Mae Kampong Village

I went to Mae Kampong village in the eastern part of Chiang Mai with Prof.Mark on September 20th. I've heard a lot about this village and I wanted to explore the birds over there. The village is well-known among foreigners as a popular home-stay village and a place of Thailand's "Flight of the Gibbon". The forest around the village's still looking really good and we saw more than 30 species of birds in just one day.

The most numerous species was definitely the small Oriental White-eye (Zosterops palpebrosus). We found several fast-moving flocks almost everywhere we stopped the car. We also enjoyed watching a young bird being fed by its parent while we were having lunch.

Black-crested Bulbul (Pycnonotus melanicterus)
Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus)
Common Tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius)
Speckled Piculet (Picumnus innominatus)

Most of the birds we found are general forest birds, but they were in quite a great number. The place should be much better in winter when there are many migrants. The stars of the day were surely the Scarlet Minivets in this post and the above tiny Speckled Piculet. Piculet is a tiny member of the woodpecker family. The bird is just roughly 10cm long. The bird stayed around in the wave for almost an hour.

Mae Kampong Village
Prof.Mark shooting photos of the Red-whiskered Bulbuls
A view from the top of the mountain

Home Again

I've been staying at home in Thailand for almost 2 weeks now. After a trip to Hokkaido, I stayed in Beppu for 5 more days and flew back to Chiang Mai. The weather is terrible here. The air is heavily polluted once again because of the illegal forest fire and paddy fields clearing. I really hate this annual air pollution which has just begun in the recent years due to global warming. The temperature alone is already too hot with the highest degree of 36 today, but the smog makes it even worse. The sky is covered with rusty smog and everywhere I go is filled with dust.

Spotted Doves

Zebra Dove

I haven't been able to go out birding until now, so I just spent my time photographing birds in my yard. Lots of Spotted Doves come to the small pool to drink water in late afternoon and the same tiny Zebra Dove is still residing in my garden. I really like the Zebra Dove. It's so small and cute, almost the same size as a quail. The same Taiga Flycatcher is also presenting well along with 2 more new birds. Its throat hasn't turned bright rufous yet, but I think it will later this month.

A non-breeding male Taiga Flycatcher

Hume's Warbler (Phylloscopus humei)

There's one Phylloscopus warbler presenting quite well in my front yard. It often comes to pick up insects and (maybe) nectar of the flowering longan tree along with a flock of Streak-eared Bulbul and a pair of White-vented Myna. I think it's a Hume's Warbler (P. humei) since it has darkish legs and greyish crown and nape. I normally see the species on high mountains but this bird obviously doesn't have bright yellowish legs and bill base like the common Yellow-browed Warbler (P. inornata), so I think it better fits with humei. I'm waiting to hear the call though. It's the best thing to surely identify the two similar species but I haven't heard its call yet.

Last Blog of 2009

I'm finally at home in Thailand with my family now. It's really a nice time to relax. Some small constructions are going on around my house too, but the garden in my new house was already finished and it attracts a non-breeding male Taiga Flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla) very well. Although it is quite rare in Japan, it is a very common winter visitor in Thailand and every year 1 or 2 birds stay around my house. This guy seems to be a male because it always has faint reddish-orange throat all through the winter. I'm pretty sure it is the same bird that comes here every year. I spent few minutes waiting for this little bird to come and took some photos of him this morning and here's what I got. Enjoy, and happy new year to all!