Today our team (Quy, Thanh, Huy, Trang and Ha!) headed out to Tam Dao National Park to visit some new locations and sites, particularly since the recent changes and opening up of the new mountain pass. Tam Dao is a very popular location for our northern birding tours, so we were keen to dive in and see how we can continue to best deliver our birding experiences here.
We started from Long Biên, Hanoi at 6 a.m. by motorbike. The 60 km route was quite easy to travel. We arrived at around 8 a.m., met up with other members, and our group of five began birding.
Our first stop was the area around near the Management Office, located at about 100 meters above sea level. There’s a small walking trail for birding here, but you need to get permission from the park staff to enter. We walked roughly 1 km through a mixed habitat of pine forest and evergreen broadleaf forest, which was fairly open, and saw plenty of typical forest birds such as tailorbirds, bulbuls, as well as a female Green-tailed Sunbird, Verditer Flycatcher, Hair-crested Drongo, and Ashy Drongo.
Our first surprise was spotting an Eurasian Jay, it might be the first record of this species here on eBird, as they usually live at higher elevations. We noted the distinctive white patch on its shoulder. In addition, we saw a group of six Red-billed Blue Magpie. A bonus was the abundance of beautiful butterflies in the area (who doesn’t love butterflies?).
After about 90 minutes of birding there, we headed up to Tam Đảo town, 11 km away along a winding mountain road. The town sits at around 900 meters above sea level and is quite densely populated. We spent a short period of time birding here and saw some nice species such as Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, Grey Wagtail, Verditer Flycatcher, and a few species of swift (probably Cook’s Swift).
After a delicious lunch, we moved toward the “Heaven Gate” area and walked about 10 km on an easy trail through evergreen forest. This was the highlight of the trip, offering open views and a wealth of bird activity. This was particularly promising as in the past, one of the biggest issues with Tam Dao is how quiet it gets for birding in the afternoon. Today, that was not case and we had a great variety of species. Highlights included Grey-chinned Minivet, Fork-tailed Sunbird, Orange-bellied Leafbird, Golden Babbler, Sultan Tit, David’s Fulvetta, Japanese Sparrowhawk, and Black-throated Laughingthrush.
As the day came to an end, on our way back we had two Large Scimitar-Babbler calling to each other from a bamboo thicket, which was a nice way to finish up the day. We wrapped up our birding around 6 p.m. and left Tam Đảo. The mountain town was getting chilly by then and the view of the villages below lighting up at dusk was truly spectacular.
Tam Đảo is always a favourite location of ours! It’s one of our top spots for recording regional specialist targets such as Chestnut Bulbul, Collared Babbler, Rufous-headed Parrotbill, and the highly prized Blue-naped Pitta, along with Short-tailed Parrotbill and Grey Laughingthrush. If you’re interested in joining us, check out our Through the Clouds: 2-Day Tam Dao Birding Tour, we’d love to have you!
