Nearly all Asian hornbills are at risk, they typically need large tracts of undisturbed forest with lots of fruiting trees. They are also often hunted for their beaks and other parts. This one is IUCN Vulnerable, habitat loss and hunting being major problems.
I was really happy to see quite a few of these at Kaeng Krachan, big hornbills are really cool and the beak on these is something else.
Great Hornbill
If you are in an Asian jungle and you hear a fighter plane like whoosh over your head, it could well be one of these, the noise is really quite incredible.
Kaeng Krachan, Thailand, Feb 26
#birds #birding #birdphotography #thailand
Feb 26 not 25, fat fingers strike again…
Robinson’s Banded Langur / Surili
They are meant to be a bit shy, but luckily we saw a couple of groups well at Kaeng Krachan. Inhabits lowland to hill forests in Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar. Near Threatened.
Kaeng Krachan, Thailand, Feb 25
#mammals #monkeys #wildlife #thailand
Banded Broadbill
A stunning colourful insect eating bird of SE Asian forests. Lowland but does occur a bit higher in some places.
More or less 3 colours for #birdoftheday (if you overlook the eye and beak).
Kaeng Krachan, Thailand, Feb 26
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Thanks 🙏 I will continue to drip feed some other stuff in the future…
Dusky Leaf Monkey
It’s always fun watching monkeys monkey about 🐒🙈🙉🙊
Much more arboreal and relaxed than the Long-tailed Macaques we get in 🇸🇬, who can be a bit boisterous and will pinch your picnic given a chance.
Kaeng Krachan, Thailand, Feb 26
#monkeys #mammals #kaengkrachan #thailand
Siamese Pied Starling (Myna) / Grey-headed lapwing
Pak Thale - Laem Phak Bia, Thailand, Feb 26
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Vulnerable, but historically Critically Endangered and suffered immensely from pesticide use (DDT), since the 90s numbers have increased, but by no means is this species out of the woods.
This was a good find, only a couple annually in Thailand. The breed on the west side of the Korean Peninsula and most winter much further east than Thailand, e.g. Japan, Taiwan, China.
The big spoon… Black-faced Spoonbill
+ Painted Stork, Little Egret, Spotted Redshank.
After the little Spoonie, a bonus was adding a Black-faced Spoonbill to my cutlery collection. I can think of a few birds with fork in their name, but no knives?
#birds #birding #birdphotography #thailand
Thanks 🙏. It’s always nice seeing falcons and some do seem to pose like a prima donna 😂
Peregrine Falcon
I’m not sure about the sub-species, it could be a resident or a winter visitor.
Seen in its mangrove hideaway,from there it no doubt makes forays to terrorise the waders.
Laem Phak Bia, Thailand, Feb 26
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The last pic is what happens when a peregrine flies past!
As with other waders on the EAAF the threats are many, agriculture, land reclamation, habitat loss, pollution, hunting etc…
Great Knot is much more abundant - 290,000 to 380,000 individuals. But there has been a 70% decline in the global population in three generations, so it’s in serious trouble.
As per Spoony, Nordmann’s are a very rare wader found on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. There are only about 1,000-1,200 globally and it looks like 1/3 of those stopover-winter in the Gulf of Thailand. I saw 20ish in one flock at Pak Thale, but there seems to be about 2-300 seen per year.
Nordmann’s Greenshank and special guests!
Also: Great Knot (EN) Grey Plover (VU), Common Redshank, Greater and Tibetan Sand Plovers.
Thanks to Tim Manit and Mr Daeng for arranging guiding in the area.
Pak Thale - Laem Phak, Thailand, Feb 26
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Asian Dowitcher are Near Threatened - as with a lot of Asian waders coastal land reclamation is implicated. Disjointed breeding range across steppe in W&E Siberia, Mongolia and NE China. Winters Asia and N Australia.
The Pak Thale - Laem Phak Bia area of salt pans is truly remarkable. A heavily modified landscape that supports globally significant wintering populations of many threatened wader species. There are still impressive flocks today, but I wish I’d seen the flock sizes several decades ago…
Asian Dowitcher
Lovely to see a few hundred of these at Pak Thale. Especially as I like waders (a lot) and these are particularly a charming. Definitely not afraid to get their beaks dirty.
Pak Thale, Thailand, Feb 26
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It’s well worth the effort!
Thankfully lots of effort has been put into protecting these charming little things. So hopefully they have a future.
Not the best pics, distant birds and in the excitement I forgot to check the camera settings.
Critically Endangered. Only 240-620 mature individuals globally. Breed; Chukotsk and Kamchatka in Russia. Migrate to SE Asia for winter. Some in Thailand each year, often at salt pans that have replaced intertidal lagoons. Threatened by agriculture, hunting and trapping, and land reclamation.
Spoon-billed Sandpiper
One of the rarest and most threatened birds I’ve seen. Mega exciting, scanning through a flock of Red-necked Stints (identical apart from the bill) we found this one. High 5s all round 🫶
Khok Kham, Thailand, Feb 25
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Red-bearded Bee-eater
Pretty chunky for a bee-eater, but lovely and colourful.
Shame about the stick!
Kaeng Krachan, Thailand, Feb 25
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Although it looks a bit like other gulls with black heads, it gets its own genus - Saundersilarus saundersi. Howard Saunders was a British banker, traveler, ornithologist and a gull authority.
They breeds in China, but winters in S Korea, S Japan and N Vietnam. Apparently the breeding grounds were only discovered in 1984, it was also thought to be really rare, but surveys of wintering birds showed it to be a bit more common than thought. IUCN Vulnerable.
Saunders’s Gull
I was quite pleased to see one close to Tokyo, tbh it was a bit of a bonus bird. This is an immature bird - 1st winter.
Kasai Rinkai Park, Tokyo, Japan, Dec 25
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