6 Days Southern Thailand Birding Tour to Krabi
Tour Overview
Birdquest’s Thailand birding tours explore a classic Southeast Asian birding destination that not only has a very rich avifauna but also very friendly people, beautiful landscapes and some of the...
Code of Tour: TAD0000031575
Length of Travel: 6 Day
Destinations of Tour: Bangkok-Krabi-Bangkok
Departure City:
Price of Tour: Request
Type of Tour: Private
Features of Tour: Wildlife tours birding tours
Birdquest’s Thailand birding tours explore a classic Southeast Asian birding destination that not only has a very rich avifauna but also very friendly people, beautiful landscapes and some of the best food in the world. Our Ultimate Thailand birding tour produces more of the country’s specialities than any other tour, ranging from migrant Spoon-billed Sandpipers and Nordmann’s Greenshanks to gorgeous pittas and secretive pheasants.
Undoubtedly one of the most fascinating countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand offers some of the region’s very best birding, including a long list of specialities and some of the most exciting shorebird watching in all Asia. An extremely rich resident Oriental avifauna, ranging from huge hornbills to diminutive flowerpeckers, is supplemented during the northern winter by an influx of migrants from northern Asia, including a fine selection of waders and passerines. Thailand has a superb network of reserves containing representative examples of every major habitat from lowland rainforest to montane evergreen forest and high altitude, moss-encrusted rhododendron thickets.
This beautiful country with its diverse ethnic groupings, much revered, age-old monarchy and rich cultural heritage has great appeal for the traveller as well as the birdwatcher. This is one of our favourite tours, a journey through an exotic, vibrant land that has an infinite capacity to delight and surprise the visitor.
TOUR HIGHLIGHTS
- Seeing one of the world’s rarest and most extraordinary waders; the incomparable Spoon-billed Sandpiper
- Huge numbers of East Asian flyway waders including the highly-sought Asian Dowitcher, Nordmann’s Greenshank and Great Knot
- Incredible hides at Kaeng Krachan where rarities such as Blue Pitta, Ferruginous Partridge and Grey Peacock-Pheasant often flaunt themselves
- Amazing mixed flocks of White-crested, Lesser Necklaced and Greater Necklaced Laughingthrushes at close range
- Stunning Silver Pheasants and Siamese Firebacks in Khao Yai with the evocative chorus of gibbons in the background
- The highly range restricted (Rufous) Limestone Wren-Babbler
- Stunning specialities of the far northwest, including the amazing Giant Nuthatch, charismatic Spot-breasted Parrotbill and gorgeous Scarlet-faced Liocichla
- Confiding birds around the feeding stations on Doi Lang, including amazing Ultramarine Flycatchers and glittering Siberian Rubythroats
- A chance to see tricky gamebirds such as the superb Hume’s Pheasant and the shy Mountain Bamboo Partridge
- The glorious waterfalls and scenery of Doi Inthanon, Thailand’s highest mountain, complete with forktails, redstarts and whistling thrushes
- A chance to see the Critically Endangered Yellow-breasted Bunting which still winters in much reduced numbers
- Doi Inthanon’s amazing summit marsh with confiding Rufous-throated Partridges, Dark-sided Thrushes and much, much more
- Dry forests with stunning Black-headed Woodpeckers and the rare White-rumped Falcon
- An intimate encounter with confiding but genuinely wild Green Peafowl
- The magical mangroves of Krabi, complete with Mangrove Pittas and a plethora of kingfishers
- The absolutely gorgeous Malayan Banded Pittas of Si Phang Nga – surely one of the planet’s best!
- Enjoying great accommodation and stunning Thai cuisine and hospitality throughout
OUTLINE ITINERARY
- SOUTHERN THAILAND EXTENSION
- Day 1: Flight from Bangkok to Krabi.
- Day 2: Krabi area including boat trip, then drive to Kao Noi Chuchi.
- Day 3: Khao Pra Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary. Overnight at Khao Noi Chuchi.
- Day 4: Khao Pra Bang Khram, then drive to Si Phang Nga.
- Day 5: Si Phang Nga National Park.
- Day 6: Si Phang Nga, then drive to Phuket airport for late afternoon tour end.
Thailand (Southern): Day 1 From Bangkok we will fly southwards to Krabi in Peninsular Thailand for an overnight stay. We should arrive in time for some initial exploration.
Thailand (Southern): Day 2 This morning we will take a boat trip amongst the creeks, mudflats and mangrove forests near Krabi. Enormous limestone crags crowned with trees rise vertically above the mangroves as our boat throbs gently up the channels. Huge Brown-winged Kingfishers perch conspicuously on overhanging branches whilst giving their manic chattering laughs. This species is very localized, being confined to the shores of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea from Bangladesh south to the Malay Peninsula. Lured deeper into the mangroves, we will listen for the whistles of the Ruddy Kingfisher, a bird of wide distribution but always hard to see, and we should also hear the loud calls of the colourful Mangrove Pitta and eventually catch sight of a flash of blue as it sweeps up onto a perch to call. Although superficially like a Blue-winged Pitta, it has a large bill adapted to catching crabs and is a true mangrove specialist. We may also encounter White-chested Babbler, a waterside species that hops in pairs noisily along the banks of the creeks.
Other birds that we should find amongst the mangroves include White-bellied Sea Eagle, Chestnut-bellied Malkoha, Dusky Crag Martin, Ashy Tailorbird, Mangrove Whistler and Ruby-cheeked Sunbird. With a bit of luck, we will also find the endangered Chinese Egret, which winters here in very small numbers, and Streak-breasted Woodpecker. Crab-eating Macaques are also present in this interesting habitat.
Areas of coastal scrub, open country and woodland hold Blue-throated Bee-eater, Pacific Swallow, Asian Glossy Starling, Brown-throated Sunbird and a few winter visitors from northern Asia, such as Arctic Warbler, Asian Brown Flycatcher and perhaps Tiger Shrike. We may also come across Crow-billed Drongo, a scarce winter visitor from Burma and the Indian subcontinent.
In the afternoon we will drive to Khao Noi Chuchi adjacent to Khao Pra Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary for a two nights stay, arriving in time for some initial exploration.
Thailand (Southern): Day 3 Khao Pra Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary was established in 1987 to protect the remaining lowland rainforest habitat where the endangered Gurney’s Pitta was rediscovered in 1986 after having ‘gone missing’ for some 50 years.
This area has a rich avifauna which includes many of Thailand’s lowland rainforest specialities, although many of the larger frugivores have now disappeared. As is usual in forests in the Malaysian Region, birding here can be slow at times, with birds apparently thin on the ground and hard to see. The sounds of the forest are the best clue as to what is about. The incessant calls of barbets, the chattering of bulbuls and the loud clear whistles of babblers all betray these birds’ presence long before we see them. At times a deafening electronic whine blots out the other sounds as a forest cicada gets into its stride. Gorgeous butterflies dart along the edge of the trails as we walk along, brightly coloured lizards race across the ground and sometimes a green and yellow tree snake, thin as a finger, glides through the branches overhead.
Khao Pra Bang Khram hosts some notable specialities that can be hard to find elsewhere, including the hulking Red-crowned Barbet which is another lowland forest specialist, and the rather localized Fulvous-chested Jungle Flycatcher, Great Iora and Thick-billed Spiderhunter.
The lovely Malayan Banded Pitta is regularly seen here, and for those visiting on our tours in late March and early April, newly-arrived Hooded and Blue-winged Pittas may be calling. Blue-winged Pittas favour the scrubby areas on the forests’ edge. They are, however, rather shy, and so we may have to be content with the sight of this rather large pitta flying at speed with unerring accuracy through the tangled thickets. The widespread Hooded Pitta tends to be easier to get good views of. Sadly Gurney’s Pitta now appears to be extinct in Thailand, although the species survives in southern Burma (Myanmar).
There are also a good many more widely distributed species, which we may well see here or at Si Phang Nga National Park, including Blyth’s Hawk-Eagle, Germain’s Swiftlet, Grey-rumped Treeswift, Scarlet-rumped Trogon, Rufous-collared Kingfisher, Golden-whiskered Barbet (much easier to hear than see), the stunning Green Broadbill, Black-and-yellow Broadbill, Rufous-winged Philentoma, Black-headed, Olive-winged, Cream-vented, Spectacled, Grey-cheeked, Yellow-bellied and Hairy-backed Bulbuls, Rufous-tailed Tailorbird, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, Ferruginous, Short-tailed, Black-capped, Moustached, Scaly-crowned, Chestnut-rumped and Chestnut-winged Babblers, Large Wren-Babbler, Black Magpie, Purple-naped Sunbird, Yellow-breasted and Orange-bellied Flowerpeckers, Little and Grey-breasted Spiderhunters. and White-rumped and White-bellied Munias.
We will also see a number of the scarcer inhabitants of the region, which include Chinese Goshawk (a migrant through the area at this season), Black-bellied, Raffles’s and Red-billed Malkohas, Moustached and Malaysian Hawk-Cuckoos, Indian Cuckoo, Rufous-backed Kingfisher, Rufous Piculet, Crimson-winged and Orange-backed Woodpeckers, Lesser Cuckooshrike, Puff-backed, Red-eyed and Streaked Bulbuls, Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher, Rufous-crowned Babbler, Dark-throated Oriole, Yellow-eared Spiderhunter and Pin-tailed Parrotfinch.
At this time of year, some winter visitors from northern Asia should still be present, including Eastern Crowned Warbler and the gorgeous Yellow-rumped Flycatcher.
We will also have a chance to look for nightbirds. Spotted Wood Owl may be found at a daytime roost and, well after dark, Javan Frogmouth, perhaps the most tolerant and widespread of the Asian frogmouths, is often to be heard and sometimes to be seen at the forest edge or around plantations. If we are in luck we will also find a Gould’s Frogmouth.
Thailand (Southern): Day 4 After some early morning birding at Khao Pra Bang Khram we will drive northwards for about three hours to Phang Nga for a two nights stay. This afternoon we will begin our exploration of Si Phang Nga National Park.
Thailand (Southern): Day 5 Si Phang Nga National Park is a jewel of a reserve set among the forested hills that run parallel with the coast of the Andaman Sea, and is part of a larger forest block that includes Khao Sok National Park. The park has an exciting range of Sundaic birds that are easily accessed along a small trail network that leads to several small waterfalls.
The forests here are the haunt of Malayan Banded Pittas that now regularly come to visit bird photographers’ feeding stations, and so we have an excellent chance of seeing this most colourful of pittas very well during our visit. Also frequenting this area are Hooded Pittas, and in the winter months, we have a chance to see the little known Large Blue Flycatcher that has recently been discovered wintering here.
Among the large trees covering the slopes of the hills, we can encounter a range of hornbills that may include Helmeted, Bushy-crested and White-crowned Hornbills, while along the jungle streams we may find Chestnut-naped Forktail, plus Black-backed and Blue-banded Kingfishers. We may hear Great Argus calling from distant ridges, though we would count ourselves very fortunate to see one of these shy pheasants. Overhead we might find a soaring Rufous-bellied Eagle, along with Silver-rumped Spinetail and the superb Whiskered Treeswift. Around nectar-rich flowers we might find Red-throated Sunbird. Other birds regularly found here include Siberian Blue Robin and Grey-bellied Bulbul, while scarcer possibilities include Wallace’s Hawk-Eagle, Lesser Fish Eagle, Buff-necked and Buff-rumped Woodpeckers, and Scaly-breasted Bulbul. We also have a second opportunity to catch up with many of the birds mentioned for Khao Pra Bang Khram. After dark, we will have more chances for Blyth’s and Gould’s Frogmouths if need be.
Thailand (Southern): Day 6 After a last morning at Si Phang Nga we will drive to Phuket airport, where our tour ends in the late afternoon.
