Khao Yai National Park, Nakorn Ratchasima; Birdwatching in Thailand

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Khao Yai National Park

Introduction

Khao Yai National Park was the first to be established in 1962 and has been nominated as a World Heritage site, both of which give a strong hint as to the quality of this location, and at 2168 square kilometres this park is also one of the largest in Thailand.

Seasonal evergreen forest is the dominant habitat type here but there are also areas of hill evergreen forest at higher altitudes and expanses of grassland, particularly near headquarters. An extensive system of trails means that there is plenty of opportunity to explore these wonderful forests and view the wildlife. These trails were originally elephant tracks, and Khao Yai remains one of the best places in South-East Asia to see these fantastic animals and with such an extensive area of quality habitat a huge number of excellent bird species can be found too. To fully appreciate the birdlife here at least two or three days should be spent exploring.

Old Golf Course, Khao Yai National Park
(Photo by Nick Upton)

On the down side, this National Park is extremely popular and gets ridiculously busy at weekends and holidays; camping during these times can be a fairly unpleasant experience so visits should be timed to avoid these. It is also a sad fact that there nearly always seems to be some development project threatening the quality of this location, in the past these have included a perimeter road, dams and, frequently, tourist development.

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Birding Highlights

Eared Pitta
(Photo by Suppalak Klabdee)

There are so many great birds to see in Khao Yai that each birder will have his or her own highlights. However, there are some birds that stand out above others. Few sightings can be as memorable as that of a Hornbill, and Khao Yai is an excellent place to see these birds. Great, Oriental Pied and Wreathed Hornbills are abundant and easily seen, and Brown Hornbills can be found too.

Ground dwelling birds are well represented at Khao Yai and at few places are they more easily found. Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo, Silver and Siamese Fireback Pheasants are often seen on the trails or attracted to stake-outs.

The fabulous Blue Pitta is regularly seen at this location and increasingly Eared Pitta is sighted; a bird seldom encountered outside of Khao Yai.

Many other amazing birds can be seen during any 2-3 day visit to Khao Yai; Long-tailed Broadbill is straight out of a Disney movie, Slaty-backed Forktail haunts the streams, Orange-breasted and Red-headed Trogons lurk in the mid-storey and Nightjars are frequent at dusk and dawn over open areas.

Any birding trip to Khao Yai is bound to bring a number of sightings of mammals too. Sambar deer and Muntjac are often seen and one can hardly miss the Pig-tailed Macaques on the road. One of the most enigmatic mammals likely to be seen is the White-handed or Lar Gibbon which noisily sing in the mornings. Other frequently seen mammals include Asian Elephant, Dhole, Variable Squirrel and Malayan Sun Bear. Less frequently seen, but present, are Gaur, Clouded Leopard and Tiger (only a few left).

Siamese Fireback Pheasant
(Photo by Suppalak Klabdee)

Click here for a checklist of the birds of Khao Yai National Park

Bird Tours : Check the suggested itineraries for ideas on creating a tailor-made birdwatching trip to Thailand: Thailand bird tours.

Travel Information

Khao Yai is quite easy to get to by public transport. The first step is to get to Pak Chong; any bus from Mor Chit bus station, in Bangkok, to Nakorn Ratchasima (Khorat) will stop in this town. Equally, any bus doing the opposite journey stops here too. Alternatively, Pak Chong can be reached by train from Bangkok, but this is a very slow and dusty journey.

From Pak Chong bus station a short walk to the songthaew to Khao Yai follows. Walk from the bus station to the main road and turn right, after c300 metres a 7/11 store can be seen on the opposite side of the road. This is where the songtaew waits to go to the National Park entrance, about 30 km away. From here one must hitch-hike, which is very easily done; sometimes the staff at the gate will ask passing motorists to take you. If not, simply walk along the road, but do not use your thumb to hitch-hike, instead wave your hand in a downward, slow-down sort of motion and usually the first vehicle with any space will stop for you.

If driving from Bangkok, take the northbound highway and at Saraburi turn towards Nakorn Ratchasima - please drive with caution as this stretch of road is considered the most dangerous in Thailand with frequent accidents, be aware of very slow moving trucks crawling 3 abreast uphill. Shortly before Pak Chong there are signposts for Khao Yai National Park in English. If driving, the journey will take about 3 hours from central Bangkok, if taking public transport then 5 hours is more realistic.

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Finding Birds

Khao Yai has one of the most well-developed trail systems of any National Park in Thailand, so birders need not struggle to get into decent habitat. Even if on foot there are a lot of trails close to park accommodation, whether you decide to stay in a park bungalow or campsite. Bird waves seem frequent in the forest here so be prepared to see a lot of species; of course some species require more expertise to find than others, but even some of the specialities here can be seen without any special effort.

The mixture of forest and grassland allows birders to see a lot of different species, with some of the higher elevations good places for raptor watching.

Many people come to Khao Yai to see Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo which turns up at a number of stakeouts and I have often bumped into it on the trails.

Siamese Fireback Pheasant is also a highly sought-after species and often appear on the roads shortly after dawn or before dusk. I have had many close encounters with this species on trail B where it seems to forms parties with Silver Pheasant.

Details of some of the best birding spots follow. I have abandoned the system of numbers allotted to trails as they seem to keep changing.

Khao Khieo Access Road : This has been a favourite spot over the years to find Pheasants in the morning but appears to be becoming less reliable. I personally have rarely visited this area of the park having regularly seen both Silver and Siamese Fireback Pheasants elsewhere but the area towards the top of the road certainly contains some higher altitude species not found in other parts of Khao Yai, such as White-browed Shrike Babbler and Wreathed Hornbill is fairly regular along this road.

TAT Pond : This sizeable pond is quite a good place to sit under a shady tree in the midday heat and watch birds come down to drink; mammals such as Barking Deer are often around here also. This spot has been reliable for Needletail Swifts for a long time now and all three Thai species have been seen here over the last few years. Brown-backed Needletail is the most common and likely to be seen, but Silver-backed is fairly regular with White-throated being the most uncommon. The open country around this pond is home to Plain-backed Sparrows (a species that no guide book seems to do justice to) and Australasian Bushlark whilst in the patches of forest it is easy to get good views of Oriental Pied Hornbill.

Trail A : Starting at Pa Gluay Mai campsite and ending at Haew Suwat waterfall this 4 Km trail goes through some of Khao Yai's most picturesque forest. Throughout the length of the river along this trail Slaty-backed Forktail is likely to be encountered as are many other species. Abbott's Babbler and Radde's Warbler are common residents of the lower shrub layer, Lesser Necklaced, White-crested and Black-throated Laughingthrushes are regular in the mid-storey and this river valley is an excellent place to see all four species of Hornbill in the canopy. I have come across Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo along this trail many times. Put quite simply, the number and variety of species one can see along this trail makes it worth including on any visit. Additionally, some excellent views over the forest can be had from the top of the waterfall about halfway along this trail.

It's also worth watching out for Gibbons, Water Monitors, Otters and 2 introduced hybrid crocodiles along the river here.

Slaty-backed Forktail
(Photo by Suppalak Klabdee)

Trail B : This trail starts a little uphill and opposite the Park HQ and can be followed to the wildlife watchtower or to Wang Jumpee car park. This is one of the most productive birding trails and the one most frequented by birders searching for ground dwelling birds; there are a number of damp gullies and rocky ditches along here that harbour White-crowned Forktail, Blue Pitta and even Eared Pitta. Once again there are a huge number of species that live along this trail, although they can be a little harder to find than along trail A. Both Orange-breasted and Red-headed Trogons are common sights here and this is a good trail to listen out for Banded Kingfisher. I have seen both Silver and Siamese Fireback Pheasants along the first few kilometres of this trail in the company of Scaly-breasted Partridge on many occasions and was lucky enough to see one male Siamese Fireback performing a wing-beating display for two females only a few metres away in 2004. Given that the road to Khao Khieo is not as reliable for these species as it once was, this is probably the best place to look for them.

Trail C : I have never walked this trail, but I include it as it follows the path of a river through the forest and as such probably has the potential to reveal many species. I know that many years ago Malayan Night Heron was seen along here so it might be worth taking a look if you have the time.

Great Hornbill
(Photos by Peter Ericsson)

Pa Gluay Mai Campsite : Many birders simply sit in this campsite and wait for the birds to come to them and many wonderful species can be seen in this way. A large fruiting tree in the centre of the campsite can be particularly productive with Blue-eared, Moustached and Green-eared Barbets very numerous along with Hill and Golden-crested Mynas. A well-known stakeout behind the restaurant is visited by some of the stars of Khao Yai: Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo, Orange-headed Thrush, Large Scimitar Babbler, Siberian Blue Robin and even Japanese Thrush, although the latter is extremely rare and not an annual visitor. In the evening listen out for the call of Great Eared Nightjar (Pit Pee-weeoow) which can be seen by walking up and down the road to get the best vantage point over the forest.

Old Golf Course and New Campsite : These areas are characterised by open grassland and small stands of forest and is a good place to watch for birds as they fly between trees, with Woodpeckers (especially Rufous Woodpecker) and Barbets being particularly in evidence here. Oriental Pied Hornbills are very easily seen in this area; they can be heard from some distance and approached for good views. At dawn and dusk Nightjars hunt in these areas; I have seen Large-tailed and Grey Nightjars on many occasions here

Wildlife Watchtower : There is a car park at the head of the trail to this watchtower and it can get very busy so it is advisable to get here early. Open-country birds are easily found here with Bright-capped Cisticola one of the nicest; listen out for its strange call which sounds a bit like an exaggerated kiss. Chestnut-headed Bee-eater can usually be seen along here as can Siberian Stonechat, Rufescent and Grey-breasted Prinias and Pied Bushchat whilst Brown-backed Needletails often hawk for insects over the pond. On one occasion I saw Stork-billed Kingfisher in the reeds here and even a Little Grebe which was a bit strange in this location. In the forest behind the pond Great and Wreathed Hornbills can often be seen flying from tree to tree with the Great Hornbills deep "Gok Gok" call an atmospheric sound.

The main attraction to this pond and salt lick is to see large mammals and indeed once, at about 7.30 am, David Lewis and I watched a group of seven Dholes chase a large male Sambar into the water. Others have seen Asian Elephant and even tiger (very rare!) here whilst Water Monitors are a common sight.

Mo Sing To Reservoir : Red-wattled Lapwing and Red Junglefowl can often be seen feeding on the far side of this small reservoir and the occasional migrating wader finds itself here; I've found Pintail Snipe on a couple of occasions. Plenty of open country birds can be seen around here and in the evening hornbills can be seen in the distance from here as they come to roost. The trail that runs uphill as a continuation of the track across the small dam is a well-known hotspot for Eared Pitta, but please be as unobtrusive as possible here as the area is frequently used as an ornithological study area. Plain-backed Sparrows seem to nest in the checkpoint barrier close to Mo Sing To.

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Facilities

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Khao Yai is a well-visited National Park and the amount and range of accommodation reflects this. A number of backpackers stay in a hostel in Pak Chong which arranges trips into Khao Yai, but this is not a good way to see many birds. Many people with their own transport prefer to stay in one of the numerous resorts which line the road from Pak Chong to Khao Yai National Park. These are more expensive than accommodation inside the park, but are certainly more comfortable, although staying here means driving into the National Park every morning. The Juldis Khao Yai Resort seems to be fairly popular with birders and has the added bonus of being the home to a flock of Red-breasted Parakeets. The Duangporn Resort is also a pleasant place to stay at very reasonable prices - unfortunately their sign is only in Thai.

I have always favoured staying within the National Park so that I can start birding as soon as I get up and there are a number of options here.

There are quite a number of bungalows for rent here, most of which cater for huge parties, but there are a few for 2 people at 800 baht per night. I won't list them all here as there are too many and few birders choose to stay in them. In the past it was possible to stay in some dormitories, but the last time I visited these were closed to most visitors. The situation here changes frequently, so it is worth asking if this option is available.

Many bird watchers (including myself) usually stay at Pa Gluay Mai campsite which is an excellent location to see birds as well as being at the head of one of the best birding trails. Here, tents and bedding can be hired or erect your own tent for a small fee. Laem Ta Kong Campsite has the same facilities and is bigger than Pa Gluay Mai; it is also easy to walk to the old HQ area from here (3-4 Kms).

Both campsites have restaurants which are open to about 8 o'clock and serve decent food. In addition, Pa Gluay Mai campsite has a souvenir shop which sells snacks and has a drinks stall outside. Behind the food shop at Pa Gluai Mai is the famous bird stakeout which can be observed from the right hand side of the restaurant.

At the old HQ area is a new restaurant which overlooks the stream and is open to at least 8 pm, possibly later when busy. Here food must be ordered from stalls at the rear and will be brought to your table but drinks must be purchased from another stall which is self-service. This new restaurant is big and flashy but I don't like it as much as the old one which is now redundant.

At old HQ there is also an exhibition centre and a small and seldom-used library which can be used to look up any sightings you may have made.

Alcohol isn't for sale in the National Park, but can be brought in, a situation which seems to constantly change.

Outside of the park any of the resorts can be visited for food, and a number of restaurants and small stores exist. There are a few places along the Khao Yai-Pak Chong Road which serve steaks and other Western food for those that have tired of rice and noodles.

Park entrance fee for foreigners is 400 baht from 15 September 2006, and staff now charge the fee every day of entry - this is an expense which can mount up!.