I didn't like bird watching. Probably, because birds didn't give me what I expected from animals - communication by means of body language. Mammals talk to me, birds almost don't. But something shifted in me recently. Being yet in winter Georgia š¬šŖ and planning the trip to Thailand š¹š, I decided to try to explore the topic. I visited a website telling about birds you can see in Bangkok and started "shopping" - choosing ones I would love to photograph. While watching all these colorful critters, I realized one simple truth: they don't have mammal facial expressions but some of them are not inferior in beauty to precious stones. For me, this is not just a comparison - I love collecting semi-precious gemstone, for example, read my story:
I do want to share a link to the website that brought me to birding. It was thaibirding.com by Nick Upton. On thaibirding.com, I learned what birds can be spotted in my favorite parks in Bangkok and found another nice web resource there called ebird.org. This was how my birding hobby started.
1/ Coppersmith Barbet
Surfing the mentioned websites, I liked a bird called the coppersmith barbet (Psilopogon haemacephalus). A funny colorful creature that resembles a mix of the sparrow and woodpecker. I chose it as my first bird-watching goal for the upcoming trip to Thailand.
It was a clear fantasy, I thought I would probably never find this bird but I liked to feed my imagination with plans for fairytale feathered creatures...
Two month later:
Dreams come true! š
There are much more barbet pictures in my archive, I've already posted some of them in C/Feathered Friends and boasted about my fondness for the coppersmith barbet so it's time to share my birding story in Pinmapple Community š
The coppersmith barbet is actually quite wide-spread bird in Bangkok parks. But it never lands on the ground and never jumps on the sidewalk (although often lives above it). So you won't know about his existence, most probably, until you starts intently watching trees. (I want to use "he/him" pronouns for the barbet today, I am sure he doesn't mind š).
What the barbet does a lot is signalling. He sometimes sits on a remarkable branch, bare one or separate from others, or one of the highest on the tree, and sends signals: koo-koo-koo-koo-koo... As he does it, his throat is pulsating and his body swaying so you can see he is putting all his energy into this monotonous but very important sound. š On the question of the meaning of life, he would have answered, I'm sure, without difficulty. š
Although I had visited Bangkok many times and I never saw this guy. But in 2023, I knew how his song sounds and I started hearing it here and there when I arrived in Bangkok. The only problem was I couldn't see the bird. But no surprise: even the barbet is in plain sight, the untrained eye can't distinguish it from a sparrow or other small bird in the contrast light.
I was running around a tree, with koo-koo-koo on it, for an hour to unveil the bird for the first time. š
Blooming pink trumpet trees in Ram2 University campus brought me luck in searching for the coppersmith barbet - read my March post My First Birding Adventure in Bangkok. Coppersmith Barbet Found
When I unveiled the first barbet, it was as if the doors to the world of birds were opened. Often, I see these birds just on the way to a convenience store. No, they don't live on every street in Bangkok but they very often inhabit parks, even the tiniest, and settle in trees around them.
I am always happy to hear koo-koo of the barbet. I consider him my friend and amulet. š
2/ Bee-Eater
If the coppersmith barbet was the key to the door of the birds' world, the amazing blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus) was the one I discovered right after entering.
During my previous trip to Thailand, I never saw a single bee-eater. And it's simple: you can't see this guy without looking up for a long while.
The world through the eyes of the bee-eater. Visiting a watch tower of Metro Forest (on Google.Maps) in search of birds
Bee-eaters exist only on tops of trees or higher, in the sky, clouds... in space. š They never land on the street and even never sit on lower branches where you see most urban birds. They don't need it as they catch insects on the fly - I saw it myself. They prefer open spaces above trees for that.
So, this is how it was: I started observing barbets and discovered this amazing bird, the bee-eater.
The bird looks as one of those illustrations in a tropical wildlife encyclopedia you saw in childhood. Or as a cartoon. You can't help falling in love with this feathered creature.
3/ Kingfisher
I saw these birds many times in Bangkok parks... If it's correct to say "I saw" in this case. It always was a blurry blue spot in my eyes, rocketing from a distant tree to even more remote thickets. I couldn't photograph even that blurry spot for three month. And I already started thinking you couldn't take an image of Thai kingfishers without wearing a stack of hay on your head and sitting in the swamp for hours... But then a miracle happened.
One day, I found a whole island where kingfishers were everywhere, literally an island ruled by collared kingfishers! š
It was an island with a historical fort there, a humble museum of Thai navy which almost nobody visits. The other part of the islands is covered with dense impenetrable thickets of nipa palms.
The opposite shore is taken by a provincial city Samut Prakan with an impressive tower:
Nothing foreshadowed the kingfisher, when suddenly a blue spot appeared:
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I was taking images of collared kingfishers (Todiramphus chloris) for two hours in this island! A detailed report is coming soon in C/Feathered Friends. š
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4/ Shrike
Aerial roots create a mystical veil. Here is the entrance to the fairy tale of wondrous winged creatures
I told you about birds that were near me during these four months in Bangkok - barbet's koo-koos, kingfishers' blue spots, bee-eaters catching insects between tree tops and clouds... As for the shrike, I had never seen it before and never saw it after. But this single contact amazed me.
While walking along the skywalk in Benjakitti Park, Bangkok, I saw this bird - the brown shrike (Lanius cristatus) - several meters away from me.
She was looking as a bizarre mix between the sparrow and hawk. The bird didn't panic as most of her feathered bros and sis would do but, on the contrary, she was looking at me with curiosity. I was observing her and she was observing me back.
We spent several minutes like this, and I felt like if a fairy tale touched me at this time.
The bird looks like a hawk for a reason: she is a predator, a mini falcon, that kills not only insects and amphibians but also small mammals and birds. Her style is bringing her dead victim on a branch and impaling it on a thorn or a sharp twig. šØ
5/ Cormorant
On this lake, I have seen a cormorant; the coppersmith barbet is found in abundance in trees there, and Asian openbills ply the sky from time to time. This is Nong Bon Lake Park (on Google.Maps)
Believe me or not, there are no city ducks in Bangkok. That's strange since the city has numerous pigeons and sparrow and crows - the same like in Europe but not ducks... Ebird says there are lesser whistling ducks somewhere but I never encountered this species. Instead, from time to time, I spot cormorants. It's easy to identify the bird from the far: the cormorant in the water looks like a duck that is so much exhausted that can't float anymore and slowly sinking without any hope for help: š
The cormorant looks like a cute cartoon, you can't help loving it. The only annoying thing is that they always too far away (even for 70-300mm lens):
Cormorants in the sky over Nong Bon Lake Park
Once, I was lucky to see the bird a closer. I was on an old ferry, crossing the Chao Phraya River, when a cormorant appeared and sat down on the top of a bamboo pole sticking out of the water right next to our ferry. Great I had a prepared camera with a telelens...
Little Cormorant (Microcarbo niger) on a bamboo pole
But this shot I like the most: a cormorant on a pole looking at Samut Prakan Observation Tower. Nature and man-made technology, rivals or partners?
Thank you for watching/reading, comments are welcome as always! š
More stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out the previous ones on my personal Pinmapple map.
I took all the images in the post with a Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 in March, April, and May 11, 2023 in Koh Lipe, Thailand.