AjarnNorth

8 minutes ago, AjarnNorth said:

Oh, and "king quail / Chinese Painted" don't occur here in Thailand (to my knowledge). Where are you again? 

Also, consider snipe. Snipe tend to flush only when you get very close. 

Oh, and "king quail / Chinese Painted" don't occur here in Thailand (to my knowledge). Where are you again? 

On 11/22/2018 at 2:28 PM, jak2002003 said:

Saw a HUGE flock of thousands of munia finches in some rice fields near my house.  Did not have my camera or phone with me sadly!!

 

Not sure if they were scaly breasted or white-rumped munia.

 

I know they can be in flocks of about 100 or so.  But this flock was thousands... like a huge black cloud when it took off and flew over my head, disturbed by my dog.  I have never seen such a large flock of birds here.. reminded my of the big flocks of starlings we get in the UK in wintertime.  

 

It was a very impressive sight, but such small birds.

 

At the same place at night I saw some quails.  They were very small and I suspect they were king quail / Chinese Painted quails.  They flew up into the air with rapid wingbeats and vanished into the darkness as I walked past.. they waited till I was nearly stepping on them before taking off. 

 

Anyone else seen quails here?  

 

 

Scaly-breasted are always the most likely in my experience. Especially in those numbers. They're one of the reasons rice farmers string mist nets. 

If you get out in the mangroves, wetlands, rice paddies of Thailand enough then you will eventually come across many sights such as this. I know people are poor and need to eat, but it's a pretty bad way to catch your dinner. This bird - Red-wattled Lapwing - was still alive but I couldn't reach it and even if I could it may not have been wise to cut up someone's net in broad daylight, though I have done so before. I did speak to folks there and tell them my thoughts and the net is down now, but it was likely just moved to a more hidden location.

I did this one year while in Surin. It's every January. Focus is wetlands birds...

https://south-asia.wetlands.org/our-approach/healthy-wetland-nature/asian-waterbird-census/

@Skeptic7Congrats on the big day. I wish I had known because I would have participated. Let me know when the May big day rolls around, but the October big day will almost always be better here. 

2 hours ago, BLACKJACK2 said:

Sounds like a red wattled lapwing to me.

Agreed. And possibly also mixed with some Black-winged Stilt, which would be common as these two species are often found in close proximity. Apparently, US soldiers in the war with Vietnam used to call Red-Wattled Lapwing "communist birds" because when trying to walk quietly through paddy land unobserved, the RW Lapwing would take to the air with their alarm-call and announce their presence. 

Nice. I have only seen SBKF twice - once in Bang Phra, Chonburi and another time in Sanghalaburi. 

Early arrival Ashy Drongo (leucogenis) 28 September 2018, Bangsaen, Chonburi. Philip Round's "The Birds of the Bangkok Area" has 3 October for earliest definitive arrival. Seems a lot of the winter visitors are early this year. 

ID'd first by call around 5:00 PM, found and photographed just down the soi at 5:17 PM. Annual winter visitor on my soi, but usually doesn't arrive until first week of October according to my records (7 October last year). 18 photos, but none much better than this (cropped) one.

3 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

For people who hare not up to scratch with their bird ID, could you tell us which each species is please?

Great photos!!!

 

Brahminy Kite (adult); Brahminy Kite (juvenile); Common Redshank (1); Common Redshank (2); Common Grenshank; Little Egret (breeding plumage) taking flight; Little Egret (breeding plumage) at rest; Oriental White-eye (1); Oriental White-eye (3); Pied Fantail; Red-necked Stint (1) with Little Ringed Plovers (2); Red-necked Stint (front) with Little Ringed Plover (back); as before; Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker; Common Tailorbird, Whimbrel; Whimbrel. 

All are resident and rather common here, except for the Redshank, the Greenshank, the plovers, and the Stint which are all winter visitors, but common winter visitors to this area. 

And these plovers from this late afternoon/evening in Bangsaen, Chonburi - also from down the road, so not "yard birds." Maybe the best pics I have thus far illustrating Lesser Sand Plovers from Greater Sand Plovers. For diagnostic differences, consult your guide book/s. Unless they are standing next to each other, very difficult.

Brown Shrikes are now daily in and around my yard. 

17 hours ago, kokesaat said:

Last night we noticed two birds perched under the roof of our outdoor kitchen.  Seeing them from the front, we only knew they were birds when one of them twisted its neck just a bit (to stretch).  Our presence and our flashlight didn't noticeably bother them.  A picture from the back side clearly reveals two tails and a reddish bottom.  We're thinking they might be young bulbuls.  We see bulbuls around our yard from time to time......although at the present, we haven't seen any for several weeks. 

When we woke up this morning, they were gone.   

Almost definitely bulbuls. My guess is Sooty-headed. What do you usually see around your yard? That would probably answer. 

21 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

Strange about Asian Pied Starling here in BKK. It's a species I've never seen in the patch, but always expected. Have seen them in Lumphini Park along with Black Collared as well as the other Mynas. Always assumed it'd be a gimme here, but not the case...though Black Collared/White-vented and Common are abundant in my area. 

 

Reading the "Habitat and Status" section of Asian Pied Starling in Round's Birds of BKK Area states that even though still common...declines of this species in recent years and noticed as far back as decades ago. 

Yep. Lumphini and Benjakiti is where I saw them in Bangkok as well. Because I never did any serious birding around Bangkok I assumed they must be fairly common. They are common here in Chonburi, though I mostly see them close to the coast, in and around mangrove areas. Though that could just be down to near total habitat devastation elsewhere!

9 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

Shorebirds ?...my least fave group as far as ID goes. Cool & interesting  but definitely not my forte'. Gimme passerines any day! 

Prefer the ease of sorting warblers, do you? Ha! I get it but I like both and feel lucky to live in an area where I can get both within a couple k of my home. Not as lucky as I felt on the wetlands in Isaan. That was my dream patch. But glad that I can sit around my yard and clock passerines and then go for short jaunts on my bike and get shorebirds and more passerines. My last two lifers were I think shore birds, in fact. I bird when I travel and enjoy the occasional sojourn to a national park, but I am most interested in whatever is around me wherever I am. With any luck, my next house will put me at some altitude with jungle around and a good lookout for migratory flyovers. Time will tell...

Differentiating Lesser Sand-Plover from Greater Sand-Plover is difficult unless they are standing next to one another. Unless I am mistaken, this grainy J-peg shows both with the left center bird being a LSP and the one just to its right (and most of the others) GSP. When they are standing alone, very tough. Pretty common coastal winter visitors, but I once had one in Surin. Had that one as an LSP, but because it was alone I sent it to "the authorities" and even he then sent it to a shorebird/plover expert for final confirmation.