Before heading to Myanmar we spent a few days in the Thai capital, Bangkok, because we had to arrange our visas for Myanmar here. This posed no problems at all and we had the visas within a few days. The necessary information on the visa business can be found here. While we were waiting for the visas we did a small amount of birding within the city. We focused on some small parks (mainly the Lumbini Park) within the city. We did not see anything special, as the migratory season had not started yet, but the resident Shikra's, Plaintive Cuckoos, Asian Koels, Streak-eared Bulbuls, Common Ioras, Malaysian Pied Fantails, Black-collared Starlings, Scarlet-backed Flowerpeckers and Olive-backed Sunbirds were entertaining. The herpetofauna of Bangkok is also rather interesting, as we observed several turtles, including Yellow-headed Temple-turtle, next to the ever present Water Monitors in the ponds and Channels of Bangkok. However I guess most or all of these are escaped or released pets.
On our we from and to the airport we also saw several Asian Openbills amongst more common herons, while the airport itself proved good for some Black-winged Stilts and Red-wattled Lapwings. Obviously this is all not very spectacular, but during the migratory season a fair amount of good birds can be observed just within the city. For more information on birding in Bangkok see this excellent blog by David Gandy.
A conservationist's birding blog promoting ecotourism abroad to reinforce local conservation and restoration efforts
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