Phnom Krom birding trip with Mina, Cambodia, March 3, 2024

These are the photos I took on a birding outing at Phnom Krom while staying at Siem Reap. My guide Mina gave me a list of the 52 species we saw, (a bug in my software finds 53 at the moment?) but I only add to my list those I can photograph or identify myself (or at least think I could identify them if I saw them again), which is about half. As Cambodian birds are new to me (except for those I learned traveling in through Thailand and Loas), I stuck to the photos. As I don't have a book, I mostly used Merlin BirdID or Google Lens to try to identify the birds, but I did check whether they really matched. TBI is my code for 'to be identified', which you'll still see a few times. Highlights for me were the kingfisher (always!), bee-eaters, the roller, the masked bulbuls, the drongos with their long split tails, seeing a new kind of starling, and the Baya weavers at the end.

By the way, I booked my birding tour via Sam Veasna Conservation Tours - ask for Mina as your guide, he was knowledgable, friendly, and his English was good! Mina also does tuktuk tours without birding, see his TripAdvisor page.

This is what Mina listed, complete with counts of about how many there were:

10 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) [Profile]
1 Oriental Turtle-Dove -- Sitting the wire line infront of us [Profile]
2 Red Collared-Dove [Profile]
4 Spotted Dove [Profile]
2 Zebra Dove [My observation]
3 Greater Coucal [Profile]
1 Lesser Coucal [Profile]
1 Plaintive Cuckoo [Profile]
12 Germain's Swiftlet [My observation]
2 Asian Palm Swift [Profile]
1 Ruddy-breasted Crake -- Flew across our face very quick [Profile]
60 Little Ringed Plover [My observation]
1 Wood Sandpiper [Profile]
50 Whiskered Tern [My observation]
1 Painted Stork [My observation]
1 Oriental Darter [My observation]
4 Little Cormorant [Profile]
6 Little Egret [Profile]
1 Striated Heron [Profile]
10 Chinese Pond-Heron [My observation]
3 Eastern Cattle Egret [Profile]
1 Great Egret [My observation]
2 Medium Egret [Profile]
4 Gray Heron [My observation]
2 Common Kingfisher [My observation]
20 Blue-tailed Bee-eater [My observation]
1 Indochinese Roller -- Heard early morning [Profile]
1 Ashy Minivet [My observation]
1 Black-winged Cuckooshrike [Profile]
5 Black Drongo [My observation]
4 Brown Shrike [Profile]
3 Large-billed Crow [Profile]
1 Common Tailorbird [Profile]
3 Plain Prinia [My observation]
1 Oriental Reed Warbler -- Heard [Profile]
3 Barn Swallow [Profile]
2 Streak-eared Bulbul [Profile]
7 Yellow-vented Bulbul [My observation]
2 Black-collared Starling [My observation]
1 Common Myna [Profile]
16 Great Myna [My observation]
1 Asian Brown Flycatcher [Profile]
1 Taiga Flycatcher [Profile]
2 Amur Stonechat [My observation]
1 Pied Bushchat -- Male [Profile]
6 Baya Weaver -- Male and Female [My observation]
20 Asian Golden Weaver [My observation]
8 Scaly-breasted Munia [Profile]
5 House Sparrow [Profile]
2 Plain-backed Sparrow [My observation]
12 Eurasian Tree Sparrow [Profile]
1 Paddyfield Pipit [Profile]
Not on Mina's list: Purple heron, Rufous treepie.

A total of 24 species is included.