Story and photos by Dave Williams

Though one of the slowest birding days we've experienced in Phuket, we still did pretty good. The weather was fine and we didn't get any rain all day. We started out in a small park near Thalang Town. This place usually delivers at least an Orange-bellied Flowerpecker, some barbets, sunbirds and a few odd birds. This day however, it was dead calm.

So, we started traveling around the islands, hitting different types of terrain. In the end, we compiled a pretty nice list... thanks mostly to a Blue-winged Pitta in a small non-hunting area just to the north of Thalang. I didn't have my camera at the time, which figures. The pitta was very busy gathering earth worms. At one point, it had four big worms in its mouth... no camera... darn.

Here's a list of the birds we saw in Phuket (favorite birds in bold red):

1. Blue-tailed Bee-eater
2. White-throated Kingfisher
3. Greater Coucal
4. Spotted Dove
5. Purple Swamphen
6. White-breasted Waterhen
7. Red-wattled Lapwing
8. River Lapwing
9. Oriental Pratincole
10. Crested Serpent-Eagle
11. Purple Heron
12. Great Egret
13. Intermediate Egret
14. Blue-winged Pitta
15. House Crow
16. Large-billed Crow
17. Pied Wagtail
18. Oriental Magpie-Robin
19. Asian Glossy Starling
20. Common Myna
21. White-vented Myna
22. Pacific Swallow
23. Forest Wagtail
24. Yellow-vented Bulbul
25. Streak-eared Bulbul
26. Buff-vented Bulbul
27. Dark-necked Tailorbird
28. Striped Tit-Babbler
29. Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
30. Brown-throated Sunbird
31. Little Spiderhunter
32. Scaly-breasted Munia
33. Chestnut Munia
34. Lesser Whistling Duck

Mangrove Walkway in Phang Nga Province

On the drive from Phuket to Krabi, there’s a small mangrove walkway. This area is called Ban Putachat. Every time we've been there recently, we've been treated to close-up encounters with Mangrove Pittas and the uncommon White-chested Babbler. This time was no different, other than the fact that the Mangrove Pitta seems not concerned in the least that we were there... ooo-ing and ahhh-ing. The next day, we headed to Phang Nga Province to get some mountain-top species.

Phang Nga Province birding - July 9th, 2005

1. Mangrove Pitta
2. White-chested Babbler
3. Ashy Tailorbird
4. Streak-eared Bulbul
5. Crimson Sunbird (family – male, female, juvenile)
6. Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
7. Vernal Hanging Parrot
8. Whiskered Treeswift
9. Greater Green Leafbird (M)
10. Blue-winged Leafbird (F)
11. Grey-headed Fish-Eagle
12. Crested Serpent-Eagle
13. Stripe-throated Bulbul
14. Black-headed Bulbul
15. Black-crested Bulbul
16. Plain Sunbird
17. White-rumped Munia
18. Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
19. Fiery Minivet (M &F)
20. Common Tailorbird
21. Streaked Wren-Babbler
22. Short-tailed Babbler

Click here to read a birding trip report from April 2008. Click here to see a Phang Nga Province Image Gallery.