Myanmar July – August 2013, Moeyungyi Wetland Sanctuary

Since the main birding spot of the country, Mount Victoria, is unreachable in the rainy season (roads are apparently impassable) and it is extremely costly to arrange a visit (around $800 per person), we had to find some other destinations in Myanmar to fill the 28 days we had planned here. First we had planned to go to Myitkyina and to do a boat trip down the Ayeyarwaddy River, but after seeing the completely full river in Bagan, we let this idea go, for it would have been, birding wise, a rather boring four to six days.

Therefore we resorted to other birding areas off the standard tour itineraries. One of them is the Moeyungyi Wetland Sanctuary near Bago. I found on http://birding.sstmyanmar.com/moeyungyi-wetland-bird-sanctuary that this is a reliable site for Sarus Crane, a species I missed at Inle Lake. So we arranged a motorbike for 12.000 MKK in Bago to go to the wetlands and then we paid $25 for four canoes to go on the lake. We saw barely any birds during this boat trip, for the wetland areas were completely flooded. Most interestingly were four Painted Storks and some Asian Golden Weavers. We showed a picture of Sarus Crane to some local farmers and they knew the bird very well, but they only saw them in the dry season here. Other birds that can be observed here include Cotton Pygmy Goose, Grey-headed Swamphen, Bronze-winged Jacana and Oriental Pratincole (according to SST Tourism). I think for this site it makes a huge difference whether you visit it in the wet or the dry season and I advise checking this site out in the dry season, for it sounds definitely interesting. 

Flooded area as far as the eye reaches... No birds at all... (picture made by Janne de Hoop)