Cat Tien, the Forest




Broadbills are a particularly attractive bird family and we were to have many more encounters with them later, but I will never forget this exciting first sighting.



Many forest bird photos are for the record, archive shots of exciting birds that are lifers for us but not good images. Sometimes the bird is still worth posting for the memories they bring back. For example the following images recall the early morning that Duyen took us onto a forest trail exactly below the path of a family of whooping Gibbons on the move. It was amazing to watch them swinging from branch to vine with incredible speed and grace. Suddenly over the cacophany of the Gibbons we heard the strange calls of a flock of White Crested Laughingthrush, a distinctive sound that gives the species its name. I managed a quick shot of one and at the same time I spotted this Lesser Cuckoo through a gap in the branches & fired off a quick snap of that as well. Two lifers in quick succession, one of those birding moments that stand out..