Koh Chang – South Thailand Birding
Day 2 of Koh Chang. I got up early and headed into the swamp, hoping to get a photo of that elusive hornbill – my nemesis bird. I saw a couple straight away at the edge of the swamp in the fir trees but they raced off before I could get a bead on them.
Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris)
Finally I spotted one up in a tree the other side of the swamp and I managed to get some photos of it. I am not sure if this one is a male or female. The female Oriental Pied Hornbill has a “smaller casque with more extensive dark areas” (Robson).
Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris)
This one took off but I just managed to get a shot of him or her in flight as it was heading into the trees. Later on, I met some Thai people, Mr Dam and his wife and they made me a cup of coffee. Mr Dam has a farm with coconuts, cashews and rubber.
Getting the rubber
This is the rubber dripping from the tree into a bowl.
Rubber trees milking.
They cut grooves around the rubber tree and the sap comes out and gets funneled into containers.
Ceylon Blue Glassy Tiger (Ideopsis similis)
There were heaps of different butterflies around and I think a butterfly nerd would have a field day here. (What do you call people who go chasing butterflies? )
dark butterfly
This one was huge, almost as big as a lot of birds.
Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
At first I thought this was just a Spotted Dove, but I had a second look and realised that it might be a type of collared dove. It seemed to be a Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) because it has yellow eyes and the collaring was that of the collared dove. Then I checked their range. It is a common resident throughout South-east Asia but the Red-collared Dove is vagrant to South Thailand. My assumption is that this is a Eurasian Collared-Dove. ha ha.
Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus
This adult Brahminy Kite was roosting by a creek. Later on, three Brahminy Kites came in low over beach near my hut. Maybe their territory could be the beach up to end of paperbark swamp ? More assumptions.
