Relaxed Vietnam

 

Once I finally nailed down a time to visit the Philippines, Nikki and I started thinking about doing a brief trip somewhere else in the region, so that she had an excuse to get out of the house and I had an excuse to take a little bit of vacation. I casually suggested Vietnam as a possibility, as a few friends of mine had visited there recently and my social media was being flooded with pictures of interesting endemic birds. Nikki immediately agreed, since she was in the mood for an adventure as well as some food tripping. I had been to Vietnam way, way back in the day when I studied abroad in Can Tho and Hanoi, but that was long before I started birding, so I was excited to return and visit some new places. 

We had thought about doing a circuit of South Vietnam, spending some time in Ho Chi Minh City and in Cat Tien National Park down in the lowlands, but those plans quickly changed when we saw the weather forecasts for the week we would be there. May is the hottest time of year in most of Southeast Asia, and while Sorsogon had been bad Vietnam was apparently far, far worse. As much fun as it sounded to hike through the jungle in 40-degree Celsius weather, we instead decided to spend the week mostly in the city of Da Lat, located 1,500 meters above sea level in the Langbian Plateau. That meant we would get a bit of a break from the hot weather, and I would have a week to do some relaxed birding and try my best to see all of the local endemics. 

We flew into Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon) the evening of May 3, arriving late enough that there wasn't time for anything except heading to our dodgy hotel near the airport and going to sleep. The next morning we flew from Saigon to Da Lat, taking a Grab from the airport into the center of town. We had initially planned to take a bus to Da Lat, but after realizing that it was an 8-hour bus ride on twisty roads and flights were cheap, we decided to save ourselves some time and stress. We still got a good look at the scenery during the 25-kilometer Grab ride from the airport, going from the lowland rice fields and industrial areas into the pine-covered hills of the Langbian Plateau. 

Our hotel was located near the center of Da Lat proper. The city was founded as a hill station during the French colonial period, and nowadays it's a popular getaway for foreign and local tourists alike wanting a break from the heat of the lowlands. It's also known for its nice mountain scenery and colonial-style architecture, and indeed the vibe of the city as a whole was much more "Western" than anywhere else I'd been in Vietnam. 

The view from our hotel balcony

Random scenes from Da Lat

More importantly than architecture, the Langbian Plateau is home to a huge array of endemic species and subspecies, forming a last refugium of cooler climates with a number of birds that can otherwise only be found far to the north in the Himalaya. Some of the endemics have a reputation for being rather difficult but I was hoping that with almost a week there I would have time to see them all. 

Our first proper birding outing was the morning of May 5, when I decided to hike a trail that had been recommended to me by my birding friends Cassie, Aiden and Will who had recently visited the area. The original intent was to rent a motorbike and drive there on our own, but when we got down to the street at 5AM the motorbike we had been promised was nowhere to be found. That was a bit annoying but it turned out we could get a Grab to the spot, which ended up being cheaper than renting a motorbike would have been anyway. 

Our destination was a trail along the edge of Tuyen Lam Lake, a reservoir on the plateau that's surrounded by temples, resorts, and tourist traps of various sorts. The Grab dropped us off along the road a little after sunrise, and I started looking for the actual trail we were supposed to walk up. That was interrupted when I realized that the little birds perching on the wire above us were actually Vietnamese Greenfinches- little finches endemic to the mountains of southern Vietnam and one of my main targets. There were a couple of Burmese Shrikes around as well, along with lots of Sooty-headed Bulbuls and a flock of Green-backed Tits, another lifer for me. A Streaked Spiderhunter was hanging out in a pine tree next to the road, and there were some Black Bulbuls flying around in the treetops, one of which perched rather low for pictures. 

Vietnamese Greenfinch

Sooty-headed Bulbul

Streaked Spiderhunter

Black Bulbul

The forest edge where we were dropped off

Eventually I found the start of the trail, a nice wide path through the forest of Sumatran Pines that Da Lat is famous for. We ran into a mixed flock in the pine forest, including some birds I was already familiar with like Scarlet Minivets, Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers, Ashy Drongos, and Mrs. Gould's Sunbirds, and some new ones like Kloss's Leaf Warblers and Hill Prinias. To my surprise a Banded Bay Cuckoo flew in as the mixed flock was moving on, a bird I hadn't seen since I was in Cambodia and a lifer for Nikki. 

Scarlet Minivet

Hill Prinia

Banded Bay Cuckoo

An absolutely enormous (and terrifying) Southern Giant Hornet (Vespa soror)

The road through the woods

After some nice walking along the paved road we found a dirt trail leading uphill, where Will told me they had had some good birds like Grey-crowned Crocias. There were no crocii to be found despite my best efforts, but we did come across a number of mixed flocks with some lifers for me, including Ashy Bulbuls, Mountain Fulvettas, Black-throated Bushtits, and Black-headed Sibias. Kloss's Leaf Warblers and Little Pied Flycatchers were as always stupidly common, and I got good looks at the local subspecies of Blue-winged Minla and White-browed Shrike-Babbler, the latter of which used to be considered its own species before some killjoy taxonomist decided to lump it a couple years ago. Local specialties Indochinese Barbets and Necklaced Barbets were calling all over but never seen well, and I heard a noisy flock of endemic Black-hooded Laughingthrushes that never showed itself. It was fun birding but being in the middle of the forest it was tough to get a good look at anything, so I have very few pictures to show for it.

Little Pied Flycatcher

Annoyingly enough the only picture I ever managed of Ashy Bulbul, which despite the name is actually one of the better-looking bulbuls

Blue-winged Minla

White-browed Shrike-Babbler, formerly known as Da Lat Shrike-Babbler

Mountain Fulvetta, possibly the most common bird in the Langbian Plateau

Hamodes propitia, I think

Some type of robber fly (Saropogon sp.), which the robber fly guy on iNaturalist was excited about

I thought this was a dragonfly at first but it turns out it's actually an enormous owlfly (Suhpalasca sp.), more closely related to antlions.

Orange Oakleaf (Kallima inachus)

Emerald-banded Skimmer (Cratilla lineata)

Lemon Migrant (Catopsilia pomona)

By late morning the forest was hot and quiet, and we decided to head back to our hotel. It was surprisingly easy to get a Grab, and our unnecessarily aggressive driver had us back before noon. We took a much-appreciated nap that afternoon, and headed out in the evening mainly just to get some pho. There was a Grey Nightjar calling all night from the roof of our hotel, and while I saw it a couple of times during our stay I never managed a picture. 

My initial plan for Da Lat was to try and do it all solo, as it's apparently possible to see all the specialty birds without a guide. However, after asking around it seemed that a guide was useful for getting access to the hides for some difficult and skulking birds, and ultimately I realized it would be nice to spend some time with a local birder who knew the sites better than I ever would and could tell me more about the local context. I ended up hiring Nhat Tien Tran, a local guide and birder who some facebook friends recommended to me, for a couple of days so I could try for a cleanup of the endemic birds. That proved to be a very good idea, as Nhat was an excellent guide and knew all the spots for the local specialties, as well as having lots of good info about the local birds and history. 

Nikki was feeling a little under the weather the next morning, so Nhat picked me up alone outside the hotel around dawn. While I had been south of town the day before, this time we were heading into the high mountains to the north, in Bi Doup Nui Ba National Park. The road led from Da Lat past a couple of small reservoirs and lots of tourist trap resorts before it started winding upward into the proper pine forest. We stopped in a little turnoff to try for the local subspecies of Eurasian Jay, and while we had a couple of very distant Eurasian Jays fly by we never got good looks. There were a couple of Burmese Shrikes that gave better views, along with Chestnut-vented Nuthatches and Grey Bushchats, birds I hadn't seen since our time in Northern Thailand. 

Burmese Shrike

Grey Bushchat

The road through the pine forest

We stopped again a little further up when we heard the sounds of a mixed flock off the road. The flock itself moved on but I got good (albeit distant) looks at an iridescent Indochinese Barbet, while a few Eurasian Jays flew across the road. They were soon chased off by some large birds I realized were Blue Whistling-Thrushes, which I had never managed to get a good look at before. 

Indochinese Barbet, endemic to the mountains of eastern mainland Southeast Asia

The scarce Southeast Asian subspecies of Eurasian Jay is sometimes split as White-faced Jay, presumably because of the white face

Blue Whistling Thrush

We continued like that the rest of the morning, driving slowly uphill through the pine forest and stopping every time we heard interesting birds. The next stop held a mixed flock with lots of White-browed Shrike-babblers and the usual Kloss's Leaf Warblers and Mrs. Gould's Sunbirds. A pair of Vietnamese Cutias, one of my biggest target birds, flew in briefly but never left the highest part of the canopy or allowed for decent pictures. A bit further up a flock brought a few Yellow-billed Nuthatches, another local specialty, which were unusually cooperative for pictures. We walked around a bit in the woods and had another flock with Lesser Racket-tailed Drongos and an immature Maroon Oriole, another lifer for me. We stopped again near a park ranger station where there were a few Black-headed Sibias feeding next to the road, but I was soon distracted by a flock of adorable Black-throated Bushtits, this time much more cooperative than they had been the previous day.

White-browed Shrike-Babbler

Yellow-billed Nuthatch

Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo

I'd wanted to see Maroon Oriole for a long time, and if I'm going to honest I'll still be happy to get a better view and a better-looking individual than this one...

Black-throated Bushtit is pretty widely distributed across Asia, but the birds in Vietnam are often split as Grey-crowned Bushtit. Whatever they are they're absolutely adorable and full of personality.

Staff Sargeant (Athyma selenophora)

Some kind of cool ichneumonid wasp (Gotha sp.)

As we got higher the pine forest slowly started transitioning into montane broadleaf forest (unfortunately most of the pine forests in the plateau are planted by humans, although the birds don't seem to mind too much). We stopped in one spot that Nhat said was good for mixed flocks, and although we didn't have too many birds there was a nice flyover from a trio of Crested Serpent Eagles, along with some interesting butterflies.

Crested Serpent Eagle

This is certainly some kind of Flat (Celaenorrhinus sp.), but there are no records of anything matching it on iNaturalist anywhere in Southeast Asia. Very curious...

Golden Birdwing (Troides aeacus)

It was mid-morning by then, and bird activity seemed to be slowing down. That meant it was time to head to the first hide of the day, where we could sit back and wait for birds to come by. As I've discussed many times before on this blog birding from hides isn't always my favorite way of doing things, since it feels a little like cheating- I'd rather find my birds in a mixed flock doing their own thing rather than coming in to eat food set out for them. That said, I do appreciate how much easier it makes seeing skulky birds like pittas, chickens, and laughingthrushes. I'm also not convinced it even ranks among the top 100 threats to wild birds in most places where it happens, and I'd rather the purists focus their energy on things like rampant deforestation, indiscriminate road construction, hunting, the caged bird trade, palm oil plantations, cattle farming, and industrial-scale agriculture than a few birds getting fat off of mealworms at a hide and bringing tourist dollars to the local economy.

Soapbox aside, this hide was absolutely worth it. There were a couple of White-browed Scimitar Babblers already hanging out when we arrived, and they were soon joined by White-tailed Robins, Snowy-browed Flycatchers, and Large Niltavas, the usual hide trash birds in the area. Soon we heard the warbling call of Collared Laughingthrushes, the main target of the hide, and a group of them came in to feed for a bit. Aside from being absolutely gorgeous, they're a highly localized endemic to this area of mountains and in decline thanks to the rampant caged bird trade. There were some Rufous-capped Babblers that came in close to us, and a Lesser Shortwing made a brief appearance. Aside from birds there were lots of Asian Red-cheeked Squirrels hanging out at the feeder acting like bullies, and a very cute Northern Treeshrew.

White-browed Scimitar-Babbler

White-tailed Robin

Large Niltava

Snowy-browed Flycatcher

Collared Laughingthrush! One of the best in a family of very good birds

Rufous-capped Babbler

Lesser Shortwing

Asian Red-cheeked Squirrel

Northern Treeshrew

Another Orange Oakleaf showing the beautiful upperwing

Just as we were about to leave, we heard the song of a Vietnamese Cutia! Soon after a couple of males came past in a mixed flock with Mountain Bulbuls and White-browed Shrike-Babblers, and one of them came down to feed nearly at eye level, giving ridiculously good views. Looking fairly similar to the Himalayan Cutia I saw in Thailand, this is quite possibly the best-looking of the local endemics, and a bird I'd wanted to see ever since I learned it existed. It was amazing getting extended looks at it, as well as a few decent pictures- the sort of thing that's enough to make an entire trip feel like a success even if there are no other good birds.

Vietnamese Cutia

There were other good birds to look for though, so once the Cutias had moved on we headed to the next hide. I had already gleaned from eBird reports that this was one of the better-known hides in the area, used by all the guides and tour companies coming through the area. Past lists indicated that it was a good spot for skulky ground birds like Blue Pitta, Rusty-naped Pitta, and Rufous-throated Partridge, but Nhat told me that they were tough this time of year, as it was nesting season and that plus the rains meant that many birds didn't visit hides as often. 

In fact, the hide was overall pretty quiet, and though we spent a couple of hours there it was mostly the same suite of birds coming in over and over again. Still, some of them were nice lifers for me- in addition to the usual Large Niltavas, Snowy-browed Flycatchers, and Mountain Fulvettas there was a garrulous flock of endemic White-cheeked Laughinghthrushes hanging out nearby, several Black-headed Sibias, a single Grey-throated Babbler, and a very skulky Grey-bellied Tesia. My personal favorite was a pair of Short-tailed Scimitar Babblers, strange ground birds that despite the name are actually wren-babblers with comically large bills. I generally prefer basic, colorful birds but I do love a weird skulking ground bird at times. 

Male Large Niltava

Baby Large Niltava waiting to get fed by its parents

Mountain Fulvetta

Snowy-browed Flycatcher

White-cheeked Laughingthrush

Black-headed Sibia- these are of the local endemic subspecies with a white eyering and streaky grey cheek.

I was expected Grey-bellied Tesias to be easy given my past experience, but apparently they're extremely shy and difficult unlike Javan Tesia, which are bold little balls of rage.

Short-tailed Scimitar Babbler

Maritime Striped Squirrel, another cute distraction

Eventually I made the executive decision that 3 and a half hours was long enough to wait at the hide (one of the things that makes me not a real photographer I suppose), and we decided to start making our way back. We got back in the car but stopped after just a couple hundred meters for another site Nhat wanted to check. Next to the road we got great looks at a few Necklaced Barbets, which I had heard several times before but never seen well. Nhat took me on a steep, dodgy path leading uphill from the road, where we unexpectedly had great looks at a passing Streaked Wren-Babbler, a lifer for me that's apparently quite uncommon in the area. A Rusty-naped Pitta called a couple of times in the distance but never came close to us, while a Collared Scops Owl unexpectedly called in the middle of the day and flew over briefly. Just as we were about to head out we heard the call of a Black-crowned Fulvetta, which Nhat was able to tape in for some decent looks. They're another local endemic that can be quite tough, and this was sort of the last chance at it so it was a great last-minute lifer. Down at the road another mixed flock passed through with most of the usual birds, but also a couple of Chestnut-capped Warblers and a Grey-cheeked Warbler, both of which were lifers for me.

Necklaced Barbet, endemic to the highlands of southern Vietnam and Laos

Streaked Wren-Babbler- the Langbian Plateau-endemic subspecies is apparently very distinctive with its rufous belly and I wouldn't be surprised if it's split at some point

Black-crowned Fulvettas are endemic to the Langbian Plateau, and are in a completely different family from Mountain Fulvetta despite the name. One of the reasons I'm fine with getting rid of honorifics is that most English bird names are silly anyway. 

Grey-cheeked Warbler, one of the better-looking Phylloscopus warblers

Mountain Bulbul

The montane broadleaf forest in the upper part of the plateau

We probably could have kept birding the rest of the day, but I wanted to get back to the hotel so I could see Nikki and take a much-needed nap and shower. We were tired enough after a morning of birding (for me) and a long gym session (for Nikki) that we just ordered dinner in that night and played Settlers of Catan instead. 

Nhat was guiding for one more day, and Nikki joined us the next day to look for the remaining endemics and specialties. We left around sunrise again, and this time headed far south of Da Lat to the slopes of the plateau, where the endemic Annam Prinia could be found at mid-elevation. Annam Prinia was once considered the same as the common Brown Prinia but has recently been elevated to species status. From my understanding it's not particularly uncommon within its range in southern Vietnam and far eastern Cambodia, but I guess if you're pressed for time with lots of targets a drab prinia that hangs out in agricultural fields isn't going to be your top target. The go-to spot in Da Lat is a nondescript dirt field next to a coffee plantation, and we had to awkwardly make our way along a chain link fence to get in. Once we were in the right spot it wasn't long before an Annam Prinia made its way out of the coffee trees to check us out. Not exactly the most charismatic of birds or impressive of habitats, but every lifer counts as one...

Annam Prinia

The next stop, and the first proper birding of the morning, was the Ta Nung Valley, a famous spot to look for some lower-elevation forest birds. Nhat told us that birding in the valley had gotten much worse in the past year or so, as it became more touristy and the birds less common. That's sort of par for the course for so many birding spots in Southeast Asia, but we still had a great time birding there and some very nice birds. A Grey-crowned Crocias was calling as we got out of the car, but it remained completely hidden in the deep foliage and all we saw were Green-backed Tits, Vietnamese Greenfinches, and Indochinese Barbets. As it turned out however the Crocias is rather common in the area and we had several more family groups of them further down in the valley, including one that came down almost to eye level. Their only close relative is the Spotted Crocias of montane Java, and I suspect they represent the last remnants of an old clade of laughingthrushes that have mostly been displaced by other species. We also heard a Silver-eared Mesia which never came into view, and I got brief looks at a Streaked Spiderhunter and the local endemic subspecies of Black-throated Sunbird and Rufous-backed Sibia.

Vietnamese Greenfinch

Grey-crowned Crocias

The Annam subspecies of Black-throated Sunbird is apparently different enough from the ones elsewhere in Asia that it may be split at some point; unfortunately they never showed well enough for me to appreciate the difference

Streaked Spiderhunter

Iridescent Tiger Beetle (Cosmodela duponti)

Plain Hedge Blue (Celastrina lavendularis)

Some sort of Hoya orchid- my first Hoya but sadly I haven't been able to ID it

Birding in the Ta Nung Valley

Part of the weird instagrammable tourist infrastructure in the valley

Things started to slow down in the valley as the day got hotter, so we got back in the car and headed to the next stop, a grassy field in the pine forests near Da Lat proper. It didn't look like much but apparently it's the usual stakeout spot for Dalat Bush Warbler. Nhat had us sit in some folding chairs in the middle of the field next to a thick patch of shrubbery, and sure enough a Dalat Bush Warbler eventually came int, though it refused to perch long enough for me to get clear pictures of it. There were lots of Grey Bushchats and Flavescent Bulbuls around as well, the former swooping in to take the mealworm that were meant for the bush warbler.

Dalat Bush Warbler

Grey Bushchat

Flavescent Bulbul

The bush warbler clearing, complete with bushes

Once we were satisfied with our views of the bush warbler, we walked down one of the nearby dirt roads to see if we could find any new birds. Nhat tried the tape for Orange-breasted Laughingthrush, one of the only endemics I hadn't seen yet, but they were nowhere to be found. In fact, Nhat said that none of the guides had seen any at all that year and that they were in danger of being totally extirpated from the area- which would put them in grave danger of total extinction considering they're only found in the Langbian Plateau. While the IUCN considers them still to be "least concern", conditions on the ground suggest otherwise. Lack of laughingthrushes aside, there were some other good birds along the road in a mixed flock, including my lifer Clicking Shrike-Babbler and another group of Grey-crowned Crocias. 

Clicking Shrike-Babbler- quite similar to the Trilling Shrike-Babblers I've seen in Java and just as frustrating to photograph

Grey-crowned Crocias

The forest near Da Lat

Looking down into Da Lat proper

We continued on to our final destination, a hide in the woods by the lake near where we had birded on our first morning. Nhat had us sit and eat our lunch before we started walking, which was a good idea because getting to the hide required a surprisingly steep descent, getting a ways into the woods. Apparently bird poachers will occasionally stake out hides, so the guides need to keep them hidden, putting them way back in the woods and disassembling them after use. 

At first the final hide had mostly the same species as the previous day's spots, with lots of White-cheeked Laughingthrushes, Large Niltavas, and White-browed Scimitar-Babblers. Things got quite a bit more interesting, however, when a group of noisy Black-hooded Laughingthrushes came in, calling to each other and crashing about on the logs as they gobbled up food. A cute Rufous-browed Flycatcher was a nice lifer, but by far the highlight was a retina-scorching Indochinese Green Magpie that appeared out of the forest looking like some sort of Pokémon, making repeated visits to the blind to get food for a nest that it apparently had nearby. My experience with green magpies has been... decidedly mixed, but this was an absolutely fantastic bird and one of the highlights of my year so far. As we were about to leave the hide a Red-headed Trogon called distantly, and finally a flock of Black-headed Parrotbills came through, giving us great looks. That was my last remaining of the possible endemics (disappearing laughingthrush aside), so it was great to have ticked them all off in just a couple of days. 

White-browed Scimitar-Babbler

Large Niltava

Rufous-browed Flycatcher

Black-hooded Laughingthrush, endemic to the mountains of southern Vietnam and Laos

Indochinese Green Magpie- just a really, stupidly good-looking bird

Black-headed Parrotbill

That was enough for us, and Nhat took us back to the hotel where we bid our goodbyes then headed up to our room for an extremely needed nap. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and being very thankful that we had chosen to stay in one place for the whole week, combining some nice birding with some nice lazing around. 

The next day was our last full day in Da Lat, which meant time for one more proper birding outing. I decided to spend it climbing Mount Langbian, the highest mountain in the area and one with a chance at some good new birds and possibly even a shot at Orange-breasted Laughingthrush. I had no transport, so I got up at 4AM and took a motorbike taxi to the trailhead, a 30-minute drive out of town. It was chilly and dark when I arrived, but it was a good thing I got there early, as the hike started with a monstrous, thigh-burning climb up an extremely steep road through pine plantations. The first parts held lots of people out for their early morning exercise, and very, very few birds. 

By the time the sun was rising I was starting to get into mixed coniferous and deciduous forests, and the birds began to get more interesting. I happened upon a big mixed flock full of Yellow-billed Nuthatches, Chestnut-vented Nuthatches, Green-backed Tits, and to my delight a few Vietnamese Cutias! Even better was a little group of Hume's Treecreepers, which were lifers for me. I heard a Collared Owlet tooting in the distance, but unfortunately it never came in close to me. 

Vietnamese Cutia

Hume's Treecreeper

The road up Mount Langbian

The trail to the summit turned off the paved road, and soon after I ran into another nice mixed flock of mostly laughingthrushes, including White-cheeked Laughingthrushes, Black-headed Sibias, Blue-winged Minlas, and another Rufous-backed Sibia. I tried extremely hard to find Orange-breasted Laughingthrushes amongst them, but alas came up empty-handed. On the other hand I did find a gorgeous pair of Collared Laughingthrushes, much more satisfying to find on my own outside of a hide. Those are apparently getting extremely difficult as well, so it was nice to see they're still up on the mountain where there's at least a little protection. 

Collared Laughingthrushes

Blue-winged Minla

As I neared the summit of Mount Langbian the habitat turned into proper montane broadleaf forest, and the mixed flocks passing through got different and more diverse. One passing flock held several Large Niltavas, Kloss's Leaf Warblers, Chestnut-vented Nuthatches, Little Pied Flycatchers, and White-browed Shrike-Babblers, while deeper in the forest I had a flock with Yellow-cheeked Tits, Mountain Tailorbirds, Black-crowned Fulvettas, Grey-cheeked Warblers, and a Pale Blue Flycatcher. I heard a Green Cochoa singing deep in the forest and while it responded to my playback for a while it never came into view. 

Female Large Niltava

Kloss's Leaf Warbler

Little Pied Flycatcher

Chestnut-vented Nuthatch

Female White-browed Shrike-Babbler

The summit of Mount Langbian

I might have liked to make it the rest of the way to the summit or bird more, but I had promised Nikki I'd be back by mid-morning and I still had 5 kilometers of downhill to go. I started hiking downhill and took a side path that looked more direct, and it proved to be very direct indeed- going straight down a steep slope on a dodgy trail that had me constantly worrying I was going to slip and fall head over heels the rest of the way down. The trail mostly went through planted pine forest so there wasn't too much to see bird-wise, but I did see a few more Green-backed Tits and one final lifer in the form of a pair of Grey-headed Woodpeckers, a widely-distributed bird that's found everywhere from the UK to Japan and Vietnam, but not particularly common in most of its range. 

Green-backed Tits are extremely common around Da Lat but somehow this is the only halfway-decent picture I managed the whole time

Grey-headed Woodpecker

Tricondyla pulchripes, a cool tiger beetle

The English name for this frog is, unfortunately, Large Pygmy Frog (Microhyla berdmorei)

The outskirts of Da Lat- tourism is a big part of the economy, but vegetable growing is probably at least as important

True to my promise I arrived back at the hotel before 11AM, with enough time for some work and aa nap before we headed out again. Late that afternoon we took a walk around the city where Nikki got to practice street photography (a former hobby of mine that I sadly gave up when I started birding) and I got to do some people-watching. The architecture of Da Lat may be largely Western, but there's absolutely nothing more Vietnamese than the evening street market where people gather to buy fruits, vegetables, snacks, dinner, toys, knock-off clothing, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. 

All of these pictures are by Nikki

The next day we were flying out of Da Lat, and by then neither of us were feeling our best. Nikki had some sort of stomach bug while the sniffles I'd had earlier in the week had ballooned into a full-blown head cold (getting up at 4 in the morning to hike 10 kilometers probably didn't help). By the time we arrived at our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City that afternoon we only had energy to put our bags down and fall asleep. 

We flew out of Vietnam the evening of May 10, and while we would have liked to use the last morning to explore around Ho Chi Minh City we were both so sick we just didn't have the energy. We did take a little morning walk in a park near our hotel, which was nice for people-watching and to once again be envious of how practically every Southeast Asian country besides the Philippines has figured out how to put clean, accessible green spaces in its big cities. There were a few birds around, and I got to add some to my year list including Common Iora, Ashy Tailorbird, and Shikra. 

Sidewalks, clean streets, big trees, and a huge public park? Manila could never

We finished our first birding trip to Vietnam with a total of 114 species- far less than what we could have gotten if we'd been more intense about it and visited more spots, but a respectable total particularly considering that 42 of those were lifers for me. More importantly, it hit the right balance between having enough time for relaxation but also time to feel like I was properly exploring a new place and getting a feel for it- something I have to remind myself to do more often. Vietnam still remains one of my favorite travel destinations anywhere in the world, and I'm already looking forward to being back in order to explore more parts of it.