Laos - A country with life but no song. (1 Viewer)

[498 Ramblin Alex]

Having spent two weeks in Laos, travelling many places, except the South East and North East part of the country, I can say you will likely see more birds (density and species) in one day in Dakar Senegal than in 2 weeks in Laos.

Apart from Tree Sparrows, the only common town bird, not a lot. The people here, many of whom live hunter gatherers lives, are unscrupulous in their hunting and as insects are readily eaten not even the smallest bird is off the menu.

As a result the wildlife which remains are very shy and secretive. I had to trek some 7 hours into mountainous jungle, far from any road, before setting up camp where we were able to hear quiet a few species singing. Hard to take a photo there of course, being natural jungle and the canopy dense.


Much of Laos still is covered in primary forest and insect life is abundant. But due to the persecution, which takes place in these forests too from hunter gatherers, it is fair to say you will do well to find any animal life, did not see monkeys once the whole trip.

Thank goodness it is not like this in many places of the world.

Did not take a boat ride here, so maybe it is different on the water. In Cat Tien, Vietnam, the one place I saw a great amount of birds was on a boat ride there, with 10+ Kingfishers and many more Night Herons.

Aside from several groups of Bulbuls, Grey Wagtails, several Swifts and Swallows and occasionally some Drongos in Laos, not much to write about. Did not go to Nam Et Phouay, where the best wildlife in the country is said to be, due to its remoteness. If you have been to Laos and have had a better experience with regards to seeing an abundance please write here.


If you are choosing where to visit, whether it Tropical Africa, South America or East Asia, please choose either of the former two, that is my recommendation.

 

[DMW]

Indeed, Laos is notoriously bad for this. I've had kids firing catapults at birds I was actually watching. Sadly, it's not much better in most parts of Vietnam, although here I think it's mostly trapping passerines for the cage bird trade, and pheasants / partridges for the pot. It's extremely depressing seeing the unique Indochinese avifauna getting wiped-out in a few decades.

 

[tehri]

Having spent two weeks in Laos, travelling many places, except the South East and North East part of the country, I can say you will likely see more birds (density and species) in one day in Dakar Senegal than in 2 weeks in Laos.

I want to believe you, (both of you) and it's sad to read, to hear !!
What's more, it's a country that has one of my favorite traditional instruments, the Khaen... but that doesn't replace birdsong !

 

[Mysticete]

Having spent two weeks in Laos, travelling many places, except the South East and North East part of the country, I can say you will likely see more birds (density and species) in one day in Dakar Senegal than in 2 weeks in Laos.

Apart from Tree Sparrows, the only common town bird, not a lot. The people here, many of whom live hunter gatherers lives, are unscrupulous in their hunting and as insects are readily eaten not even the smallest bird is off the menu.

As a result the wildlife which remains are very shy and secretive. I had to trek some 7 hours into mountainous jungle, far from any road, before setting up camp where we were able to hear quiet a few species singing. Hard to take a photo there of course, being natural jungle and the canopy dense.


Much of Laos still is covered in primary forest and insect life is abundant. But due to the persecution, which takes place in these forests too from hunter gatherers, it is fair to say you will do well to find any animal life, did not see monkeys once the whole trip.

Thank goodness it is not like this in many places of the world.

Did not take a boat ride here, so maybe it is different on the water. In Cat Tien, Vietnam, the one place I saw a great amount of birds was on a boat ride there, with 10+ Kingfishers and many more Night Herons.

Aside from several groups of Bulbuls, Grey Wagtails, several Swifts and Swallows and occasionally some Drongos in Laos, not much to write about. Did not go to Nam Et Phouay, where the best wildlife in the country is said to be, due to its remoteness. If you have been to Laos and have had a better experience with regards to seeing an abundance please write here.


If you are choosing where to visit, whether it Tropical Africa, South America or East Asia, please choose either of the former two, that is my recommendation.

To be fair, Laos is not representative of all of East Asia. I've only been to Japan in that region of the world, and found the birding to be pretty good, and in general birds are not directly persecuted there. I'm hoping to visit Malaysia within the next decade, and have heard good things about that country, even though I know they also have a cagebird trade problem.

 

[opisska]

Yeah this is definitely not the universal experience of Southeast Asia. I have been to Malaysia and twice to Thailand and both countries are really good birding destinations. Fraiser's Hill in Malaysia was one of the greatest birding places I have ever seen - super easy to see birds, including Trogons, very close to tourist buildings.

 

[498 Ramblin Alex]

I want to believe you, (both of you) and it's sad to read, to hear !!
What's more, it's a country that has one of my favorite traditional instruments, the Khaen... but that doesn't replace birdsong !

Without doubt it does have many things going for it. I recommend hiking through the mountainous jungle regions. Eating off banana leaves. 😋

 

[Xenospiza]

Vietnam is horrendous (especially the north, but around Dalat the birds are disappearing fast as well) and I can imagine how bad things must be in Laos.

Red-whiskered Bulbul was impossible to find in Vietnam, whereas it is a very common bird in places where it is left alone...

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

I went to Laos for 8 days in 2013, partially on an organized tour for some specific targets and partially for some general sightseeing in Vientiane and Luang Prabang. I saw 92 species, although to be fair only 4 days were specifically birding. The majority of the birds were in the Ban Na Hin Area about 275 km east of Vientiane and at a place called Ban Na Sang which is about 70 km upstream from Vientiane along the Mekong.

 

[jurek]

Sad. It reminds me of how birdless was China on my first trip in the 1990s. Happily, on my return visit, the country changed and birds returned and became visible.

 

[dalat]

I was also birding in Na Hin area some years back, it was tough but still very enjoyable birding, saw many great birds (e.g. I remember seeing Sooty Babbler through the fumes of trucks on the road). I'm used to bird in Vietnam, which has great birding.
But still I agree with the feelings expressed above, hunting in both countries is terrible, a huge threat to birds and makes birding incredibly hard. In Vietnam, slowly a community of people is emerging taking an interest in nature and conservation. I hope this will start to have an effect before too many species and habitat are lost.

 

[temmie]

... I can say you will likely see more birds (density and species) in one day in Dakar Senegal than in 2 weeks in Laos.

I just came back from Senegal and I can fully endorse this statement.

 

[stevefloyd]

I have been on the border of Laos but never made it across the actual border, but have visited Thailand many many times and the national parks are great as are plenty of temple grounds, been to Malaysia 2 times but both times it was not the right time to visit Frasers Hill apparently, I was told the roads would be quite bad...one day hopefully

 

[Andy Adcock]

I was also birding in Na Hin area some years back, it was tough but still very enjoyable birding, saw many great birds (e.g. I remember seeing Sooty Babbler through the fumes of trucks on the road). I'm used to bird in Vietnam, which has great birding.
But still I agree with the feelings expressed above, hunting in both countries is terrible, a huge threat to birds and makes birding incredibly hard. In Vietnam, slowly a community of people is emerging taking an interest in nature and conservation. I hope this will start to have an effect before too many species and habitat are lost.

Indeed, we enjoyed that trip together Florien and like you, I can't remember a particular shortage of birds in that region.

In SE Asia, you have to get as far away from human habitation as possible. We did the trek for Cambodian Laughingthrush and then Giant and White-shouldered Ibis and we saw a lot of birds at both sites.

 

[Andy Adcock]

I remember that we also saw the endangered Laos Langur.

 

[sicklebill]

Visited in 2011 and had an epiphany as to how bad the destruction of wildlife was, standing in the future and not liking it.
Trip summary attached

Laos February 12-18 2011: The Baldbul Bash​

Phil Gregory, Christian Dietzen and Marion Dietzen​

This was a brief Sicklebill Safaris recce to a karst area in Laos, before the Field Guides Cambodia Bird and Culture trip. We traveled to Ban Na Hin National Park area in Khoumouanne Province of S. central Laos, to look for two newly described species (2009), the Bare-faced Bulbul and Limestone Leaf Warbler. We spent 4 nights Feb 14-17 2011 at Ban Na Hin, staying at Mi Thuna Guest House at a cost of about $10 per day including meals. The owner Mon is very helpful and speaks passable English, she did 0600 breakfast each day and the place is basic but OK, it was fine for our purposes.

A morning along the Mekong via a poor dirt road that heads 68 km east of Vientiane saw us add River Lapwing and the scarce Jerdon's Bushchat, two unexpected pick-ups

Laos is a neat country, tourist friendly and as yet inexpensive, with a strong Buddhist culture and many wonderful temples, also strangely a terrible hunting problem, which made finding birds very hard as they are both shy and scarce. It was one of the hardest birding areas I’ve encountered, we had magnificent hill forest at Km 48 yet finding species was like pulling teeth, and it was sad to see an area of SE Asian habitat in good condition for once yet so poor for birds. Mist-nets appear to be in common use for trapping, we destroyed two in the National Park, and shooting and catapulting are widespread. Traveling by road there are almost no herons or raptors, and bird persecution is clearly very frequent with little piles of feathers at many sites where things have been plucked and presumably eaten. Just looking through a scope was often enough to spook distant birds and things were very shy and low density, although slightly better in the less accessible karst zone.

Other notable species we found were Limestone Wren-Babbler and Sooty Babbler, the later being quite easy in the karst zone, but we failed utterly with Red-collared Woodpecker after two very disappointing mornings in the forest at Km 48.

My thanks to Christian and Marion for doing the trip logistics and allowing me to tag along. I personally recorded 99 species and collectively we were over 100, with 7 lifers for me. Thanks also to Stijn de Win of Birding2Asia.com for trip reports and bulbul info

Phil Gregory Phnom Penh Feb 2011

[email protected]

 

[kb57]

Sad. It reminds me of how birdless was China on my first trip in the 1990s. Happily, on my return visit, the country changed and birds returned and became visible.

I visited China in 1988 and had the same impression, particularly marked after spending time in India in the early '80s where birds were plentiful. Strangely the only species I saw more of were hen harriers - I remember quite a few ringtails hunting over rice paddies between Dali and Erhai Lake in Yunnan - it struck me at the time that a species which is persecuted in UK was perhaps tolerated as a pest controller there. Good to know things have changed...

 

[MikeontheLoire]

Having spent two weeks in Laos, travelling many places, except the South East and North East part of the country, I can say you will likely see more birds (density and species) in one day in Dakar Senegal than in 2 weeks in Laos.

Apart from Tree Sparrows, the only common town bird, not a lot. The people here, many of whom live hunter gatherers lives, are unscrupulous in their hunting and as insects are readily eaten not even the smallest bird is off the menu.

As a result the wildlife which remains are very shy and secretive. I had to trek some 7 hours into mountainous jungle, far from any road, before setting up camp where we were able to hear quiet a few species singing. Hard to take a photo there of course, being natural jungle and the canopy dense.


Much of Laos still is covered in primary forest and insect life is abundant. But due to the persecution, which takes place in these forests too from hunter gatherers, it is fair to say you will do well to find any animal life, did not see monkeys once the whole trip.

Thank goodness it is not like this in many places of the world.

Did not take a boat ride here, so maybe it is different on the water. In Cat Tien, Vietnam, the one place I saw a great amount of birds was on a boat ride there, with 10+ Kingfishers and many more Night Herons.

Aside from several groups of Bulbuls, Grey Wagtails, several Swifts and Swallows and occasionally some Drongos in Laos, not much to write about. Did not go to Nam Et Phouay, where the best wildlife in the country is said to be, due to its remoteness. If you have been to Laos and have had a better experience with regards to seeing an abundance please write here.


If you are choosing where to visit, whether it Tropical Africa, South America or East Asia, please choose either of the former two, that is my recommendation.

Visited northern Laos in January 2023, a good deal of the time on local longboats, on the Mekong and lesser rivers; spectacular but no birds at all apart from ducks in village cages, no herons, egrets, storks, wild ducks, not a feather! Quite depressing after a while - silent rivers are worrying.

 

[creaturesnapper]

I have been on the border of Laos but never made it across the actual border, but have visited Thailand many many times and the national parks are great as are plenty of temple grounds, been to Malaysia 2 times but both times it was not the right time to visit Frasers Hill apparently, I was told the roads would be quite bad...one day hopefully

If you do go to Frasers Hill , I recommend staying at Stephen’s Place , great birding , mothing and food.

 

[gplant]

I am on a trip currently (December 2024) in Laos having just come from Cambodia. We had guides in Siem Reap and several of the ruin sites between there and Phnom Penh and found good birding. Laos on the other hand has been barren. We have spent a lot of time on rivers and seen very little. Our guide (Laotian) said that birds are easy to trap by the water (talking about a kingfisher), just put a grasshopper in a trap and the birds will come). Today we traveled for about 5 hours on the water and saw almost nothing.