Doi Inthanon: 20-22 Aug 2010 III

This is going to be the last post for my trip to Doi Inthanon during 20-22 August. Although I've got quite many photos of the small birds in Ang Ka trail during the first evening, I got a lot more on the second day when the light was a bit better. When we got there, there was already a couple of bird photographers shooting these birds before us. They put out a lot of mealworms for the birds, but both walked out shortly after we arrived, so we took the place and photographed the birds which still came out to pick up leftover worms. The 2 Snowy-browed Flycatchers were the tamest of all. Both of them didn't mind us getting closer than just a foot away from them. We even enjoyed taking photos with the birds, but all photos were in my friend's camera. These birds are really dangerously tame!

As Phil made a comment about photographing the birds in this dense habitat must be something pretty difficult, and it is. Although these birds can be very tame when they come out for food we put out for, when they fly back into the forest, it's not an easy job to spot one. There was also not much light since the forest was very dark and these shots were taken at no more than 1/25 sec. The Snowy-browed Flycatchers were a bit easier to photograph since they often sat still for a quite a while, while the White-browed Shortwings never paused themselves for more than just 2 or 3 seconds.

Female Snowy-browed Flycatcher (Ficedula hyperythra)

And her colourful husband
Male White-browed Shortwing (Brachypteryx montana)
And the female

Among the 5 birds that came out to pick up mealworms (2 Snowy-browed Flycatchers, 1 male and 2 female White-browed Shortwings), the male Shortwing was the hardest target for me to photograph. Its all dark blackish-blue plumage makes it very difficult for the camera to focus. Although having the white eyebrows, it's still difficult to focus as the bird moved around all the time. So I ended up having very few photos of it.

Doi Angkang: 12-14 Aug 2010 I

So here's the full trip report for my visit to Doi Angkang during 12-14 August 2010. Alhough the weather was pretty much awful during the week before the trip, we occasionally had good periods of sunlight throughout the trip. We started off as we left Chiang Mai in the afternoon of the 12th and arrived safely at Doi Angkang around 4pm. We made the first stop at the viewpoint near the military base and saw a nice scenery of Fang town with a faint rainbow.

(From left to right) 1. Doi Luang Chiang Dao from the Chiang Dao city bypass 2. Birding in the pouring rain at Doi Angkang 3-4. Several pairs of Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler (Pomatorhinus erythrogenys) were found along the way especially around Ban Luang village.

We stayed the night in a small A-Frame house in Ang Kang health station's area. The next morning we found a flock of about 6 Striated Swallows (Hirundo striolata) perching on electrical wires in front of the station. We later found many these throughout the trip. Other birds that were seen around the station include Red-whiskered Bulbuls, Sooty-headed Bulbuls, Oriental Magpie-Robins and Spotted Doves.

We then moved to Ban Luang area for birding and luckily came across this young Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) perching on the roadside. The bird has reddish underparts with black cheeks indicating that it's a subspecies F.p.peregrinator. The bird later flew out and caught a couple of high flying butterflies, presumably Birdwing species (Troides spp.), but constantly dropped them off while eating in midair.

On the roadside near Ban Luang village, there was a fruiting tree which attracted many different species of birds, mainly bulbuls and this Dark-backed Sibia (Heterophasia melanoleuca). The bird has a remarkable thrilling call which can be heard easily throughout Doi Angkang. Other birds that came to feed were Crested Finchbill, Flavescent Bulbul, Sooty-headed Bulbul and Silver-eared(Chestnut-crowned) Laughingthrush.

We went for lunch at a small restaurant in Nor Lae village, which is pretty well known among birders in Chiang Mai. The restaurant's called Tama-Taté. After lunch, we did a small walk around an orchard inside the military camp nearby and found many small birds including the above 2 species of sunbirds. The bird in the big picture is an eclipse male Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis), while the other in the two smaller pics below is an eclipse male Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus). Though looking almost identical in eclipse plumage, you can see that the Olive-backed Sunbird has much yellower underparts, while the Purple's is dull greyish. The second pic of the bird also shows purplish-blue glossy feathers on its rump and tail indicating that it's a Purple not Olive-backed Sunbird.

Later we were chased by the rain and finally ended up chilling at the luxurious Royal Project's restaurant. From the restaurant, we saw many Red-whiskered Bulbuls which were posted earlier in this entry. Not only there were bulbuls, this beautiful male Black-throated Sunbird (Aethopyga saturata) was also flicking around as well. Unfortunately, due to very low light thus low speed shutter and the rapid movement of the bird, the above shot was the only shot that is acceptable.