Bird watching in Lumphini Park, Bangkok, Thailand - Thailand bird watching trip report

OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page.

Jiffy (also jiff)

noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.

So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.

So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!

Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas

Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!

Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!

Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra

Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!

คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next” ข้างบนนี้

Вы говорите по-русски? Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!

E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.

August 2020

Introduction

Lumphini is a park in the central Bangkok and it is close to where I live. I decided to go look for birds in the Lumphini Park, never seen any excitements in the park. The only reason for me to go there is because of the “Egret Tree” I discovered there. A tree full of nesting Little Egrets and that was interesting to see.

But otherwise not much birds, but it is kind of nice to walk around in the park.

To skip the information and to go straight to the TRIP REPORT click HERE

Guide

I usually don't use any bird watching Guide in / around Bangkok. But could be a good idea to have a Guide to help me identify all the birds I see. As it is now my eBird checklists are not very impressive as I can only ID half of the birds I see

Land transportation

You have the Sala Daeng sky train station and the Si Lom subway station at the SW corner of the park.

Taxi is a very convenient way of getting to the Lumphini Park. Lumphini can be a bit hard for some of the drivers to understand. So show this Thai Script:
Lumphini Park สวนลุมพินี

Address:

Rama IV Rd, Lumphini, Pathum Wan District, Bangkok 10330

ถนนพระรามที่ ๔ แขวง ลุมพินี เขตปทุมวัน กรุงเทพมหานคร 10330

Openin Times:
04:30 - 21:00

Equipment

Canon 5D Mk. III + Canon 5D Mk. IV
Canon EF 28-300/3,5-5,6 L IS USM
Canon EF 70-200/2,8L IS II USM
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens
Canon Speedlite 600EXII-RT flash
Canon PowerShot G7X Mark II
Panasonic HC-W585 video camera

Sound recorder
ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder

Binocular
Steiner Skyhawk 8x32 (Since May 2020)

Weather / climate

Weather, I don´t know if Bangkok is the hottest capital in the world. But this is what they say and I have no reason to doubt this information because it is darn hot.

Bangkok, Thailand - Climate & Temperature

Pictures from www.climatemps.com

Bangkok, Thailand - Climate & Temperature - Click picture for full size

Pictures from www.climatemps.com

References/Resources

Thai National Parks - About the National Parks in Thailand A very good web page - Do you know that there are still wild tigers, elephants, leopards, tapirs, gaurs, bears and many monkey species in many tropical rainforests across Thailand? Do you also know that around 10% of all marine species in the world can be found in Thailand? And the fact that Thailand is the best bird-watching destination in mainland Asia?

National parks are protected areas of land because they have unspoilt landscapes and a diverse number of native plants and animals. There are 127 national parks in Thailand, of them 22 marine national parks. These parks offers a diverse range of flora and fauna, home to important population of endangered species. So now it will be easy to find out if there are any National Park close to you.

Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) - The Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) is one of the oldest

Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST)

organisations conserving birds and nature in Thailand and is the country partner of BirdLife International. BCST's role to the local community is to spread awareness about urban birds and reconnect people back to nature.

The Logo
Dated back to 1986 when BCST was then a loosely-formed “Bangkok Birdwatching Club”, the Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis), or “Nok Gang Ken Baan” in Thai, has been chosen to represent the organisation.

There are two sites covering Thailand and I have used them many times. These two web pages are actually everything you need for your birding adventures in Thailand. All the information you need about all the birding spots. Click on the map and then select your spot and you will have maps and everything you need to know about the areas. They have put a lot of jobs in to their web pages, North Thailand Birding and thaibirding.com A must to visit before you go bird watching in Thailand.

www.norththailandbirding.com - A one stop only for all your birding in Thailand

thaibirding.com - Nick Upton's one stop only for all your birding in Thailand.

Use both www.thaibirding.com and www.norththailandbirding.com and you have a winner. Some of the maps on www.norththailandbirding.com are way better than Nick Upton´s, while some of Nick's maps are much more detailed. So I have found that if I use both the web pages for information, well, nothing else needed.

PBase/Peter Ericson - Peter Ericson, a guy I thought was from USA because of his family name. I met him at Lat Krabang Paddies in May 2020 and turned out that he was Swedish. Anyway, I have used his excellent page PBase since 2016 as help to ID birds by the help from his beautiful bird pictures.

Here you can also find information about birding tours.

He is also having a Blog - Thaibirds and more with interesting information.

Bangkok City Birding - A lot of interesting birding stories and information on this bird watching blog by David Gandy. Bangkok-based patch-worker in Suan Rot Fai, a large park close to the city's famous weekend market. He have recorded 150 species on his patch since 2008. As one of the only big green spaces in the city, “SRF” acts as a real magnet for migrants during spring and autumn, and holds a healthy selection of "sibes" during the winter months.

ebird - Find birding hotspots with bird checklists from all over the world

Avibase - is an extensive database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 25 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information for 12,000 regions, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages

www.oiseaux.net This web page is also excellent for identifying birds. There is information and range maps for many many birds from all over the world. This page is almost guaranteed to give you any answer you have about any bird in the world.

Cloudbirders - Read birding trip reports from all over the world

Fatbirder - Linking birders worldwide... Wildlife Travellers see their sister site: WAND

Fatbirder is a fantastic web page with information from, I think every country in the world. My first stop when I plan for my bird watching trips. There is information about locations and guides, well, pretty much everything you need to know. Sometimes this is the only place I need to visit to plan my trip.

BirdingPal - find a birding Guide around the world

And the web page you cannot live without. I have been around the world looking for birds. I usually have a Guide, but sometimes it is not possible to find a Guide. So, well, I have lost count on how many times I have had help to ID birds at BirdForum. Joining this forum have been very very good for my bird watching experience.

www.birdforum.net

ClimaTemps.com is the place to learn about the worlds climates with more than 4000 locations documented. Each aspect of the climate is represented using colour enhanced tables and professional graphs so that data can easily be compared by switching between locations in different tabs in your browser.

“A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson”

A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson. New edition updated with 76 species since previous edition “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig” Nick Upton at www.thaibirding.com wrote “This quite excellent book is packed full of quality illustrations and written information on 1251 species recorded in Southeast Asia”

I bought this book for bird watching in Thailand, but it goes for all over SE Asia

I have been very happy with the “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson” But I had a fire in my condo 2019 and I needed to buy a new book. I was looking for the “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson” as I liked the book. But this book is not available anymore so I had to buy the “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand” by Craig Robson.

What a disappointment this was, using the pictures in the book didn't helped to ID any birds.

“Birds of Thailand” by Uthai Treesuconand Wich'yanan Limparungpatthanakij

I met Peter Ericson, a famous bird watcher and he recommended the “Birds of Thailand” by Uthai Treesuconand Wich'yanan Limparungpatthanakij. I bought the book as soon as the book stores opened after the Wuhan virus. And I am very happy with the book and I have managed to ID some birds using the book.

This new field guide will help you identify all 1049 species to have been recorded in the country to date, including the 20 species endemic or near-endemic to Thailand.

-Taxonomy follows the HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World.

-Detailed texts covering status, habitat and behaviour, age, sex and geographical variation, voice, and confusion species.

-Almost 2200 illustrations covering all species and distinctive subspecies, birds in flight, males and females, juveniles and non-breeding plumages, where appropriate.

-QR code for each species, linking to the Internet Bird Collection gallery of photos, videos and sounds.

-More than 1025 full-colour range maps for all species other than vagrants.

-Well-marked subspecies groups receive full accounts, and the distributions of subspecies breeding in the region are clearly mapped.

-Local species name and local conservation status included.

I like the book, but I miss the picture index.

Places to visit

Lumpini Park

Lumphini Park (also Lumpini or Lumpinee, Thai: สวนลุมพินี) is a 360 rai (57.6-hectare (142-acre)) park in Bangkok, Thailand. The park offers rare open public space, trees, and playgrounds in the Thai capital and contains an artificial lake where visitors can rent boats. Paths around the park totalling approximately 2.5 km in length are a popular area for morning and evening joggers. Officially, cycling is only permitted during the day between the times of 10:00 to 15:00. There is a smoking ban throughout the park. Dogs are not allowed.

History
Lumphini Park was created in the 1920s by King Rama VI on royal property. This place was a museum, where many products and natural resources were shown, then after World War I, it was rebuilt into the first park in Bangkok.

In World War II the park was a Japanese Army camp. A statue of the king stands at the southwest entrance to the park. It was named after Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha in Nepal, and at the time of its creation stood on the outskirts of the city. Today it lies in the heart of the main business district and is in the Lumphini sub-district, on the north side of Rama IV Road, between Ratchadamri Road and Witthayu Road.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are several gates to the park, at least one on each side of the park, and the main gate is the entrance in the SW corner of the park. You will also see the statue of the King at the main entrance.

Gate #5 just north of the main gate on the west side

The lake in the NW corner of the park

There is a big lake in the NW corner. You are almost guaranteed to see the Little Egret here. If there is a lot of people in the park have a look at the floating machines for moving the water in the lake. You can spot the Little Egret and the Striated Heron fishing from these machines.

There is a lot of Mynas and Feral Pigeons in the park. And you are guaranteed to see Monito Lizards in the park. They are everywhere and they can be really big. The park is famous for all the Monitor Lizards.

Walking south on the west side.
The biking, jogging and walking path goes around the park

One of the things circulating water floating in the lake

Leaving the big multi track to follow the walk paths

Crossing one of the many bridges in the park

Looking towards north over the lake

The wide road / track goes around the park and this is used by joggers and bikers so I don't like it very much as I can run in to someone while walking around looking up the trees. Of course, it is unavoidable to walk on the road at times. But there is a lot of walk paths in the park as well.

Northern part of the CENTRAL part of the park is a little more scrubby and you can see birds there. All the parks in Bangkok are very nice now comparing to a few years ago. Might be my imagination, but I find the bird life to have decreased. But here you have an area that is not maintained as a garden. Here is also a plant nursery in this area.

Plant nursery at Lumphini Park

Birds at the plant nursery

Seems like they are growing water plants at the nursery so they are in basins. So this is an area where you can see herons and egrets fishing in the nursery basins.

Walk south of the nursery and cross the bike/ jogging track. There are a path leading to a bridge across a trench/ ditch. Keep an eye out in the trench for herons and other birds bathing and drinking. Walk along the trench, it is a really nice area of the park. Actually the only area in the park that reminds about wilderness even though it is a very small area.

Walk out on the lawn

Crossing the ditch

Walking along the ditch

I few years ago and I spotted Indian Rollers in this area of the park, but again, that was a long time ago.

Walk along the south side of the park and it is a little garden like with arranged flowers etc. I spotted Olive-backed Sunbirds and I heard Scarlet-backed Flowerpeckers in this area so there are other birds than Mynas and Pigeons in the park.

South side is a little more garden like

Clock tower at the SE corner of the park

Crossing a bridge

SE corner of the park

Entrance at the SE corner of the park

There is another big lake in the SE corner of the Lumphini Park. The two lake sin the park are connected, well, it is one big lake with a river like connection in the centre of the park. There are usually a lot of Asian Openbills around the SE lake. And the shore are a popular place for the Little Egrets to catch fish.

You can hire “PADDLE” ducks in both lakes and I have pondering the idea to rent one to look for birds in the trees along the water. I came up with the idea when I was looking at the nesting egrets. Not any good view from under the tree but it might have been very good from one of the ducks in the water.

Looking west over the SE lake

Ducks for rent

There are water and snacks to be bought all over the park. Restrooms are also located around the park.

Bird checklist

I never use any bird lists, but since I try to make it in to Cloudbirders . A very helpful site when planning your birding trips. But they ask for a bird checklist, and if I use their service, of course I want to contribute as well. My two first bird watching trip reports was rejected by Cloudbirders.

So I started to take ideas from the reports I found on Cloudbirders. So I have started to use bird lists, eBird generate one for me and I can post it on Cloudbirders. I will post my birds on eBird and on my different “BIRDS THAT I HAVE OBSERVED” pages.

Full Thai list updated to the taxonomy, nomenclature and sequence of the IOU/IOC World Bird List. The complete checklist, including Thai names and synonyms, can be downloaded in Excel format - Thailand Bird Checklist. - Version 8.2 (2018) - found at www.norththailandbirding.com

Check lists can come in handy to find out the local name of the bird etc. And Avibase have a list with pictures and sounds, excellent!

So I will post bird checklists here and if my Guides provide me with checklists I will also post them here.

Bangkok Metropolis bird checklist from Avibase, click HERE - eBird version 2018 taxonomy

Avibase is providing you with bird checklists from all over the world. And I´m impressed by their web page. Select country and area and you get the bird checklist. Like the PDF files I got from Avibase on the links above. You also get the checklist with pictures and sounds.

The best part is that you get the local names of the birds and the online checklist gives the names in English plus the language you have selected. But it seems like the PDF cannot handle some alphabet.

For example the Japanese language so it is blank in the PDF checklist. But it worked excellent with Swedish. But you get them in the local language on the online version.

Bird list

I only list birds I have got on picture on my list of OBSERVED BIRDS. But since I started using eBird I have changed a bit. I list all the birds on the eBird checklist. See the DAY TO DAY report in the itinerary below.

And you can visit my list of “ Birds I have seen in Thailand ” ONLY BIRDS I HAVE ON PICTURE.

Trip Report

Thursday 6 August 2020 and I have a shower coming back home from the gym and I am off to Lumphini Park to look for birds. I enter through gate #5, northern gate on the west side of the park. They point a thermometer at me at the gate and I went inside. Straight down to the lake side 40 meters from the gate. On the way from the gate I had already seen many many Large-billed Crows and Pigeons.

Large-billed Crow

I also see one Little Egret sitting on one of the floating machines on the lake. Reaching the other side of the lake and I see a group of crows feeding on something. One Monitor Lizard approached and the crows gave way for the lizard.

I try to sneak up on the lizard and I discovered that it was a dead fish the lizard was feeding on. But the lizard didn't seem too interesting and when the lizard left the crows came back. I must say that I can understand the lizard, the fish looked very dry.

Having a feast on a dead fish

I leave the dead fish behind walking towards east reaching the “unmaintained” area around the nursery. Walking along a small trench, today no birds there, but there are usually some birds to be found if you are lucky to be alone. Enough with one person to walk by before you and the birds are scared.

I see one Asian Openbill and one Little Egret at the nursery already when approaching. There are a few birds that I think are the Streak-eared Bulbul but the birds was moving too quick for a proper ID. Next to the nursery, just across the walk path east of the basins you have more plants. There is also something looking like a garbage dump where they put things from cutting bushes and trees etc. Here I spotted several birds but I could not ID the birds.

Black-collared Starling

Oriental Magpie Robin

Asian Openbill

Little Egret fishing at the nursery

Great Myna

Streak-eared Bulbul

Leaving the nursery area and I walk across the bike track and I am on a small walk path. Crossing a small bridge over a ditch and I flush a Striated Heron while walking along the water.

I think it was the same heron I flushed two times. A small but beautiful area of the park. When I came to Lumphini the first couple of times there was Indian Rollers here, but now I have not seen any in a long time. I left the park on the east side taking a taxi back home and the plan is to be back tomorrow again.

Oriental Magpie Robin

Streak-eared Bulbul

Today's track at Lumphini Park

eBird Report

Lumphini Park, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon [Bangkok], TH Aug 6, 2020 15:11 - 16:29
Protocol: Traveling
1.82 kilometer(s)
14 species

Feral Pigeon 30
Zebra Dove 2
Asian Koel X Heard all over the park
Asian Openbill 1 Feeding at the plant nursery
Little Egret 3 Feeding at the plant nursery
Striated Heron 1
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 1
Large-billed Crow 51
Streak-eared Bulbul 3
Black-collared Starling 3
Common Myna 16
One fight with monitor lizard and the lizard escape. I thought there was food but when I looked there was nothing so the bird was just making trouble

Great Myna 10
Oriental Magpie-Robin 11
Male bird joined by a female on the ground. Male took off and the female followed. Then the male flew up to sit on the wire and was joined by the female a minute later.

The male moved on the wire and the female followed again, yeah, you get the picture. The male flew across the road and the female followed.

Eurasian Tree Sparrow 4

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S72151040

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

Friday 7 August 2020 and it was raining so no bird watching.

Saturday 8 August 2020 and I left for Lumphini Park after my shower and lunch after coming home from the gym. I get off the taxi at gate #5, same gate as yesterday. Today I choose to walk south and follow the south side of the park.

I start by going down to the lake to look for any egrets and herons. But I could not discover any in the lake. But there was plenty crows and pigeons and of course Mynas. I walk south and I pass the bridge looking out over the lake. I discover one Striated Heron sitting on what I believe is a fountain.

Common Myna

Zebra Dove

Striated Heron in the lake
We can also wee one of the rented ducks

Reaching the south end of the park and I buy a bottle of water before continuing along the south side walking towards the east. Leaving the entrance in the SW corner of the park and I am soon running in to a group of Black-collared Starlings. They were making beautiful sounds that I wanted to record, but I gave up the idea as there were many people following the track.

The Oriental Magpie Robin is singing beautifully and I also hear the Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker. I got pictures of an Asian Openbill landing in a palm tree next to me.

Many mynas and crows along the walk and it was kind of boring, nice to walk, but the bird watching boring. Reaching the SE corner of the park and I spotted 2 Olive-backed Sunbirds high up in the trees. Thanks to the colours going down on the breast I could difference the bird from the Brown-throated Sunbird.

Common Myna

Asian Openbill

Not only birds and lizards in the park

Reaching the SE corner of the park and this area is more like a garden than a park. I have 2 Common Mynas moving around

on the lawn and I give them a

dog whistle. I was at least to say surprised when one of the mynas came over and the bird was standing next to my foot.

The myna walked with me, just like a dog, for about 20 meters or so. I sat down on a bench and I tried to get some pictures Yet another Smiley on www.aladdin.st

of the myna. Not all that easy as the bird is jumping around my feet.

I leave the myna behind and I continue along the lake and I discover a Little Egret fishing in the lake. There was 4 Little Egrets around the lake in the SE corner and walking along the canal on the east side of the park when I spot another Little Egret. The Egret is busy fishing and is not really bothered by me taking pictures.

Common Myna

Little Egret looking for fish

Monitor Lizard

Little Egret fishing in the canal

Back at the gate and I sat down on a bench to enjoy the bottle of water I bought on the otherside of the park. There are plenty benches, most of them have not fallen apart so it is easy to find a place to sit down and relax.

I was enjoying the views from the park when I heard some commotion from the rest room across the bike/ jogging track. There was one crow, and the bird was for sure having a lot of attitude.

I was sitting on a bench in Lumphini Park when I heard scream from the toilet. Turned out to be a Large-billed Crow annoying people. They chased the bird and it landed on a bicycle outside the toilet.

They scared away the bird again and it landed on a girl on a bicycle and I managed to get a few bad pictures. Then the bird landed next to me on the bench. Too close for pictures so I took pictures with my phone and then I realized that I could make a video

Large-billed Crow / อีกา landing on a bike

The crow annoying a girl on a bicycle

The crow annoying a girl on a bicycle

The crow annoying a girl on a bicycle

The crow annoying a girl on a bicycle

The crow annoying a girl on a bicycle

The crow annoying a girl on a bicycle

Large-billed Crow / อีกา eating water melon

Large-billed Crow / อีกา eating water melon

Large-billed Crow / อีกา eating water melon

Today's track at Lumphini Park

eBird Report

Lumphini Park, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon [Bangkok], TH Aug 8, 2020 14:54 - 16:27
Protocol: Traveling
2.07 kilometer(s)
14 species (+1 other taxa)

Feral Pigeon 50
Zebra Dove 3
Asian Koel X Heard all over the park
Asian Openbill 1
Little Egret 5
Striated Heron 1
Large-billed Crow 30
I was sitting on a bench in Lumpini park when I heard scream from the toilet. Turned out to be a Large-billed Crow annoying people. They chased the bird and it landed on a bicycle.

They scared away the bird and it landed on a girl on a bicycle and I managed to get a few bad pictures. Then the bird landed next to me on the bench. Too close for pictures so I took pictures with my phone and then I realized that I could make a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jy_WT5oEcM

swallow sp. 2 I cannot ID flying swallows and martins
Black-collared Starling 8
Asian Pied Starling 2
Common Myna 10
One funny bird. I gave the bird a "DOG" whistle and the bird came to me. Then the bird walked with me like a dog for the next 20 meters or so.

Great Myna 9
Oriental Magpie-Robin 6
Olive-backed Sunbird 2
Flying high up in the tree top. ID from the Brown-throated by the colour far way down the breast

Eurasian Tree Sparrow 6

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S72205954

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

Back home and I have booked my taxi for tomorrow. The taxi will pick me up at 06:00 and I will be off to explore some of the eBird hotspots west of Bangkok. Click HERE to find out if I see any birds.

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