Introduction
I arrived in Chiang Mai at 07:20 am on the Saturday, meeting
Bengt who rented a vehicle (600 baht/day) from Boss rental
company in the city. I caught the train back to Bangkok following
day, Sunday, at 18:00, allowing for 24 hours birding at Doi
Angkhang. Along the drive to DAK we stopped by Mae Taang
Irrigation Canal.
Reaching Doi Ang Kang
The drive is an easy drive for about 3 hours from Chiang Mai.
Head north on route 107 and turn left at the end of the Chiang
Dao by-pass onto route 1178 from where Doi Ang Kang is signposted.
After Baan Arunothai the road soon starts climbing steeply.
There is a decent tarmac road though so a 4-wheel drive vehicle
is not really needed.
Birding Highlights
Crested Bunting, Indochinese Bushlark, Little Bunting, Grey-headed
Lapwing, Scarlet-faced Liocichla, Spot-breasted Parrotbill,
Aberrant Bush Warbler, Pallas's Leaf Warbler, White-tailed
Robin
Notes
Mae Taeng
The Irrigation Project was a quick stop to try to see some
Buntings. The Canal is located about 45 minutes drive North
of Chiang Mai. We crossed the canal by foot and made our way
through the brush on the other side. Here at the end of a
dry field we had a group of Crested Buntings, my first lifer.
Then a small bird perched on a smaller stick and the scope
revealed a Little Bunting. 2nd lifer. There were also lots
of White Wagtails and I found my first Green Sandpiper (jinx
bird), lifer number three. Indochinese Bushlark, Grey Bushchat,
Pied Bushchat were other species seen. A Eurasian Kestrel
hovered over a field giving good views.
On the way in to the canal we saw 2 Grey-headed Lapwings and
a Common Snipe in a field. Nearby a Eurasian Jay gave a harsh
call. This seemed to be a very birdy area and could easily
keep one busy for a full morning.
Doi Ang Kang
I have never really had a clear picture of what Doi Ang Kang
is like. Only heard about its remoteness and good birds. It
was actually very easy to get to. Though steep the climb was
far less time consuming then going up Doi Inthanon. Most of
the journey up though had to be done in first gear. Once up,
the road follows a mountain ridge until it starts going down
into a valley where the little town by the same name is located.
Here a few simple houses fight for space with some upper class
resorts and squeezed in between is a Royal agricultural project.
There are many mountain peaks around and looking over the
valleys, many are still covered in thick forest. The area
we did our birding is called km 21.5. Altitude must be around
18-1900m. Here a jeep track goes off the road to the right.
For about 100 meters there is thick forest and then comes
a clearing and grass/scrub land. After that the road continues
down to the left and apparently comes out down at km 24 or
Mae Peu water substation (a rather steep walk down). We pitched
our tents in the clearing near to a big tree. Here we watched
the grassy hillside in front of us. Brown-breasted Bulbuls
are everywhere here. They are quite an attractive little Bulbul
with their clean white throat and musical notes.
Someone had seen Spot-breasted Parrotbills and Fire-capped
Tits here the day before so our expectations were immediately
heightened. Several trails are around here. Free walking mules
live on the mountain and keep the trails open through their
constant walking. We did 80% of our birding in this area.
We saw Scarlet-faced Liocichla twice in low herbage near to
the clearing. The bird is supposedly in more moist areas but
seeing how dry everything is this year it may not have much
of a choice. Ha!
Food was easy down in town. One cheap and tasty dish was called
Khao pat pet gai by kra pow sai kai dao (fried chicken with
basil leaves and chilies with a fried egg on top of rice).
The other hot-spot where Giant Nuthatch has been seen is at
the Mae Peu water substation at km 24. Park at the flagpole
and go down to the dirt road below. We followed the road to
the left and soon had a flock of Red-faced Liocichlas, the
main attraction of the mountain. Then on a grassy hillside
500 meters down the trek a group of 4 Spot-breasted Parrotbills
came close. They have a strongly churring call which is quite
diagnostic. I had to search hard for the White-browed Laughingthrushes.
They finally caught up with me midday before departure. It
was generally hard to see birds. Density was rather low to
meet my expectations, except for a great abundance of Flavescent
and Brown-breasted Bulbuls soon considered common. Could have
to do with the fact that I was set on getting target birds
and so disregarded many of the more commoner species. There
actually are a great many very interesting birds one can see
at length here i.e. White-tailed Robin, Himalayan Bluetail,
Common Rosefinches and many, many Warblers.
I had a superb Violet Cuckoo at km 21.5. Had a real hard time
ID’ing the bird in spite of it being so close. It was
neither green as the Emerald, nor violet as the Violet. It
was shimmering blue. Bill was yellow/orange with no black
tip to it. My assumption is that it was Violet Cuckoo even
though I understand it is not normally recorded this high.
In either case it was an extremely handsome bird.
There is quite a bit of pine along the road. Many Flycatchers
can be seen here but we didn’t invest much time into
it. Think I saw a female Ultramarine Flycatcher but not positive.
A very nice surprise was a pair of Aberrant Bush Warblers
a bit up the steps on the peak to the right of the clearing.
One has to walk through the large pines (50 meters, White-tailed
Robin hangs around here at the end of the pines) then follow
the trail another 50 meters where the steps start on the right.
This bird kept calling after sitting waiting for a while I
saw the bird for a short moment by the trail side.
Crested Finchbill was only seen once (supposedly common) and
only by Bengt while Rusty-cheeked Scimitar Babbler was not
seen at all a bit disappointingly.
I had a hard time with the many Warblers around but managed
to pick out a Pallas's Leaf-Warbler (Lifebird) amongst the
many species.
The temperature fell to around 15 Celsius at night and was
very high daytime.
Was it worth 2 nights on a train plus hours of driving? Undoubtedly,
YES! Several lifebirds, many of which I have only dreamed
off, great fellowship with oldtime friend, plus a working
knowledge of one of Thailand’s many great birding hot-spots.
Hopefully I will be back again!
If you are interested in arranging a bird
watching tour you can see some suggested itineraries here
- Birdwatching
Trips - and you can contact me at the above email address
to discuss the best options.
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