Myanmar July – August 2013, Kalaw

Famous amongst birders for being the best place in the world to see Burmese Yuhina, Kalaw is on the itinary of most birding crews visiting this country. Besides this it is also possible to see the very rarely observed Olive Bulbul. Mostly they stay here only one or two days, but we decided to give the forest some more time. First we did a two day trek into the lush evergreen forest surrounding Ye-Aye-Kan reservoir. We organised this trek through the Golden Lily Guesthouse, who can arrange a lot for everyone, but I would not recommend them, for they pay their guides less than the minimum wage… We first wanted a bird guide (Ko Pan, based in Kalaw. kopanornithologist15@gmail.com), but apparently he asked $100 per day per person (or so we were told by the Golden Lily Guesthouse). Therefore we hired Sunny (sunnypanday@gmail.com, if this doesn´t work try his sister´s e-mail address: vidiyarpanday@gmail.com), a regular but very enthusiastic young guide, with excellent knowledge of the forest paths.

We birded the forests around Ye-Aye-Kan reservoir, mainly on smaller tracks, for two full days and this resulted in a reasonable 70 or 80 species including Long-tailed and Silver-breasted Broadbill, Cook´s Swift, Scarlet-faced Liocichla, Red-headed Trogon, Greater Yellow-nape, Greater Flameback, Common Green Magpie, Dark-backed Sibia, Yunnan Fulvetta, Puff-throated Babbler, Chinese Francolin, Orange-bellied Leafbird, Spectacled Barwing and Large Hawk Cuckoo. Unfortunately we did not find the much wanted Burmese Yuhina or the Olive Bulbul.

Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker (Dendrocopus canicapillus)

Spectacled Barwing (Actinodura ramsayi)

Greater Flameback (Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus)

Scarlet-faced Liocichla (Liocichla ripponi)

Male Red-headed Trogon (Harpactes erythrocephalus)

Therefore we did another one-day hike to the reservoir and focused only on the jeep track leading to the reservoir and not on the small paths, for it is much easier birding, less muddy and very good forest here. This proved to be an outstanding idea, for after an hour we were rewarded with quick views of a pair of Olive Bulbuls. Seeing Burmese Yuhina took more effort, but after five hours of searching we finally found a pair, which unfortunately disappeared just as quickly as the Olive Bulbuls. We found that most birds in Myanmar are rather furtive and hard to observe or approach. Other species observed along the jeep track included Grey-headed Parrotbill, White-crowned Forktail, Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Hill Blue Flycatcher, Asian Emerald Cuckoo and Stripe-breasted Woodpecker, White-browed Shortwing, Rufous-necked Laughingthrush and White-tailed Robin.

I liked birding the forests around Ye-Aye-Kan reservoir a lot, but Palearctic winter is definitely a better time. When going in Palearctic summer you miss a lot of migrants and you should expect (very) muddy conditions and leaches, although the jeep track is ok. However, if you just go for the Yuhina and the Bulbul you might as well go in summer, for it is perfectly possible to see them.