# Birds of Chiang Mai · นกเชียงใหม่

Birds of Chiang Mai, drawn by arithmetic under the live sky over Doi Suthep: 23 birds with real recordings, the Coucal Clock that calls at dawn and dusk, a chorus wheel, the mountain from moat to Doi Inthanon, and the birds of the Himmapan.

English: https://nanobotco.github.io/birds-chiang-mai/
Thai: https://nanobotco.github.io/birds-chiang-mai/th/

## Birds

- Greater Coucal (นกกระปูดใหญ่, nok kra-puut yai), Centropus sinensis, 48 cm. Listen for: A deep, hollow poop-poop-poop, six to twenty notes, often a pair answering each other. A cuckoo that raises its own chicks. It builds a domed grass nest deep in a thicket and walks the grass for snails, lizards and grasshoppers. Villages told the time by it: the coucal calls at first light and again at dusk. The Coucal Clock on this page keeps the same hours.
- Asian Koel (นกกาเหว่า, nok ka-wao), Eudynamys scolopaceus, 43 cm. Listen for: A rising ko-EL, ko-EL that climbs and speeds up. Loudest in the hot season, often before dawn and on moonlit nights. The male is glossy black with a red eye; the female is brown, spotted white. She lays her eggs in crows' nests, and the crows raise the chicks. A Thai lullaby begins “กาเหว่าเอย ไข่ให้แม่กาฟัก”: koel, you left your egg for the crow to hatch. The crow raises the chick as her own, until it flies away.
- Oriental Magpie-Robin (นกกางเขนบ้าน, nok kang-khen baan), Copsychus saularis, 20 cm. Listen for: Rich, changing whistles from a roof or a wire, often the first song before dawn. It copies other birds. The male holds his garden all year, tail cocked and flicking. It is the national bird of Bangladesh, where it is called doel.
- Red-whiskered Bulbul (นกปรอดหัวโขนเคราแดง, nok prot hua-khon khrao daeng), Pycnonotus jocosus, 20 cm. Listen for: Bright, bouncy phrases (“pettigrew”, “kink-a-joo”) all day from the bushes. Thai name หัวโขน: the tall crest looks like the pointed head-dress of a khon dancer. In the far south it is นกกรงหัวจุก, star of singing contests: rows of cages hung on poles, judged on voice and stamina. Wild birds are protected in Thailand; contest birds are bred under permit.
- Streak-eared Bulbul (นกปรอดหน้านวล, nok prot naa nuan), Pycnonotus conradi, 20 cm. Listen for: A sharp whit-whit and a scratchy chatter, all over town. Plain brown with pale streaks over the ear, and one of the commonest birds in Chiang Mai gardens. A 2016 DNA study split it from its look-alike twin in Myanmar, the Ayeyarwady bulbul.
- Common Myna (นกเอี้ยงสาริกา, nok iang sa-ri-ka), Acridotheres tristis, 25 cm. Listen for: Gurgles, clicks and whistles. A pair bob their heads and fluff up while they talk. Pairs stay together, often for life. It walks instead of hopping. Carried abroad, it became one of the world's worst invasive species; here it is at home. Sarika is the talking myna of old Thai tales. Sarika charms are carried for a sweet tongue, so that people listen kindly.
- Coppersmith Barbet (นกตีทอง, nok tii thong), Psilopogon haemacephalus, 16 cm. Listen for: tuk… tuk… tuk, on and on, like a smith beating metal. It turns its head with each note, so the sound seems to come from everywhere. ตีทอง means beating gold. It chisels its nest hole in a dead branch and lives on figs.
- Lineated Barbet (นกโพระดกธรรมดา, nok pho-ra-dok tham-ma-da), Psilopogon lineatus, 28 cm. Listen for: A loud, rolling poo-pooh or kotook, repeated from the top of a fig tree: one of the loudest sounds of the hot season. A big barbet with a heavy yellow bill and a streaky brown head. It swallows figs whole and spreads the seeds.
- Black Drongo (นกแซงแซวหางปลา, nok saeng-saeo haang plaa), Dicrurus macrocercus, 28 cm. Listen for: Harsh ti-tiu calls and scolding. A fine mimic. Fearless: it chases crows and hawks from its nest, and small birds nest nearby for the protection. It rides on buffalo and follows grass fires to catch the insects that fly up.
- Spotted Dove (นกเขาใหญ่, nok khao yai), Spilopelia chinensis, 30 cm. Listen for: A soft cru-cru-crooo, the last note falling. Both parents feed the chicks crop milk, a rich liquid made in the throat. Pigeons and doves are among the few birds that make milk. In the deep south, zebra doves (นกเขาชวา) sing in cooing contests from cages hoisted up tall poles.
- Olive-backed Sunbird (นกกินปลีอกเหลือง, nok kin-plii ok lueang), Cinnyris jugularis, 11 cm. Listen for: Thin, sweet cheep notes and a quick trill. กินปลี means banana-flower eater: it sips nectar from banana blossoms. It hangs a purse-shaped nest from eaves and wires, stitched with spider silk.
- White-throated Kingfisher (นกกระเต็นอกขาว, nok kra-ten ok khao), Halcyon smyrnensis, 28 cm. Listen for: A loud, laughing rattle, kililili, often in flight. It hunts far from water too: lizards, frogs, big insects, even small snakes. The blue is not pigment; the feathers' structure scatters blue light.
- Large-tailed Nightjar (นกตบยุงหางยาว, nok top-yung haang yao), Caprimulgus macrurus, 31 cm. Listen for: tchonk… tchonk… tchonk, like an axe on wood, after dusk and sometimes all night. Its Thai name means mosquito-slapper. By day it lies flat on the leaf litter, invisible; at night its huge gape scoops moths from the air. It lays its eggs on bare ground.
- Asian Barred Owlet (นกเค้าแมว, nok khao maeo), Glaucidium cuculoides, 23 cm. Listen for: A rising, bubbling trill that grows louder and faster. It calls by day too. A small owl with no ear tufts, barred all over, hunting by day as well as night: big insects, lizards, mice, small birds.
- Common Tailorbird (นกกระจิบธรรมดา, nok kra-jip tham-ma-da), Orthotomus sutorius, 12 cm. Listen for: A loud, repeated towit-towit-towit, far bigger than the bird. It sews. It pierces the edges of a big leaf with its bill, pulls spider silk or plant fibre through, and builds its nest inside the cone. Darzee in Kipling's “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” is a tailorbird.
- Eurasian Hoopoe (นกกะรางหัวขวาน, nok ka-raang hua khwaan), Upupa epops, 28 cm. Listen for: A soft, hollow hoop-hoop-hoop: three notes, and the bird's name in many languages. Its crest folds flat into an axe (หัวขวาน, axe-head) and opens into a fan when it is excited. It probes the ground for grubs with its long bill. In the Quran and in Jewish lore the hoopoe is Solomon's messenger, the bird that brought news of the Queen of Sheba. In Attar's Persian poem The Conference of the Birds it leads all the birds on their journey to find their king.
- Red Junglefowl (ไก่ป่า, kai paa), Gallus gallus, 70 cm. Listen for: A rooster's crow, cut short: the last note clipped off. The wild ancestor of every chicken on Earth. A 2020 genome study traced the first chickens to the red junglefowl of southwestern China, northern Thailand and Myanmar. Thai children learn the tale of the young Prince Naresuan, a hostage in Hongsawadi, whose fighting cock beat the bird of the Burmese crown prince.
- Green Peafowl (นกยูงไทย, nok yuung thai), Pavo muticus, 200 cm. Listen for: A loud, trumpeting ki-wao at dawn and dusk, carrying across valleys. Endangered. Thailand holds one of the last strong populations, in the west and in the north around Phayao. Tap it: the train opens, its eyespots set on the golden-angle spiral that packs a sunflower's seeds.
- Chinese Pond Heron (นกยางกรอกพันธุ์จีน, nok yaang krok phan jiin), Ardeola bacchus, 47 cm. Listen for: Mostly silent; a harsh kraa when flushed. Streaky brown on the mud, it vanishes until it flies and flashes pure white wings. In breeding dress, drawn here, the head turns chestnut and the back slate.
- Asian Openbill (นกปากห่าง, nok paak haang), Anastomus oscitans, 81 cm. Listen for: Silent, mostly; pairs clatter their bills at the nest. The gap in its bill grips apple snails. When the invasive golden apple snail spread through Thai rice fields, openbills boomed; colonies of tens of thousands now nest in Thailand.
- Green-tailed Sunbird (นกกินปลีหางยาวเขียว, nok kin-plii haang yao khiao), Aethopyga nipalensis, 14 cm. Listen for: Thin tzip notes and a fast twitter among the rhododendrons. It lives near the summit of Doi Inthanon. The Inthanon birds are their own race, angkanensis, named for Doi Ang Ka, the mountain's old name, and the only race with a scarlet breast band.
- Barn Owl (นกแสก, nok saek), Tyto javanica, 34 cm. Listen for: No hoot: a long, rasping shriek in the dark. The heart-shaped face is a dish that funnels sound to the ears, and one ear sits higher than the other, so it can pin a mouse in total darkness. A family eats thousands of rats a year, so farmers put up nest boxes. Around Chiang Mai it is the eastern barn owl; the photograph and recording here are of its western cousin, Tyto alba. In Thailand a barn owl landing on a house is read as a sign of death or bad luck, and the family makes merit to turn it away. The face drawn here is the heart curve: x = 16 sin³t, y = 13 cos t − 5 cos 2t − 2 cos 3t − cos 4t.
- Eurasian Tree Sparrow (นกกระจอกบ้าน, nok kra-jok baan), Passer montanus, 14 cm. Listen for: Cheerful chip, chip, and a roar of chatter at the evening roost. In Asia this is the town sparrow, doing the job the house sparrow does in Europe. At temples, small cages of sparrows are sold to set free for merit, ปล่อยนก. Most of the birds are caught wild for it.

## Licence

Text CC BY 4.0, NaNoBotCo. Code MIT. Recordings and photographs keep their own licences, listed on the page.