Doi Inthanon: September 18

It was a cloudy early morning as me and my dad were going up hill heading to Doi Inthanon with our birding friend, Mam, sitting in the back. We made a stop at the second checkpoint and were surprised to find 4 more birding colleagues having coffee and breakfast in the back of their cars. We greeted and slowly started our birding around the checkpoint. There were not so many birds as there were very few moths around the checkpoint unlike how it used to be in the past, but we enjoyed killing time by talking and following some common birds. There was a pair of Flavescent Bulbuls (Pycnonotus flavescens vividus) perching in the hill near the checkpoint as usual. After a while, a small flock of Spectacled Barwings (Actinodura ramsayi) also came up to dry themselves on the same perch.

Spectacled Barwing (Actinodura ramsayi)

Flavescent Bulbuls (Pycnonotus flavescens vividus)

Male Short-billed Minivet (Pericrocotus brevirostris neglectus)

And the equally colourful female

I spent a lot of time trying to get a decent shot of the Mountain Tailorbird you see in the earlier post, but I still couldn't get the shot that I wanted. There were many swifts flying above our head in the morning. After roughly scanning through all of them, I identified the migratory Apus pacificus pacificus race of the Fork-tailed Swift, the much smaller Himalayan Swiftlets, the House Swifts and the migratory Asian House-Martins. Unfortunately all of them were flying too high up in the sky and it was also too cloudy, not a good condition for BIF shots, so I concentrated on birding along the road. There was a pair of the striking Short-billed Minivets (Pericrocotus brevirostris neglectus) coming down to the lower branches on the roadside. It is never easy for me to get a good photo of the minivets, as they normally stay up in the canopy, so I was very happy to finally get some good shots of them.

Dark-sided Flycatcher (Muscicapa sibirica rothschildi)

Sunbathing White-throated Fantail (Rhipidura albicollis celsa)

A Crested Goshawk (Accipiter trivirgatus indicus) doing courtship display

You can see its fluffy undertail feathers as one of the courtship features.

I expected to see some migrants and was happy to find 2 Dark-sided Flycatchers (Muscicapa sibirica rothschildi) staying close to each other. Unfortunately both of them were occupying a very high perch, so I couldn't get any decent shot of them. Instead, I got quite a nice birdscaping shot of it. Other birds we found along the way include a flock of Grey-cheeked Fulvettas, White-throated Fantails, Davison's (White-tailed) Leaf-Warblers and a Crested Goshawk (Accipiter trivirgatus indicus) perching in the distance performing a courtship display. We assumed that there must be another bird perching somewhere behind the tree.

My dad later came and told us that he found a big flock of Doi Inthanon's star bird, the Green Cochoa (Cochoa viridis), on the side of the road to Mae Jam. He also saw a male Red-headed Trogon and several Slaty-bellied Tesias as well. He always the one who finds the good birds it seems. So we went there as found at least 4 Green Cochoas perching and flying deep in the forest on the roadside. These birds are so difficult to find because they sit very still among the leaves and rarely come out to the open. I assumed that it was a family group, as I only saw 1 adult male bird but several immatures. Immature birds have white stripes on the sides of the throat with brownish scales. I even luckily came across a very young juvenile bird sitting on a low branch just a few metres from the road on my back to the checkpoint. It turned out that its right wing was broken. There's a very small chance that it will be able to survive at this very young age, but I really hope it will.

Juvenile Green Cochoa (Cochoa viridis) with a broken wing

An older immature bird

Pallas's Squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus)

We stayed around the checkpoint until almost noon, then we headed up to Kew Mae Phan to have lunch at the restaurant in front of the entrance. In the back of the restaurant, we even found a first-winter Ferruginous Flycatcher (Muscicapa ferruginea), a species I haven't seen for a long time. After our meal, we went up to the highest summit to photograph some common species as well as the LBJs in the earlier post. Birds at the summit are extremely tame, this time especially the Silver-eared Laughingthrushes (Garrulax melanostigma ), which were hopping everywhere inside the coffee shop. They even stole some sugar from the box! Other Doi Inthanon's star birds like the endemic subspecies Aethopyga nipalensis ankanensis of the Green-tailed Sunbird, the Bar-throated Minla, the Ashy-throated Warbler and the Dark-backed Sibia were also showing well. I even came across a quite approachable male Mrs Gould's Sunbird (Aethopyga gouldiae dabryii) which was feeding on small flowers by the roadside. It's such a striking little bird that I can never get tired of watching.

Mrs Gould's Sunbird (Aethopyga gouldiae dabryii)

It's never easy to get the glossy feathers.

Another shot of the Pallas's Squirrel

Bar-throated Minla (Chrysominla strigula castanicauda)

Dark-backed Sibia (Heterophasia melanoleuca)

Silver-eared Laughingthrush (Trochalopteron melanostigma)

Little Brown Jobs

The LBJs are always fun to watch and very challenging to photograph! The whole afternoon of Sunday 18th saw me following flocks of LBJs all along the road near the summit of Doi Inthanon. The low vegetation along both sides of the road near the summit is the best place where you can encounter a handful of LBJ species, sometimes even some nice rarities. The party started with a huge flock of the tiny and restless Rufous-winged Fulvettas (Alcippe castaneceps). Not only do they hop around in the bush, they also spiral up and down the trees just like nuthatches to make us photographers feel dizzy as hell. I wasn't quite fond of following these tiny devils as they are quite common and widespread. The real thing started as a couple of Ashy-throated Warblers (Phylloscopus maculipennis) kicked in. This species of Phylloscopus warbler's distribution in Thailand is restricted to only the highest summit of Doi Inthanon. That reason alone easily made me decide to follow them instead of the fulvettas.

Ashy-throated Warblers (Phylloscopus maculipennis)

The Ashy-throated Warbler is even smaller than the Rufous-winged Fulvetta, only 9-9.5 cm in length and normally even harder to photograph! I've never been able to get any decent shot of this tiny warbler before. Didn't know why but the one you see in these photos was really obliging and posed for me so well. These small birds at the summit are not afraid of human at all since there has never been any human settlement in the past. It's very normal to watch them hopping around just before your eyes. However, being too close is surely not a good thing, so I had to constantly step back to get the whole body of the bird into the frame.

Ashy-throated Warblers (Phylloscopus maculipennis)

Rufous-winged Fulvetta (Alcippe castaneceps)

Taking care of the nuthatch's job

It was when I was enjoying shooting photos of the showy Ashy-throated Warbler that I saw 2 brownish birds flying into the bush in front of me. I was so happy to see that they were Yellow-browed Tits (Sylviparus modestus), a scarce montane forest resident. This species of tit always confuses new (or sometimes even senior) birders because it is so nondescriptive. Most people often mistaken it with warblers. However, if you look closely at its bill, you will see that it still has the tit's bill shape. Its yellow eyebrow is normally hidden by the olive-brown feathers but pronounced when displaying or alarmed. Shrubs around the summit of Doi Inthanon might be the easiest place in Thailand to see this northern montane specialty.

Yellow-browed Tit (Sylviparus modestus)

Bar-throated Minla (Chrysominla strigula castanicauda)

However, the most numerous LBJ of the highest summit of Doi Inthanon is the larger Bar-throated or Chestnut-tailed Minla (Chrysominla strigula castanicauda). It is also among the few Doi Inthanon's specialties. It can be found on a few high mountains in the west and northwestern parts of Thailand, but Doi Inthanon is the easiest place to find it. It has a nickname among Thai birders as the "Doi Inthanon's sparrow" comparing its abundance to the Eurasian Tree Sparrow which can be found literally everywhere in Thailand.

Mountain Tailorbird (Phyllergates cucullatus coronatus)

The last LBJ that I want to introduce in this post is the Mountain Tailorbird (Phyllergates cucullatus coronatus). Although it is not so drab and brown but its super skittish behaviour and its habitat fits nicely to the others. I can truly say that among all of the birds in this post, this one is the toughest to photograph. I found a pair singing and feeding in the same area for the whole morning near the 2nd checkpoint of Doi Inthanon and I spent the whole morning trying to get photos of them and the result was still not so satisfiable. This bird was extremely fast and always hid itself among the leaves and branches. Even when I tried using playback, it still didn't come out easily. I finally had to give up for lunch. Otherwise I'd be so damn angry bashing all the bushes around the checkpoint lol.