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Regrettably, many people still associate Vietnam with war and hardship. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Vietnam today is a fast-developing country with [mostly] good infrastructure, extremely friendly people, and cheap to boot. Apart from the birding, Vietnam also has a very rich culture, a wide diversity of people, and great scenery, making it worthwhile to visit for both birders and non-birders alike. Vietnam, being 1,600 km long, with over 3,000 km of coastline, has a wide variety of habitats and seasons. There is really no best time to visit Vietnam, it will almost always rain in one part of the country, and be hot and dry in another part. In the very north, it can get quite cool; it even snows occasionally, in winter, whereas the south is hot and humid year-round. However, from a birding point of view, winter is probably best for such specialties as Black-faced Spoonbill, Sarus Crane, and Spoon-billed Sandpiper, amongst others. Although much of the forest that used to cover Vietnam has been destroyed, there is still excellent birding to be done here. However, due to excessive hunting, the best birding is confined to the numerous national parks in Vietnam. There are a number of tour operators who specialize in nature and birding trips, but the country can easily be explored independently. Although English is not much spoken outside the cities, patience, sign language and a good sense of humor will get you anywhere. With ten endemics, the largest number in mainland SE Asia, and a total of 826 species, Vietnam must rank as one of the prime countries in Asia for bird watching. Visiting Cat Tien, Da Lat, Bach Ma, Cuc Phuong, Xuan Thuy and Sapa during a 3-week trip should easily net 200+ species. Vietnam is a very safe country to travel (apart from the traffic); with crime being primarily confined to pick-pocketing, especially in Saigon. One word of warning though: Parts of Vietnam were heavily bombed and mined during the wars, certain areas, especially along the old DMZ are still no-go areas. Do stick to well-trodden paths in those regions. |
Cat Tien National Park
InformationSatellite View
Cat Tien National Park is one of the top birding spots in Vietnam, but enough has been written about it elsewhere to need mention here, anyone making the trip to Da Lat should visit Cat Tien en route.
Cuc Phuong National Park
WebsiteSatellite View
This National Park was established in 1962, making it the first National Park in Vietnam. Only 120km South-West of Hanoi, it can be reached in less than three hours. The main entrance is accessible with public transport; the best place to stay though is Bong substation, a further 16km into the park. Try and avoid weekends, as it can get very busy and noisy, Cuc Phuong is a popular day trip for school classes out of Hanoi. With 307 species of birds counted so far, you should plan at least a couple of night's stay. Silver Pheasant are easy to see on the road between the main gate and the substation. Other birds of note are Pied Falconet, Red-collared Woodpecker, Silver-breasted Broadbill, Blue-rumped and Bar-bellied Pittas (common on the trails around the substation); and Limestone Wren-Babbler in the valley to the Silver-cloudy Top.
Da Lat Plateau
InformationSatellite View
One of the three Endemic Bird Areas identified by BirdLife International in Vietnam, the plateau is home to such endemics and near-endemics as Collared Laughingthrush, Vietnamese Greenfinch, and Grey-crowned Crocias. The best places to bird are Tuyen Lam Lake, close to the town of Da Lat, and Mount Lang Bien. Once again, accommodation is plentiful, Da Lat is a must with newly-wed Vietnamese, and transportation can easily be arranged locally. About 300km from Saigon the road trip takes about 5-6 hours, and there are daily flights.
Sapa
Satellite ViewLocated in the far North-west of Vietnam, near the Chinese border, Sapa is located close to Mount Fan Si Pan (the highest peak in SE Asia at 3,142 meters) and the Hoang Lien Nature Reserve. The location and altitude mean seeing birds that will be hard to see elsewhere in Vietnam. Sapa can easily be reached from Hanoi by night train, there is plenty of accommodation in all price ranges, and excursions can easily be organized locally. Ham Rong Botanical Garden in Sapa is well worth checking out early in the morning for Blue Whistling Thrush, Blue and Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush, Flycatchers, Bulbuls and Parrotbills. The road between the Silver Waterfall and the Pass of Clouds a few kilometers out of Sapa makes for some excellent birding, the only place in Vietnam where Little Forktail has regularly been seen.
Tra Su Cajuput Forest
InformationSatellite View
This is a privately owned Mangrove Forest about one hours drive from Chau Doc, near the Cambodian Border. Whilst commercially used, the enormous heronry at the core is protected. It can only be reached by boat, arrangements can be made at the entrance (be ready for herons expelling various body fluids on you). The heronry holds hundreds, if not thousands, of Little Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Black-crowned Night Herons and Javan Pond Herons. Darters are also common, as are Lesser Whistling-ducks and Spot-billed Ducks.
Xuan Thuy
InformationSatellite View
This is the Red River Delta, about 120km South-East of Hanoi. A Ramsar site, it is best visited in winter for specialties like Black-faced Spoonbill, Nordman's Greenshank, Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Saunder's Gull. A word of advice: not only is Xuan Thuy extremely hard to find if you don't speak Vietnamese, it is also inside a military area, as I found out in person, the soldiers are very suspicious of birders, loaded with optics, that have not made prior arrangements. It is advisable to make prior arrangements for a permit and accommodation through, for example, the BirdLife International office in Hanoi. Accommodation is just more than basic, the food is horrible, and the boat trip to the mud flats (a must) a real rip-off, but the quality of birds more than makes up for it.
Hanno Stamm
Rooms Division Manager - Victoria Sa Pa Hotel
(Sa Pa District, Lao Cai Province, Vietnam)
rdm.sapa@victoriahotels-asia.comhttp://www.victoriahotels-asia.com
Number of bird species: 826
Number of endemics: 10
Orange-necked Partridge Arborophila davidi Annam Partridge Arborophila merlini Imperial Pheasant Lophura imperialis Edwards's Pheasant Lophura edwardsi Vietnam Fireback Lophura hatinhensis Germain's Peacock-Pheasant Polyplectron germaini Black-hooded Laughingthrush Garrulax milleti Collared Laughingthrush Garrulax yersini Grey-crowned Crocias Crocias langbianis Vietnam Greenfinch Carduelis monguilloti
Orange-necked Partridge Arborophila davidi Annam Partridge Arborophila merlini Imperial Pheasant Lophura imperialis Edwards's Pheasant Lophura edwardsi Vietnam Fireback Lophura hatinhensis Germain's Peacock-Pheasant Polyplectron germaini Black-hooded Laughingthrush Garrulax milleti Collared Laughingthrush Garrulax yersini Grey-crowned Crocias Crocias langbianis Vietnam Greenfinch Carduelis monguilloti
* Field Guides & Bird Song
For a comprehensive list of recommended titles covering Asia as a whole - please see the Asia page of FatbirderA Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia
Craig Robson Hardcover - 504 pages ( 1 February, 2000) New Holland Publishers (UK)ISBN: 1843307464
Buy this book from NHBS.com
Birds of South Vietnam
by Philip Wildash - Kodansha EuropeISBN: 0804800642
Buy this book from NHBS.com
Checklist of the Birds of Vietnam
Vo Quy and Nguyen Cu 119 pages, map. Vietnam National University Distributed by NHBS 1995ISBN: 55358
Buy this book from NHBS.com
Chim Viet Nam (Birds of Vietnam)
Nguyen Cu, Le Trong Trai and Karen Phillipps 250 pages, col illus. Birdlife International Vietnam Programme 2000ISBN: 094688840X
Buy this book from NHBS.com
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Birdlife International – Vietnam Programme
WebsiteBirdLife International in Indochina website covers our activities in Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam. You can read about our recent work and the updated news by visting our latest newsletter The Babbler...
National University of Hanoi Zoological Museum
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~vern/hnu-zoo-mus.htmlThe museum contains about 1000 large mammal, 3000 bird, over 400 fish, over 650 snake and some turtle specimens. Many specimens, including a mounted collection, date from the French colonial period.
Bach Ma National Park
WebsiteSatellite View
The 330 species of birds that have been observed in the park represent over one-third of the species found in Vietnam. There are seven species of pheasants, including the rare endemic Edward's pheasant Lophura edwardsi. Historically this species was very common in the forests along the foot of the mountain but was already considered to become extinct by the 1940s. More than 50 years later, it was rediscovered in the park and has become one of the symbols of Bach Ma National Park...
Binh Chau - Phuoc Buu Reserve
InformationSatellite View
Although established in 1986, Binh Chau - Phuoc Buu Reserve is relatively unknown. This low, sandy, coastal wetland forest - seems almost like scrub bushland - but it is in fact a valuable link in Vietnam's network of natural forests and wetlands. The Reserve has no tourist facilities. It is serviced only by a dirt road.
Cat Tien National Park
InformationSatellite View
This park covers 74,000 Hectares of lowland forest and swamp and is home to numerous birds and mammals. One of Vietnams most important and largest National Parks. Supported by the WWF, projects include surveying the small population of Javan rhinoceros, that still exist in the area the last remaining population on main land. Other mammals include Elephant, Gaur and tiger. Many birds can be found, including such specialities as Germain's Peacock Pheasant, Bar-bellied Pitta and the rare endemic Orange-necked Partridge...
Ha Long Bay
Information PDFSatellite View
Results from preliminary surveys indicate the presence of about 1,000 fish species. Mammals, reptiles and birds are found on the islands, especially the earth type...
Wetlands
WebsiteViet Nam presently has 1 site designated as a Wetland of International Importance, with a surface area of 12,000 hectares...
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2001 [March] - Bill & Doreen Stair
ReportCuc Phuong NP - Quite a lot of rain here as well, but enough clear spots to get some good birding in. Even during the rain it was possible to bird from the shelter of the accommodation building, watching the Sultan Tits feeding close by, or the flocks of Brown Hornbills overhead when the rain cleared at dusk...
2002 [March] - Moira & Graeme Wallace
Report...On the trip as a whole we recorded 447 different species including 14 pheasants/partridges, 15 woodpeckers, 4 hornbills, 6 pittas, 10 laughingthrushes and some uncommon waders...
2002 [October] - Kevin Vang et al - Bach Ma National Park
ReportBach Ma National Park is located in Thua Thien Hue Province about 20 km northwest of 16.05-16.16 degrees north latitude and 107.43-107.53 degrees east longitude. It is a tropical evergreen forest in the northern part of the Central Annam Bio-Unit. The elevation ranges from 200-1500 m. It is lowland evergreen forest from 200-900m and montane evergreen forest from 900-1500 m. It is one of the wettest areas in Viet Nam receiving over 7900 mm of rain annually on the summit of Mt Bach Ma...
2004 [December] - Hanno Stamm - Cuc Phuong and Xuan Thuy
Report...The idea was to see some key species (White-winged Magpie and Pittas in Cuc Phuong, Black-faced Spoonbill in Xuan Thuy)...
2004 [January] - Greg Roberts
Report...We had excellent weather throughout this trip, with no rain at all and just one day lost to fog at Sapa. The trip was arranged through Nguyen Van Viet vietntn@hcm.fpt.vn...
2004 [January] - Thaïs & Howard Armstrong
Report...Bar-bellied Pitta 3 m, 2 f, heard 22; Blue-rumped Pitta 1 excellent & 3 poor views. Silver Pheasant 1m; Red-vented Barbet 2 seen, many heard; Grey-eye Bulbul 7; Japanese Thrush common...
2005 [April] - Hanno Stamm
Report...However, a little bit further on, Richard heard the prize bird. We hunkered down, and it didn't take long at all until we had our next endemic: three absolutely, stunningly beautiful, Collared Laughingthrushes!! For all I cared, we could have turned around right there and then, I was such a happy camper, but a mountain had to be climbed...
2006 [December] - Chris Bradshaw
ReportThis was the first Birdwatching Breaks tour to Vietnam. We visited the southern half of the country visiting the wonderful Cat Tien National Park, various sites on the Da Lat plateau and finally Bach Ma National Park in Central Annam. The weather was generally hot and humid, although some breezy days and overcast conditions clearly made things hard going at times. We were lucky to miss Typhoon Durian that made landfall at Saigon, just 150km away from where we were in Cat Tien. Having caused considerable damage and taken some lives around Saigon, we can consider ourselves very lucky to have just had an afternoon birding only marginally compromised by breezy conditions. However, Typhoon Utor threatened to make landfall near Bach Ma and the rain associated with this weather system disrupted our birding and necessitated our departure a day early...
2006 [December] - Gary & Marlene Babic
Report...We also started to see some interesting birds, including a flock of Ashy-throated Parrotbills, two Little Buntings, one Daurian Redstart and an active flock of Black-headed Greenfinches. An interesting location was scrubland behind the ostrich pens. However, overall the birding was slow, and we only saw a total of 17 species while in Sapa...
2006 [February] - Craig Robson
ReportUndoubtedly, the highlight of the tenth Birdquest to Vietnam was our experience with four Orange-necked Partridges at Cat Tien National Park, as we huddled motionless inside some shady mixed forest. This strikingly-patterned Arborophila has only been seen well by a handful of people since its rediscovery in 1991, after an ‘absence’ of some 64 years! Once again, we recorded a high number of endemics, near-endemics, and diamond birds amongst our grand total of almost 400 species...
2006 [March] - Henk Hendriks
ReportFrom 25 February to 24 March 2006 I made a birding trip to Vietnam in the company of my brother Frans. We decided to spend 2 weeks in the south and another 2 weeks in the north, including a visit to Sapa, an old French hill station, close to the Chinese border, which would gave us another set of species...
2007 [April] - David Diskin
ReportThe following report details a recent visit to southern Vietnam from Hong Kong where I currently live. My aim was threefold: to seek out the endemic and near-endemic species that occur in Cochinchina and South Annam; to look for the five regular species of pitta that are possible in the region; and to do some general tropical-forest birding...
2008 [April] - Lim Kim Seng
Report...Also present were a Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike and our only pair of White-browed Shrike-babblers of the trip. As the waterfall area was closed for the day, we left the amusement park and headed for a side trail that took us down an area of pines. These were the native Da Lat Pine Pinus kesiya. We got good looks of Barred Cuckoo-dove and also saw Verditer Flycatcher...
2009 [December] - John van der Woude
ReportThis was a combined trip to Peninsular Malaysia and South Annam, Vietnam. We had booked a cheap flight Amsterdam - Kuala Lumpur and first spent a few days at Fraser's Hill in Malaysia, to get used to the birds in this Oriental region again...
2009 [January] - Trevor Hardaker
Report[Follow the link to Trip Reports] ....e had about 1,5 hours left before it got dark and headed off down the road leading past our house. Very quickly we were adding new birds to our list including Asian Brown Flycatcher, Arctic Warbler, Indian Roller, Greater Racquet-tailed and Ashy Drongos, Green Imperial Pigeon, Ashy Woodswallow, White-crested Laughingthrush and Green-eared Barbet, as well as our first mammals in the country, Long-tailed Macaques...
2010 [March] - Hans Matheve
Report...A full day was spent near the bamboo covered hills in the Dac Lua area, about 16 KM from the HQ. Here we hoped to see the Orange-necked Partridge which we unfortunately only heard. There were no real trails and we just tried to enter the bamboo wherever possible. There is also a pool (almost dried out when we were there) which might hold some water birds. Again we were dropped off and picked up by a pre arranged vehicle....
2010 [May] - Hanno Stamm
ReportTwo years ago, Richard Craik of Vietnam Birding, Le Quy Minh from the Bach Ma National Park, my wife Ha and I went to the Central Highlands to look for a little-known species, Chestnut-eared Laughingthrush and failed miserably; in particular as we had no tape to lure it out. Since then, there is a recording from Clide Carter. Richard passed this recording on to Simon Mahood and Dave Edwards and, armed with this, they had no problem seeing the Laughingthrushes...
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Birding Pal
InformationLocal birders willing to show visiting birders around their area...
Green Trail Tours
Tour OperatorBorn with the aspiration of bringing hidden Vietnam to the world, Green Trail Tours brings you possibilities of exciting adventures, enchanting discoveries and romance...
Threeland Travel
Tour OperatorThreeland offers spectacular bird watching tours in Xuan Thuy national park – The Ramsar site and a wildlife adventure in Cuc Phuong, unique by its system of limestone mountains...
Vietnam Birding
Tour OperatorWelcome to Vietnam Birding, the specialist for individually-tailored custom birdwatching tours and escorted small group birdwatching tours to Vietnam...
Wild Tour Vietnam
Tour OperatorFigures for the total number of bird species recorded in the country range around 870 species. The high bird species richness in Vietnam can be attributed to the wide latitudinal and elevational variation present within the country, which has led to the development of a wide range of habitat types...
Hotel Sofitel Metropole Hanoi
AccommodationAbout half of Cat Ba island (which has a total area of 354-sq. km) and 90-sq. km of the adjacent inshore water was declared a National Park in 1986 in order to protect the island's diverse ecosystems. More than 20 species of mammals, 69 species of birds and 20 species of reptiles and amphibians can be found in the National Park...
Birds of Vietnam
WebsiteWhat's so great about a list of bird names? After all, the names that men give are just a pale reflection of the birds themselves. Well, bird-lovers may rejoice in biodiversity, but in matters linguistic they tend to use common or garden English as a lowest common denominator. So, in the interest of 'lingua-diversity', here it is: a list of bird species of Vietnam, with names in Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Malay, Indonesian, and French....
Birdwatching Vietnam
WebsiteWelcome to Birdwatching Vietnam, the birding guides team of Wildtour Company who are researching birding condition in Vietnam and specially arrange for individually birding tour as well as escorted small group birdwatching and wildlife exploring tour...
Hanno's Birding Pages
WebsiteAdmittedly, my main interest is birding. However, even the non-birder should find plenty of interest here, as I try to give information on as many aspects of my trips as I can...
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This site was last updated on Sunday, 29th January 2012.
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