Birding Tour Thailand: Northern Thailand – Spectacular Resident and Migrant Birds

This short tour forms a circuit around northern Thailand, starting and ending in the northern capital city of Chiang Mai. We will commence our experience of northern Thailand birding with a visit to Doi Inthanon, the country’s highest mountain. The unique set of habitats here offers us some excellent birds as well as letting us come to grips with some of the more common northern species. Special birds here may include Rufous-throated Partridge, Mountain Bamboo Partridge, Black-tailed Crake, Spectacled Barwing, Himalayan Bluetail, Himalayan Shortwing, Dark-sided Thrush, White-crowned, Slaty-backed, and Black-backed Forktails, Long-tailed Broadbill, and Red-headed Trogon. The dry, lowland forest at the foot of the mountain can be full of woodpeckers, and the stunning Black-headed Woodpecker is one of the best-looking. Other targets here will include White-rumped Falcon, Red-billed Blue Magpie, and Blossom-headed Parakeet.

The magnificent White-crowned Forktail is one of our targets on this trip.

After our exploration of areas to the southwest of Chiang Mai we will head back north and spend the next few days birding at several mountain sites close to, and sometimes along, the Thai-Myanmar border (e.g. Doi Chiang Dao, Doi Ang Khang, and Doi Lang). These mountains support huge numbers of overwintering migrants from China, such as numerous warblers, flycatchers, chats, thrushes, finches, and buntings, and also some very highly sought resident species like Mrs. Hume’s Pheasant, Hodgson’s Frogmouth, Rusty-naped Pitta, Himalayan Cutia, Scarlet-faced Liocichla, Silver-eared Mesia, Silver-breasted and Long-tailed Broadbills, and the decreasing Giant Nuthatch. Between the mountains here much of the land is farmed for rice, and these rice paddies often also hold exceptional numbers of migrants and a few interesting resident birds, here we will look for Greater Painted-snipe, Siberian Rubythroat, Yellow-breasted Bunting, and Wire-tailed Swallow.

Long-tailed Broadbill— one of two broadbill species we hope to encounter on this tour.

The final stop of this exciting tour will see us visiting the famous Mekong River along the Thai-Myanmar-Laos border, in addition to the nearby Chiang Saen Lake. During our time in this area we hope to find the pretty Small Pratincole and, with luck, the Critically Endangered (BirdLife International) Baer’s Pochard that sometimes overwinters on the vast waterbody of Chiang Saen Lake. Plenty of other overwintering wildfowl species are possible too, and there is occasionally something unexpected floating about on the lake, such as Baikal Teal, Mandarin Duck, or Falcated Duck! The evening here is pretty spectacular too, and we end the tour with a visit to a harrier roost where hundreds of Pied and Eastern Marsh Harriers come into the roost site, giving fantastic views as they drop in overhead as the sun disappears.

This tour visits some stunning scenery and incredibly rich forests, and we will sample some of northern Thailand’s famed, delicious food during our journey. Furthermore, some of the temples that we will drive past while birding are absolutely spectacular and worth spending time to appreciate in their own right. Several sites visited also offer very good photographic opportunities for those with an interest in photographing Asian birds.

This tour can easily be combined with our Central Thailand Birding Tour: Shorebird Spectacle and Jungle Birding, which runs immediately before this one starts, think of mega birds like Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Nordmann’s Greenshank, White-faced Plover, Chinese Egret, Blue Pitta, Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo, Silver Pheasant, and Siamese Fireback etc. for that tour! Our Southern Thailand Birding Tour: Jewels of the South (which features Helmeted Hornbill, White-crowned Hornbill, Scarlet-rumped Trogon, Malayan Banded Pitta, Mangrove Pitta, Green Broadbill, and many more outstanding birds) starts a few days after the conclusion of this northern Thailand tour and thus could also be combined with our other Thailand tours for an exciting and comprehensive Thailand birding adventure.

Rusty-naped Pitta is a difficult species to connect with but one we hope to see during the tour.