Thailand - Kaeng Krachan : 3rd - 5th July 2024

Kaeng Krachan National Park, also known as KKC in the birding world, is one of the prime and most famous birding sites in Thailand. Being just approximately three and a half hours away from urban Bangkok, it is a perfect destination for short birding trips. I’ve only heard good things about this birding hotspot, and when I received a photo of a pair of Eared Pittas breeding from a friend, I decided to book a last minute trip. I contacted Isara, an experienced birding guide in Thailand, and he immediately helped organize the logistics. I booked a late afternoon flight for Hoiling and I to Bangkok on the 3rd, and hope the Pittas would still be there when we arrived.

3rd July -

Isara arranged transport for us to get to the hotel near Kaeng Krachan National Park. Our flight arrived at BKK Suvarnabhumi Airport at around 9pm, it took us a while to communicate with Mr. Yo the driver, as he didn’t speak English, but with help of the airport staff and some google translation, he managed to locate us in the end. By the time we got to the car it was around 10pm, and we started our 3-hour journey towards Kaeng Krachan.

Our transport

We slept through half the journey, and when we arrived at our hotel in Kaeng Krachan town it was already 1am in the morning. After a quick shower, we prepared for a 6am start...

Good to see a nice clean room upon arrival!

4th July -

We met up with Isara at the hotel, who still had another tour that morning, so he booked us into the Eared Pitta hide while he birded with the other group. After a quick morning coffee, we headed off with Mr. Yo to the Eared Pitta hide, the hide itself was located outside the gates of the National Park on private land. Every year during the breeding season, the local guides would look for breeding spots for this rather cryptic species, once the nest site is located they would work on a makeshift hide nearby. Along the way we saw plenty of birds, from Oriental Pied Hornbill, Racket-tailed Treepie, Great Racket-tailed Drongo, Indochinese Roller…We didn’t bother to stop as we knew our priorities, Eared Pitta first!

Mr. Yo driving us to the Eared Pitta hide

By 6:45am we were seated in the hide, waiting for the bird to return. After an hour of not seeing anything, we finally caught a glimpse of the male hopping in from up the slope. Pittas are generally known as colourful ground dwelling birds, but the Eared Pitta is perhaps the most cryptic of all, being mainly brown and black. They do have very lovely patterns on their crown and on their side, and their “ears” are more like an extended plume from the back of its supercilium. The male watched carefully for any threats. It took him 10 minutes to finally hop out into the open, and soon onto the nest up on the slope.

Eared Pitta - male

Since we only got side on views from the left side of the hide, we decided to move over to the right. From this angle we could see the nest entrance with the female keeping watch. 

Eared Pitta - female in nest

It was another 20 minutes before the male returned once again with a beak full of worms, this time we could see the chick being fed. We waited around for the male to return twice more. The hide itself did not attract any other birds, but we heard plenty of other bird calls, including a Blue Pitta and a Blue-winged Pitta nearby.

Eared Pitta - male

By 9:30am, Isara met us at the hide, we were very happy to get good views of our main target, and decided to move on to other birds elsewhere, hoping to maximize our chances of this very short stay. Isara took us to another bird hide nearby, which was well built and fairly comfortable. These kind of bird hides are now a familiar setup and is common across much of South East Asia and China. As soon as we got seated, we saw plenty of birds outside, dominated by a flock of Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush, and among them were a few Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush. A few White-crowned Laughingthrush were also present.

Typical bird hide setup with a water hole towards the left in the opening

Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush

Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush

White-crowned Laughingthrush

Puff-throated Babblers are regular visitors to bird hides, they can be very friendly and often hopped into the blind. A few Streak-eared Bulbuls came through occasionally. White-rumped Shama is probably the most commonly seen species in all the bird hides I've visited around South East Asia.

Puff-throated Babbler

Streak-eared Bulbul

White-rumped Shama - male

The hide also attracted a wide range of wildlife, including Lesser Oriental Chevrotains (also known as the Lesser Mouse-deer)! Three species of squirrels were present and a few Northern Treeshrews came through constantly.

Lesser Oriental Chevrotains

Grey-bellied Squirrel

Indochinese Ground Squirrel

Himalayan Striped Squirrel

Northern Treeshrew

We saw 2 species of Woodpeckers at the bird hide. Firstly Common Flameback, both sexes of several individuals came in, at one point at least 4 showed together. A family of Greater Yellownapes also visited the bird hide, two juveniles following their parents around, while they were already as big as the adults, one of them was still begging for food! The parents still fed it occasionally, albeit reluctantly.

Common Flameback - female

Common Flameback - juvenile male

Common Flameback - male

Greater Yellownape - female

Greater Yellownape - male

Greater Yellownape - a very big juvenile begging for food...

Around noon, a single Scaly-breasted Partridge finally made an appearance, this was a different race to the ones I've seen in Vietnam. We waited for Bar-backed and Ferruginous Partridge but unfortunately none showed up. Small groups of Red Jungle Fowls started emerging, mainly females with chicks.

Scaly-breasted Partridge - race peninsularis

Red Junglefowl - female with chicks

Isara bought us Pad Thai for lunch, it was very tasty and certainly lifted our spirits. It took a while for something different to to turn up, in form of a White-browed Scimitar-Babbler, coming in to take a dip into the water. Green-eared Barbets also made an appearance, among them one poor bird had a broken upper mandible.

White-browed Scimitar-Babbler

Green-eared Barbet - with broken bill

Green-eared Barbet

A very quick bird darted onto the scene, and what a bird it was! A Large Scimitar-Babbler came into view for a quick dip in the water. I've only seen this species at Nonggang in Guangxi, therefore making this my second encounter, which was no less exciting! Two Grey Peacock-Pheasants came into view, although both were exceedingly dull looking, judging by the colour of their eyes, I think one is possibly a juvenile, while the other a moulting adult female. While no adult males came into the bird hide, I am still glad these two showed up, as this was actually a lifer for me, despite this being the most 'common' Peacock Pheasant in the region.

Large Scimitar-Babbler

Grey Peacock-Pheasant - likely a female and juvenile

Seeing that the Kalij Pheasants were a no show, we decided to cut our losses and try our luck elsewhere, given we didn't have much time to do birding inside the actual National Park! Just a few minutes from the bird hide, I spotted a Blue-winged Pitta hopping on the ground! It was just hopping casually by the side of the road inside the farmland. What a bizarre place to see a Pitta! It later flew up onto a tree, called a few times and flew off into the forest. A bit further on some farm track I saw two Barred Buttonquails, luckily I managed to get a few photos before they faded into the tall grass.

Blue-winged Pitta

Barred Buttonquail - male

Barred Buttonquail - female

Red-wattled Lapwings were very common around farmlands, as were Indochinese Rollers, which hawked for insects from overhead wires. I briefly saw a male Red Avadavat flew across the road, but couldn't locate it once we got closer.

Red-wattled Lapwing

Indochinese Roller

It was just around 3pm when we entered the National Park gates, a brief shower came through but luckily didn't turn into any major torrential rain. Once the rain stopped we got out of the car for a little walk, during which we added a Clouded Monitor chilling up on a tree. Nearby, an Asian Openbill showed relatively closely.

Clouded Monitor

Asian Openbill

We headed higher up the road past Ban Krang Campsite, here the track runs along a small stream. Isara stated he found a White-fronted Scops Owl with the group in the morning, this gave me hope that the owl would still be roosting there. But, when we got to that spot the owl was long gone. We searched the nearby area, hoping that the owl didn't go far. When Isara waved to us to tell us he located the owl, I couldn't believe our luck! It was hard to see the bird through all the leaves and twigs, but once we moved around we found a few better spots to see most of the owl's diagnostic features. This species is known to be quite a tough bird to find, but Kaeng Krachan seems to be one of the prime site for this species in the region, and how glad I am to connect with this lifer on my first visit here!

White-fronted Scops Owl - a major target at Kaeng Krachan for most birders!

Isara wanted to show us Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher, it's a species I am always happy to see, despite some searching along its favourite stretch of river, there was no sign of the bird. We heard one made a flight call briefly, but failed to locate it. We were however amazed by the number of butterflies found around the park, flocks and flocks of butterflies gathered around puddles to drink, and to see hundreds of butterflies all flying off together as you walk past them was quite a magical scene.

Guide Isara walking through all the butterflies 

Common Raven

Cruiser

Straight Peirrot

Bird activities around the forest in the afternoon was a bare minimum, with hardly any birds calling or moving. Since the park gate closes at 6pm, we thought we shouldn't risk getting locked in! As we headed back down to the main gate, Isara stopped to try for Banded Kingfishers at a spot he found them nesting, and sure enough we got close views of a male carrying a mantis back to the nest! The nest itself was out of sight, however the bird showed brilliantly down the slope at eye-levels. We left the site after just a few minutes there, so not to disturb them anymore than necessary. 

Banded Kingfisher - a stunning looking male!

Just outside the park gate, we stopped along some fields. Red-wattled Lapwings were calling and flying everywhere, but one bird flew out of the field that looked different, it took me a few seconds to work out what it was, an Indian Thick-knee! This was another lifer for me, and we got reasonably good views of it flying past us over the road. Around the fields we also added an Indochinese Bush Lark and a few more Asian Openbills.

Red-wattled Lapwing

Indian Thick-knee - Unexpected lifer!

Indochinese Bush Lark

Asian Openbill

Isara wanted to try for Chestnut-capped Babblers along the tall grass, a pair of these wonderful looking birds flew right in after a quick burst of playback. Nearby, a Yellow-eyed Babbler also came in to investigate the commotions. 

Chestnut-capped Babbler

Yellow-eyed Babbler

Finally, just as we were about to leave I heard the familiar call of Golden-headed Cisticola, a displaying male dropped in from above and started singing at a close range! The race equicaudatus differs from the ones in Hong Kong, with bright orange head and breast, an absolutely cracker of a bird!

Golden-headed Cisticola - breeding plumage

In the evening we celebrated our successful day with Thai Spicy Steamed Fish, Tom Yam Chicken Soup and beer!

5th July - 

It was a 6am start in the morning again, this morning we explored the main road around the national park, as we didn't get to do any birding outside of the bird hide during prime birding hours the day before. Isara tried for the Banded Kingfisher site again, this time we got good views of the female bringing back a spider. Again, we stayed only briefly before moving on.

Banded Kingfisher - female

A bit further on, we added a few Dollarbirds, White-rumped Shamas were very active with a very vocal male that showed well. We added a distant pair of Great Slaty Woodpeckers that flew past, closer we had a few Hair-crested Drongos with a Common Flameback.

Dollarbird

White-rumped Shama - male

Hair-crested Drongo & Common Flameback

Isara tried calling in the Banded Broadbills he saw yesterday morning with another group, after a little bit of waiting around I heard them call nearby, and sure enough a pair of these beautiful broadbills flew in next to the road. I've always had a soft spot for Banded Broadbills, more so than Black-and-Yellow and Black-and-Red Broadbills, perhaps simply because I have not seen all that many of them in the past.

Banded Broadbill

A pair of Green-billed Malkohas flew across the road, announcing their presence by their very long tail. A few smaller birds that flitted around turned out to be Ruby-cheeked Sunbirds, I was surprised by the lack of sunbirds around, Isara stated this was normal in the wet season, as there aren't that many flowering trees around. Nearby, I managed to locate a Black-naped Monarch nest right next to the road!

Green-billed Malkoha

Ruby-cheeked Sunbird - male

Black-naped Monarch - male at nest

We stopped briefly at the campsite for a toilet break, the garden area hosted countless butterflies. A pair of Common Tailorbirds also came through briefly. We looked out for Sun Bears in the camp site but only found its foot prints.

Indian Wanderer

Orangetail Awlet

Common Mormon

Common Tailorbird

Sun Bear track

Continuing on the road further up hill, we encountered a Red Muntjac feeding on the road. The area is known to host Indochinese Leopards, Isara said a few days ago someone saw one, but these encounters are rare. Asian Elephants are more numerous, although encountering them still require some luck. All we saw were some fresh droppings along the road.

Red Muntjac

Fresh Elephant dung

We encountered more mammals, first a group of Dusky Langurs, their white spectacles were very conspicuous. Not too far off we found another species of primate in form of some Lar Gibbons foraging up above! It is always an exciting experience to see Gibbons in the wild, it was nice to see at least 2 family groups in the morning, we even saw their acrobatic display as they jumped from one tree to another!

Dusky Langur

Lar Gibbon

Other interesting wildlife along the road includes a Prajuab Khirikhan Waterfall Crab, a species endemic to Thailand. We also found a Forest Garden Lizard casually chilling by the roadside. Hoiling also found a Pink Lymantria Moth.

Prajuab Khirikhan Waterfall Crab

Forest Garden Lizard

Pink Lymantria Moth - Lymantria mathura

Isara was ahead looking for birds when he waved over at us, turns out he heard the call of the Rusty-cheeked Hornbills near a fruiting fig tree. Despite some efforts, we just didn't see any sign of the bird! There were however plenty of other hornbills around, mainly Oriental Pied Hornbills. There were also a pair of Great Hornbills in the tree, the male in particular gave great views. Despite not seeing the Rusty-cheeked, I was still fairly pleased with seeing the Great Hornbills so well, as all my previous sightings have been brief flight views.

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Great Hornbill - male

We tried calling the Dusky Broadbills in but none responded. Isara thought we should give the trails a go, just in case any Rusty-cheeked Hornbills were resting nearby after gorging themselves on the figs. Our efforts were rewarded by a pair of Silver-breasted Broadbills, which showed brilliantly.

Silver-breasted Broadbill

Unfortunately, we didn't see anything too overly exciting. A family group of Pin-striped Tit-Babblers showed nicely, the only other bird that was noteworthy was a big flock of Large Woodshrikes very high up. Just before we headed back to the hotel, we heard a Blue-bearded Bee-eater calling, but unfortunately it refused to give itself up.

Pin-striped Tit-Babbler

Large Woodshrike

With that, we headed back to Bangkok at 11am, where we arrived at Donmueang International Airport at 2:30pm, and took the 5:40pm flight back to Hong Kong.

Conclusion

Overall I thought this extremely short trip was more enjoyable than I anticipated, perhaps this was also because my expectations were not particularly high to begin with, given how little time we had I didn't think we would see the amount of birds we did. In total I had 6 lifers, with 1 heard only (Streak-breasted Woodpecker), but other species I got fairly good to excellent views! Kaeng Krachan is a truly spectacular place, with the wide variety of habitats and elevation within the park, the number of species you can see at just this one site was quite staggering. It is not just the birds, but the number of insects and overall abundance of mammals make this site a wonderful place to visit for all nature lovers. I certainly will love to return again in the dry season for other species of birds in the future. Big thanks to guide Isara for helping with organizing the logistics and take my request at the last minute, without his help I don't think I would have seen as many species in such a tight schedule.

	Species	Scientific Name	Note
1	Bar-backed Partridge	Arborophila brunneopectus	Heard
2	Scaly-breasted Partridge	Tropicoperdix chloropus
3	Grey Peacock-Pheasant +	Polyplectron bicalcaratum
4	Red Junglefowl	Gallus gallus
5	Rock Dove	Columba livia
6	Red Collared Dove	Streptopelia tranquebarica
7	Spotted Dove	Spilopelia chinensis
8	Asian Emerald Dove	Spilopelia chinensis
9	Zebra Dove	Geopelia striata
10	Thick-billed Green-Pigeon	Treron curvirostra
11	Mountain Imperial-Pigeon	Ducula badia
12	Greater Coucal	Centropus sinensis
13	Lesser Coucal	Centropus bengalensis
14	Green-billed Malkoha	Phaenicophaeus tristis
15	Asian Koel	Eudynamys scolopaceus
16	Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo	Surniculus lugubris	Heard
17	Germain's Swiftlet	Aerodramus germani
18	House Swift	Apus nipalensis
19	Indian Thick-knee +	Burhinus indicus	1 at farmland
20	Black-winged Stilt	Himantopus himantopus
21	Red-wattled Lapwing	Vanellus indicus
22	Barred Buttonquail	Turnix suscitator
23	Asian Openbill	Anastomus oscitans
24	Oriental Darter	Anhinga melanogaster
25	Little Cormorant	Microcarbo niger
26	Cinnamon Bittern	Ixobrychus cinnamomeus
27	Javan Pond Heron	Ardeola speciosa
28	Eastern Cattle Egret	Bubulcus coromandus
29	Great White Egret	Ardea alba
30	Medium Egret	Ardea intermedia
31	Purple Heron	Ardea purpurea
32	White-fronted Scops Owl +	Otus sagittatus	1 inside NP
33	Asian Barred Owlet	Glaucidium cuculoides
34	Orange-breasted Trogon	Harpactes oreskios	Heard
35	Great Hornbill	Buceros bicornis
36	Oriental Pied Hornbill	Anthracoceros albirostris
37	Black-backed Dwarf-Kingfisher	Ceyx erithaca	Heard
38	Banded Kingfisher	Lacedo pulchella
39	White-throated Kingfisher	Halcyon smyrnensis
40	Blue-bearded Bee-eater	Nyctyornis athertoni
41	Asian Green Bee-eater	Merops orientalis
42	Blue-tailed Bee-eater	Merops philippinus
43	Indochinese Roller	Coracias affinis
44	Dollarbird	Eurystomus orientalis
45	Coppersmith Barbet	Psilopogon haemacephalus
46	Green-eared Barbet	Psilopogon faiostrictus
47	Greater Flameback	Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus
48	Common Flameback	Dinopium javanense
49	Streak-breasted Woodpecker +	Picus viridanus	Heard
50	Greater Yellownape	Chrysophlegma flavinucha
51	Great Slaty Woodpecker	Mulleripicus pulverulentus
52	Silver-breasted Broadbill	Serilophus lunatus
53	Banded Broadbill	Eurylaimus javanicus
54	Black-and-Yellow Broadbill	Eurylaimus ochromalus
55	Eared Pitta +	Hydrornis phayrei	1 male, 1 female, 1 chick
56	Blue-winged Pitta	Pitta moluccensis
57	Blue Pitta	Hydrornis cyaneus	Heard
58	Scarlet Minivet	Pericrocotus speciosus
59	Ashy Woodswallow	Artamus fuscus
60	Large Woodshrike	Tephrodornis virgatus
61	Hair-crested Drongo	Dicrurus hottentottus
62	Greater Racket-tailed Drongo	Dicrurus paradiseus
63	Black-naped Monarch	Hypothymis azurea
64	Racket-tailed Treepie	Crypsirina temia
65	Indochinese Bushlark	Mirafra erythrocephala
66	Common Tailorbird	Orthotomus sutorius
67	Dark-necked Tailorbird	Orthotomus atrogularis
68	Golden-headed Cisticola	Cisticola exilis
69	Barn Swallow	Hirundo rustica
70	Ochraceous Bulbul	Alophoixus ochraceus	Heard
71	Olive Bulbul +	Iole viridescens
72	Streak-eared Bulbul	Pycnonotus conradi
73	Yellow-vented Bulbul	Pycnonotus goiavier
74	Sooty-headed Bulbul	Pycnonotus aurigaster
75	Yellow-eyed Babbler	Chrysomma sinense
76	Chestnut-capped Babbler	Timalia pileata
77	Pin-striped Tit-Babbler	Mixornis gularis
78	Rufous-fronted Babbler	Cyanoderma rufifrons	Heard
79	White-browed Scimitar-Babbler	Pomatorhinus schisticeps
80	Large Scimitar-Babbler	Erythrogenys hypoleucos
81	Puff-throated Babbler	Pellorneum ruficeps
82	Abbott's Babbler	Malacocincla abbotti
83	Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush	Garrulax monileger
84	White-crested Laughingthrush	Garrulax leucolophus
85	Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush	Pterorhinus pectoralis
86	Siamese Pied Starling	Gracupica floweri
87	Common Myna	Acridotheres tristis
88	Great Myna	Acridotheres grandis
89	Oriental Magpie Robin	Copsychus saularis
90	White-rumped Shama	Copsychus malabaricus
91	Ruby-cheeked Sunbird	Chalcoparia singalensis
92	Asian Fairy-bluebird	Irena puella
93	Scaly-breasted Munia	Lonchura punctulata
94	Red Avadavat	Amandava amandava
95	Eurasian Tree Sparrow	Passer montanus