Vietnam Custom tour
Dalat Plateau & Central Annam
9th - 16th February 2008
Leader: James Eaton
Participants: Brian and Margaret Sykes
Sooty Babbler, Phong Nha National Park © James Eaton / Birdtour Asia
This week-long custom tour - an extension to the OBC Cambodia tour – aimed to find several endemics missed during a previous Vietnam trip. These included some only recently found at accessible sites and the odd recently described species. 184 species were recorded but most importantly this included almost all of our specific target species and confirms Vietnam as one of the premier birding destinations in the Oriental region. A brief stay around the Dalat Plateau was sufficient to see our targeted Collared and Orange-breasted Laughingthrushes, Black-crowned Fulvetta, Black-crowned Parrotbill and the star of the show, wonderful views of Grey-crowned Crocia among a host of other near-endemics. Following a short flight to central Annam we were soon watching a fabulous pair of the recently-discovered Black-crowned Barwing, Yellow-billed Nuthatch, an undescribed form of Sulphur-breasted Warbler and the unique Sooty Babbler.
Arriving in the early afternoon from Phnom Penh we spent the afternoon driving from Saigon to the old French hill station at Dalat now re-established as a bustling holiday town. We started our birding early the next morning reaching the forest edge at Mount Lang Biang shortly after dawn in search of our first target bird, the notoriously skulking Collared Laughingthrush. The birds were unusually quiet with just two parties heard but we successed at the first attempt with “jigsaw views” studying the bird piece by piece as he skulked in the surrounding undergrowth calling prolifically. Higher on the mountain wind reduced bird vocalisations considerably but the smaller understory birds didn’t seem to mind and we soon picked up mouse-like Grey-bellied Tesia and Lesser Shortwing, ‘Indochinese’ Mountain Fulvetta - the annamensis form which has been proved to be distinct from its Malay Peninsula counterpart, ocularis White-spectacled Warbler with its distinctive call and several smart views of confiding Black-crowned Fulvetta, yet another distinctive recent split and another of our main targets. A small fruiting tree was being rapidly devoured by a female Siberian Thrush, Black-headed Sibia and Golden-throated Barbet. we also attracted a Vietnamese Cutia that perched overhead in the low canopy for a while and two singing Blyth’s Leaf-Warbler of the southern complex were welcome, being largely replaced by the commoner Kloss’s Leaf-Warbler lower down the slope an elevation shared with Ashy-throated Warbler. Walking back we surprised a party of Collared Laughingthrushes but they soon got the hump and vanished into the impenetrable scrub and our walk down through the pine forest revealed little except annamensis Long-tailed Minivet.
One of the main reasons of returning to Dalat was to seek out Grey-crowned Crocia, a species long lost until rediscovered in 1994. We returned to the site where Brian and Margaret had heard the species several years ago hoping for a more successful outcome this time around. The walk down to Ta Nung was a hive of activity as the flowering lianas drew bulbuls, sunbirds, Mugimaki Flycatcher and Rufous-backed Sibia to a feeding party. Walking back and forth along the forest edge eventually did the trick as the distant calls of a party of Grey-crowned Crocia soon became louder and louder until three birds flew overhead and clambered to the top of a roadside tree allowing for fantastic scope views of the three Crocias as they sat seemingly star-struck for over ten minutes, superb views and handshakes all round!
With another morning still planned at Ta Nung we revisited the same spot, a beautiful morning in the valley gave us some enjoyable birding with birds flying down from the forest to feed on the flowering bushes and lianas. Some of the highlights included Grey-cheeked Warbler, Rufous-capped Babbler, Gould’s Sunbird, Grey-crowned Tit, Annam Barbet and great views of a single Red-vented Barbet and the star of the show was the surprise of three Orange-breasted Laughingthrushes crossing the track, fortunately the last bird being hesitant enough to wait to cross the road and flashing itself in the mid-morning sun.
Flushed with our success around Dalat we started heading back west, stopping at Deo Nui San, a beautiful forested pass towards the coast. We spend the afternoon and the following morning here, birding predominantly along the road feeling relieved that the Orange-breasted Laughingthrushes had performed so well at Ta Nung as we only managed glimpses of them here. Two other laughingthrushes certainly forgot about their skulking nature momentarily as a Black-hooded sat out in the open and one roadside bush seemed to be dripping White-cheeked Laughingthrushes, with a flock of over 40 being a notable highlight. Two other reasons for visiting this area produced mixed results; scope views of a Black-crowned Parrotbill - a recent split from the more widespread Grey-headed Parrotbill - was fantastic but despite hearing a couple of Blue Pitta they frustrated us by refusing to come near to the road. Several feeding flocks contained the usual suspects and the large number made for some enjoyable birding. One of our final birds of the area before driving back to connect with our evening flight was a personal favourite, Indochinese Green Magpie as one raucously flew back and forth around us, the field guide certainly doesn’t do this bird any justice… shouldn’t that be Indochinese Yellow Magpie!!
Leaving Saigon we flew northeast to the coastal city of DaNang, made famous during the American War as an American seaport. Our first port of call were the Central Highlands of Kon Tum province, an area only explored by western ornithologists as recently as the late nineties. The original expedition to the area produced two babblers new to science along with a whole host of new subspecies. Unfortunately much of the area is still out-of-bounds but at least one accessible pocket of forest is just high enough to hold one of the new species; the Black-crowned Barwing. Arriving in the mid-morning the weather didn’t look promising with thick mist swirling around us in the often gale-force winds and occasional sprinkling of rain. An hour trampling around vegetable gardens and rice paddies getting our walking boots muddy eventually produced a brief snatch of noise from some nearby bushes revealed the presence of a splendid pair of barwings. It took some time coaxing them out as they flitted from bush to bush unable to show themselves in the heavy gusts of wind. After their attempts at hide and seek the winds calmed long enough for these most beautiful barwings to perch side by side and produce their characteristic head-bobbing display as they duetted just metres away allowing walkaway views, success!
With these under our belt before lunchtime we headed for some higher forest patches along the quickly improving roads in the area. Our second target flew into view even before we reached the forest as a small feeding flock passing through a couple of lone trees contained Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike, Yellow-cheeked Tit then a fine pair of Yellow-billed Nuthatch, a welcome relief after missing these increasingly difficult birds around Dalat. Carrying on up the road a raucous flock of White-winged Magpie flew into view but as they did the mist caved in and we could no longer see the magpies despite them seemingly sitting on bare branches nearby! We would hear and glimpse many more of this range-restricted species over the course of the afternoon. Of particular interest in this area are the many new subspecies discovered within the last 12 years and we managed to find a couple of particularly interesting ones during the early afternoon including pairs of dickinsoni Coral-billed Scimitar-Babbler and kingi Black-headed Sibia showing themselves nicely. Large feeding flocks whizzed through in the increasingly cold weather pushed down from China, the dominant species unsurprisingly involved ‘Indochinese’ Fulvetta, Indochinese Yuhina, Red-tailed and Blue-winged Minla, White-bellied Erpornis, Grey-chinned Minivet and Silver-eared Mesia, these splashes of colour were occasionally enhanced by the presence of White-browed Shrike-babbler, Grey-crowned Tit, Green-tailed Sunbird, Grey-cheeked Warblers and another Yellow-billed Nuthatch. A party of three Black-crowned Barwings were also watched at length as they munched on some tasty roadside berries at the pass, an appropriate time to turn round and call time on another excellent day.
A long drive north into Quang Binh Province eventually saw us enter the Truong Son mountain range, a small but spectacular range formed of tall limestone karst in this still little-known region. With a couple hours of daylight left we entered Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in the gathering gloom but with bird activity surprisingly high, a flock of Ratchet-tailed Treepie proved unusually co-operative, large numbers of Japanese Thrushes busily fed along the forest trail with a single Orange-headed Thrush glowing in the late afternoon mist along with a fine group of female Siamese Firebacks led by a resplendent male as they slowly sauntered through the recently cut understory. The following morning started with a dash to an area of the park that quickly fills with tourists as the caves and grottos here are famous for the stalactites and stalagmites. With an hour before the tourists arrived we upped our pace along the steep steps, a Rufous-tailed Robin (the first of ten confiding individuals!) slowed our pace momentarily which was lucky as quiet chirping emanating from the dark understory revealed some dark shapes jumping around the limestone and vines before one flew and landed actually on the steps – Sooty Babblers! This small party of six birds was the first of a further three groups numbering up to 26 birds in total, a real result and plenty of excellent, close views of these slow moving babblers as they fed actually on the limestone, bamboo and curling vines. We managed a single feeding flock just before the crowds arrived; Pin-striped Tit-Babblers and Black-browed Fulvetta predominated but a single Great Iora and Asian Stubtail were surprises, the flock played great importance as a ‘Sulphur-breasted’ Warbler was found feeding with them. After some persuasion the bird burst into full song revealing it to be the as yet undescribed form restricted to the limestone karst of this area, provisionally named ‘Limestone Leaf-Warbler’.
Our final destination was a single night at Bach Ma National Park, once again the weather reduced our birding and we didn’t really get to go out until mid-morning the following day as our hunt for Hodgson’s Frogmouth was ‘fogged out’. The mist was still heavy as we wandered along a forested trail in the lowlands. Wondering if we could manage a full morning without seeing (or even hearing) a bird. We eventually picked our way through the silhouettes, first a lovely pair of confiding Rufous-throated Fulvetta then a pair of Red-headed Trogon and more Ratchet-tailed Treepies. Hesitantly we headed back to the higher reaches of the park only to be teased by the weather as the mist came and went, a glimmer of sun revealed a smart pair of black-crested gayeti Sultan Tits, White-gorgetted Flycatcher - a little gem, White-browed Scimitar-Babbler, Fork-tailed Sunbird and finally the star of the park a Short-tailed Scimitar-babbler busy tossing leaves off the forest floor, a nice way to finish off this successful week-long hunt for some of Vietnams hardest near-endemics.
Black-crowned Barwing, LoXo Pass & Grey-crowned Crocia, Ta Nung © James Eaton / Birdtour Asia
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