SVC TRIP REPORT 2014 / Jan- Feb SVC BIRDWATCHING TRIP REPORT 25 Jan- 16 Feb 2014 Sarus Crane © Sophoan Sanh/SVC Written by: Sophoan Sanh Participants:Ellen and James Strauss, Kristine Wallstrom, Thomas Fiore, Robert Ridgely <Bob>, Henning Lege, Norbert Van Bebber, Christine and John Betts, joint extention Margaret Yeo and Jeanette Ruxton - Kunthear Chhoun and Chea Seab / SVC SAM VEASNA CENTER FOR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION #0552, St 26, Group 12, Wat Bo, Siem Reap, Cambodia Phone: +855 63 761 597 www.samveasna.org 1 SVC TRIP REPORT 2014 / Jan- Feb TRIP SUMMARY This report includes a record of all the birds and mammals found on SVC’s Supertour 2014, which ran for a total of 19 days and 4-day extension to Mt. Aural. During this time the group visited a broad range of sites and habitats, including many ecotourism sites managed by the WCS and the Sam Veasna Center for Wildlife Conservation “SVC”. For visitors, one of the main attractions of Cambodia is its concentration of Critically Endangered species: Giant and White-shouldered Ibises, Bengal Florican, and White-rumped, Red-headed and Slender-billed Vultures are all found in this wonderful South-east Asia country and the two endemic birds of the country [ Cambodian Tailorbird and Laughingthrush]. In addition to these six species apart from birds we have the most Angkor Complex which located in Siem Reap as the cultural interest and one of the must-visit place in Cambodia. However, Cambodia also offers an exciting range of other birds and a varied mix of habitats. This year SVC’s Supertour was successfully running again, in the entire trip we managed to see and heard totally 362 bird species and 15 species of mammals, 2 species of reptiles, 30 species of butterflies- identified by Kristine Wallstrom and Tomas Fiore , along with the various birding sites below: The key sites visited on the Supertour 2014 includes: - Angkor complex: this is an easy place to see Hainan Blue Flycatcher, Pale-legged Leaf- warbler, and Yellow-browed Warbler, and it is the best location to see Alexandrine Parakeet in Cambodia in addition on 25th Jan Bob and Mr. and Mrs. Struss we saw Hodgson’s Hawk-cuckoo at Angkor Wat and grey morph of Black-headed Bulbul in Ta Promh temple. This magical location combines excellent birding with the temple complexes of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Promh – a beautiful world heritage site. - Prek Toal (PT): this waterbird sanctuary has one of the largest breeding colonies of large water birds in South-east Asia. Here it is possible for birders to witness huge numbers of birds, spectacular species such as Greater and Lesser Adjutant, Milky Stork and also sought- after species such as Grey-headed Fish-eagle and Black-headed Ibis, Spot-billed Pelican, Oriental Darter. Phnom Krom marsh is the wetland located near seasonal flooded forest of Tonle Sap, good place to see White-browed Crake, White-shouldered Starling, Chestnut- capped Babbler, Pied Kingfisher, and Oriental Reed-warbler. - Ang Trapaeng Thmor (ATT): is a large man-made reservoir which is a vitally important feeding area for Sarus Crane. It has been a protected site since 2000. ATT holds large numbers of wintering ducks as well as a variety of interesting residents. These include Comb Duck, and wintering Duck, 5 Northern Pintail and 1000s Garganey, Pied and Eastern Marsh Harriers, Greater Spotted Eagle, White-browed Crake, Bronze-winged and Pheasant- tailed Jacanas and Plain-backed Sparrow. In addition we were surprised with family of Eld’s deer wondering in the grassland while entering the northern side of the reservoir. - Bengal Florican grassland (Prolay): this has one of the highest densities of Bengal Florican in the world, and in addition provides perfect habitat for grassland specialists such as Blue-breasted Quail, Small and Barred Buttonquail and wintering Bluethroat, Eastern Marsh and Pied Harrier. - Prey Veng (PV): has the huge range of habitats, including the healthy dry dipterocarp deciduous forest, ancient reservoir and river, which is home to White-winged Duck, Sarus Crane, Black-necked Stork and White-rumped Pygmy-falcon and Giant Ibis can all be found here. The area is a paradise for woodpeckers, which can be hard to see elsewhere, those included Great Slaty, Black-headed ,Yellow-crowned, Spot-breasted, and Rufous-bellied Woodpeckers. 2 SVC TRIP REPORT 2014 / Jan- Feb - Tmatboey (TB): is home to Cambodia for the Critically Endangered Giant and White- shouldered Ibises, birds wanted to see by dedicated birdwatcher. The habitat recalls Prey Veng, offering a similar mix of species and opportunities to see Spotted Wood-owl, Brown Fish-owl in daytime, and White-rumped Pygmy-falcon, Brown Prinia, Violet Cuckoo. - Okoki: supports the mix micro habitats such as semi-evergreen forest in the dry forest and a few forest pools become the perfect feeding and roosting of White-winged Duck. We had the birds flew over early morning and evening, more than that we got an excited with the call of Oriental Bay Owl which every night we all most near sighting and one morning we almost spotted one bird. Oriental Scops-owl, Green Peafowl (H), Banded Kingfisher, Banded Broadbill, White-bellied Woodpecker, and had a good time with seeing a courtship of Chinese Francolin on driving. - Veal Krous (VK): is one of the six active ‘vulture restaurants’ in Cambodia. WCS, SVC and government agencies (Forestry Administration etc..) selected this place for birders to witness the three Critically Endangered vultures (Red-headed, Slender-billed and White- rumped) during the birding season. This location is also good for Needletail, which come to drink at a pond around dusk, and Large-tailed, Savanna and Indian Nightjars. There is also a good chance of seeing a pair of Indian Spotted Eagle. - Kratie: the easiest place to see Mekong Wagtail Motacilla samveasnae, which is named after Mr. Sam Veasna, the SVC namesake. Kratie marsh holds good numbers of wintering species such as Black-browed, Oriental Reed, Lanceolated Warblers, 100 of Yellow-breasted Buntings, and along with resident Watercock, Cinnamon and Black Bittern. - Seima Protected Forest (SPF): this site is gradually becoming a large tract of protected forest but illegal logging is proving to be frustratingly difficult to stamp out, so conservation is rather challenging here. WCS and SVC are working to reduce the level of illegal logging, as well as organizing ecotourism for the benefit of the local community. Despite the problems, this area offers a good chance of connecting with Bar-bellied and Blue-rumped Pittas, Red- vented and Annam Barbets, Grey-faced Tit-babbler. Germain’s Peacock-pheasant is very shy we almost brought one into view, we made a stop at Km157, the usual site for Green Peafowl and again never disappointed, we got a female walking along the track to drinking pool then ready to fly up on the tree for roosting, with Golden-crested Myna and other goodies species seen. Not to be out done on our way, we spotted the Yellow-cheeked Crested-gibbon sitting free on the exposed tree to say welcome, my first time to see this amazing ape, most of the time I only hear the song every morning while staying in Seima Protected Forest. - Dak Dam: is located in Mondulkiri Province, close to the border with Vietnam. Rising to 900m a.s.l, it is home for a good number of high elevation species. On the day of our visit on the Super tour 2014 we were lucky than previous year, the wind remained calm and we found the fruiting tree on the road, had 5 species of Barbets ( Coppersmith, Green-eared, Blue-eared, Annam and Red-vented Barbets), a large flock of Long-tailed Broadbill and a good number of Pin-tailed Green-pigeon, many more birds including Black Eagle, White- throated Fantail, Spot-throated Babbler (H), Germain’s Peacock-pheasant (H), same place where Bob spotted the Pale-capped Pigeon. - Phnom Penh (PP): along the Mekong and Tonle Sap river and mix with grassland and scrubland. Winter visitors such as Oriental and Black-browed Reed-warblers can be seen here, as well as Oriental Darter and of course Cambodian Tailorbird, which scientists consider to be a new species – a Cambodian endemic close to the capital city, Phnom Penh. - Bokor National park (BK): is located on the elephant mountain range, part of the end slope of Cardamom mountain, elevation up to 1075m a.s.l, holds a good number of bird species of high elevation and good habitat for the near endemic to Cambodia-Chestnut- 3 SVC TRIP REPORT 2014 / Jan- Feb headed Partridge, Indochinese Green Magpie (H), the nesting of Long-tailed Broadbill, a pair of Silver-breasted Broadbill, Blue Pitta (H), subspecies of Fire-breasted Flowerpecker (no red on ventral stripe) Mugimaki Flycatcher, Black Eagle, Himalayan Buzzard, Moustached Barbet, Wreathed and Great Hornbill, We were surprise to see the Spot-bellied Eagle-owl, spotted while driving down the hill in the late evening. - Mount Aural: one of 11 Wildlife Sanctuaries of Cambodia, located in Cardamom mountain range and regarded as the highest point of Cambodia, 1813m a.s.l. Dry forest from the foothill and become evergreen forest from 450m up, we camped at the 1200m which is a good sighting of Cambodia Laughingthrush, we got the Laugher at the first evening on the day we arrived, next day we climbed the summit surprisingly Chear, Henning, Tom & Thearn (ranger) spotted the first bird of the country ( a female of Siberian Bluetail which today split to Himalayan and Red-franked Bluetail, the R-F bluetail seem to spend winter time in larger range than Himlalyan via the Handbook of the World) and along with Eastern-crowned and White-tailed Warbler, Little Pied flycatcher, Blue-winged Siva..