When we arrived at Lam Ru National Park, we headed down the trail to the beach to watch for birds. We Immediately heard birds we did not recognize, including (as we found out the next day) a Red-Throated Barbet. On our way around the trail, we saw two herons preening on the rocks by the beach. We did not see very many birds because the greenery was very dense, and the only thing you could see was leaves or the ocean on the way to the end of the trail, but on the way back to the parking lot we saw a Greater Flameback which is a type of woodpecker, and a Red Throated Barbet.
On our hike to the Ton Chong Fa Waterfall, which has four different levels. We saw very few birds but heard dozens of different birds. One of the birds we heard was a Red-Throated Barbet. We recognized it because of its accelerating trill call. At one of the stops at the waterfall, my sister and I went swimming in the pool below the waterfall. There were lots of little fish that were very interested in us and kept circling us while we were in the water. Several large butterflies kept landing on my sister because her swimsuit had flowers on it.
The next day, I met with Tony, a local Thai bird guide. At Si Phang National Park, we can see hornbills, kingfishers, barbets, flowerpeckers, and many other birds. Less than one minute after starting down the trail, we heard a collared kingfisher. It was hidden in the bushes, and very hard to focus on with the camera. I still managed to get a picture, but it was directly above us so it wasn’t a very good picture. As we were walking along, Tony heard Bushy-Crested Hornbills calling. He played a recording he had taken from his phone so the hornbills would fly overhead. Once the hornbills flew away, we kept walking and heard a Raffle’s Malkoha. As the Malkoha was flying around the tree, we saw an Asian Paradise Flycatcher fly from the same tree into a different tree far away. I was not able to get a picture of it, but it had a really long tail. We also saw 6 species of Bulbuls, a Common Tailorbird, a Gray Headed Canary-Flycatcher, a Rufous-Winged Philentoma, a Bar-Winged Flycatcher-Shrike, a Malayan Banded-Pitta, a Vernal Hanging-Parrot, a Banded Woodpecker, two species of Barbets, a Red-Bearded Bee Eater, and three species of Kingfishers. In total, we saw 33 new species of birds at that national park. Some More highlights of our trip were a Bushy-Crested Hornbill Nest. We also saw and heard a Helmeted Hornbill, of which only less than 10,000 are left in the entire world. On our way back to the trailhead, Tony spotted a Bushy-Crested Hornbill nest, with adults feeding a nestling inside the nest. When I saw this, I realized that calling the hornbills away from their nest while they had a nestling in the nest was probably not such a good idea. After getting back to Saudi Arabia, I researched this some more and found out that in most National Parks, the use of recordings is illegal and also that the recordings stress out the parents.
Bushy Crested Hornbill Nest
Red Throated Barbet
A few days later in Krabi, a few hours away from Khao Lak, my family and I met a local bird guide at a dock in a river to go birdwatching in a traditional Thai Longtail Boat. Once we got in the boat, we started cruising downstream toward the Andaman Sea. Near a Buddhist statue, our guide spotted four Chinese Pond Herons, 13 Javan Pond Herons, and 10 Great Egrets. We continued driving around in the boat until we stopped at an Island. I got out of the boat and started exploring the island. When I reached a clearing, I noticed an Indo-Chinese Roller hopping around in the branches and then it flew off, startling a Raffle’s Malkoha. As I was about to get into the traditional Thai Longtail Boat, I spotted movement in the roots of a mangrove-like tree. As I approached, the bird hopped onto a root close to me and our guide explained it was a Pied Fantail As we were pulling away from the Island, our guide spotted a Brown-Winged Kingfisher perched in a tree. It stared at us intently before flying off in search of more food. Once the kingfisher left, we continued in the boat back toward the harbor. While our boat was waiting for the waves of a speedboat to pass, I noticed a Brahiminy kite circling overhead. It circled us for several minutes before eventually flying off to find more food. After getting back to the dock, we went and had lunch at a local Thai restaurant and then met Tony at the Mangroves.
After we bought the tickets to the Mangrove boardwalk, Tony and I headed onto the boardwalk that led into the mangroves. Less than a minute into walking, Tony heard a Mangrove Pitta. After taking lots of pictures of the Pitta, Tony and I continued walking along the trail. Near a spot where tourists could swim in the mangroves, Tony and I spotted a Ruddy Kingfisher. I got a great picture of the kingfisher staring at us with its beak open, which you can find on my website: https://birdsandturtles.com/birding-travels. Around a corner in the trail, Tony heard a Ruby Cheeked Sunbird, which I took pictures of, also found on my website. It was not even 30 seconds before I saw a male Crimson Sunbird Hopping around in the branches of the same tree the Ruby Cheeked sunbird was in. Another “target bird” Tony was hoping to see was a White-Chested Babbler. I could see the parking lot at the end of the boardwalk when Tony called me back to see the Babbler. It came less than 3 feet away from me, so I got a clear picture of it which is on my website.
Ruby Cheeked Sunbird
Ruddy Kingfisher
Crimson Sunbird
