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
1st winter Taiga Flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla)
Blue-bearded Bee-eater (Nyctyornis athertoni)
Chestnut-vented Nuthatch (Sitta nagaensis)

We chose the summit of the mountain as our last place for birding before ending the trip. Birds at the summit only came out just before sunset. There were at least 2 pairs of Blue-bearded Bee-eater, a lone male Blue Rockthrush, Flavescent Bulbuls, Streaked Spiderhunter, Taiga Flycatcher and a pair of Chestnut-vented Nuthatch. As the sun went down below the horizon, we drove back to Chiang Mai.

Pseudagrion pruinosum
Potamarcha congener

Prodasineura autumnalis

Neurobasis chinensis (Female with brown wings)
Euphaea pchracea

Some dragonflies to finish this entry. I greatly enjoyed shooting photos of them in a stream in Than Tong Resort just below Mae Kampong village. My favourite one was the bluish-grey and orange Pseudagrion pruinosum and the brightly coloured Euphaea pchracea. I would love to come back here again in winter.