Thailand

With huge gratitude to the speakers from China, Thailand and Vietnam, including the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, there is now a short summary of the special webinar on mist nets in Asia on the Oriental Bird Club website.

In addition to the speakers, the organisers would like to thank the 130 people who joined online from around the world and the interpreters who kindly provided simultaneous English and Mandarin translation.

A snippet of the summary is below. For the full article, please see this link.

“The webinar heard case studies from south and north Vietnam (Trang Nguyen from WildAct Vietnam and Nguyen Hoai Bao of WildTour and BirdLife International), Thailand (Rongrong Angkaew of King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi) and China (Dan Liang of Princeton University). The case studies brought home the scale of illegal mist-net use in Asia for poaching and crop protection and some of the pioneering work to engage with authorities and local communities to try to reduce bird mortality, especially in wetlands and production landscapes in the region.

Representatives from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China – Deputy Director General Qiu Jinghui and Prosecutors Mou Qi and Ding Shu – then gave short presentations on the action being taken in China to tackle this issue. Deputy General Qiu revealed that addressing illegal mist-net use was now a high priority for the Supreme People’s Procuratorate who are focusing on “preventative, systematic and co-ordinated protection of wild birds.” The prosecutors had engaged with e-commerce platforms where mist-nets are cheaply and easily available to flag to anyone searching for mist-nets that their use to catch or kill wild birds is illegal. The national level prosecutors had also instructed provincial level prosecutors to prioritise the control of mist-nets. Case studies were presented in which local officials, after finding wild birds were being killed using mist-nets, had engaged with local communities to raise awareness of the law relating to wild bird protection and to explore alternative crop protection methods that do not involve the killing of wild birds. In 2025 research will take place into identifying a standard for anti-bird nets that protect crops but are more visible to birds, for example nets with a thick cord, and controlling the production and public sale of nets with a thinner cord. The prosecutors also noted that some of the mist-nets being used in Thailand and Vietnam had been imported from China and they will explore the potential to restrict their export from China.”

The organisers and speakers agreed to continue this discussion and there will be a meeting shortly after the Spring Festival to discuss next steps.

Thanks again to everyone involved for making the webinar possible and for shining a light on this important issue. For those that missed the webinar, it is expected that the case study presentations will soon be available via the Oriental Bird Club website. Links will be provided as soon as they are live.

Title image: a caged Yellow-breasted Bunting positioned as a lure adjacent to an illegally set mist net in Hebei Province (photo by Terry Townshend)

Just back from Christmas and New Year in Thailand. In between the sightseeing, hitting the markets and the Thai cooking course (yes, really), I managed a bit of birding. Highlight has to be the Hornbills at Khao Yai.

We enjoyed two full days in Khao Yai and, with an expert guide, Komuel (who, incidentally was mauled by a tiger about 15 years ago and sports nasty scars on his arm to prove it), I was keen to explore the less-visited parts of the forest park to look for birds, in particular Hornbills. There are four species of Hornbill in Khao Yai – Great, Wreathed, Oriental Pied and Brown – and we started early to try to catch their early morning feeding frenzy. Hornbills tend to favour large, mature, fruiting trees and the trail we followed took in several of these hulks that looked several hundred years old judging by their girth. It wasn’t long before we were enjoying good views of Oriental Pied Hornbill and then, shortly afterwards, a pair of Wreathed. All were in the treetops feeding with unexpected dexterity, seemingly despite their enormous bills. As the track wound deeper into the forest we flushed one, then a second, Siamese Fireback and a pitta sp shot across the path and disappeared before we had a chance to identify it. A little further on we heard an astonishing “whooosh—-whoosh” as two Great Hornbills flew over our heads through the canopy and landed in a tree a short distance away. The sound of these birds’ wings was simply awesome – and as they passed overhead casting shadows over us, there was a distinct prehistoric feeling in the air. It was almost as if we had been transported back in time to the age of the pterodactyls. We reached a small clearing from where we could see the birds feeding and, after a few seconds, I couldn’t believe my luck when one flew straight over our heads. I grabbed the camera and reeled off about 10 shots as it laboured to the other side of the clearing. Wow! This bird was then followed by a second, then a third, then a fourth bird, and we watched in awe as these magnificent birds meandered from tree to tree. As they disappeared deeper into the forest, we continued our walk and we enjoyed views of 2 Red Junglefowl, Red-headed Trogon, Greater Flameback, Scaly-breasted Partridge, Hill Myna, White-bellied Yuhina, Asian House Martin and White-crested Laughingthrush. We also encountered fresh elephant tracks, bear scratches on the bark of a tree, Pig-tailed Macaques, Gibbons and Giant Black Squirrels.

However, it is the Great Hornbills that will remain strongest in the memory – smashing birds.