Vietnam August - October 2013, Ho Chi Minh City

Since we were more or less stuck for quite some time in Ho Chi Minh City I started to do some birding within the city. Especially after seeing some posts on http://vietnambirdnews.blogspot.com/ about migrants in Hanoi, I wanted to give the zoo in Ho Chi Minh city a try. It has quite a lot of large trees and might prove interesting for birds that are not in a cage. The zoo is located in district one and therefore very easy to access above all the entry fee is only 8.000 VND. We birded the zoo for three hours accumulating over four Ashy Minivets, 30 Asian Brown Flycatchers, two leucogenis Ashy Drongos and over 20 Yellow-browed Warblers, but unfortunately no other migrants.

1 ky Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa dauurica)

It was clear that the migration in the south had not yet reached the same magnitude as in Hanoi. Other birds included Green-billed Malkoha, Black Drongo, Collared, Common and White-throated Kingfisher, Lesser Necklaced and White-crested Laughingthrush and Coppersmith Barbet. The zoo looks good for migrants, but will probably prove to be more productive later in the year.