Photos with this report (click to enlarge) | |||
Crested serpent eagle |
Grey headed fish Eagle |
This trip consisted of bird watching tours of aquatic, lowland forest and mountain forest areas. All tours began at 5am and finished at 7pm. Our base for the tours was the city of Siam Reap, which is the second biggest city in Cambodia.
All tours were done in association with the Sam Veasna Center for Wildlife Conservation using Mr Nara Duong who is arguably one of Asia’s top bird tour guides (naraangkorcambodia@yahoo.com). There are other guides available but booking through the Sam Veasna Center is recommended as all fees are used for conservation projects within Cambodia which makes sense as they really need this help for conservation projects.
Many more species were seen than are recorded on the lists. We are only average birders and missed many species on all of the day tours. No playbacks were used on any days.
Aquatic trip
The first day planned was a visit to the Tonle Sap Lake complex via the floating village of Prek Toal. The lake ecosystem is unusual in that there is a 40 foot difference between the dry and wet season water levels; the system is very productive for fish with 200+ species present.
The lake is 30 minutes from the city of Siam Reap. Once aboard the boat we headed for Prek Toal floating village (population 700 families) which was 1.5 hours on a large boat. Once there we transferred to a smaller boat as we had to navigate through tight channels through the, at times nearly impenetrable, vegetation to enter the central areas of the sanctuary. Once there we stopped at observation platform number 5 to observe one of the largest breeding colonies of water birds in south East Asia consisting mostly of Asian Openbill Stork but also Painted Stork, Lesser Adjutant, Great Cormorant and Black headed Ibis. Within the colony there are in excess of four thousand breeding pairs of birds which can be approached to within 500 metres and viewed very well from the observation towers which are constructed on tall trees and necessitate climbing up ‘ladders’ made from branches strung together by the local rangers using vines and string.
Species recorded during the first day
Grey headed Fish Eagle
Chinese pond Heron (Migratory – hundreds present along the route)
Blue tailed Bee-eater (40+)
Maroon breasted Philentoma
Darter (Ubiquitous)
Indian cormorant
Great Egret
Whiskered Tern (500+)
Barn Swallow
Great Cormorant
Asian Openbill
Hill Mynah
Black Kite
Black Drongo
Slender billed Crow
Brahminy Kite
Osprey
Purple heron
Cinnamon Bittern
Great Pelican
Little Cormorant
Eurasian Kingfisher
Ashy Drongo
Red Collared Dove
Asian palm Swift
Great billed Heron
Cattle Egret
Forest
This date consisted of a trip to Angkor Wat temple complex but a side trip (without guide) to the forested areas around the complex threw up some nice species.
Blue Rock Thrush
Shikra
Black-naped Oriole
Ashy Drongo
Asian Brown Flycatcher
Lineated Barbet
Olive-backed Sunbird
Alexandrine Parakeet
Blue-rumped Parrot
Lowland/upland forest
While the size of the aquatic/semi aquatic bird colonies was a major attraction, forest species were the main target of the Cambodia tour. For these trips we picked an area of forest 40 kilometres north of Siam Reap called Kbal Spean within the Pnomh Kulen National Park. These tours were done again with the same bird guide without whom most of the mountain/upland forest species would simply not have been seen.
The day started at 5 a.m. as birds are active early and late in the day and ‘disappear’ in the afternoon when the heat is oppressive. We first visited a lowland forested area which was unfortunately showing signs of extreme illegal timber logging. Some areas were being targeted by people who were producing charcoal.
Lowland forest species recorded on a two mile/three hour hike:
Indian Roller
Dollarbird
Scaly-breasted Munia
Hill Mynah
Red Collared Dove
Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
Ashy Drongo
Chinese Flowerpecker
Large Cuckoo Shrike
Spangled Drongo
Asian Barred Owlet
Spotted Dove
Olive-backed Pipit
Yellow-browed Warbler
Grey-breasted Prinia
Purple Sunbird
Burmese Shrike
Red-rumped Swallow
Grey-capped pygmy Woodpecker (same size as a goldfinch!!! Fantastic)
Golden-fronted Leafbird
Black-collared Starling
Indochinese Cuckoo Shrike
Eastern Stonechat
Black-headed Woodpecker
Banded Bay Cuckoo
Rufous Treepie
Common Flameback
Sooty headed Bulbul
Black-headed Oriole
Black-naped Oriole
Great Slaty Woodpecker (trip highlight – 48cm long. Family party - male, female and one fledged young)
Crested Serpent eagle
Blossom-headed parakeet
Eurasian Jay
Oriental Magpie Robin
Greater Coucal
Rufous-winged Buzzard
Black Baza
Changeable Hawk Eagle
Black-crested bulbul
Black-headed Bulbul
Two-barred warbler
Mountain/upland species recorded (main target species was the Asian fairy Bluebird mostly seen at high altitude)
Most of these species were in very thick under story growth beneath towering 30-50m trees, strangler vines etc. The ability of the guide to get the birds into the scope was amazing.
Stripe-throated Bulbul
White-throated Rock Thrush (highlight for the guide)
Grey-eyed Bulbul
Hainan Blue Flycatcher
Purple-throated Sunbird
Fork-tailed Swift
Puff-throated Bulbul
Asian Paradise Flycatcher
Bronze Drongo
Siberian Blue Robin
White-rumped Shama
Ashy Minivet
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
No sign of the Asian Fairy Bluebird after trekking to the summit and all the way back down to the car park. We were packing away scopes etc and there in the tree above the car was a fantastic male just sitting there picking small berries. The guide was as amazed as were we to see the bird in a noisy car park just above our car.
Aquatic
We were offered a different aquatic tour on Tonle Sap Lake again but by a different route – same guide. The boat trip is so beautiful anyway that we thought we would do it although the chances of getting many more species were low.
For this trip we left from Chong Khneas harbour which was more accessible than the first harbour we used.
Species recorded:
White-vented Mynah
Purple-vented Swamphen
Black-capped kingfisher
Blue-tailed Bee-eater
Kingfisher
Green-billed Malkoha
Indian Spot-billed Duck
Little Grebe
Black-crowned Night Heron
Yellow Bittern
Grey-headed Woodpecker
Painted Stork
Black-headed Ibis
Lesser Adjutant
Peregrine Falcon