Thailand Bird Trip Notes & Pics Day 12 – Doi Inthanon National Park

February 28, 2020    Birding in Doi Inthanon National Park

This is a report on Day 12 of a 19-day birding tour of Thailand; it was a private group arranged through Field Guides, adhering to their typical itinerary.  The pictures in this post are just some of the many Thailand pictures I’ve uploaded to GreatBirdPic.com.   Check out the site before you leave: see the Latest Pics uploaded by our members or read the About GPB to find out more about the site.  You are welcome to join if you enjoy bird photography.

Another day, another Thailand National Park.  Here on the twelfth day of our tour we started the morning along the road a Doi Inthanon National Park.  We had done this before (birding from the shoulder of a road) but it still felt a little unsafe as cars darted past us.  Here’s what our birding spot looked like:

As you can see, not much room for car to maneuver around us but luckily the traffic was light.  We did get pretty good looks at a couple of interesting birds.  First, the Ashy Wood-Pigeon was larger than most of the pigeons we see here in the U.S.

A little farther down the road, perched up on the telephone line were a couple of Barn Swallows.  We really hadn’t seen many species in Thailand that were common in the U.S. so this was a bit of a surprise.

We jumped back into the vans and went a little higher in the park.  We stopped once again on the road but this time we had eye-level looks at a Slaty-backed Flycatcher.  I had to look it up but “slaty” means slate-colored (like the rock).  As you can see in the second picture, though the slaty color does not extend all the way across its back:

A short way farther we spotted this beautiful Short-billed Minivet perched up on a branch:

Hiking down the road we came to a little Buddhist shrine – I was always enamored with the colors and the objects left at the shrines:

Back in the vans, we drove over to the Huai Said Lueang waterfall, one of the several in the park.  This was was flowing pretty well:

Our resident paparazzi Dave, who always had at least two cameras at the ready, got low to get a good shot of the falls:

By now it was time to catch up with Wat for one of his delicious home-made lunches.  He was a master at cooking in a wok over a propane tank:

After lunch a bird caught the eye of the group – look!  Up in the sky!  It’s a bird!  

It’s an Ashy Drongo!

We still had a couple of stops to make on Day 12.  The next one was behind a residential area with lots of clothes hanging out to dry and kids running around.  There was a stream out back where a White-capped Redstart was known to inhabit.  We got lucky and found it right away and it flew up and down the stream for us and perched for photos:

A little drive took us to another beautiful waterfall, perhaps the biggest one in Doi Inthanon NP, Vachirathan Waterfall.

One bird we did spot there, right on the rocks between the two falls, was a Blue Whistling-Thrush.  Quite a distance through the mist of the waterfall, but an interesting bird none-the-less:

That was enough for one day – tomorrow back at the crack of dawn to Doi Inthanon National Park, which you can read about HERE.

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For you overachievers here are the Ebird checklists for that portion of our trip:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S65252609

https://ebird.org/checklist/S65252606

https://ebird.org/checklist/S65252612

https://ebird.org/checklist/S65252614

https://ebird.org/checklist/S65252632

https://ebird.org/checklist/S65252635

https://ebird.org/checklist/S65232639

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Glad you found GreatBirdPics.com.  Check out the site before you leave: see the Latest Pics uploaded by our members or read the About GPB to find out more about the site.  You are welcome to join if you enjoy bird photography.