Birding In Asia - Top Bird Watching Locations

Way Kambas, in South East Sumatra, is, mostly simply put, one of the most standout birding locations in the whole of Asia, I have been to few birding sites that can compare with it. Lowland rainforest has been devastated by the palm oil industry throughout Asia and there is very little of it left at all but Way Kambas protects one of the larger fragments that remains. 

Although there is a huge amount of both mature and secondary forest here, access is excellent with an old logging road running for many kilometres through it. Visiting Way Kambas gives birders a real sense of being in a remote area because entry is strictly managed and at any time there are very few people within the national park. Quite simply, a trip to Way Kambas gives the visitor a real sense of being out in a rainforest wilderness and the chance to see a wide range of birds that are rare or absent in many other locations.

Way Kambas is a place I always enjoy visiting and have a very good relationship with the local guides there. Way Kambas is a location that I always visit on my West Java and Sumatra birding tours. Read the full itinerary of the next one that I will be leading - West Java & Sumatra Birding Tour.

Casting a view across the salt pans at Pak Thale between the months of November and March will reveal huge numbers of shorebirds both feeding and roosting at high tide. The numbers of birds present can be mind-boggling and the variety is superb with over thirty species possible in a morning at the best times. Add to this the rarity of birds such as Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Nordmann's Greenshank and Asian Dowitcher and this is arguably the richest shorebird site in the world.

Birding here is done among salt pans worked by local people, but bird numbers are still high, and mangrove fragments, mudflats and areas of scrub provide some nice variety in the birdlife of the area and a high species count is always guaranteed here. This site, in the Gulf of Thailand, 2 hours drive south west of Bangkok, is a must-visit location for any birder who loves shorebirds.

Pak Thale is one of the sites in Thailand I visit the most frequently with large numbers of birders wanting to see the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper. It is always a pleasure to visit, to see the large numbers of shorebirds and also to take a boat trip onto the sand spit with Mr Daeng, a local boatman and bird enthusiast. Read more about the site here - Laem Pak Bia/Pak Thale.

These snow-capped mountains along the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan border with alpine meadows and fringing woodland provide one of the most stunning settings for any birding location in Asia that I have visited. With access from downtown Almaty, by taxi, taking only around 30-40 minutes this is both an easy place to visit and one that provides some superb birds.

Colourful species such as White-browed Tit Warbler (pictured), Blue-capped Redstart, Fire-capped Serin and Eversmann's Redstart are some of the attractions here along with a number of other birds with very restricted global ranges including Brandt's Mountain Finch. A good range of much more widespread Eurasian species make up numbers here too and along with raptors such as Golden Eagle, Lammergeier and Steppe Buzzard this is a superb location for birding and a must-visit area for anyone visiting Kazakhstan on a birding trip.

This is one of those locations I could go back to time and time again. Not only are the birds fantastic but the scale of the landscape is just wonderful. You can read all about my visit there in May 2019 here - Birding & Hiking near Shymbaluk, Kazakhstan.

Braving the cold, snowy weather in the early morning at White Horse Hill is worth it for the spectacle that follows. Standing on this small hillock overlooking rice fields and the hills in the DMZ between North and South Koreas gives birders the perfect place to watch "The Flight of the Cranes". 

Several hundred Red-crowned Cranes and White-naped Cranes roost in hot springs in the DMZ and as the sun rises they start flying out and into South Korea where spilt grain in rice fields attracts them to feed. To begin with there are small numbers but as the time passes, groups of 20 and 30 come through, many very close to the observation point. This is one of my favourite sights in birding anyway I have been in the world.

It isn't only about cranes here with flocks of Tundra Bean Geese in the area and large numbers of Greater White-fronted Geese also feeding alongside the cranes. Buntings, Tits, Finches and Thrushes feed in the copses and hedgerows here while raptors are well-represented with gangs of Cinereous Vulture and the odd White-tailed Eagle.

White Horse Hill is a great site but South Korea is a surprisingly good birding destination in general. Read some of my blog posts about my birding trips in South Korea.

This part of the island of Sulawesi, in Indonesia, has some great forest along an undeveloped coastline both of which are great biding habitats. Comfortable accommodation, great local guides and some extremely stunning birds make this one of my favourite birding locations in the region.

Red-backed Thrush is readily seen here and one that is often voted "bird of the trip" on the tours I have led here. However, kingfishers are a real feature here with Green-Backed Kingfisher, Lilac Kingfisher and Sulawesi Dwarf Kingfisher real gems of the forest while the mangrove channels are home to the impressive Great-billed Kingfisher.

A road through the forest, with little traffic on it, provides some great vistas across the forest allowing birders to see a wide range of forest birds here with perhaps the most memorable being Sulawesi Dwarf Hornbill.

Tangkoko is the perfect place to build your birding tour to Sulawesi and Halmahera around. While some of the birding on these islands can be tricky and accommodation rather simple, Tangkoko is a very pleasant place to stay with some great birding and some memorable mammals too.

Crossing the river and arriving at Cat Tien National Park is exciting for birders as you see the top quality habitat and huge forest trees get closer and closer until you disembark into some of the best habitat in Vietnam. With pleasant accommodation and a good network of tracks this is the perfect location to track down desirable species that include Bar-bellied Pitta, Germain's Peacock Pheasant and Blue-rumped Pitta.

These species are some of the main target birds but Cat Tien is also a great place to see a wide variety of some of Southeast Asia's most exciting birds; Banded Kingfisher, Black-and-red Broadbill, Black-and-buff Woodpecker, Great Slaty Woodpecker, Dusky Broadbill and Pale-headed Woodpecker are just a few of these.

Cat Tien National Park is very well set up and always a pleasure to visit. The extensive forest intersected by tracks and trails which can be explored on foot or on a bicycle allow plenty of access to quality habitat and with several top quality birds this is somewhere that all my South Vietnam Birding Tours visit.

Lowland rainforest in Southeast Asia is a habitat that has suffered greatly due to logging and conversion to palm oil plantations. However, at Taman Negara large areas of primary lowland rainforest are protected and a pleasant lodge along with a good network of trails allowing birders access to some of the best habitat in the region. 

The mercurial Rail Babbler is almost a legendary species but at Taman Negara there is a really good chance of seeing at least one. Garnet Pitta is another of the gems here while hornbills will excite anyone; Rhinoceros Hornbill and Helmeted Hornbill being two of the highest prizes here. With a dazzling array of bulbuls and babblers there is always something to look at here while searching for rarer birds such as Red-naped Trogon, Malayan Banded Pitta or Rufous-collared Kingfisher.

Such is the quality of the habitat and the birds within it, Taman Negara is one of those must-visit birding sites. With very comfortable accommodation available on site this is one of those places I never tire of and one that I include in all birding tours in peninsula Malaysia. Take a look at the itinerary and dates of the next planned tour - Peninsula Malaysia Birding Tour.

These great birdwatching sites in Asia feature frequently in the birding tours I offer through my company, Calidris Birding Tours. 

I am a professional bird tour leader with over 15 years experience of guiding groups and individuals. All the tours are designed to allow sufficient time to find a high proportion of the key bird species and enjoy watching them at a sensible pace.

I lead many of these tours personally while a few others are led by other experienced guides who share my enthusiasm for bird watching in these exciting locations. If you fancy visiting any of these places why not join us?

The full list of itineraries is here - Birding Tours.

Take a look at some of the videos of birds from around the world from my Youtube channel. There are many more videos to watch there featuring bird behaviour, bird calls and me talking about birds.