Bang Krachao Revisited

Sri Nakhon Khuean Khan is a park just south of Bangkok, located in Bang Krachao, or Bangkok’s Green Lung. An area protected against development – making it a good area for birds. Today, I went back, after visiting once before at the end of last year. What was missing from my last visit were kingfishers. I set in the morning, hoping for a good day of sightings.

Reaching the park at just after 8:30am, I got out of the car and looked at the trees. There was a lot of action, the park is filled with Pink-necked Green-pigeons, so their weird sounds filled the morning air. There were a few Yellow-vented Bulbuls hitting their musical bulbul notes, and next to the bridge were a flock of very loud Dark-necked Tailorbirds.

Now, actually entering the park, about 100 metres in, I was greeted by a Large Hawk-cuckoo. Not long after, the forested area next to the roundabout provided the sighting of Collared Kingfisher. Things were looking promising with those birds in the first 10 minutes.

I continued forwards, aiming to reach the bird watching tower before it gets close to midday. I finished walking along one of the walkways over the water and I spotted Square-tailed Drongo-cuckoo. Very nice indeed. It was accompanied by Green-billed Malkoha and Greater Racket-tailed Drongo.

It was still early enough in the morning to see all the Pink-necked Green-pigeons perched high in the trees catching the morning sun. By the time I reached the birdwatching tower I had probably seen 30 of them. Just before reaching the tower I saw the second kingfisher of the visit, Black-capped Kingfisher.

The tower provided good views of various birds and I spent a hour or two there. I was amazed to see a Stork-billed Kingfisher flyby just below the top level of the tower – making it 3 kingfisher species. All kingfishers are incredible but I particularly enjoy the ones with monster beaks like the aptly named Stork-billed.

Black-naped Monarch was present in the canopy below with a Blyth’s Paradise Flycatcher and a Golden-bellied Gerygone. It is always entertaining to see agile birds hawking insects out of the air, today I watched Ashy Drongo in action. Speaking of agile birds there were also a few Black-winged Cuckooshrikes roaming the park.

I kept my eyes on the sky so I can catch any raptors flying over, this visit I saw a pair of Shikra but by this time the sun was already high in the sky making the lighting less than ideal. In the end, the highlight, quite literally, at the bird watching tower, was the beautiful Verditer Flycatcher.

By now it was early afternoon and the disturbance levels in the park had risen, a good time to leave the park. Overall, a great visit with 51 recorded species of bird.

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