Purple-backed Starling at Wat Atwea, Siem Reap

Having bumped into an acquaintance from Norwich, Steve Jones, randomly along the riverside in Siem Reap we arranged to go birding so he could get to grips with some Cambodian species. On Tuesday 12th February I took him to Phnom Kraom, but decided to stop at Wat Atwea en route. While locating a vocal Black-naped Monarch a small starling appeared in my binoculars, which was clearly Purple-backed. I immediately noticed the very dark isolated eye peering out from a rounded head, giving a cute appearance to the bird. We managed to locate three individuals, but more may have been present.
Having been vainly trying to find this species for several months with the groups of White-shouldered Starling that litter the scrub around Phnom Kraom I suddenly realised my folly. Obviously this species has a different preferred habitat to White-shouldered, like pretty much every species! Purple-backed likes nice big trees, especially like this massive fruiting Banyon tree in front of the Wat itself.
We proceeded down to Phnom Kraom, where there was a single Temminck's and 4 Long-toed Stints, 4 Marsh Sandpiper and a superb Grey-headed Lapwing. Unfortunately the Greater Painted Snipe nest has been ploughed.

Green-backed Flycatchers in Siem Reap Province

On 19th November Mardy Sean (SVC) found a male Green-backed Flycatcher at Beng Melea in Siem Reap province. This morning, whilst looking at the photographs on his camera I noticed a flycatcher in the SVC garden, Street 26, Wat Bo, Siem Reap. Which was also a male Green-backed Flycatcher Ficedula elisae. This was somewhat of a surprise. I obtained a few of photos, which are below.

Also in the garden at the moment: one superb male Black-naped Monarch, at least 4 Taiga Flycatcher, Asian Brown Flycatcher, at least 3 Yellow-browed Warbler along with the resident Brown-throated and Olive-backed Sunbirds, Streak-eared and Yellow-vented Bulbuls and Zebra Doves. 

Rob Martin

New high count of Temminck's Stints, near Phnom Krom, Siem Reap, 23-24th October 2012

Temminck's Stint

Kentish Plover

On 23rd October Sophoan San and Nara Duong found a group of 30 Temminck's Stint feeding in  flat mud paddyfields at approx UTM 373210E 1472416N.
I went the following day with Nara, Chea, Katherine Boughey and Van Tharath and we found the group, again about 30 but most flew before a count was completed. Two remained, and I managed to get some documentation at least. Fred Goes's book indicates that the highest recorded count he has for Cambodia is 12, in Kandal. As he says, it is probably more common than records suggest!

There are several flat muddy fields in this area, proving very popular with Little Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover and sandplovers, while also recorded were Wood and Common Sandpiper, Greenshank, Pintail and Common Snipe.

Cyornis at SVC

At the SVC office in Siem Reap on Thursday 29th a female Cyornis flycatcher appeared, which I initially took to be Hainan Blue. Here's a couple of photos:

 A slightly unusual place for one to be and rather bright on the throat and breast with a clear demarcation between this and the very clean looking breast. These things are tough!

Koh Ker 15th September 2012

Virtually a full house of SVC guides took part in this training trip to Koh Ker, with excellent raptoring including an immature Changeable Hawk Eagle and an adult Oriental Honey-buzzard (on route) and excellent views of White-rumped Falcon.

Views of Collared Falconet were unexpectedly forced into the exceptional when a male we were watching flew straight into a fishing net that was drying outside a house. We quickly extracted the surprisingly placid miniature killing machine and released him to fly right back onto his previous perch, hopefully having learnt a lesson.
Some migrants included Asian Brown Flycatcher and 2 Arctic Warblers, but I'm not sure how far the incei Asian Paradise Flycatcher had travelled, nor this Hainan Blue Flycatcher.

Female Hainan Blue Flycatcher

Rob Martin

Check List Of ATT (Sarus Crane Protected Area)
On Sep 01st 2012

Bird List

Location: ATT                         Date:  01-09-2012                               Time:  Full day

Habitat: Rice field, Wetland, Shrub, Reservoir , open country, Mudflat

Participants:  Chea, Johnny, Kunthear, Naran, Sophoan, Heng,Mardy,Da

Leader: Mardy Sean

1.          Comb Duck    ( 50+ )

2.      Cotton Pygmy-goose  ( 200+ )

3.      Indian Spot-billed Duck  ( 3 )

4.      Little Grebe   ( 3 )

5.      Lesser Whistling Duck  ( 30+ )

6.      Milky Stork  ( 2 )

7.      Painted Stork   ( 200+ )

8.      Asian Openbill   ( 15 )

9.      Greater Adjutant   ( 10 )

10.  Black-headed Ibis   (50 )

11.  Little Cormorant (3)

12.  Great Cormorant   ( 10+)

13.  Yellow Bittern  (5)

14.  Cinnamon Bittern ( 6 )

15.  Black Bittern  ( 1 )

16.  Grey Heron   ( 10 )

17.  Purple Heron  ( 1 )

18.  Spot-billed Pelican   ( 60+ )

19.  Pond-heron SP  ( 20+ )

20.  Eastern Cattle Egret  ( Common )

21.  Little Egret          ( 30+ )

22.  Intermediate Egret       ( 5 )

23.  Great Egret       ( 4 )

24.  Black-shouldered Kite       ( 3 )

25.  Watercock        ( 5 )

26.  Black-backed Swamphen      ( 4 )

27.  Black-winged Stilt        ( 30+ 2juv )

28.  Pheasant-tailed Jacana       ( 2 )

29.  Bronze-winged Jacana        ( 5 )

30.  Oriental Practincole       ( 50 +)

31.  Red-wattled Lapwing        ( 5 )

32.  Lesser Sandplover        ( 6 )

33.  Greater Sandplover       (1 )

34.  Oriental Plover        ( 1 )

35.  Pacific Golden Plover   ( 5 )

36.  Little-ringed Plover       ( 3 )

37.  Common-ringed Plover       ( 10+ )

38.   Pintail Snipe       ( 2 )

39.  Bar-tailed Godwit      ( 5 )

40.  Wood Sandpiper       ( 3 )

41.  Common Greenshank      (10+ )

42.  Spotted Redshank       ( 5 )

43.  Common Redshank         ( 2 )

44.  Marsh Sandpiper        ( 1 )

45.  Red-necked Stint         ( 10+ )

46.  Broad-billed Sandpiper         ( 5 )

47.  Whiskered Tern      ( 30+ )

48.  Rock Pigeon              ( 20 )

49.  Spotted Dove               ( 5 )

50.  Red-collared Dove              ( 10 )

51.  Zebra Dove                ( 6 )

52.  Asian Palm-swift       ( Common )

53.  Common Kingfisher      ( 2 )

54.  Pied Kingfisher               ( 3 )

55.  Blue-tailed Bee-eater     ( 10+ )

56.  Little Green Bee-eater    ( 3 )

57.  Scarlet Minivet     ( 1 )

58.  Southern Jungle Crow      ( 2 )

59.  Brown Shrike                 ( 3 )

60.  Olive-backed Sunbird               ( V )

61.  Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker       ( 1 )

62.  Eurasian Treesparrow           ( 15 )

63.  Scaly-breasted Munia                ( 10 )

64.  Paddyfield Pipit                ( 5 )

65.  Eastern Yellow Wagtail              ( 2 )

66.  Streaked Weaver               ( 10 +)

67.  Baya Weaver        ( Common )

68.  White-vented Myna                ( 20+ )

69.  Common Myna         ( Common )

70.  Black-collared Starling               ( 5 )

71.  Eastern Stonechat         ( 5 )

72.  Pied Bushchat              ( 3 )

73.  Yellow-vented Bulbul          ( 1 )

74.  Streak-eared Bulbul          ( 1 )

75.  Barn Swallow        ( 10+ )

76.  Plain Prinia          (  5 )

77.  Yellow-bellied Prinia         ( 1 )

78. Common Tailorbird V

This is the photo of Oriental plover as we all agreed .

We saw this one at ATT quite early on September, today.

1st Sep 2012
   This morning SVC group, Mardy, Johnny, Sophoan, Naran, Chea, Kunthea, Sokheng and our Drvier Mr. Da went to visit ATT Sarus Crane protected Area. Today we saw such wonderful and it was an unforgettable trip ever has. 10 Greater Adjutants are feeding among hundreds of Painted storks and 2 Milky stork are seen there in the reservoir, but one bird, Oriental Plover was standing over there which made all of us really happy with any species of Wader such as;
-Common Ring plover
-Little Ring Plover
-Lesser and Greater Sand Plover
-Common and Spotted Red Shank
-Common Green Shank
-Wood and Marsh Sandpiper

-Barred Tailed Godwit etc