Last 4 days had a small escape from crowded and polluted Hanoi to breath the clean air of Sapa. Sapa is a small mountain town near the Chinese Border, tourist gateway to Vietnam's northern mountains (highest peaks of Indochina), Vietnam's ethnic minorities and also some really nice birds.
It was mostly a family trip, but I managed to visit a few good birding sites in the mornings. Birding was rather slow, forest being very quite most of the time, but when eventually I managed to encounter one of the mixed flocks it was just teeming with beautiful birds such as Chestnut-tailed and Red-tailed Minlas, Green-tailed Sunbird, Chestnut-winged Fulvetta etc. I also liked to see the Blue-winged Minlas with actually blue wings, as so far I only knew the ssp. in Dalat which has black wings. Plumbeous and White-capped Water Redstarts also very nice, as were the Forktails. Personal highlight for me was a stunning Green Cochoa, a bird which I previously always missed to see.
Still I missed to see a lot of birds, like some Parrotbills and Yuhinas. And of course I did not attempt to climb Fanxipan, Vietnam's highest peak (3.200 m) with lots of high altitude Laughingthrushes to see. So Sapa will certainly be high up on the list for future escapes from the city.
Florian
Birds seen, lifers in bold (first time birding in Sapa):
Chinese Pond Heron
Little Heron
Blue Whistling Thrush
Verditer Flycatcher
Small Niltava
Siberian Rubythroat
Oriental Magpie Robin
White-tailed Robin
Slaty-backed Forktail
Little Forktail
Green Cochoa
Grey Bushchat
Plumbeous Water Restart
White-capped Water Redstart
White-tailed Nuthatch
Yellow-cheeked Tit
Yellow-browed Tit
Grey Tit
Black-throated Tit
Black Bulbul
Brown-breasted Bulbul
Hill Prinia
Chestnut-flanked White-Eye
Japanese White-Eye
Mountain Tailorbird
Dusky Warbler
Ashy-throated Warbler
Grey-cheeked Warbler
(+ many more Warblers, if I only would be a little better with them)
Black-faced Warbler
Red-billed Leiotrhix
Chestnut-fronted Shrike Babbler
Blue-winged Mila
Chestnut-tailed Minla
Red-tailed Minla
Rusty-capped Fulvetta
Rufous-winged Fulvetta
Vinous-throated Parrotbill
Green-tailed Sunbird
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Grey Wagtail
White Wagtail
Yellow Wagtail
Olive-backed Pipit
White-rumped Munia
Scaly-breasted Munia
Black-headed Greenfinch
Common Rosefinch
Yellow-breasted Bunting
Here we'll go up soon, mount Fanxipan...
Congrats on a bunch of nice lifers and looking forward to your report on Fanxipan!
And I still hate you for the Cochoa, my bogey bird:-)