An early start had us following the Ranger at Chong Yen to the special stake out for a pair of
RUSTY-NAPED PITTAS.
We set up my (rarely used) portable hide and the ranger put some meal worms out in the birds' favourite spot, then he left. less than five minutes later, whilst Chris and I were still getting comfortable in the hide, the female appeared about ten meters away and started feeding! A few moments later the male came in, at about three meters range and the two birds continued to perform for the next 20 minutes or so.
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| female |
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| male |
I don't really like using bait for birds, but occasions like this make me think I need to get over my purist instincts! You could never get better views of a pitta than we had with these very special birds.
After this amazing encounter, the quality remained pretty high with the hide providing close encounters with a group of three
Streaked Wren Babblers, a
Rufous-browed Flycatcher, and a female
White-tailed Robin. Birding along the road saw us picking up some good forest species including both
White-bowed and
Speckled Piculates,
Stripe-breased Woodpecker, and
Hainan Blue Flycatcher.
During the afternoon the ranger took us to another spot, on the Umphang trail. On our way there we flushed a pair of
Scaly-breasted Partridge from the adjacent slope. We set up our hide at a feeding station and a short wait was rewarded with stunning, prolonged views of a pair of Rufous-throated Partridge as well as
White-necked,
Black-throated and
Silver-eared Laughingthrushes.
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| Rufous-throated Partridge |
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| White-throated Laughingthrush |
Later in the afternoon we walked part of the Umphang trail again and picked up a pair of
White-browed Scimitar Babblers, whilst the road produced a
Dark-sided Flycatcher.
A session of spotlighting along the road after dark again produced a
Slow Loris but nothing else, and the
Leopard Cat was feeding in the campsite when we returned.
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| Dark-sided Flycatcher |
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