Birds of Thailand

Discussion on science, nature and technology across the globe.
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Super Joe
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Re: Birds of Thailand

Post by Super Joe »

Vital Spark wrote:What a beautiful little bird SJ - and a pretty good photograph. I've never seen one of these in Thailand.

I've just consulted my 'bird bible' and found out that the Mangrove Pitta looks very similar to the Blue-winged Pitta. It's more likely to be the Blue-winged Pitta as Hua Hin is on their migratory route, and, apparently, they are common in the wet season. Sort of fits in. The Mangrove Pitta is far less common and tends to restrict itself to mangroves.

VS
Thanks for taking the time VS, and as D-M said... well spotted!!

'Mangrove' sounds sooo much more exotic, but 'blue-winged' she/he was :cry:

:cheers:
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Frank Hovis
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Re: Birds of Thailand

Post by Frank Hovis »

Treepies?

I've seen some Grey Treepies about, not often but a few, however this past week there's been a Rufous Treepie in the garden, first time I've seen one. Anyone else have any info on whether the Grey or the Rufous is more likely in the HH area.

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Grey
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Rufous
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christopher1
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Re: Birds of Thailand

Post by christopher1 »

This is a Green Billed Malkoha. A non-parasitic cuckoo.
It flew into my window. Still visits and now sits in the tree.
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Vital Spark
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Re: Birds of Thailand

Post by Vital Spark »

He really is a handsome fella, and I never actually seen one in Thailand although, according to my bird bible they're quite common. The photo in my book shows an incredibly long tail, which is just visible in your photo.

Our bird bath outside our office window at home hasn't been used for a month or so, due to the cooler weather, but as we haven't had rain for a while we're getting some visitors again. Each bird has it's own kind of style for bathing: the bulbuls jump with great gusto (and a 'plop'), and spend a bit of time just sitting in the water; the fantails skip for ages around the edges then dip in and out in a twitchy kind of way; and the damn pigeons just have a drink, then turn around and poo in the water :cuss:

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Re: Birds of Thailand

Post by christopher1 »

Long tail.
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Big Boy
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Re: Birds of Thailand

Post by Big Boy »

We had a beautifully marked bird flying around our house a couple of days ago. It looked like a crow from underneath, but on the tops of each wing there was a thick diagonal bright blue stripe.

It might not sound that much, but it looked really good.

Anybody know what it was?
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barrys
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Re: Birds of Thailand

Post by barrys »

Big Boy wrote:We had a beautifully marked bird flying around our house a couple of days ago. It looked like a crow from underneath, but on the tops of each wing there was a thick diagonal bright blue stripe. Anybody know what it was?

Hi BB,

Probably one of these - there relatively common around here
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Big Boy
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Re: Birds of Thailand

Post by Big Boy »

Thanks barrys. Certainly the colourings are right. Is it about the size of a crow?
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Frank Hovis
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Re: Birds of Thailand

Post by Frank Hovis »

I've never seen a Fairy Bluebird here but... there are no shortage of Indian Rollers, between Jackdaw and Crow sized.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Roller
They don't usually look as brightly coloured as in the Wiki photos, until they fly off.
Wikipedia says they are not migratory but we definitely get more in the winter, usually arriving when the swallows do.
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Re: Birds of Thailand

Post by Big Boy »

It might have been a trick of the light, but the underside of the bird we had here looked black.
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Re: Birds of Thailand

Post by Frank Hovis »

I would say the Indian Rollers do look much darker than the Wiki photos suggest, especially from below when they are lit from above by the sun, but when they fly the blue on the wings is very prominent.
They make a fairly crow like sound too, a very harsh, loud, 'krawnk'.
I usually see them sitting on electricity wires or poles, rarely in trees.
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Re: Birds of Thailand

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I've discovered what fecal sacks are. :shock: :roll: I saw it on Discovery a few nights ago and sure enough the chicks of birds nesting in our sala are producing them on a regular basis. Nature's mechanism to keep nests clean I guess. The birds nesting are those black/white bobbing tail birds we talked about at the beginning of the thread. The only problem is that a parent bird picks them up, flies out of the nest and without fail drops them in our pool. I have them floating and submerged. :cuss: It is a good signal though that chicks have hatched....now I have to keep the damn squirrels from eating them. Pete :cheers:
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Re: Birds of Thailand

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A negative post unfortunately in our bird watching thread. It seems that the rats of the air have been replaced by another group of rats of the air. :shock: If I'm not mistaken Australia has had a bounty on common mynahs for many years. Pete :cheers:


Surin strikes a mynah problem

Published: 2 May 2013 at 18.11
Online news: Local News

SURIN: Thousands of mynah birds have taken up residence in the province's Muang district, making life difficult for people living and working in the area.

At the fresh market in the town, the birds come to life at around 4am when they leave to scavenge for food in a noisy mass exocus and return to the same place in the evening at around 7pm.

Many traders in the market say they are used to the noise but there is a serious concern about hygienic from bird droppings on wires, streets, buildings and vehicles. The situation has occurred at this time of year for about three years and the residents have demanded the municipality take action to control the birds and clean the area more often.

Smarn Wangkahad, 51, a watch repairer working in front of the Surin municipality market, said there had been pigeons in the past but the number was not as many as now. Mynahs began to replace the pigeons a few years ago and are disturbing the normal life of many people in the area. Some house owners have put up nets to stop the birds from flying into their properties. Some had also hung CDs or buckets around their windows in the hope that would scare the birds away. However, these methods seem to yield little result as the birds come back every night.

Prasertsak Sanpechudayan, the provincial livestock official for Surin, said mynah droppings contain no germs or disease. The mynahs bring only the annoyance factor from noise and dirtiness. However, the office will work with the municipality to solve the problem.

Pornchai Mungcharoenporn, deputy mayor of Muang Surin municipality, said the administration will try to find a solution to the situation. In the initial stage, the municipality will clean the area every month to prevent the spread of disease.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/3 ... ah-problem
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PeteC
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Re: Birds of Thailand

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A related story about Mr. and Mr's Mynah. At the moment we have 10 banana plants all in fruit. I have to harvest them about every two weeks in succession. Thai type small bananas, with 30-40 per stalk. We are awash in bananas! I set them out on cardboard near the house to let them ripen to full yellow, and cut the bunches off to give to neighbors and anyone who wants them.

No problems with birds at all until the first banana on the bottom starts to turn yellow, then they are attacked relentlessly by the Mynah family! :shock:

The moral of the story: Mynah birds are not colour blind! :laugh: Pete :cheers:
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Re: Birds of Thailand

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To my amazement had a fledgling of the above show up yesterday morning :shock: , about half the size as in the photo. First time I've ever seen an owl in Thailand let alone have one on the property.

I was sitting on the deck and it landed right on the rain gutter of the sala across the walkway.....followed by 2 yacking mynahs trying to kill it. Probably rightfully so as the owl will eat the mynah young in due course. Took a few minutes but got the mynahs off of it and chased away, and by that time the owl was down hiding inside the rain gutter. Got the step ladder and put on the canvas/rawhide gloves and it wasn't timid at all. It almost let me pick it up but then flew off, almost landing in the pool, but made it successfully to the edge of the property and into a palm tree and some brush. It wasn't there an hour later so hopefully it made it away ok.

It's really nice to see more birds and different varieties of birds showing up here. :D Pete :cheers:
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