A Common Hoopoe

I am up in Suan Phueng, Ratchaburi province towards the Myanmar border for the school camp. Suan Phueng is a mountain resort and is very popular with weekend escapees from Bangkok. It is also popular for school camps during the week. It's up and coming too and there is an enormous amount of development.

On the way up I stopped at Huay Mai Teng Reservoir and photographed this very obliging Common Hoopoe. It's not an uncommon bird here in Thailand but my colleagues and students were very impressed. It is a beautiful bird on the eye, very distinctive and I am reasonably happy with the photograph.

There are some good birds around including some phylloscopus warblers and other little brown ones. A common tailorbird, many olive-backed sunbirds and the very distincitve and characteristic noise of There was also a very elegant sunbird or spider hunter, olive with dark blue/purple back and a very long bill. Unfortunately I left my fieldbook at home and they were all too fast for me to photograph. I'll try again tomorrow.