• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Birds of prey i Vietnam (1 Viewer)

S

Sweden

Well-known member
Hey,
I'm going to to Vietnam and plan on going to a couple of national parks. Most of them seem to be of the "jungle type" though, and I'm interested in seeing rapors.
According to a lousy app to vietnamese birds I've got you can see Black eagle, Bonneli's eagle, Imperial egle, GSE, Tawny, Amur falcon, Pied falconet and so on. Don't know which are common and which are rare though.

But are there any good hotspots for raptors? Mainy interested in eagles. I'm going in about one week and stay for 4-5 weeks, have time to go anywhere in the country.

regards
 
All of those species you mention apart from the falconet are winter visitors or passage migrants. So a visit in June/July should not have these as expectations.
 
Black Eagle is resident and fairly common in the mountains (DaLat, Bach Ma, etc). Nam Cat Tien has both Fishing-Eagles resident (Grey-headed at Bau Sau, Lesser at Thac Troi). WT Sea-Eagle is fairly common resident along the coast around Nha Trang and on the islands. Both Hawk-Eagles reside but not very common -perhaps central mountains (DaNang-Kontum area) are most likely spot. I think the Bonelli's near Cuc Phuong is also resident, though I haven't seen them myself.
 
I forgot to mention, for sake of completeness, the Crested Serpent Eagle (the most common Eagle) and the Rufous-bellied Eagle (DaLat-Bi Doup area - much less common). Also the Oriental Honey Buzzard is a common resident and as big as many Eagles.
To give you a rough idea of how common eagles are - here is the number of times I've recorded them in VietNam over a period of years (high number = more common):

CS Eagle 69 (about once in every 3 birding days)
Black Eagle 53
Honey Buzzard 33
WB Sea-Eagle 26
Grey-headed Fish-eagle 20
Lesser Fish-eagle 9
Mtn Hawk-Eagle 11
Rufous-bellied 8
Changeable Hawk-eagle 6 (about once every 40 birding days)
 
Thanks for a detailed answer!
I was planning on going to Cat Tien. Back Ma looks great in pictures, I think I'll go there too.

I was thinking I should have asked about the oriental honey buzzards, but you answered that anyway, gonna be on the look out for them :)
 
Collared Falconet was at the headquarters at Cat Tien this spring.
Our raptor list was abonimable. I saw quite a few Crested Goshawks in addition to the aforementioned species.
Basically, be prepared to see very, very little!
 
The falconet looks really cute, hope to see one.
I haven't seen any of these raptors, so I take what I get. But I want to study the most likely species a bit before I go.

How about these:
Black Baza
Black-shouldered kite
Brahminy kite
Shikra

Are they fairly common?
 
Black Baza are winter migrants only. Jerdon's Baza and Oriental Hobby are very uncommon residents, mainly in mountains. BS Kite should be fairly common in lowland areas where there are ricefields. Brahminy Kite is now very very local, more or less only along the south coast (e.g. Phu Quoc island). Shikra is fairly common and widespread.

With regard to the last comment: "Basically, be prepared to see very, very little!" - this is true in Europe too, isn't it, outside migration times?
For comparison, I would describe ONLY buzzards as "very common" here in the UK (North Wales), with kestrels and sparrowhawks as "fairly common", if that helps. National Parks in Vietnam are rather better than anywhere in the UK, I would say.

Also, "serious" birders visiting VietNam for 3-4 weeks spend a lot a time inside forests where they will see far fewer raptors than someone scanning the skies all day.

Why don't you post in this thread the raptors you see each day (including "null" counts and "unidentified")? This would be very interesting and informative.
 
glennmanc said:
"serious" birders visiting VietNam for 3-4 weeks spend a lot a time inside forests where they will see far fewer raptors than someone scanning the skies all day.

Why don't you post in this thread the raptors you see each day (including "null" counts and "unidentified")? This would be very interesting and informative.
Click to expand...


I was thinking about exactly what you write about forests. Most of the national parks seems to be forests or jungle, and if raptors in Asia are not completely different from european raptors, forests shouldn't be a good place to look for them. I want to go the some national parks anyway, but I will also try to rent a scooter and drive around in the countryside and look for spots that seems promising.

I'm gonna write down what I see, so I can definitely post it here! I haven't had time to order a bird guide, so I hope I can find one in english in Saigon, learning bird features through google has it's limitations.

If I see a hawk in Vietnam at this time of year - could I assume it is crested goshawk or shikra, or do I have to take other species into consideration?

best regards
 
My first birding day in Vietnam was this morning in Saigon. Not a good place for birding, and Ive been to three major bookstores without finding any books about birds at all. I saw a couple of birds I could id, tons of spotted doves and some common mynas for example, but also several maybe-birds and a couple of "no clue".

I actually saw a raptor, which I didn't expect. Even though I saw it well and have looked at tons of pictures on google on immature shikra and crested goshawk I'm not sure how to separate them, in some pictures they are really similar to me. Don't know what to look for.
From what I could see, it seemed to have only 2 darker bands on the uppertail. The throat was almost white or very light with two prominent stripes. The underpart of the body had brownish big specks and it had some white, fluffy feathers around the legs. Size: If it hade been at home I'd id it as a sparrowhawk in a split second, but this crested gos can unfortunately be much smaller than our gos.
All in all - I have to leave it unidentified.

Anyway, I will count everyday when I bird, from an hour to a whole day, and then see how many raptors and species I can see.
Now I will be occupied for two days probably, but then I will bird in Cat Tien.

Raptor count Vietnam
Birding days: 1
Species seen: -
Unidentified raptors: 1
Total number of raptors: 1
 
Last edited:
Was birding in Cat Tien today, really liked it, saw a lot of fun species. Raptors: 1 Crested serpent eagle, 3 crested honey buzzards and... one unidentified hawk again. Frustating :)
There was almost no wind today, so I hope it picks up tomorrow.

Raptor count Vietnam
Birding days: 2
Species seen: 2
Crested serpent eagle
Crested honey buzzard
Unidentified raptors: 2
Total number of raptors: 6
 
Still in Cat Tien. Today: 1 osprey, 2 crested honeys and 2 unknowns, very distant, one was almost certainly an eagle, other one prob CHB. No fish eagles in sight. Last day here tomorrow, then I will go to Dalat.

Raptor count Vietnam
Birding days: 3
Species seen: 3
Crested serpent eagle 1
Crested honey buzzard 5
Osprey 1
Unidentified raptors: 4
Total number of raptors: 11
 
Finally nailed both crested goshawk and shikra today. Also 1 serpent eagle, 3 honeys and 1 unknown.

Raptor count Vietnam
Birding days: 4
Species seen: 5
Crested Goshawk 1
Shikra 1
Crested serpent eagle 2
Crested honey buzzard 8
Osprey 1
Unidentified raptors: 5
Total number of raptors: 18
 
No birding today, but a eurasian hobby circled over my head when I had tea at the terrace of my hostel in Dalat, so I guess I'll count it as a birding day anyway.

Raptor count Vietnam
Birding days: 5
Species seen: 6
Crested Goshawk 1
Shikra 1
Crested serpent eagle 2
Crested honey buzzard 8
Osprey 1
Eurasian Hobby 1
Unidentified raptors: 5
Total number of raptors: 19
 
glennmanc said:
Are you sure it was Eurasian? Oriental Hobby does occur in the DaLat area.
Click to expand...

I can't say I'm 100% sure, my experience of oriental hobby basically comes from google search and an app, but both shape and plumage looked spot on for eurasian I thought. And I really wanted it to be oriental :)
That being said, I don't know how similar they can look?

A lot of things have come in the way of birding last days, including hanging with non-birders, Dalat being completely infested with vietnamese tourists with cameras and selfie sticks, losing my glasses so I couldn't drive around and have a hard time birding etc.
Now I'm in Hoi An, will hopfully be able to get new glasses tomorrow. A very probable black-shouldered kite hovering over the rise fields seen from the train on the way here, don't know what else it could have been, but it was over so quick I'll leave it as uncertain.
Probably won't bird for another day or two, but then I hope to go to Bach Ma, and maybe some other places in this area.
 
Can add two unknowns to the list - a very distant eagle and a very close hawk that I still didn't manage to id. Just seen by coincidence, haven't done any real birding.

There's one new factor that I didn't think about on this ill planned trip - its 38 degrees here and clear sky all day. I almost passed out and fell asleep after a tour in marble mountains today. it's the same temperature all the way up to Hanoi...

Raptor count Vietnam
Birding days: 6
Species seen: 6
Crested Goshawk 1
Shikra 1
Crested serpent eagle 2
Crested honey buzzard 8
Osprey 1
Eurasian Hobby 1
Unidentified raptors: 7
Total number of raptors: 21
 
A new species on a trekking tour at Bach Ma mountain, black eagle, nice. Otherwise there were almost no birds in the park. Probably way better at the foot of the mountain early in the morning. But a nice trip, swimming in waterfalls, almost no tourists at all.

Raptor count Vietnam
Birding days: 7
Species seen: 7
Crested Goshawk 1
Shikra 1
Crested serpent eagle 2
Crested honey buzzard 8
Osprey 1
Eurasian Hobby 1
Black eagle 1
Unidentified raptors: 7
Total number of raptors: 22
 
In Phong Nha now. At least two black kites soaring around my hotel all afternoon, sometimes really close to the balcony. I saw kites land at the exact same spot half way up a mountain pretty far away, guess it's probably a nest.

Raptor count Vietnam
Birding days: 8
Species seen: 8
Crested Goshawk 1
Shikra 1
Crested serpent eagle 2
Crested honey buzzard 8
Osprey 1
Eurasian Hobby 1
Black eagle 1
Black kite 2
Unidentified raptors: 7
Total number of raptors: 24
 
Eurasian Hobbies are seen on migration in March and October, but usually in the North. Resident birds in summer in the South are likely to be Oriental Hobby.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

H
Review of birding apps I use on Android
Replies
7
Views
2K
THE_FERN
T
dalat
4 weeks tropical birding with the Zeiss SFL 8x30
4 5 6
Replies
101
Views
11K
dalat
dalat
3Italianbirders
Birding the Italian extremities in early Autumn: September - October 2022
Replies
12
Views
2K
3Italianbirders
3Italianbirders
lgonz1008
Kenya: Birding in Africa's Top Safari Destination
2 3
Replies
58
Views
4K
lgonz1008
lgonz1008
M
Mystery Murder: Who done it? Adult Red Shouldered Hawk preyed upon in nest by . . .
Replies
3
Views
2K
McHeath
McHeath

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top