Copyright © 2017 by Ali Bernie Buga-ay, all rights reserved. Spot-billed Pelican: this photograph may not be used without permission.
Also called the Grey Pelican, it breeds in Southern Asia, Pakistan to India, and up to Indonesia. It is also one of the attractions in Cambodia and a transient migrant to Thailand. There are times that a flock must have stayed too long at an area and suddenly they disappear flying out to another country.
It has been three years since we wanted to find the Spot-billed Pelican of Thailand; we wanted it so badly because it is near Threatened and time is running. Most of the time we were at some other bird areas in which we decided explore. always we planned to have, we decided again to do it in 2018. Though we have seen a lot of posting on Facebook the whereabouts of this lovely bird, it is hard to know sometimes if it stays at that particular location.
We did not expect to find this in Bang Pra during our last visit but I was hoping that it would be there as Arpha Vida Buga-ay was asking me to go to Chachoengsao, where they were also spotted, in stead of Bang Pra. It was going to be a futile search had we chosen that direction, lucky we did not, we found one perch on a branch of a bare tree, very far and difficult to get details and clarity. We thought of renting a boat to come closer, we forgot the idea as we found more flying beauties as we walked on the tiled path.
Bang Pra Non-Hunting Area, Chonburi, Thailand
July 30, 2017
Nikon D500 + Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR
Fotopro TS-85C | Nitecore UNK1
