Hanoi : nine species in nine days.

[StuartReeves]

Not a holiday but a work trip which meant that I saw the meeting room, the hotel and the roads in between and not much else, but even so, the number of birds is still staggeringly low. Most of the birds I saw were in bushes around the car park of the offices where we were working, though I saw the Pond Herons over the city as we drove to work one morning. The Kestrel was literally the only bird I saw on the 45 minute drive to the airport. It was also my only Vietnam tick of the trip, as most of the other species were in those same bushes on my previous visit.

The list in full :

Chinese Pond Heron
Eurasian Kestrel
Feral Pigeon
Red-whiskered Bulbul.
Common Tailorbird
Japanese White-eye
White-throated Fantail
Oriental Magpie-robin
Tree Sparrow

Back in Denmark, it was cold, grey and drizzling on the fifteen minute drive from the airport to home. I still saw seven species.


Stuart

[Edward]

Hi Stuart

I'd love to visit Vietnam for all sorts of reasons but sounds like I might be better off going to Thailand or Malaysia for birding purposes in SE Asia. I'd still have had three lifers on that trip though (the bulbul, the white-eye and the fantail). You just assume that the tropics are teeming with avian life? Why the paucity of birds?

E

[James Lowther]

i guess stuart was in a big city. I can't say i saw many birds in Bangkok when i visited (save for an ok range in an area of scrubland adjacent to my hotel), probably 9 is about right there also.
Were there any parks, paddyfields, gardens etc. where you might have expected to see birds but didn't??
James

[StuartReeves]

i guess stuart was in a big city. I can't say i saw many birds in Bangkok when i visited (save for an ok range in an area of scrubland adjacent to my hotel), probably 9 is about right there also.
Were there any parks, paddyfields, gardens etc. where you might have expected to see birds but didn't??
James

I was in the middle of Hanoi, but roughly half of the journey to the airport passed through paddyfields which were almost entirely bird-free. On a previous visit a 100km road journey passing mostly through agricultural land produced no more than thirty individual birds. I think the pressures of the human population on the country are such that a high proportion of the wildlife gets eaten.

Stuart

[Hanno]

Agreed, bird density in the inhabited areas in Vietnam is extremely low. The recent economic upturn allows a lot more people to partake of those "delicacies" (contrary to popular believe, birds were never eaten because people are so poor, it was always a special, and expensive, item).

Having said that, there is some great birding in Vietnam, especially in the National Parks. Whilst Thailand has the better infrastructure, Vietnam has 10 endemics.

Cheers,

Hanno

[paddleasia]

Bangkok offers a lot of birding opportunities. Lumpini Park in the middle of Bangkok regularly has at least a couple dozen species. Some of the temples on the outskirts of Bankok are wonderful places to go birding.

I guess you just have to know where to go. There are plenty of birds around the big cities. I live in Phuket and believe me, I see plenty of birds... even in my yard. I have a family of Common Koels in my yard regularly. Coppersmith Barbets frequently visit. Four Black Bazas recently flew overhead. And, a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo often sings in the top on one of my trees.

[Rhion]

I used to live in Semarang on Java, where if you got 9 species in 9 days you would be doing exceptionally well. Jakarta is considerably better.

[Mike Pennington]

Not a holiday but a work trip which meant that I saw the meeting room, the hotel and the roads in between and not much else, but even so, the number of birds is still staggeringly low.

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

Sounds like Beijing (outside migration season anyway). I was there for a few days in August and saw Red-rumped Swallow, Tree Sparrow, Magpie, Azure-winged Magpie, Large-billed Crow and not a lot else. The Great Wall was even more desolate. Hills covered in low bushes and saw 3 species (from the list above), the back end of something else and heard two unidentified twitters in 3 hours!

Having said that the paddyfields round Wuhan on the Yangtse were crawling.

[StuartReeves]

The timing relative to the migration season does make some difference. My previous visit to Hanoi was late April - early May, and from memory I managed ten species that time !

[Bwell]

Hi, I just got back from 2 weeks in VN. For birding, Bach ma NP (3 nights) was certainly the highlight. Saw about 25 species, mostly new for me since my only other trip to SE Asia was to Thailand in '88. Highlights included Silver Pheasant, Long-tailed Broadbill and Short-tailed Scimitar Babbler. We had a guide, Le Quy Minh. I would have seen less than 1/2 that number without him.
I didn't devote much time to birding on Phu Quoc but did see Pied Hornbill (two individuals) and a Copper-Throated Sunbird. There were Yellow-vented Bulbuls and at least two other species on the hotels grounds. Also an Asian Koel nearby. I saw several other birds on a very dusty morning motorbike into the interior but couldn't make ID's. Anybody who knew what they were doing would do a lot better. Lotta construction on Phu Quoc...
Outside of those places birds were very rare and wary, no doubt about that.

[Blizzard]

I have found that paddyfields in Asia can be almost devoid of birds but sometimes there are lots. Is it to do with the use of pesticides I wonder. I remember that in Haryana state in India we saw lots of birds in agricultural areas but further east there were long distances when we saw hardly anything at all.

Bliz

[paddleasia]

I've got more birds in my front yard in Phuket Town that what was listed in this thread.

I just got back from a trip to Khao Nor Chuchi and Khao Sok National Park. You wanna list, check this out:

April 23rd
Greater Green Leafbird (M)
Along with all the usuals...

April 24th
Large Wren-Babbler
Tiger Shrike (F)

April 26th
Gurney’s Pitta (M + F)
Purple-naped Sunbird
Dusky Broadbill
Grey-cheeked Bulbul
Puff-backed Bulbul
Red-billed Malkoha
Yellow-vented Flowerpecker
Yellow-eared Spiderhunter
Green Iora
Grey-breasted Spiderhunter
Thick-billed Spiderhunter
Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
Plain Sunbird
Chestnut-winged Babbler
Rufous-tailed Tailorbird
Banded Kingfisher
Yellow-bellied Bulbul
Fulvous-chested Flycatcher
Siberian Blue Robin (F)
Streaked Bulbul
Raffle’s Malkoha
Rufous-winged Flycatcher (M)
Black Magpie
Scaly-crowned Babbler
Green Broadbill (M)
White-eyed Bulbul
Rufous Piculet

April 27th [Khao Sok]
Red Junglefowl (M + F)
Black-thighed Falconet
Oriental Hobby
White-bellied Sea-Eagle
White-rumped Shama
Stripe-throated Bulbul
Great Argus (heard several times only)
Greater Flameback Woodpecker
Blue-eared Kingfisher
Brown Shrike
Whiskered Treeswift
Little Spiderhunter
Ochraceous Bulbul
Crested Serpent-Eagle
Ruby-cheeked Sunbird (M +F)
Grey-headed Fish-Eagle
White-crowned Hornbill (F)
Buffy Fish-Owl
Blue-winged Leafbird (M)
Helmeted Hornbill
Great Hornbill

April 28th
Great Hornbill
Helmeted Hornbill
Blue Rock Thrush
Red-billed Malkoha

April 29th
Buffy Fish-Owl
Grey-headed Fish-Eagle
Great Slaty Woodpecker
Oriental Hobby

Thailand offers better birding than anywhere else in SE Asia in my less than humble opinion. If you ain't seeing birds in Thailand's cities and parks, you either need a new hobby or you need to clean your binos.

[leGorfou]

I found that the center of Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon) was much the same, however I found that the Zoo was not too bad at all. In a couple of visits, in January this year I got this list:
Rock Dove, Oriental Turtle-Dove, Spotted Dove, Banded Bay Cuckoo, Drongo Cuckoo, German's Swiftlet, Common Kingfisher, Blue-eared Barbet, Coppersmith Barbet, Black-naped Monarch, Ashy Drongo, Common Iora, Black-naped Oriole, Indochinese Cuckoo-shrike, Long-tailed Minivet, Brown Shrike, Dark-sided Flycatcher, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Dusky Crag-Martin, Buff-vented Bulbul, Common Tailorbird, Ashy Tailorbird, Eurasian Tree Sparrow

I believe that Hanoi has a Botanic gardens and a large lake. Has anyone any experience there?

[Hanno]

Nah, not much in Ha Noi. West Lake is pretty much devoid of birds, the few Teal that winter there are under immense hunting pressure. Good list for the zoo, need to go there more often. I just don't like the way the animals are kept there.