Lanius schach schach

Long-tailed Shrike (Lanius schach) is a common resident bird throughout Thailand but the two nominate races are the black-headed L.s.longicaudatus of central plain and L.s.tricolor of northern hills. The grey-headed L.s.schach seems to be first recorded just a few years ago during winter in Mae Hia, Chiang Mai. The individual showed up for 2-3 consecutive winters. I unexpectedly found this individual in the evening of September 19th. The bird was perching on a dead branch by Mae Taeng River. I had to observe it from the bridge which was quite far away from the bird. After I reported about it, another bird photographer from Chiang Rai also submitted a photograph showing a very beautiful male L.s.schach he photographed from Chiang Rai Airport earlier this year (23 February). The bird has much neater plumage with more black on forehead than the one I found here.

Long-tailed Shrike race Lanius schach schach

Apart from the L.s.schach above, there was also a juvenile L.s.tricolor calling on the other side of the river. L.s.tricolor is the nominate race of northern Thailand. It has distinct black head contrasting with white throat and rufous body. Its upper mantle is grey, unlike the nominate race of central Thailand, L.s.longicaudatus, which also has a much longer tail.

Juvenile L.s.tricolor; note black head, grey upper mantle

Lots of egrets fly back to their roost in the upper stream of the Mae Taeng River (above) every evening. The two main species being Little Egret (left) and Cattle Egret (right) with a lesser number of Intermediate Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron and Great Egret. I also photographed a young Brown Shrike eating a big cricket at Muang Chum on the same evening. There were far more many Brown Shrikes than Long-tailed Shrikes at the moment, but they were really difficult to get a decent photo. Lots of Chinese Pond-Herons have arrived as well, not to mention about the Wood Sandpiper.

Juvenile Brown Shrike eating a big cricket
Non-breeding Chinese Pond-Heron

A pure flock of Wood Sandpiper

An Ordinary Day

A post compiling shots from an ordinary day at Cho Lae. Lots of migrants have already arrived, especially waders. Large flocks of Wood Sandpipers (Tringa glareola) can be found all over the place. Lots of snipes have already arrived as well, but they are just too shy to be seen in the open. Most of them are Pintail and Common Snipes. Several Stonechats are here as well. I'm getting sick by the split of this bird. It used to be just Stonechat (S. torquata), then Siberian Stonechat (S. maurus), and now the eastern race that winters in Thailand is called the Stejneger's Stonechat (S. stejnegeri). From reading through the discussions in Surfbird email archive, it seems that these newly split taxa are basically impossible to be distinguished in the field since they are all split purely on genetic evidences. In the future, I wonder if these new species will be grouped back into a single species like before or not....

The now so called Stejneger's Stonechat (S. stejnegeri)

A flock of Baya Weavers (Ploceus philippinus) was still occupying the same area around its nesting colony though all the chicks have already fledged and joined the flock their parents. Most male birds have already shed their bright golden head feathers and turning into a drab female-like non-breeding plumage.

A male Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) in eclipse plumage
Wood Sandpipers are abundant but very difficult to get close.

A fluffing adult Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius); the bird is mainly a winter visitor to Thailand and this one is moulting into a non-breeding plumage.

A male Pied Bushchat (Saxicola caprata)

A lone non-breeding Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) was also found in the area. It's the subspecies L.c.cristatus, which is a different one from the more reddish superciliosus of Japan. I watched it fed on a very interesting prey, the colourful Long-tailed Lizard (Takydromus sexlineatus ocellatus) which it caught from a small dry field.

This female Pied Bushchat was much more obliging than the male above.

I was lucky to see this shy Slaty-breasted Rail (Gallirallus striatus) coming out to dry its wings after the rain in the late afternoon. It's bird that is not often seen in the open like most of the rail species.

A landing Pintail Snipe (Gallinago stenura); you can see the blurry 'pin' outer tail feathers

A new species to my photo library to end this entry, the Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus), a very common but super shy member of cuckoo family. This one is an immature male. Adult male lack buffish spots on wing coverts, while female has mottled brown plumage. The right image shows the bird with a Black-collared Starling.

The Last Time

It was September 13 when I last visited Doi Angkang before coming back to Japan. As I have said in earlier blog that it started raining again after the weather began to be sunny for quite a long while. I mainly walked around the same area where I did birdwatching a week before. The fruiting persimmon trees were still attracting all kinds of bulbul very well. I tried so hard on photographing my favorite Crested Finchbill and sort of failed as usual. There were Brown-breasted, Red-whiskered, Sooty-headed, Flavescent and Black Bulbuls around the area. A flock of White-browed Laughingthrush and Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babblers were also moving around in low bushes with their noisy calls. A new comer was the Arctic Warbler (Phylloscopus borealis) which was feeding along with the resident White-tailed Leaf-Warbler (Phylloscopus davisoni) near the persimmon tree. However, I couldn't get any decent shot of it.

The best I could get from this unique Crested Finchbill

A Brown-breasted Bulbul visitting persimmon tree

And a record shot of the Arctic Warbler

I was surprised to see a small flock of Yellow-eyed Babbler consisting of mainly immature birds. I usually see this babbler in lowland cultivated area or wetlands, but not on high mountains like this. Another pale morph juvenile Oriental Honey-Buzzard of the season soared over my head with a much smaller juvenile Chinese Goshawk (Accipiter soloensis), which was trying to attack the honey-buzzard all the time.

The secretive Yellow-eyed Babbler

Last time I saw so many Brown Shrikes but this time only one juvenile bird was seen. However, two Grey-backed Shrikes (Lanius tephronotus) have arrived, so as the White Wagtails (Motacilla alba). At noon, rain started to fall too hard for birdwatching so I had to go back home. Along the way came a nice group of Ashy Woodswallows on the same dead tree. This time with the heavy rainfall, it looked more artistic than ever.

A pair of Ashy Woodswallows doing courtship display

A female Burmese Shrike from Ban Arunothai

The only Brown Shrike seen, a juvenile

Pre-winter at Doi Angkang

September at Doi Angkang is my favorite! The morning sky is ultramarine, yet the thick fog at noon helps cool down the heat from sunlight. Rain falls in the evening and at night, brings fresh cool atmosphere to the early morning forests. Birds might not be as plenty as in winter, but they seem to be out continuously all day, and surely, seeing new migrants excites me every time I come here.

A male Stripe-breasted Woodpecker on a fruiting Castanopsis tree.

The castanopsis (chinquapin or chinkapin) trees were fruiting and some children were walking around collecting its spiny cupule for the nuts. Few bird-waves came near the roadsides. There were a tiny Grey-capped Pygmy-Woodpecker (Dendrocopos canicapillus) feeding alongside with a flock of Scarlet Minivets (Pericrocotus flammeus) and a cute pair of Grey-headed Canary-Flycatchers (Culicicapa ceylonensis), a Maroon Oriole was also calling from somewhere inside the bush. Grey Treepies (Dendrocitta formosae) were very active and vocal. They perched on open treetops and sing their ugly comical call. Also a lone Forest Wagtail (Dendronanthus indicus) was found once again for the second time of this year's migration.

An individual with pale yellowish iris

Another individual with brownish iris, a younger bird?

A Grey Treepie singing on a castanopsis tree

A small flock of White-browed Scimitar-Babbler (Pomatorhinus schisticeps) was busy feeding in a thick castanopsis tree. After a long while, two birds flew out to low bushes and started singing. One of the bird has pale yellowish eye and sings continuously, while another bird obviously has dark brown eyes and tends stay in thick cover. My guess is that the brown-eyed individual might be a young bird which doesn't or still can't sing very well since some research I've seen also pointed out that most bird irises get paler with age. Along the way I was surprised to see so many Brown Shrikes (Lanius cristatus), most are males. White-browed Laughingthrushes (Garrulax sannio) were also seen as usual. Persimmon trees were also fruiting, attracting all kinds of bulbuls around the area to come and join the meal. Most of them were Crested Finchbill (Spizixos canifrons) and Brown-breasted Bulbul (Pycnonotus xanthorrhous). Some Flavescent and Sooty-headed Bulbuls also joined in sometimes. These bulbuls are fast and wary, so photographing them was quite a hard job.

A young adult Crested Finchbill

A male Brown Shrike subspecies 'L.c.confusus'

A variant juvenile pale morph Oriental Honey-Buzzard

Some other birds I found that morning include a young Oriental Honey-Buzzard (Pernis ptilorhyncus), several resident-form S.s.przewalskii Eastern Stonechats, Grey Bushchats, Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler (Pomatorhinus erythrogenys) and few Fork-tailed Swifts (Apus pacificus) subspecies 'cooki' which breeds here at Doi Angkang. The surprise of the day was a pair of Green Cochoas (Cochoa viridis) which my father saw near the persimmon tree. In total we got almost 60 bird species in just half a day! That is what I count as 'good'.

The abundant Flavescent Bulbul visiting a broccoli-like fruiting tree