We’ve spent the past couple of days birding in the national park of Doi Inthanon, at the top of Thailand’s highest mountain – formerly known as Doi Luang, ‘Big mountain’, reaching a height of 2565m. Much of the park is pristine rainforest which supports a range of birds, unique to this part of Thailand. Breakfast on the terrace at Mr Daeng’s has been enjoyed at temperatures as low as 7 degrees – struggling to reach the mid-twenties in the middle of the day. We’ve seen some lovely birds but given the nature of the habitat – the best of which is a dark, dank forest bowl, accessed by a circular boardwalk, close to the summit, photography has proved to be challenging! Here is a selection of the more reasonable ones.

Large Niltava, male

Long-tailed Minivet

Yellow-cheeked Tit

and the much rarer Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker

There are a number of Sunbirds at Doi Inthanon, Two of which were absolutely stunning, Mrs Gould’s and the scarcer Green-tailed

A good number of Thai passerine families seem to have blue and orange as their main colours – making identification for the novice something of a challenge. This one, seen at the very summit of the mountain, is Snowy-browed Flycatcher

This, rare Blue-fronted Redstart was one of our ‘celebrity’ birds

This bird, White-browed Shortwing, lives in the deepest, darkest parts of the forest – record shot, taken at 1/4 sec at 6400 ISO!

Another skulker was this Hill Prinia

Some birds however did put on a show, this Banded Bay Cuckoo was in the car park at Mr Daeng’s

One of our favourites was Bar-throated (Chestnut Tailed) Minla