Thailand
Central plains and National Parks + the mountains of the
north.
Kaeng Krachan, Laem Pak Bia - Pak Thale, Beung Boraphet, Mae Wong, Mae Ping, Doi Inthanon, Doi Ang Khan, Chiang Dao, Doi Lang...
January 2023 tour report Group size ; max. 6
14 - 27 January 2024 ; 4 places available, guaranteed departure
Interested? Welcome to email info@birding2asia.com
Bangkok has long proved a great base for us doing tours in Asia. This city also is 'the' gateway for birding trips in central Thailand and with Bangkok we have some of Thailand's premier birding sites and national parks within a couple hours drive. For us this feels like home and so we would like to share our experience and offer guests on this tour an unforgettable Asian birding adventure! Central Thailand with its exceptionally diverse range of habitats is an ideal introduction to the biological riches of Southeast Asia. Mudflats and saltpans abound with shorebirds (Spoony!), both coastal and inland marshes are teeming with waterbirds and the rainforest and montane evergreen forests of Kaeng Krachan and Mae Wong offer a dazzling array of distinctly tropical specialities.


Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Pak ThaleGreat Barbet, Doi Lang
We dedicate the second half of our tour to northern Thailand. Numerous mixed flocks and countless specialities are a feature in the mountains. High diversity in the north and a whole new and different set of birds are our secret to a huge bird list without making this a long tour. Expect close to if not over 400 species and we don't have to make it a rush for this. Thailand's high diversity and our knowledge should make this quite an easy journey. We just hope you may get a feel of our enthusiasm and passion for the country. No wonder we will enjoy sharing our experience of a place that we are so privileged to live in, we may call Thailand home indeed.


Asian Fairy Bluebird, Khao YaiGreen-tailed Sunbird, Doi Inthanon
Day 0 -Thursday-
Pre-tour; International arrivals in Bangkok, pick-up by
hotel shuttle, night in Bangkok.
Day 1 -Friday-
We make this an early start and head straight for the wader
areas of Pak Thale and Laem Pak Bia ; Spoon-billed
Sandpiper, Nordmann's Greenshank, boat trip for White-faced
Plover... we have been visiting this area for many years on
countless occasions and we may note that it's never failed
to deliver a great start to a tour! Night in a nice beach
resort near Hat Chao Samran!
Day 2 -Saturday-
Laem Pak Bia has a lot more on offer besides the waders and
a day list close to a 100 species is well possible
especially if the excellent marshes and nearby agricultural
area is also visited. We'll do just that today but of course
this extra day in the area would serve as a safe back-up
just in case any of the important waders eluded us the
previous day even though we don't expect much of a problem
in this quest if the tides are favourable during our visit.
In the late afternoon we may pay a short visit to the dry
dipterocarp forest at Khao Look Chang before we drive to our
nature resort near Kaeng Krachan National Park.
Day 3 + 4 -Sunday & Monday-
Two days in one of the most bird-rich forests of Thailand;
Kaeng Krachan National Park, where we will focus one day
each on the lower reaches around Ban Krang camp and the
higher part around Panoeng Thoeng mountain. Each part, at
different altitude (300m and 900m), has quite some different
birdlife and this diversity is guaranteed to offer us an
exciting and highly rewarding couple of days birding. The
permanent hides set up at waterholes near Kaeng Krachan are
not to be missed as they always reveal a number of elusive
species for prolonged looks. Species that so often only
allow a glimpse in the forest may simply put up a show
meters in front of us, delighted birders. For the
photographers; Please make sure to bring enough memory
cards!
Later we use the hot afternoon hours for the drive to our
resort near Khao Yai National Park.


Siberian Blue Robin, Kaeng KrachanBlue Pitta, Kaeng Krachan NP
Day 5 + 6 -Tuesday & Wednesday-
Two full days in Khao Yai NP. Thailand's first national park
and a World Heritage Site, is justly regarded as one of the
premier reserves in Asia. The lush evergreen forests and
grassy clearings provide ideal habitat for many birds and
mammal species. We will focus on finding the specialities of
this park and we may catch up on some species not seen
earlier at Kaeng Krachan as there is a significant overlap
in species between both parks. Khao Yai of course is also an
excellent place for mammals, we regularly see Asian
Elephants, White-handed Gibbons, East Asian Porcupine...
Day 7 -Thursday-
This morning we visit Wat Phraputtabath Noi. This temple is
set amongst beautiful limestone crags where or prime target
is the localized Limestone Wren Babbler. This special site
nowadays seems to feature on quite a few itineraries,
however few people do know that this has only been possible
because of B2A who, back in 2008 provided the public with
details of the site. Please have a look on our info page Wat
Phraputtabath Noi. We may have time for some
additional birding stops before our drive to Bangkok
airport. A one hour flight will see us arrive in northern
Thailand. From Chiang Mai airport it should only take 50
min. to our hotel near Doi Inthanon National Park.
Day 8 -Friday-
Dawn will see us at Doi Inthanon National Park gate where we
start looking for the many specialties and other goodies at
the various birding sites on the mountain. Especially the
tracks at km 37 and 34 will get our attention today. Just a
few of the birds we'll be looking for; Black-headed
Woodpecker, Collared Falconet, Green Cochoa, Dark-sided
Thrush, Slaty-bellied Tesia, Ashy Woodpigeon, Lesser
Shortwing, Eye-browed Wren Babbler, Yellow-bellied
Flowerpecker, Spectacled Barwing, Long-tailed Broadbill and
White-necked Laughingthrush...
Day 9 -Saturday-
Another full day on Doi Inthanon where we will make a quest
to reach the summit boardwalk before the crowds do so.
Specialities to look for at these heights include Pygmy Wren
Babbler (Cupwing), White-browed Shortwing, Snowy-browed
Flycatcher, Rufous-throated Partridge and Chestnut Thrush.
With the first rays of sunlight catching the moss covered
trees and rhododendrons, the flocks with Sunbirds,
Bar-throated Minla etc. become active and add plenty colour
to our visit. Temperature will be just above freezing and
that's why the kiosk selling hot chocolate, tea or coffee is
so popular while watching the Green-tailed Sunbirds flit
around in the nearby flowers.
Later on we'll visit a couple waterfalls where birds as
White-capped Water Redstart and Slaty-backed Forktail might
be expected. We spend another night just down the mountain
near the park entrance gates.


Cutia, Doi LangLong-tailed Broadbill, Doi Ang Khan
Day 10 -Sunday-
On our last full morning on Doi Inthanon we will have the
freedom to choose and revisit any areas we may have found
productive or we could target any bird species special on
the mountain and still high on the wish lists. In the
afternoon we drive to Fang, a town about 3 hours north of
Chiang Mai and a good base for our visits to the excellent
birding areas on Doi Lang and Doi Ang Khan. A couple birding
stops in interesting habitat like forest edge, rice paddy,
dry fields or open county with scattered trees may well add
some good lowland birds; Red Avadavat, Citrine Wagtail,
Rufous-winged Buzzard, Black-collared Starling, Grey-headed
Lapwing, Wire-tailed Swallow, Red-billed Blue Magpie,
Painted Snipe, Indochinese Bushlark...
Day 11 + 12 -Monday & Tuesday-
Doi Lang may need little introduction amongst birders. In a
remote but easy accessible location close to the Burma
border a variety of habitats are found on this mountain. Doi
Lang ranks as a top Thai birding destination not for
nothing; high diversity of species, plenty specialities,
high bird activity which usually lasts throughout the day
and excellent photo opportunities all on top of easy
roadside birding with superb mountain scenery, no traffic,
few people and certainly no tourists other than birders,
pleasant temperatures and few or no biting insects. To
complete our statement I will not this time do a little list
of possible species instead write down some of the goodies
we did record in 1 single day visit which was on 20 December
2014. Let me add we missed the early morning hours and still
Doi Lang did produce; Hume's Peasant (2 males), Giant
Nuthatch, Crimson-breasted and Stripe-breasted Woodpecker,
Cutia (5+), Grey-headed Parrotbill (10+), Large Niltava,
White-gorgeted Flycatcher, Rusty-cheeked Scimitar Babbler,
Siberian Rubythroat (3 nice males), Slaty-blue Flycatcher,
Sapphire Flycatcher, Ultramarine Flycatcher, Olive-backed
Pipit, Chestnut-vented Nuthatch, Hill Prinia, Long-tailed
Broadbill, Bamboo Woodpecker, Maroon Oriole, Speckled
Piculet, Gould's Sunbird and Brown-breasted Bulbul along
with a host of more common birds.
Doi Lang; from our visit on 20/12/2014 as mentioned above, Hume's Pheasant and Ultramarine Flycatcher.
Day 13 -Wednesday-
A full day up famous Doi Ang Khan won't easily disappoint
and is bound to produce a set of new birds even by the end
of the tour. The mountains here support more grassy and
scrubby habitats which along with the Royal Project gardens
provide some different habitats with a few specialities that
may be absent or scarce on DI or Doi Lang. Some goodies
we'll target this morning are Black-breasted Thrush, Crested
Finchbill, White-browed Laughingthrush, Silver-eared Mesia,
Spot-breasted Parrotbill, White-browed Scimitar Babbler and
Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush.
Day 14 -Thursday-
On the last morning we leave for Chiang Dao, where we have
plenty time to explore the grounds of the nearby temple.
That this is an excellent birdwatching site with Streaked
Wren Babbler, Violet Cuckoo, Blue-bearded Bee-eater and
others to look for got well proved on our visit in November
2009 when we recorded no less than 52 bird species in just 2
hours from the lookout. You may read the article here.
After this we pay a short visit to the rice paddies near the
town with Wire-tailed Swallow and Grey-headed Lapwing target
birds to look out for. After lunch we continue towards
Chiang Mai with birding stops at Mae Teang Irrigation
project, Huay Tung Tao and/or Mae Hia before we get to the
airport for our flights back to Bangkok which will mark the
end of our tour.
Tour code;
Nice rooms in good standard hotels with private facilities
-- mostly easy walks at the usual slow pace good for birding
-- photographic opportunities are good to excellent --
weather in central Thailand usually hot and dry in the
lowlands with pleasant temperatures in the mountains at Khao
Yai and Kaeng Krachan -- the north usually has pleasant
temperatures throughout although mornings could start rather
chilly in the mountains -- any rain would be a little
unusual at this time of the year -- we’ll have
air-conditioned transport throughout on very good roads --
early starts are best for bird watching -- Thai food needs
no introduction and will be excellent throughout.
Black-breasted Thrush, Doi Ang KhanOrange-bellied Niltava, Doi Ang Khan


The elusive Lesser Mouse Deer and rare Stump-tailed Macaque from Kaeng Krachan National Park


Large Scimitar Babbler, Kaeng KrachanSultan Tit, Kaeng Krachan


Specialities at Laem Pak Bia; Painted Storks and Asian Dowitcher


Slaty-legged Crake, Kaeng KrachanScaly-breasted Partridge, Kaeng Krachan

Red Avadavat, Huay Tung TaoGrey-headed Parrotbill, Doi Lang