4 May 2020

Bird watching trip report


Introduction

Lat Krabang, eBird hotspot Lat Krabang paddies is easy accesiable from Bangkok located just a little North-east of Suvarnabhumi International. It makes it a perfect bird watching destination if you have a few hours over when staying in Bangkok, 200 + checklists and 183 species observed as beginning of May 2020. So if you have a few hours with nothing to do there is really no excuse NOT to go there.

To skip the information and to go straight to the TRIP REPORT click HERE

Guide

I usually don't use any bird watching Guide in / around Bangkok. But could be a good idea to have a Guide to help me identify all the birds I see. As it is now my eBird checklists are not very impressive as I can only ID half of the birds I see.

Well, I decided that it could be a good idea, and going bird watching on the 1st of May 2020 I decided to use a Guide. It was a good experience, I spotted new birds and I discovered new birding areas. So going to look for birds East of Bangkok and I decided to use Wild Bird Eco Tour again.

Wild Bird Eco Tour


Land transportation

You will need a car and if you don't have your own a taxi is a very convenient way of travelling. Depending on the early morning traffic it will take about 30-45 minutes to get to Lat Krabang. Taxi is about 150 - 200 Baht (May 2020) + toll.

But you need a car to drive around the area so make a deal with the taxi driver, 1000 - 2000 Baht (May 2020). And of course, depending on your negotiation skills.

To make sure that the driver understand you can show the below Thai Script:
• Lat Krabang เขตลาดกระบัง

Or show the driver a map. Click HERE for a map to Lat Krabang paddies


Scan for map to Lat Krabang paddies


Take the Bangkok - Chonburi Motorway (Route #7) and pass the exit to Suvarnabhumi and continue for about 3 km towards Chonburi and exit the highway. You pass one U-turn bridge and then another brige before exit. As soon as you have exit you make a U-turn under the highway.

Turn left on the other side of the highway and follow the highway until you reach a bridge and turn right before the bridge and you reach a intersection. Turn left and drive under the highway and then left again and after a few meters you turn right at the 7 Eleven. Go straight for a kilometer or so and you are in the middle of the Lat Krabang paddies.

Equipment

Canon 5D Mk. III + Canon 5D Mk. IV
Canon EF 28-300/3,5-5,6 L IS USM
Canon EF 70-200/2,8L IS II USM
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens
Canon Speedlite 600EXII-RT flash
Canon PowerShot G7X Mark II
Panasonic HC-W585 video camera

Sound recorder
ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder

Binocular
Steiner Skyhawk 8x32 (Since May 2020)


Weather / climate

Weather, I don´t know if Bangkok is the hottest capital in the world. But this is what they say and I have no reason to doubt this information because it is darn hot.

Bangkok, Thailand - Climate & Temperature
Pictures from www.climatemps.com

Bangkok, Thailand - Climate & Temperature - Click picture for full size
Pictures from www.climatemps.com



References/Resources

Thai National Parks - About the National Parks in Thailand A very good web page - Do you know that there are still wild tigers, elephants, leopards, tapirs, gaurs, bears and many monkey species in many tropical rainforests across Thailand? Do you also know that around 10% of all marine species in the world can be found in Thailand? And the fact that Thailand is the best bird-watching destination in mainland Asia?

National parks are protected areas of land because they have unspoilt landscapes and a diverse number of native plants and animals. There are 127 national parks in Thailand, of them 22 marine national parks. These parks offers a diverse range of flora and fauna, home to important population of endangered species.
So now it will be easy to find out if there are any National Park close to you.

Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) - The Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) is one of the oldest Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST)organisations conserving birds and nature in Thailand and is the country partner of BirdLife International. BCST's role to the local community is to spread awareness about urban birds and reconnect people back to nature.

The Logo
Dated back to 1986 when BCST was then a loosely-formed “Bangkok Birdwatching Club”, the Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis), or “Nok Gang Ken Baan” in Thai, has been chosen to represent the organisation.

There are two sites covering Thailand and I have used them many times. These two web pages are actually everything you need for your birding adventures in Thailand. All the information you need about all the birding spots. Click on the map and then select your spot and you will have maps and everything you need to know about the areas. They have put a lot of jobs in to their web pages, North Thailand Birding and thaibirding.com A must to visit before you go bird watching in Thailand.

www.norththailandbirding.com - A one stop only for all your birding in Thailand

thaibirding.com - Nick Upton's one stop only for all your birding in Thailand.

Use both www.thaibirding.com and www.norththailandbirding.com and you have a winner. Some of the maps on www.norththailandbirding.com are way better than Nick Upton´s, while some of Nick's maps are much more detailed. So I have found that if I use both the web pages for information, well, nothing else needed.

PBase/Peter Ericson - Peter Ericson, a guy I thought was from USA because of his family name. I met him at Lat Krabang Paddies in May 2020 and turned out that he was Swedish. Anyway, I have used his excellent page PBase since 2016 as help to ID birds by the help from his beautiful bird pictures.

Here you can also find information about birding tours.

He is also having a Blog - Thaibirds and more with interesting information.

Bangkok City Birding - A lot of interesting birding stories and information on this bird watching blog by David Gandy. Bangkok-based patch-worker in Suan Rot Fai, a large park close to the city's famous weekend market. He have recorded 150 species on his patch since 2008. As one of the only big green spaces in the city, “SRF” acts as a real magnet for migrants during spring and autumn, and holds a healthy selection of "sibes" during the winter months.


ebird - Find birding hotspots with bird checklists from all over the world

Avibase - is an extensive database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 25 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information for 12,000 regions, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages


www.oiseaux.net This web page is also excellent for identifying birds. There is information and range maps for many many birds from all over the world. This page is almost guaranteed to give you any answer you have about any bird in the world.

Cloudbirders - Read birding trip reports from all over the world

Fatbirder - Linking birders worldwide... Wildlife Travellers see their sister site: WAND


Fatbirder is a fantastic web page with information from, I think every country in the world. My first stop when I plan for my bird watching trips. There is information about locations and guides, well, pretty much everything you need to know. Sometimes this is the only place I need to visit to plan my trip.

BirdingPal - find a birding Guide around the world

BirdingPal


And the web page you cannot live without. I have been around the world looking for birds. I usually have a Guide, but sometimes it is not possible to find a Guide. So, well, I have lost count on how many times I have had help to ID birds at BirdForum. Joining this forum have been very very good for my bird watching experience.

www.birdforum.net

ClimaTemps.com is the place to learn about the worlds climates with more than 4000 locations documented. Each aspect of the climate is represented using colour enhanced tables and professional graphs so that data can easily be compared by switching between locations in different tabs in your browser.

“A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson”


A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson

A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson. New edition updated with 76 species since previous edition “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig” Nick Upton at www.thaibirding.com wrote “This quite excellent book is packed full of quality illustrations and written information on 1251 species recorded in Southeast Asia”

I bought this book for bird watching in Thailand, but it goes for all over SE Asia

I have been very happy with the “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson” But I had a fire in my condo 2019 and I needed to buy a new book. I was looking for the “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson” as I liked the book. But this book is not available anymore so I had to buy the “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand” by Craig Robson.

What a disappointment this was, using the pictures in the book didn't helped to ID any birds.

“Birds of Thailand” by Uthai Treesuconand Wich'yanan Limparungpatthanakij


I met Peter Ericson, a famous bird watcher and he recommended the “Birds of Thailand” by Uthai Treesuconand Wich'yanan Limparungpatthanakij. I bought the book as soon as the book stores opened after the Wuhan virus. And I am very happy with the book and I have managed to ID some birds using the book.

Birds of Thailand by Uthai Treesuconand Wich'yanan Limparungpatthanakij

This new field guide will help you identify all 1049 species to have been recorded in the country to date, including the 20 species endemic or near-endemic to Thailand.

-Taxonomy follows the HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World.

-Detailed texts covering status, habitat and behaviour, age, sex and geographical variation, voice, and confusion species.

-Almost 2200 illustrations covering all species and distinctive subspecies, birds in flight, males and females, juveniles and non-breeding plumages, where appropriate.

-QR code for each species, linking to the Internet Bird Collection gallery of photos, videos and sounds.

-More than 1025 full-colour range maps for all species other than vagrants.

-Well-marked subspecies groups receive full accounts, and the distributions of subspecies breeding in the region are clearly mapped.

-Local species name and local conservation status included.


I like the book, but I miss the picture index.


Places to visit

Lat Krabang paddies

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
About 32 km from the Sukhumvit / Asoke intersection in DOWN TOWN Bangkok

eBird hotspot Lat Krabang paddies and this is a world famous birding spot. And I qoute Peter Ericson: “Lots of wetland birds as well as scrub dwelling critters.” And I actually met Mr. Ericson while birding at Lat Krabang paddies, his 99th time at Lat Krabang paddies.

It is a beautiful area, even if you have the SE Asian problem “garbage” It is very nice area to use your car driving along the dirt tracks and you really are able to get close to the birds using the car as a hide.


Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
It is beautiful around Lat Krabang


Bird checklist

I never use any bird lists, but since I try to make it in to Cloudbirders. A very helpful site when planning your birding trips. But they ask for a bird checklist, and if I use their service, of course I want to contribute as well. My two first bird watching trip reports was rejected by Cloudbirders.

So I started to take ideas from the reports I found on Cloudbirders. So I have started to use bird lists, eBird generate one for me and I can post it on Cloudbirders. I will post my birds on eBird and on my different “BIRDS THAT I HAVE OBSERVED” pages.

Full Thai list updated to the taxonomy, nomenclature and sequence of the IOU/IOC World Bird List. The complete checklist, including Thai names and synonyms, can be downloaded in Excel format - Thailand Bird Checklist. - Version 8.2 (2018) - found at www.norththailandbirding.com

Check lists can come in handy to find out the local name of the bird etc. And Avibase have a list with pictures and sounds, excellent!

So I will post bird checklists here and if my Guides provide me with checklists I will also post them here.

Cloudbirders


Avibase - Bird Checklists of the World

Bangkok bird checklist from Avibase, click HERE - eBird version 2019 taxonomy

Avibase is providing you with bird checklists from all over the world. And I´m impressed by their web page. Select country and area and you get the bird checklist. Like the PDF files I got from Avibase on the links above. You also get the checklist with pictures and sounds.

The best part is that you get the local names of the birds and the online checklist gives the names in English plus the language you have selected. But it seems like the PDF cannot handle some alphabet.

For example the Japanese language so it is blank in the PDF checklist. But it worked excellent with Swedish. But you get them in the local language on the online version.


Bird list

I only list birds I have got on picture on my list of OBSERVED BIRDS. But since I started using eBird I have changed a bit. I list all the birds on the eBird checklist. See the DAY TO DAY report in the itinerary below.

And you can visit my list of “Birds I have seen in Thailand” ONLY BIRDS I HAVE ON PICTURE.


Trip Report


4th of May 2020 and we were leaving my apartment at 5 thirty and I started my eBird app at 06:06 at Lat Krabang and we had only been there for a few minutes when we discovered a Yellow Bittern. It was not enough light so the pictures turned out to be crap, crazy ISO speed 12800.

So the pictures are very noisy and thus good for nothing and I made a mental note to come later next time.

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
Yellow Bittern at Lat Krabang

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
Yellow Bittern at Lat Krabang - ISO 12800 destroyed the picture

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
Oriental Pratincole / นกแอ่นทุ่งใหญ่ - Crazy ISO speed made the picture useless

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
Watercock at Lat Krabang - ISO 12800 destroyed the picture

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
2nd Watercock at Lat Krabang - ISO 12800 destroyed the picture

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
2nd Watercock at Lat Krabang - ISO 12800 destroyed the picture

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
Oriental Pratincole / นกแอ่นทุ่งใหญ่
Still to dark for pictures, but it gets better

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
Oriental Pratincole / นกแอ่นทุ่งใหญ่

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand

Yellow-bellied Prinia, Prinia flaviventris, นกกระจิบหญ้าท้องเหลือง
Yellow-bellied Prinia / นกกระจิบหญ้าท้องเหลือง

Yellow-bellied Prinia, Prinia flaviventris, นกกระจิบหญ้าท้องเหลือง
Yellow-bellied Prinia / นกกระจิบหญ้าท้องเหลือง

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
Pacific Golden Plover / นกหัวโตหลังจุดสีทอง

Coming to an end on the dirt road and we turn around, the lightning is becoming better, but it is still very dark. Gloom and grey for long as we can see and it looked to be starting to rain any second. But at least now I could go down on the ISO speed so the pictures was, well, OK.

We drove towards East and there was a lot of birds in the ponds and paddies and I spotted a few birds I have never seen before. The Watercock, Slaty-breasted Rail, White-browed Crake and the beautiful Chestnut-tailed Starling.

I corrected the ID of the Slaty-breasted Rail from Slaty-legged Crake after an e-mail from Peter Ericson. I have used his web page since 2016 to ID some of the birds I have had problem with and I met him in the paddies this very morning. He had obviously checked my eBird check list so he found my web page and he sent the message. And from this e-mail I learned how it was. Well, as I use to say, bird watching and you never know what happens.

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
Great or Intermediate Egret

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
Chestnut-tailed Starling

Chestnut-tailed Starling, Grey-headed Myna, Sturnia malabarica, นกกิ้งโครงแกลบหัวเทา

Chestnut-tailed Starling, Grey-headed Myna, Sturnia malabarica, นกกิ้งโครงแกลบหัวเทา
Chestnut-tailed Starling / นกกิ้งโครงแกลบหัวเทา

Chestnut-tailed Starling, Grey-headed Myna, Sturnia malabarica, นกกิ้งโครงแกลบหัวเทา
Chestnut-tailed Starling / นกกิ้งโครงแกลบหัวเทา

Chestnut-tailed Starling, Grey-headed Myna, Sturnia malabarica, นกกิ้งโครงแกลบหัวเทา
Chestnut-tailed Starling / นกกิ้งโครงแกลบหัวเทา

Yellow-bellied Prinia, Prinia flaviventris, นกกระจิบหญ้าท้องเหลือง
Yellow Bittern

Yellow-bellied Prinia, Prinia flaviventris, นกกระจิบหญ้าท้องเหลือง
Yellow Bittern

Yellow-bellied Prinia, Prinia flaviventris, นกกระจิบหญ้าท้องเหลือง
Yellow Bittern

White-browed Crake, Porzana cinerea, นกอัญชันคิ้วขาว

Plain Prinia, Prinia inornata, นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ

Plain Prinia, Prinia inornata, นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ
Plain Prinia / นกกระจิบหญ้าสีเรียบ

Zitting Cisticola, फिरफिरे, Cisticola juncidis, นกยอดข้าวหางแพนลาย

Zitting Cisticola, फिरफिरे, Cisticola juncidis, นกยอดข้าวหางแพนลาย
Zitting Cisticola / นกยอดข้าวหางแพนลาย

Zitting Cisticola, फिरफिरे, Cisticola juncidis, นกยอดข้าวหางแพนลาย
Zitting Cisticola / นกยอดข้าวหางแพนลาย

Zitting Cisticola, फिरफिरे, Cisticola juncidis, นกยอดข้าวหางแพนลาย
Zitting Cisticola / นกยอดข้าวหางแพนลาย

Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Hydrophasianus chirurgus, นกอีแจว

Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Hydrophasianus chirurgus, นกอีแจว
Pheasant-tailed Jacana / นกอีแจว

We came to one field and there was two Black-winged Stilts giving alarm all the time. It was an Egret upseting the Stilts, most likely because the stilt had a nest in the vicinity. One of the Stilts attached the many times bigger Egret and the Egret took off landing 10 meters away.

One more attack with the same result and I got out of the car with my video camera and of course, now the Egret took off landing at the other end of the field.

Birding/ Bird watching at Lat Krabang paddies, Bangkok, Thailand
Today´s track at Lat Krabang paddies


eBird

eBird Report

Lat Krabang paddies, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon [Bangkok], TH May 4, 2020 06:06 - 08:01
Protocol: Traveling
5,28 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: Bird watching with my Guide from Wild Bird Eco Tour
33 species

Little Grebe 1
Red Collared Dove 1
Zebra Dove X
Plaintive Cuckoo 1 Heard only
Slaty-breasted Rail 1
Common Moorhen 1
Watercock 3
White-breasted Waterhen 3
White-browed Crake 1
Black-winged Stilt X Fight with little egret. Two stilts on a field giving alarm call nonstop while one of them attacked a Little Egret 3 times before the egret left the area. So the stilt was most likely having a nest with egg/ babies
Pacific Golden Plover 5
Pheasant-tailed Jacana 20
Bronze-winged Jacana 5
Oriental Pratincole 1 Many
Asian Openbill X Many
Little Cormorant 1
Yellow Bittern 2
Great White Egret 2
Little Egret X Many
Javan Pond Heron X Many
Indochinese Roller 1
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 5
Yellow-bellied Prinia 1
Plain Prinia 1
Zitting Cisticola 1
Barn Swallow X Many
Asian Pied Starling 2
Chestnut-tailed Starling 5
Great Myna X
Oriental Magpie-Robin 2
Baya Weaver 5
Asian Golden Weaver X Many
House Sparrow X

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S68358724

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

We left Lat Krabang getting back up on the Bangkok - Chonburi Motorway following route #7 towards the Bang Pra Non-hunting Area where we will make a stop before going to the bird hide at Wat Tham Prathun (Tham Prathun Temple) to see if we can see any Pittas. Click HERE to find out if we see any birds at the Bang Pra Non-hunting Area.



Bird watching trip report



       
                  


                                       

BirdforumTV

You are visitor no.
To www.aladdin.st since December 2005

Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011



Send me an e-mail My web page directory