Woodpeckers

Monday spent the full day birding at Mae Ping National Park, mostly along the road to the Tung Kik campsite and track beyond, the park was very quiet, seeing only about four people all day. The rarest bird was a Black Stork  over forest viewable form the campsite. As always though the star birds were the woodpeckers, with seven species noted, including 5 Grey-capped Pygmy, 3 Greater Yellownape, 15 Black-headed (with many more heard), 4 Common Flameback, 1 Rufous Woodpecker, 11 Great-slaty (in three groups) and 2 White-bellied Woodpecker. The Great-slaty Woodpecker were especially impressive showing throughout the day at the kilometer 2 roadside marker, with four species feeding together at kilometer 4. 

White-bellied Woodpecker
by Fred Rowe

It was also nice to see a Chinese Francolin feeding out in the open at the campsite, normally this species is heard but not seen, eventually it realized it was being watched and soon disappeared. Several groups of Yellow-footed Green Pigeon were fluhed from roadside trees and from the camp ground. Other lowland forest species noted included at least 40 Grey-headed Parakeet, an Oriental Turtle Dove, Burmese Shrike, 3 Rufous Treepie, 11 Red-billed Blue Magpie, 40 White-crowned Laughingthrush, 3 Burmese Nuthatch and 3 Yellow-streaked Warbler. The list of other species was typically poor, but did include very large numbers of wintering Yellow-browed and Two-barred Warbler, Black-naped Monarch and Taiga Flycatcher.  

Red-billed Blue Magpie
by Fred Rowe