The Best of Vietnam Dec 04—22, 2006
Posted by Susan Myers
Susan Myers
Susan Myers absolutely loves birding and traveling in Asia. As she says, "The combination of incredible and diverse wildlife, ancient and fascinating cultures, and the...Related Trips
Highlights of our trip to Vietnam included not only the remarkable birdlife but the fabulous food, varied and exotic culture, terrific people, and general atmosphere?I think we sampled all of these aspects very well. This year we had incredible luck with wonderful weather and the rewards were many!
This comprehensive tour of Vietnam covers a variety of habitats, thus allowing us to observe a range of the Indochinese/Southeast Asian avifauna and other wildlife. The forests of Vietnam have been severely depleted since the end of the war, and in fact are still being heavily exploited, so the birding here can be a challenge at times! That said, I have noticed so much improvement in the last few years it is quite heartening.
We started off at Cat Tien National Park, a few hours drive from Saigon. This large area (80,000 ha) of southern lowland rainforest provided much fascinating birding during our stay. The long jeep drive to Dac Lua gave us many birding opportunities. A full-day walk to Crocodile Lake was not only very pleasant, but we saw some more great birds. Excellent views of Scaly-breasted Partridge and Germain’s Peacock-Pheasant were obtained, as well as a beautiful female Banded Kingfisher, a very entertaining pair of Blue-bearded Bee-eaters, the near-endemic Gray-faced Tit-Babbler?quite common but not easy to see, and, to finish off, an incredible look at the stunning Bar-bellied Pitta. Once at the lake we enjoyed a relaxing lunch and wonderful scenery augmented by Bronze-winged Jacanas, Gray-headed Lapwing, Purple Swamphens, and Plain Prinias. Exploration of the C5 ponds allowed us to enjoy brilliant views of the endangered Green Peafowl, as well as many other wetland species such as Woolly-necked Stork, Painted Stork, Black-capped Kingfisher, and Schrenk’s Bittern?in the only rain of the trip.
Our next destination was the delightful highland town of Da Lat where we enjoyed sumptuous accommodation and truly great birding. We experienced a number of memorable moments here. But en route we birded at the Di Linh Pass with excellent results: Long-tailed Broadbill, many Maroon Orioles, White-cheeked Laughingthrush, and a very brief Vietnamese Greenfinch. A walk up Mount Lang Bian was off to a good start with a pair of Vietnamese Crossbills encountered along the path, followed later by super views of an incredible mixed flock comprising the endemic Vietnamese Cutia and Yellow-billed Nuthatch, and then nothing less than brilliant views of the endemic subspecies of Lesser Shortwing. Later we tracked down a very skulking Collared Laughingthrush, arguably the most beautiful of a very attractive group of birds.
Multiple visits to the delightful Ta Nung Valley never failed to turn up something new, but best of all were Indochinese Green Magpie, Spotted Forktail, the endemic Red-vented Barbet, the high-quality Gray-crowned Crocias, and the Black-hooded Laughingthrush that we so thoroughly deserved!
We had a good morning at Ho Tuyen Lam, catching up with Chestnut-vented Nuthatch, Maroon Oriole, Burmese Shrike, the glorious Mrs. Gould’s Sunbird, Ashy Bulbul, and Eyebrowed Wren-Babbler.
From Da Lat we drove to the seaside town of Nha Trang and then on to Da Nang and Hue in Central Vietnam enjoying some birds and plenty of history and culture along the way. From Hue we headed up to Ha Noi and then drove to Cuc Phuong, Vietnam’s oldest national park. Located in the Red River Delta, the park protects a 22,200 ha area of limestone peaks and evergreen tropical rainforest. Our explorations of the park included a walk through a semi-cleared valley, a longer walk to the 1000 Year Old Tree (Terminalia myriocarpa) through many limestone crags, and exploration of the numerous trails around the headquarters. Simply birding along the park road proved to be most rewarding, however. We racked up a good number of excellent sightings. Of special note were superb and prolonged views of Pied Falconet, scope views of Asian Barred Owlet, Green-eared Barbet, Blue-rumped Pitta, some really lovely Silver-breasted Broadbills, brief views of White-winged Magpie, the rather odd looking Ratchet-tailed Treepie, Fork-tailed Sunbird, Crimson Sunbirds in the headquarters’ gardens, a couple of rather recalcitrant Large Scimitar-Babblers, Sultan Tits, and some super sneaky White-tailed Flycatchers.
From here we struck north for our next destination, Tam Dao. This former French hill station lies north of the capital at an altitude of 930 meters. Again we enjoyed the best weather I have ever experienced here as we basked in bright sunlight but cool days! With this came some wonderful birding moments. Of particular note were stunning Orange-bellied Leafbird, the elusive Gray Laughingthrushes that put on a beautiful show for us, a pair of rare and shy Coral-billed Scimitar-Babblers, and stunning close views of Fujian Niltava.
Returning to Ha Noi we boarded our luxury overnight train to the town of Sa Pa in Vietnam’s far northwest. Our afternoon visit to the Ham Rong Gardens is probably best not mentioned, but we were soon back on track at Fan Si Pan and O Quy Ho with great looks at Little Bunting, hundreds of Brown-breasted Bulbuls, and White-browed Laughingthrush. We found Brownish-flanked Bush-Warbler before heading up to Mount Fan Si Pan, Vietnam’s highest peak. The trails at Hoang Lien Son Forest Reserve enabled us to thoroughly explore this remnant forest. During our stay here we caught up with some wonderful birds including Gray-bellied Tesia, Black-faced Warbler, Red-tailed Minla, Golden Parrotbill, Rufous-winged Fulvetta, Stripe-throated Yuhina, Little Forktail, and a delightful pair of Plumbeous Redstarts. Beautiful Nuthatch was a surprise gob-smacker!
As mentioned above, apart from the terrific birding, I think it is safe to say that other highlights of our trip included the wonderful and varied scenery, the never-ending enterprise that we observed as we sped around the countryside, the sheer variety and deliciousness of Vietnamese beer and wine, the superb food, and above all, the Vietnamese themselves, who were endlessly accommodating and friendly and made our visit such a pleasure.