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Introduction
During March-April 2005 we spent 2-1/2 weeks birding in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. To reach Bhutan from Los Angeles we had to fly by way of Bangkok, so arranged to have a several day layover in Thailand on either side of our Bhutan flights. Wanting to do some birding but daunted by the idea of hiring a car and trying to find our own way around Bangkok, we contacted Nature Trails, a Thai company that offers a variety of guided 1-3 day short birding breaks in the Bangkok area. We arranged for them to take us to Khao Yai National Park, located about 2-1/2 hrs northeast of Bangkok, for 2 days prior to our Bhutan trip. On our return layover we would do a one-day trip to the Rangsit wetlands and other sites around the northern perimeter of Bangkok. This arrangement worked very well, and we had some excellent birding, seeing approximately 154 species in our 3 days with Nature Trails.

While in Bangkok we stayed at the Twin Towers Hotel, a large luxury hotel with numerous restaurants and other amenities on site. Through the Asia Bookings internet reservation service, we were able to get a double room for $33 US per night, a bargain by any standards. The hotel was in downtown Bangkok and convenient to places such as Lumphini Park, but in retrospect staying at a hotel situated nearer the airport would have reduced the travel time to the various birding sites we visited, all of which were north of the city.

27 March : Wat Prabuddhabaht Noi and Khao Yai NP
Our guide from Nature Trails, Wisnu Chotikapakorn, picked us up at our hotel at 6 a.m. Despite it being a Sunday we immediately encountered the infamous Bangkok traffic, first having to inch our way through an early morning market around the corner from the hotel, and then running into a traffic jam on the highway past the airport, the aftermath of a collision between a cement truck and an oil tanker. After finally clearing the traffic and the city limits, we asked Wisnu to make a detour to Wat Prabuddhabaht Noi, a temple where Limestone Wren-Babbler is resident. Along the main highway we saw numerous Asian Openbills and Little Egrets in the wet fields. As we drove through dry, open country along the road to the temple we encountered a variety of other birds we would not see at Khao Yai, including Red Collared-Dove, Plain-backed Sparrow, Greater Coucal, Green Bee-eater, Racket-tailed Treepie, White-throated Kingfisher, Asian Koel, Long-tailed Shrike, Common Iora, Plain Prinia, and Sooty-headed Bulbul. At the temple we walked a short distance along the hill to the right of the parking area, and within about 3 minutes found a Limestone Wren-Babbler hopping around the limestone boulders. Too easy!

We arrived in Khao Yai in the late morning, and as we drove up the entrance road we quickly found both Oriental Pied Hornbill and Great Hornbill perched beside the road, as well as Green-eared Barbet, Dollarbird, a pair of Vernal Hanging-Parrots at a nest hole, and a soaring Crested Serpent-Eagle. We stopped and hiked the trail into the forest at Km 33, where we saw Red-headed Trogon, a noisy pair of Greater Flamebacks and an industrious Heart-spotted Woodpecker, Mountain Imperial Pigeon, Moustached Barbet, Black-naped Monarch, Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrike, Dark-necked Tailorbird, Yellow-browed Warbler, White-bellied Yuhina, and a magnificent Wreathed Hornbill. We also saw a White-handed Gibbon, a very impressive Black Giant Squirrel, and, sitting along the main road, Pigtail Macaques. Off to a good start, we stopped for lunch at Park HQ, and then spent most of the afternoon hiking Trail 6, where we hoped to find pheasants and, with luck, Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoo. Although neither of those wishes was granted, we nonetheless had good birding all along this trail. At the first stream-crossing we found Asian Fairy-Bluebird, Striped Tit-Babbler, Grey-crowned Warbler, and added Stripe-throated, Puff-throated and Grey-eyed Bulbuls to our earlier sightings of the more common Black-crested and Black-headed Bulbuls. Further in we encountered Green-billed Malkoha, the stunning Common Green Magpie, Hill Blue-Flycatcher, a cooperative Abbott's Babbler, and a small flock of Eye-browed Thrushes feeding high in the canopy of a fruiting tree. The highlight, however, was a pair of Eared Pittas busily kicking through the leaf litter close to the trail. While we were watching them we also got a quick glimpse of a tiny Mouse-Deer running through the understory. Late in the afternoon we worked our way along the famous radar road. In open areas at the top of the hill we saw Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters, Blue Rock Thrush, a family party of Red Junglefowl, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Brown-backed Needletails drinking at a pond, and two types of deer, the diminutive Muntjac and elk-like Sambar. Along the wooded lower part of the road we found Blue-eared Barbet, Hill Myna, Laced and Black-and-Buff Woodpeckers, and the very pale, white-faced leucogenis subspecies of Ashy Drongo. We left the park at dusk, getting good looks at a Great Eared Nightjar flying down the road in front of the car. We spent the night at Juldis Khao Yai Resort, a nice hotel a few km down the road from the park entrance.

16 April : Rangsit and Kampangsaen
We had arrived back from Bhutan the previous afternoon and had made another quick trip to Lumphini Park, forgetting that it was the Thai New Year and Water Festival. Not only did we (and our optics) get soaked by the bands of teenagers throwing buckets of water at all passersby, but the park was crowded with families and there were few birds to be seen. Now we were met at 6 a.m. by Kamol Komolphalin, the founder of Nature Trails and a well-known bird illustrator, who would guide us around the northern perimeter of Bangkok. Our first stop was the Rangsit wetlands, an extensive network of small artificial ponds and reed beds located not far from the airport. In the reeds and shrubs we saw Oriental and Black-browed Reed-Warblers, Plain and Yellow-bellied Prinias, a small flock of female or immature Red Avadavats, Chestnut and White-rumped Munias, Dusky Warbler, Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, Lesser Coucal, Yellow Wagtail, and Yellow-vented Bulbul. Ponds with water held Little Grebe and Little Cormorant, while we found White-breasted Waterhen, Bronze-winged Jacana, Purple Swamphen, Black-winged Stilt, Chinese and Javan Pond-Herons and a Yellow Bittern in those ponds that were drying up.

On our way across the top of Bangkok to Kampangsaen we stopped first at a temple grounds in search of Alexandrine Parakeets, which we did not find. At our next stop, a small fishpond, there was a small colony of Baya Weavers, their intricately woven nests hanging from a palm tree. Kamol told us that these birds are declining as a result of people collecting their nests to use as decorations. At this site we also found a pair of Asian Golden Weavers constructing a nest in what Kamol said was an unusually open location, a small shrub in a water-filled ditch. The fishpond held large numbers of Asian Openbills, Little Egrets, Black-necked Stilts, and roosting Whiskered Terns.

At Kampangsaen we birded a wooded area comprising a rather unkempt arboretum and adjacent scout camp. Visiting the scout camp first, we found Eurasian Hoopoes, Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker, both Olive-backed and Brown-throated Sunbirds, Ashy Drongo, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Common Iora, and Chestnut-tailed Starling. After a pleasant lunch at a nearby, riverside restaurant we tried the arboretum area, which was fairly quiet in the mid-afternoon heat. We did, however, find lots of Black-naped Orioles and Black Drongos feeding in fruiting trees, a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, and a Black Baza. A small pond held Common Moorhen and several Lesser Whistling Ducks. When a visit to a larger pond at the nearby university campus failed to turn up any Pheasant-tailed Jacanas, Kamol kindly offered to take us to another site where we might find that species, adding an extra hour to our return trip to Bangkok. This site was an extensive fishpond where after considerable searching we did finally locate both a juvenile and adult Pheasant-tailed Jacana, the latter in nearly full breeding plumage. We also saw Purple Heron here, a very distant Black-capped Kingfisher, and on the telephone wires along the road, Blue-tailed Bee-eaters and Ashy Woodswallows. Traffic was very heavy on the way back to Bangkok, and we finally reached our hotel at about 8 p.m. with another very early morning departure for the airport ahead of us.