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Vietnam Birding - Dalat

Dalat - A capital of Lam Dong, located on the Central Highlands of Vietnam, on Langbiang Plateau. Finally we arrived into this beautiful place in the late evening due to the heavy traffic along the way. Luckily our Guide got us some snacks along the way to let us hold our hunger. The Dalat air was cool and nice with temperature at 16 degrees. We felt great!! We went for dinner at a local restaurant near our hotel, and after that we rested for the night. Hotel was better than the one before!

We are Day 3 into our trip, and we woke up pretty early feeling very excited. We replenished our energy with a spread of local breakfast prepared by the hotel, and looked forward for a full day birding at Dalat Plateau. The sad thing was that it was raining today! It did dampen our spirits for abit but it could not stop us from venturing out. We set off straight after breakfast. As we proceeded up into the mountains, the rain got heavier. For hardcore birders like us, whether rain or shine, we still moved on! We put on our jackets and hats, carried our bags and started out our wet hike into the forest towards a secluded spot for our first bird show of Dalat. We settled down, picked our VIP seats and setup our gears. Guide asked: Ok? Ready? And the show started!!
It was a very gloomy, dark and cold day in the woods. The bird show was fantastic, and within minutes, the flocks of birds started their speedy gonzales show, zooming in and out very quickly, posing a very challenging task for us. Lighting was bad, and camera settings were set to extreme to get a proper shot of these little fellos. Some of the bird sightings were Rusty-naped Pitta, Indochinese wren Babbler, Grey-bellied Tesia, White-tailed and Siberian-blue Robins, Snowy-browed and Rufous-browed Flycatchers, Mountain Fulvetta, Gray-throated Babbler, White-spectacled Warbler, Black-headed Sibia, White-browed Scimitar Babbler, Large Niltava and the Dark-sided Thrush. 

Our Guide had also setup two single-man hide near the stream where we would have the chance of photographing the Spotted Forktail. So two by two we went halfway down the mountain and waited for the guest-appearance. It was pretty rewarding after reviewing our shots, feeling happy and satisfied despite the heavy downpour.
We had the best service from our Guide, where he prepared a simple lunch of cup noodles for us. While we were busy with the bird show, he came back to the Hide with a pot of hot water and did noodles for us. It was the best warming meal in the cold weather. What an experience! After lunch, we were supposed to proceed on to another Hide further up in the mountains but because of the rain, that Hide was drenched as it was not made with waterproofing materials, therefore mission aborted. So we missed out on one endemic bird - Collared Laughingthrush.

When there were no more new species of birds flying in, we decided to call it a day as we were all half drenched and cold. We packed up, and went for our afternoon tea at Datanla. The teahouse was located next to the Alphine Coaster, which overlooked the lush forest of Dalat. Rain down the mountains had already stopped but lighting was still not that good. At least better than before. Some of the birds seen around the teahouse were Black Bulbuls, Streaked Spiderhunter, Langbiang Sunbirds, Annam Sunbirds, Verditer Flycatcher, White-cheeked Laughingthrushs, Asian Brown Flycatcher and the Grey-crowned Tit
We checked out of our hotel on the next morning as we needed to set off to Di Linh in the afternoon. This morning, our Guide brought us to a walking trail in Dalat. It was cool and breezy, weather was great and we were feeling nice and comfy. With the beautiful scenery of Dalat lush forest, I think we were having more wefies photos than birds. Nevertheless, we did spotted some birds (far far away) but we were like enjoying ourselves more. Some of the birds seen were the Langbiang and Annam Sunbirds, the Taiga Flycatcher, Sooty-headed Bulbul, Burmese Shrike, Hill Prinia, Eastern Spot-billed Duck, Black Eagle, Indochinese Barbet, Black-headed Sibia, Grey Wagtails and Rock Pigeons.
Our last two endemic star birds - the Vietnamese Cutia (chased them for over an hour plus before getting a proper shot of it) and the Vietnamese Greenfinch, before we set off to Di Linh, our last birding stop.

The Dream Team:

Check out the Pittas we gotten for this trip!!

Previous: Dinh Quan
Next: Di Linh


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