Thailand: Doi Ang Khang

 Doi Ang Khang

Another early departure in Mr. Ped's van put us on the road up yet more crazy-steep hillsides to Doi Ang Khang, with beautiful views out to the haze in all directions. We stopped at the famed (?) "garbage dump" location and found Great Barbet, Daurian Redstart, and a distant female Chestnut Bunting. One bluebird-sized bird scampered out in the open before us. It was nondescript gray or brown, until it turned and, with the sun at our backs, showed its breast in our direction. It was bright red: Siberian Rubythroat! It then disappeared into the brush before half of our group even saw it. It would take a few days to get a second look at this bird at a different location. They are not easy to see. We commented to each other that this saves us a trip to Attu.

We spotted several warblers, of the old-world persuasion. Mr. Chalee was of the opinion that they were Gray-crowned Warbler, Blyth's Leaf-warbler, and Claudia's Leaf Warbler. The dreaded Phylloscopus! When studying before this trip, I knew that the Phylloscopus genus was going to be hard. Absurdly and impossibly difficult to identify would be a drastic understatement. Those damned Phylloscopus all look alike. But they do us a second favor by flitting constantly between leafy branches, preventing a close look. An important issue we noted was that the wingbars on all of our birds were quite strong and conspicuous, unlike the illustrations in the field guide. A seasonal effect, maybe? The inconsistency doesn't make it any easier. Those damn Phyllos make North American Empids look easy.

Walking along the paved road, we got good looks at another Giant Nuthatch. This bird is named well, indeed. It looks like a White-breasted Nuthatch that has had an unfortunate encounter with some radiation. It is freakishly large. Despite that, it really does move around on tree trunks like a North American nuthatch. Strange.

Near the campground, there is a military guard station, which seemed decidedly casual. Mr. Chalee spotted a Long-tailed Shrike there.

Long-tailed Shrike in the scope

A short walk further brought us to a campground, with a heck of a view out to the Chiang Mai valley. Mr. Chalee was heading to the restroom, but the serious look on his face told me that bladder relief was not his objective, so we all followed. Looking into the shrubs behind the building, he pulled out a Scarlet-faced Liocichla. Score! There was a pair, singing nicely, and affording pretty good views. (Although not good enough for the camera.) The complicated-sounding name refers to yet another lineage in the laughingthrushes, known only in the old world.

Looking up, we had our best look at a Crested Serpent-eagle. The name sounds exotic, but these are quite common in Thailand.

Crested Serpent-eagle

We drove on to the Royal Agricultural Station down at a lower elevation, and found three species at the not-so-scenic location behind the restaurant: Black-breasted Thrush, Scaly Thrush, and Streaked Wren-babbler.

Black-breasted Thrush

Scaly Thrush

Streaked Wren-babbler

There are some well-groomed gardens here, and they draw some nice stuff, like this amazing sunbird and a sporting Spot-winged Grosbeak. A Red-whiskered Bulbul was putting on quite a show of singing. {Astute readers will know that this is a Sensitive Species in eBird, but this location is very well protected from nefarious cage-bird collectors.}

Gould's Sunbird.
(My abbreviation from "Mrs. Gould's Sunbird.")

A brief digression on bird names. The nomenclature committees for both major ornithological societies are operating with Middle Ages mentalities.* This sunbird is called, officially, "Mrs. Gould's Sunbird." Seriously? Not even "Gould's Sunbird"? Did either Mr, or Mrs. Gould have a single blessed thing to do with discovery of the species? Did anyone bother asking the Thais if they already had their own name for the bird? This bird has distinctive plumage features, an understandable dependence on habitat, but none of that provides an adequate basis for the bird name? Good grief. It's time to abandon these ridiculous bird names that are completely disconnected with any feature or characteristic of the bird. What's next? "My Second Cousin Dorothy's Finch?" "Aunt Gertrude's Most Favorite and Delightful Sparrow"? Or heck, let's just trot out leading figures from the slave trade and directors of WWII concentration camps, and let's name birds after them. Maybe Donald Trump should get a species named after him. He's notable, after all!

Spot-winged Grosbeak

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Nearby was a very well known White-tailed Robin. This handsome thrush was another one of the meal-worm-adapted individuals. But neat looking anyway.

White-tailed Robin

Yet another big raptor soared overhead. This was our best look at Oriental Honey-buzzard.

Oriental Honey-buzzard

"Honey" buzzard refers to the this bird's occasional raids on bee hives. A name that makes sense!

We drove back up high in elevation, to a place called Ban Nor Lae. As it turns out, it's a tourist destination because it is right at the border with Myanmar. There were lots of interpretive signs (bilingual, as customary for Thailand) discussing past border troubles. There was a double row of razor-wire fencing. A bit strange. But there was a really nice Burmese Shrike present - on the Thai side!

Burmese Shrike

That makes four shrikes for our trip: Brown, Gray-backed, Long-tailed, and Burmese. Plus a cuckooshrike and Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike. As long as we're at it, two shrike-babblers.

Interpretive sign at the border

Our next stop was Doi Kham Fa.

* There has finally been some action on this issue. See https://zooecology.blogspot.com/2023/11/bird-names.html