Thailand: Mystical Asia

Day 1: Bangkok to Laem Pak Bia
After meeting up in Bangkok, we will drive a couple hours to the shorebird paradise of Pak Thale. If time allows, we’ll start our hunt for the area’s specialty shorebirds, including the famous Spoon-billed Sandpiper. A single night will be spent at a resort in Baan Laem, Petchburi.

Day 2: Pak Thale
Today we visit Pak Thale on the shores of the Gulf of Thailand. This is an extensive area of pools, saltpans, and shrimp ponds. In recent years a handful of Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers have wintered here. In order to look for it, we’ll have to comb through thousands of other shorebirds, including Marsh and Broad-billed Sandpipers, sand-plovers, and Red-necked Stints. Other possibilities include Nordmann’s Greenshank and the endangered Black-faced Spoonbill. Later we plan to visit Laem Pak Bia by boat in search of Chinese Egret, Malaysian Plover and the newly described White-faced Plover, before heading to Kaeng Krachan NP for a three-night stay.

Days 3-4: Kaeng Krachan NP
In the far north of the Peninsula, Kaeng Krachan is home to a wonderful array of barbets, hornbills, broadbills, woodpeckers, and pittas. The most sought-after bird is the oddly shaped Ratchet-tailed Treepie, found in the park’s higher elevations. Mammals are also readily seen. Possibilities include Dusky Langur, Gaur, Asian Elephant, and even Leopard, including the rare all-black form (“Black Panther”). These two nights will also be spent just outside Kaeng Krachan NP.

​Days 5-7: Khao Yai NP
On day 5, we head out of Kaeng Krachan, driving north to another popular park: Khao Yai. Three nights will be spent just outside the park. The lush, evergreen dipterocarp forest supports some highly sought-after birds and mammals, including the entertaining White-handed and Pileated Gibbons. Impressive Silver Pheasants, stunning Siamese Firebacks, and bizarre Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoos walk unobtrusively through the undergrowth. Hornbills frequent the treetops, Blue and Eared Pittas skulk in the leaf litter, and White-crested Laughingthrushes move noisily in understory flocks. The bird list here includes stunners such as Long-tailed and Silver-breasted Broadbills, Vernal Hanging-Parrot, Greater Yellownape, Blue-bearded Bee-eater, and Red-headed Trogon. One night we will probably linger in the park and enjoy the eerie calls of the harrier-sized Great Eared-Nightjar. We will also search for Sambar, Indian Muntjac, and Asian Elephant in the more remote parts of the park. Our three nights will be spent in a hotel with spacious, bird-filled grounds just outside this flagship park.

​Day 8: Khao Yai NP to Bueng Boraphet
Leaving Khao Yai NP we begin our journey north, with a stop at Bueng Boraphet. Located approximately halfway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Bueng Boraphet is Thailand’s largest freshwater lake and an area of international conservation importance for migratory waterbirds, which congregate here in the thousands every winter. They include Asian Openbill, Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Cotton Pygmy-goose, and Lesser Whistling-Duck. Rarities such as Baer’s Pochard also turn up regularly. The fringes of the marsh can be good for passerines like Siberian Rubythroat. We overnight in a hotel near Bueng Boraphet.

Days 9-11: Doi Inthanon NP
After another morning birding at Bueng Boraphet, we make our way further north to Doi Inthanon, Thailand’s highest mountain, for a three-night stay near the base of the mountain. The “Roof of Thailand” provides spectacular forest birding at a range of different altitudes. The lower mountain is covered with dry, open, deciduous dipterocarp forest. Here we seek one of the cutest raptors in the world, the diminutive Collared Falconet. Black-headed Woodpecker and Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch may also be seen climbing the limbs of these gnarled trees, while Black-backed Forktails haunt the rushing rivulets. Higher up the mountain slopes, dazzling Green and Purple Cochoas are the prized birds in the evergreen forest, though lots of luck is required to see either of these. The resident birds are joined by migrant thrushes and warblers at this time of year. On one day we visit the damp sphagnum bog and rhododendron forest at the summit. This is an eerie place in the early morning, but the misty atmosphere is brightened by dazzling Gould’s and Green-tailed Sunbirds and the bold and approachable Silver-eared Laughingthrush. White-browed Shortwings and Slaty-bellied Tesias feed quietly on the damp forest floor.

Day 12: Doi Inthanon to Doi Chiang Dao
Heading north from Chiang Mai, we arrive at the looming limestone massif of Doi Chiang Dao. We bird around an attractive Buddhist temple searching for Pin-tailed Pigeon, Streaked Wren-Babbler, and Black Bulbul. A night walk may reveal Mountain or Collared Scops-Owls. A single night will be spent in Doi Chiang Dao.

Day 13: Doi Chiang Dao to Doi Ang Khang
We will head to the flanks of Doi Ang Khang, near the Myanmar border. The local specialties include Limestone Wren-Babbler, Chestnut-headed Tesia, Silver-eared Mesia, Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler, and Spectacled Barwing. One night will be spent in this fascinating highland town.

Day 14: Doi Ang Khang to Fang
After a morning of birding the trails of Ang Khang, we’ll make the short drive to the town of Fang, which serves as a springboard for our visit to Doi Lang the next morning.

Day 15: Doi Lang
This awesome new birding site has some of the most exciting birding in Thailand. Most importantly, it’s the best site for two of the country’s best birds: Hume’s Pheasant and Giant Nuthatch, the largest nuthatch on Earth. Once we have found these two species, there are plenty of other birds to look for, including Siberian Rubythroat, White-bellied Redstart, Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler, and even Himalayan Cutia or Whiskered Yuhina if we’re very lucky. This is a great place to catch up with some shy and scarce flycatchers like Ultramarine and Slaty-blue Flycatchers and Rufous-bellied Niltava. In the afternoon we’ll descend to a lowland valley, where we’ll spend the late afternoon birding some remnant riverside grassland, which can produce Yellow-eyed and Chestnut-capped Babblers, Bluethroat, and sometimes scarce species like Baikal Bush-Warbler or Yellow-breasted Bunting. The night will be spent in a resort in Thaton.

Day 16: Chiang Saen to Bangkok
We spend our last morning birding the Chiang Saen area looking for River Lapwing, Small Pratincole, Pied Harrier, and a myriad of waterbirds before flying back to Bangkok, where we overnight.

Day 17: Departure
We head to the airport in the morning for departure, or to start the extension.

Thai Peninsula Extension

Thailand is a long, gangly country, with the birds of the north and center differing markedly from those further south on the Thai Peninsula, on the northern end of the Malay Peninsula. The Malay Peninsula has a highly distinctive and mouth-watering avifauna. Extreme beauties like Malayan Banded Pitta, Scarlet-rumped and Diard’s Trogons, Green Broadbills, and Whiskered Treeswifts lurk in the forest, while the extensive mangroves in the bay of Phang-nga hold Mangrove Pitta and Brown-winged Kingfisher, among others.

Day 1: Fly from Bangkok to Phuket; transfer to Ao Phang-nga NP
This park on the north side of the Phang-Nga Bay is famed for its quality mangrove birding. It has even now surpassed the mangroves of Krabi as THE go-to place for mangrove birding in southern Thailand. As you’d expect for this habitat, kingfishers are a major feature. There are six species in this area, and we will be especially on the lookout for Ruddy, Brown-winged, and Black-capped Kingfishers there. However, the jewel in the crown of Ao Phang-Nga is the glittering Mangrove Pitta, which will be our principal target of the site. Other species that may feature as we cover various spots in the mangroves, include Rufous-bellied Swallow, Chestnut-bellied Malkoha, Streak-breasted Woodpecker, Common Flameback, Black-and-red Broadbill, Sakhalin Leaf-Warbler, and Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker. A single night will be spent in a hotel on the edge of Phang-nga Bay.

Day 2: Ao Phang-nga NP to Khao Sok via Laem Pakarang
A final session will be spent cleaning up whatever we still need in Ao Phang-nga, before we head north to the coral sandspit of Laem Pakarang for some different coastal birding. Shorebirds and terns gather here in great numbers, and these will be our focus; while searching among the more regular species, we will keep an eye out for a Crab Plover, Nordmann’s Greenshank, or Far Eastern Curlew. The more regular fare at the site includes Terek Sandpiper, Gray-tailed Tattler, Red-necked Stint, Kentish and Malaysian Plovers, Pacific Golden-Plover, and sand-plovers. Brahminy Kite and White-bellied Sea-Eagle are also regular. The night will be spent just minutes away from Khao Sok National Park, which will be the site we cover for the majority of the following day.

Day 3: Khao Sok NP
Most of the day will be spent birding this lowland forest site, which will not only offer further chances at some species missed in the north, but adds a considerable number of species that are only found in southern Thailand. Among the possibilities here are Silver-rumped Needletail, Bushy-crested Hornbill, Red-bearded Bee-eater, Blue-banded, Blue-eared, and Banded Kingfishers, Red-throated Barbet, Chestnut-breasted Malkoha, Chestnut-naped Forktail, three species of iora (Green, Great and Common), Black-headed and Yellow-bellied Bulbuls, Chestnut-winged and Abbot’s Babblers, and Forest Wagtail. In the afternoon, we will drive to the town of Kuraburi, just outside Sri Phang-Nga National Park.

​Day 4: Sri Phang-Nga NP
This fantastic little park is seldom visited by tourists, and can be wonderfully quiet as a result. However, like Khao Sok, it provides superb lowland forest birding. Sri Phang-Nga is particularly noted for Malayan Banded-Pitta, arguably one of the world’s best-looking birds. In recent years, a feeding station has been set up just outside the park (feeding is now prohibited inside the park). If the feeding station is active during our visit, this will be our first port of call, as the views are unrivaled; if it is not active, we shall seek one out inside the park by more traditional methods. There are plenty of other birds to keep an eye out for, like Oriental Honey-Buzzard, Wallace’s Hawk-Eagle, Great Hornbill, Raffle’s Malkoha, Whiskered Treeswift, Banded and Maroon Woodpeckers, Black-and-yellow Broadbill, Crow-billed Drongo, Red-eyed, Spectacled and Buff-vented Bulbuls, Asian Fairy-Bluebird, Ruby-cheeked Sunbird, and Purple-naped Spiderhunter. After much of the day in this park, we drive to a beach resort situated on the Gulf of Thailand for the next two nights (in Tha Sala).

Day 5: Khao Luang NP (Krung Ching)
Our final full day of the extension is set to be a special one, as we visit Krung Ching, one of the most revered sites in southern Thailand that offers some rare species for Thailand, more typical of the Malay Peninsula further south. The list of species here is daunting, but this is a good thing – even at this late stage of the tour, we will have our hands busy, searching for Red-billed and Black-bellied Malkohas, Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo, Scarlet-rumped and Orange-breasted Trogons, White-crowned and Black Hornbills, Sooty Barbet, Buff-rumped and Gray-and-buff Woopdeckers, Green, Dusky, and Banded Broadbills, Fulvous-chested Jungle-Flycatcher, Rufous-winged Philentoma, Scaly-breasted and Hairy-backed Bulbuls, Lesser Green Leafbird, Spectacled, Yellow-eared, and Gray-breasted Spiderhunters, and Yellow-breasted and Crimson-breasted Flowerpeckers. Another night will be spent at a coastal resort, along the Gulf of Thailand (Tha Sala).

Day 6: Krung Ching to Bangkok
Depending on what we have not seen by this point, we will likely return to Krung Ching for some further birding there, or may do some coastal birding locally, or a combination of both. In the afternoon, we drive to Nakhon Si Thammarat airport and take the short flight back to Bangkok, for very, very late night departures out of there. Please note, it is usually best to plan fly out the following day, to avoid tight connections. You often also need to transfer between airports in Bangkok too, and these airports are not close (over an hour from each other). The office can help making hotel arrangements to do that, although this is not included in the tour fee.

Trip Considerations

PACE: Moderate to intense. This tour covers a lot of ground in a short time. Start times vary, but on a couple of mornings can be as early as 5:00 AM, while on others may be as late as 6:30 AM. For those days where we spend the whole day in the field, a packed breakfast and packed lunch will be provided. On other days we typically have breakfast at the hotel before we depart. When not having packed lunches, they are either eaten en-route between birding spots, or at a good restaurant near our hotel. All dinners are at good restaurants at or near the hotel. On those days where we are not moving between locations, we’ll have some downtime in the middle of the day. There are three particularly long drives on the main tour (4 hours or so between Kaeng Krachan and Khao Yai and then two drives of around 3.5 hours to Bueng Boraphet, and then to Doi Inthanon. There is one drive of around 4 hours to Krung Ching on the extension.

PHYSICAL DIFFICULTY: Easy to moderate. There may be some short walks on trails, especially in Khao Yai and Doi Ang Khang. On some days we will walk as far as 4 miles (6.5km), but this will mostly be on wide paths, and often downhill. Several days of the tour are spent above 3300 ft (1000 m), with at least one morning spent above 6600 ft (2000 m). There is some trail walking required on the extension, although this is not difficult, with only occasional, short steep sections.

CLIMATE: Extremely variable. A wide range of temperatures are possible at this time of year in Thailand. The tour is timed for the winter, when temperatures are cooler and more comfortable than later in the year in the hottest parts of the country. Some years the overnight lows (and thus the temperature when we arrive in the mountains in the early morning) can be at 43°F (8°C) or even lower. Daytime highs on such days often don’t exceed 71°F (22°C). However, other years the daytime lows dip below 32°F (0°C), and daytime highs can reach into the 70s°F (above 21°C). In the more tropical south we can expect daytime highs of up to 86°F (30°C) and very high humidity. Rain is infrequent at this time of year, though still possible for a few days in the month, so raingear is still needed. The climate on the Thai Peninsula, for the extension, is very hot and humid.

ACCOMMODATION: Good to excellent throughout. All of the accommodations have en-suite bathrooms, Wi-Fi, full-time electricity, and full-time hot water. This is a very comfortable tour with decent places to stay throughout.

PHOTOGRAPHY: This is a birding tour, but Thailand is among the best Asian destinations for bird photography. At Kaeng Krachan, we will be spending some time at well-designed hides that are very good for photography, though the dark conditions require the use of high ISOs.

WHEN TO GO: This tour is timed for the winter, as this is when temperatures are more comfortable than later in the year, and is also when there are many migrants in Thailand’s mountains too. Custom trips can be run at other times of year though if needed.

​Other Information

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS: A valid passport is required; the passport must be valid for at least six months past your intended stay and have at least one blank page. Visas are generally not required for visitors from most western countries, for stays of up to 30 days, such as the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK, who get tourist visas issued on arrival. However, for all foreign visitors, a Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) must be completed at least 3 days before arrival, although we would suggest doing it sooner than that to avoid any last-minute stress. Travel requirements are subject to change; please double check with the nearest embassy or consulate or ask our office staff if you are unsure.

WHAT’S INCLUDED?: Accommodation from the night of Day 1 to the night of day 16 on the main tour, and through to the night of Day 5 on the extension if taking that too; Meals from lunch on day 1 to breakfast on day 17 on the main tour, or to lunch on day 6 of the extension if taking that too; safe drinking water throughout; tour leader with camera and audio playback gear from lunchtime of day 1 to the evening of day 16 on the main tour, and through to the afternoon of Day 6 on the extension if taking that too; domestic flight from Chiang Rai to Bangkok on the main tour, and tickets from Bangkok to Phuket, and Nakhon Si Thammarat airport to Bangkok on the extension; ground transport for the group in a suitable vehicle driven by the guide from midday of day 1 to the afternoon of day 16 on the main tour, and until the afternoon of day 6 on the extension; airport shuttle bus on day 1 and day 17 of the main tour; tips included for meals; entrance fees to the sites mentioned in the itinerary; the use of photo blinds during the tour; a printed and bound checklist to keep track of your sightings (given to you at the start of the tour – only electronic copies can be provided in advance).

WHAT’S NOT INCLUDED?: Optional tips to the tour leader (who is also the driver on this tour); tips to luggage porters if you require their services; international flights; excess baggage fees on domestic flights; snacks; additional drinks apart from those included; alcoholic beverages; travel insurance; excursions not included in the tour itinerary; extras in hotels such as laundry service, minibar, room service, telephone calls, and personal items; medical fees; other items or services not specifically mentioned as being included; expenses that could arise due to the delay, change, or extension of the trip due to circumstances beyond Tropical Birding’s control (weather, flight delays/cancellations, lost luggage, road closures, etc.).