AjarnNorth

On 9/13/2018 at 2:25 PM, Bredbury Blue said:

 

Keep seeing this pair (once a saw 3 together) of Black-collared Starlings, in the same spot, at the same time of the day (around 5pm - never any other time). They are incredibly nervy. See me coming they move the other direction so i've yet to get a decent picture of them. I have still never seen this type of bird anywhere else (this is next to Chaophya river, BKK) - do others see them around in your neighbourhood?

 

Here are some pics of Asian Pied Starling that you may look out for in addition to your BCS. I have better pics somewhere but these are from today so easily accessible. I have seen both when I lived in Bangkok. 

On 9/14/2018 at 1:00 PM, tutsiwarrior said:

 

what distinguishes herons from egrets? is it just the plumage or are they biologically different?

 

in the river valleys along the north coast in the US we useta get huge magnificent herons...whoosh, whoosh...and the egrets usually stuck to the coastal wetlands...in Thailand you can see both in the recently tilled rice paddies...looked out my kitchen window a couple a times recently and there was a heron (brown) I'd never seen before but there's usually some egrets (snowy white) hanging around most of the time...

 

 

It's a good question. And I think the popular names vary from place to place, which is why we have the scientific names though they are much harder to remember. I go by the popular names in the most common Thai Bird Guide Books. So the egrets are pretty much all the white ones, excluding the dark morph Pacific Reef Egrets, while the herons are the larger ones you probably see in rice fields - Grey and Purple - the smaller Pond Herons (Chinese mostly, but Javan by the coasts and Indian as well sometimes), also the smaller Little Heron and Black-capped Night heron and etc. 

In the pics I posted above, the third pic is a Great Egret and a Little Egret, showing the vast difference in size. But there are other diagnostic characteristics as well. But I recently birded with a guy from the south-west USA and he called the same birds herons. 

The sixth picture is a Pond Heron, likely Chinese or Javan. 

All of the above are of the same family: Ardeidae

That's why keeping up with the common popular names via local guidebooks can help a lot. This link is somewhat helpful: http://www.galleryofbirds.com/Thailand/Herons.htm

40 minutes ago, AjarnNorth said:

Black-collared Starling. 

Sorry. Meant to answer the question and then something went wrong. Here in Chonburi, I have seen them but not many. Asian Pied Starling are more common here. But when I lived in Surin, BCS were very common. I believe they are generally classified as common throughout Thailand. 

7 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

 

Keep seeing this pair (once a saw 3 together) of Black-collared Starlings, in the same spot, at the same time of the day (around 5pm - never any other time). They are incredibly nervy. See me coming they move the other direction so i've yet to get a decent picture of them. I have still never seen this type of bird anywhere else (this is next to Chaophya river, BKK) - do others see them around in your neighbourhood?

 

Black-collared Starling. 

Is anybody interested in getting a master degree in TESL in Bangkok via face to face to study? I work for a language center in Thailand and we are looking to form of cohort of 24 people so that we can partner with Framingham State University (USA) to offer an M.Ed. TESL degree at a central Bangkok location. Framingham State University (FSU) is a fully accredited US university with a long history of providing quality teacher education both on campus in the US as well as at various locations abroad. For years, they have been offering M.Ed. in International Education degrees at two locations in Bangkok, but this would be the first opportunity to pursue a masters in TESL via FSU in Bangkok. We already have about 10 people interested internally and are now looking elsewhere to round out the necessary numbers. At approximately 200,000 Thai baht all told, FSU's international master degree offerings are much more affordable than anything else available in Thailand that compares as well as much more affordable than any of the better online providers of such degrees. In addition, one can pay in four or five installments as study progresses. Proposed dates would include a two-week session in December 2018, a two-week session in April 2019, and then a repeat of those dates the following year. 

For more information on FSU, google: "Framingham State University M.Ed. Concentration in The Teaching of English as a Second language (TESL)"

Or PM me and I will answer any questions you may have as well as send you an e-brochure and etc. 

Could be Lesser maybe, but looks more like Greater - though hard to tell without better pic of head and etc. What was the location?

Well, that's nature. I have caught and removed at least a half dozen reticulated pythons from my garden here in Chon (as well as a couple cobras and etc). One had recently eaten our cat so not at all small. Nest raids are common for pythons so it's natural enough for birds to get their hackles up when they see one and kill it if they can. 

20 hours ago, jack2964 said:

Good to see this not in a cage.

 

One of my favorites. And one of the birds that got me hooked on birding when i was up in Surin. I have actually never seen one in a cage. Were they caged pet birds or "merit releases"?

Olive-backed Sunbird

14 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

^Cheers guys...lovely birds.

Yep. You can see the crest in Skeptic's blow up. Definitely BC Bulbul. Cool birds. And YB Tailorbird are Philipines only, I think. But you (your wife) are right that Grajib is Thai for Tailorbird. And while you may have been seeing and hearing mostly bulbuls, it's likely tailorbirds were around wherever that guest house is. Of the 5 species in Thailand, two are common throughout - Common TB and Dark-necked TB. So the guest house is probably not improperly named. By the way, google tailorbirds and get a look at how they nest build to find out why they are called tailorbirds. Pretty amazing...

It's definitely not a tailorbird.

Yep. They are good cameras for specific purposes. I am a birder so the manual zoom is key. Thanks for the link, though. I may take a used one and see how it goes. 

1 hour ago, Bredbury Blue said:

 

Hard to tell from this distance and the play/pause button is right over the bird, but best guess without a decent still photo is Black-crested Bulbul. 

1 hour ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Staying in a b&b called Gajib. Loads of nok gajib here. Think they are yellow-breasted tailorbirds. Correct?

 

 

 

 

Don't think those occur here. Got any photos?

4 minutes ago, FracturedRabbit said:

Did you try Google with the name of the camera and 'Thailand' in the search?

 

e.g. http://th.priceprice.com/Fujifilm-FinePix-HS50EXR-6361/

Yes, of course. And have called Fuji Thailand. And found the same site you found. But as far as I can tell, they don't have it but are offering to buy it for that price. If I have that wrong, please advise. I am not much of an on-line shopper. But every time I click "go to shop" it only brings me to accessories for this model but doesn not show the actual camera for sale. 

I am looking for this model in Thailand. It's a bit dated, but it's what I need and I am hoping that someone may have come across one in a camera shop somewhere. If anyone has recently seen one or comes across one, please do let me know. There are used ones available on ebay and such but I prefer new. Thanks. 

6 hours ago, thetefldon said:

My rules are a bit less strict, basically anything I can see(photograph) from the house.

I currently have a figure of 153 for surrounding area which includes Tat Mok NP, Khao Kho and one visit to Nam Nao which was cut short when I got leeched!

Find attached links to my website:

Map of area

Species List

Nah, same rules. There were just a couple I saw just a few steps off my property that I may not have seen from my property so I didn't include them. One was a Siberian Rubythroat and the other was a Verditer FC. Photos of both and just steps awy, but definitively not from my property line which was well marked off with a low wall. That was Surin and I think I sent you that information. 

Nice. You just surpassed my Surin Yard List of 109, though I did a keep at least a couple off that list that I saw literally steps away from my yard. Stickler for the rules, I suppose. Surin was 109 yard and 176 surrounding area (about 25 square kilometers). 

My current Bangsaen, Chonburi list is somewhere around 90, but I would have to go back in this thread and check. 

What is your location again? Love to see the location and the full list. Keep it up. 

On 5/16/2018 at 9:18 AM, jak2002003 said:

I would love to see some Brahminy kites!  Apparently there were very common all over the country up unti recently.  Any know if there are any about in Chiang Mai area?

 

 

I would be surprised to hear that there aren't. When I lived on a wetlands in Surin I saw as many as a dozen or more Brahminy Kites a day. I now live in Bangsaen, Chonburi - about half way between Bangkok and Pattaya - and see them very regularly here as well. And in my travels, I have seen them often but have not birded in Chiang Mai much. As for WB Sea Eagles, I also saw them when last in Ko Chang and occasionally see them here. 

You are unlikely to see a "new" line of sparrow to appear in your lifetime. What you are almost surely seeing is Eurasian-tree, which favor nesting in houses and buildings, light fixtures, etc. - Plain-backed, which favor trees in fields - and House Sparrow, a colonizing species that has made its way from the western edges of Thailand in the early 90s to almost all parts of the country and now up into Laos.

Also, your strange Myna mystery seems to have been solved. As I mentioned a few posts ago, yes, I have seen a fair share of "bald" mynas, usually Common, over the years. However, I would guess it's not a part of the moulting process of all Mynas otherwise we'd all be seeing it much more often. I see Common Mynas every day at my home and at my place of work and in other locations I have lived in Thailand and have seen very few "bald" ones. The jury is out as to whether it's a vitamin deficiency, a result of mites of some sort, or etc. If you find conclusive research to argue one or the other cause I would love to see it. 

Had you mentioned that your "Yellow-headed" birds had no head plumage that would have been a shorter conversation. 

I don't know what you mean by, "Guess there was a throwback in the birds genes," but that is also unlikely.

Thailand is observed my hundreds and hundreds of people. It is very well documented and researched and a lot of that information is found in a few books that would serve anyone well who is interested in IDing birds anywhere in the country. There is also a periodical put out by the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand, though it is mostly in Thai. And they have facebook sites where one can submit phot records for ID help and etc. 

There are surprises still to be found, though they USUALLY tend to be in the way of behavior or range extension. This doesn't rule out the possibility of bigger surprises, though, but new species are unlikely from the garden. I once went on a hunt for a "strange sparrow" in Isaan based on a video clip of a captured bird that seemed to have an odd call. We were given the location and drove out there but were unsuccessful in our attempts to turn up anything in the area other than Eurasian-tree, disappointingly.  

If you had a decent guide book this would help you a lot. The more you look the more you will learn. But the more information you find out about the possibilities in your area based on what is known of range of this or that species, variations in plumage, etc. and so on, the faster you will get to point of being able to make on-spot IDs without all that much question, except in the case of very difficult species such as warblers, accipiters, and etc.  

2 hours ago, Speedo1968 said:

Thank you for the pics and your mention of my earlier question in January.     The birds I see are myna's and have a full head and complete neck in yellow.     They are not golden crested mynas.

There are only 5 kinds of Mynas in Thailand and only one of them - Golden-crested - has a yellow head and neck. So either you are seeing Golden-crested or not seeing Mynas. Of course, as Skeptic pointed out already, Mynas and Starlings are of the same family, and so that leaves the possibility of your seeing Black-collared Starling, which have a yellow area around the eye and a creamy colored head and neck. Google those and have a look. But if that doesn't match, then you are not seeing Mynas or Starlings, you are seeing something else. 

Yeah, I know it's not "hair" by the way, but that seemed the best description. I may have pics somewhere but would be hard pressed to find them. I have only seen this with Mynas and i think the occasional sick looking rock pigeon. Have you read about the "Bare-faced Bulbul" found in Laos in 2009? Pretty interesting.