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Vietnam Southern and Central Specialties 15Th to 29Th February 2020 (15 Days) Trip Report

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Vietnam Southern and Central Specialties 15Th to 29Th February 2020 (15 Days) Trip Report Vietnam Southern and Central Specialties 15th to 29th February 2020 (15 days) Trip Report Siamese Fireback by Simon Tan Trip report compiled by Tour Leader: Glen Valentine Trip Report – RBL Vietnam – Southern & Central Specialties 2020 2 Tour Summary Orange-breasted Trogon by Simon Tan We kicked off our 2020 Southern and Central Vietnam tour in the city of Hue, teeming with history and cultural significance and some wonderful restaurants, making it the perfect place to spend a few pre-tour days ambling around the city and its surrounds. Beginning our long journey south towards the hill forests surrounding the village of Mang Den, our first scheduled birding stop of the day produced the wanted target species in the form of White-faced Plover (a very distinctive, extremely localized, rare and often- split subspecies of Kentish Plover) along the beach adjacent to Bach Ma National Park. In the same area, we added our first of several Light-vented Bulbuls, a female Stejneger’s Stonechat and flocks of fly-over Grey-capped Greenfinches. Continuing west and then southwards, crossing over the Lo Xo Pass after a quick lunch-stop we had an hour or so to find the scarce and exceedingly range-restricted near-endemic Black-crowned Barwing. This good-looking and charismatic species was only discovered as recently as 1996 and is still only known from a tiny area in south-central Vietnam and southern Laos. We arrived in fine weather and were soon admiring several pairs and family groups of Black-collared Starling, as well as Scarlet Minivet, Streaked Spiderhunter, Black Bulbul, a wonderful perched Necklaced Barbet, a pair of Large Woodshrike and then finally, after a fair amount of searching in the now-degraded road- edge habitat, a glorious pair of Black-crowned Necklaced Barbet by Glen Valentine Rockjumper Birding Tours View more tours to Vietnam Trip Report – RBL Vietnam – Southern & Central Specialties 2020 3 Barwings. Fantastic! With the day’s main quarry in the bag, we continued the long, winding drive down south and then eastwards to our destination at Mang Den where we’d be based in a comfortable little hotel for the next three nights. We awoke to some cool and breezy weather in Mang Den and began the ascent up into the forested hills of the Mang Canh protected forest above the town where we spent the majority of the day birding the relatively quiet back-roads and disused logging tracks in search of the area’s many fabulous birds. Top of the list was the severely localized Chestnut- eared Laughingthrush, a species only described in 1999 and is still only known from a tiny area of mid-altitude broad-leaved forest in the Mang Canh area of south-central Vietnam. It took a lot of patience and hard work but we did eventually manage to find two Collared Owlet by Glen Valentine separate birds, both of which unfortunately just showed very briefly, although the second bird that was finally encountered in the late afternoon did put in a couple of tickable appearances for most of the group. Apart from the laughingthrush, the general birding during our first full day was very good indeed and the day produced several quality species that included two flocks of range-restricted Black-hooded Laughingthrushes, as well as the handsome black- crested race of Sultan Tit, the colorful Yellow-cheeked Tit, a brief encounter with a White-winged Magpie, several excellent sightings of Yellow-billed Nuthatch, the minuscule and hyper-active Rufous-faced Warbler, Mountain Fulvetta, the brilliant Long-tailed Broadbill, several vocal male Clicking Shrike- Babblers, Bay Woodpecker, the annamensis subspecies of Black-throated Bushtit (soon to be split as Grey-crowned Bushtit), several perched Necklaced Barbets, a marvelous pair of Red-vented Barbet and a cooperative Collared Owlet that posed beautifully in the late morning. Also, of interest were several perched Mountain Imperial Pigeons, a pair of Orange-bellied (Greyish-crowned if split) Leafbird, Maroon Oriole, Mountain Bulbul, White-bellied Erpornis, Grey-chinned, and Short-billed Minivets, Verditer Flycatcher, Black-throated and Mrs. Gould’s (Vietnamese) Sunbirds and Lesser Racket- tailed Drongo. Our second full day at Mang Den started with dense cloud cover, fog and persistent drizzle that unfortunately lasted all day and therefore placed a huge damper on the birds and birding. However, we stuck it out and our persistence at least paid off to some extent. Birds were almost invisible for the first two hours but we finally managed to find a few species moving about in the late morning when the sky began to brighten somewhat. A gorgeous male Pale Blue Flycatcher showed impeccably well and Orange-headed Thrush by Glen Valentine Rockjumper Birding Tours View more tours to Vietnam Trip Report – RBL Vietnam – Southern & Central Specialties 2020 4 soon thereafter we bumped into a small flock of Black-chinned Yuhina that was followed by three Large Cuckooshrikes. We then decided to try one of the logging side-roads since the activity along the main drag was almost non- existent in the persistent drizzle and this proved to be a great move as we encountered a small mixed-species flock that harbored a pair of exquisite Silver-breasted Broadbill. Thereafter, a male Hainan Blue Flycatcher (of the distinctive klossi subspecies that was until very recently subsumed within Blue-throated Blue Flycatcher) showed momentarily in the Sultan (Annam) Tit by Glen Valentine canopy, while a stunning Orange-headed Thrush performed very well as it fed in the track ahead of us. However, the pride of place had to go to the fabulous pair of Short-tailed Scimitar Babblers (Indochinese Wren-Babbler/Rimator) that put on a marvelous show for all of us to admire at length. Fantastic! After a very quiet start to the morning, we were delighted at how it picked up just before lunch. However, our afternoon was a bit of a washout with no new species being found, although we did enjoy some prolonged views of the migratory race of Orange-headed Thrush feeding along the track completely unperturbed, as well as several of the already-mentioned species from yesterday. Having done justice to Mang Den and managing to find most of the area’s specialties despite the less-than-favorable conditions, it was time to depart the cold, wet highlands and continue our way south to warmer climes of the Yok Don National Park. Departing Mang Den pre-dawn, we drove an hour to the nearby town of Kon Tum where we made a short breakfast stop before continuing the drive towards Yok Don National Park. By Midday we’d arrived in the city of Buan ma Tuot for lunch before arriving at the Park in the early afternoon. It was still hot and especially so in the dry woodlands so we decided to have a short look at the river before venturing into the heart of the National Park. Excellent spotting produced a pair of Red Junglefowl near the river’s-edge and the surrounding riverine woodland and thickets harbored Olive-backed Sunbird, Common Tailorbird, Rufous Treepie, and Black-crested Bulbul, while Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters, Germain’s Swiftlets and Ashy Woodswallows hawked insects overhead. A lone Asian Openbill circling by was a bonus sighting before making our way across the bridge, stopping to scan for Mekong Wagtails but to no avail and then into the extensive deciduous dipterocarp woodlands of the reserve. The general birding and bird activity was good and we were soon admiring Crested Treeswifts, the exquisite Purple Sunbird, Black- hooded Oriole, Lineated Barbet, the pale-faced race of Maroon Oriole by Glen Valentine Rockjumper Birding Tours View more tours to Vietnam Trip Report – RBL Vietnam – Southern & Central Specialties 2020 5 Eurasian Jay, some very showy Velvet-fronted Nuthatches, Common Woodshrike, Large and Indochinese Cuckooshrikes, (Southern) Sooty- headed Bulbul, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Cinereous Tit, Common Iora, Hair-crested, and Greater Racket-tailed Drongos, Eurasian Hoopoe, some fly-over Blossom-headed Parakeets, the gaudy Indochinese Roller and an incredible variety of woodpeckers that included the handsome Common Flameback and Lesser Yellownape, Rufous Woodpecker, the minuscule Freckle-breasted Woodpecker, Short-tailed Scimitar Babbler (Indochinese Wren-Babbler) the spectacular, scarce and extremely habitat- by Merilyn Browne specific Black-headed Woodpecker and to finish off the day, a party of three gigantic and extremely showy Great Slaty Woodpeckers (the world’s largest extant woodpecker at half-a-meter in length!). What a sensational afternoon’s birding and a fabulous introduction to Yok Don! In the evening we managed to call out Asian Barred Owlet and Brown Hawk-Owl (Boobook) near our accommodations, which formed a very fitting end to a superb day. We still had the entire following morning to revisit and bird the extensive woodlands in Yok Don before continuing the journey into the Southern Highlands. The weather was perfect and birds were everywhere and we were treated to a most wonderful and prolific morning’s birding. Stopping at our breakfast site deep in the heart of the woodland we soon found ourselves surrounded by bird activity. Many of the exciting and noteworthy species mentioned for yesterday were seen once again but were joined by other sought-after targets like Streak-throated Woodpecker, the scarce and localized Burmese Nuthatch, fly- over Yellow-legged Green Pigeons, the vibrant Small Minivet, migratory Taiga Flycatcher and a splendid male Chinese Francolin. What a great start to the day! A little further on we encountered a pair of
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