Birding Vietnam (part III)

And so my birding tour of Vietnam has come to an end. I brought home just a few souvenirs: a pair of lounging pants, super comfy; a shirt for David featuring pineapples, XXL (he actually wears a M, but sizes are relative); a pair of green peacock feathers; a tube of Korean chili paste from the airplane; and, perhaps the most important, my completed Field Checklist.

Pretty much every evening for the past three weeks, fifteen minutes before dinner, the ten of us would gather in the dining room or bar and go through the 18 pages of the checklist, reviewing the day's birds. I used a check mark for birds I'm sure I saw; a dot for ones that other people saw but I didn't (or didn't get a good look at—flitting shadows in the vines don't count); and an H for ones that we—or at least our leader, Susan—heard (which also don't count).

Birds that I got a very good look at or that knocked my socks off with their beauty got a star in the margin. Here are photos of many of those birds, gleaned from the Web. There are too many to cover in one post, so I'll present them a dozen at a time. (As always, click on the images to seem them large on black.)

Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus). Photo by Sasi Smith

Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis). Photo by Ryan Cheng

Malayan Night-Heron (Gorsachius melanolophus).
Photo by Francesco Veronesi

Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela).
Photo by Shahin Olakara

Collared Falconet (Microhierax caerulescens).
Photo by Subhash Chanda

Vernal Hanging Parrot (Loricula vernalis). Photo by Alex Vargas

Asian Barred Owlet (Glaucidium cuculoides).
Photo by Prasanna Kumar Mamidala

Orange-Breasted Trogon (Harpactes oreskios).
Photo by arinaturephotography.blogspot.com

Banded Kingfisher (Lacedo pulchella). Photo by Lars Petersson

Blue-bearded Bee-Eater (Nyctyornis athertoni). Photo by Jason Thompson

Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis). Photo by Susan Schermer

Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris). Photo by Eric Bronson