey plumage with red legs, bill, forehead shield and horn.

"They nest in a dry location on the ground in marsh vegetation, laying 3-6 eggs. These large rails are mainly permanent residents throughout their range.

"The body of this rail is flattened laterally to allow easier passage through the reeds or undergrowth. It has long toes and a short tail.

"These birds probe with their bill in mud or shallow water, also picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects and small fish and seeds. They forage on the ground.

Pointy face, smallish head

"Watercock are quite secretive, but are sometimes seen out in the open. They are noisy birds, especially at dawn and dusk, with a loud, gulping call."

The Watercock was observed to want to stay and forage for food round a badelygne of Lesser Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna javanica), also known as Indian Whistling Duck (see footnote) and a pair of Black Swan. But it seems to be less tolerant of the common White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) and would chase it away when it got too close.

I am glad this odd-looking bird adds to my list of lifers for this year.

Footnote: The Lesser Whistling Duck (photo below), also known as Indian Whistling Duck, is a small whistling duck which breeds in South Asia and southeast Asia. It may also be called the Lesser Whistling Teal (based on an older classification), or the Tree Duck. This duck is usually seen at the end of the year until the first few months of the new year.

Ends