Special 14-Day Tour Across Cambodia

Special 14-Day Tour Across Cambodia

A special 14-day tour, covering at least 10 different sites, across this land of wonders. This marvelous trip, already planned for January 16th 2025, is a unique way to experience the Cambodian landscape

 

Already scheduled for January 16th, 2025, CBGA has a special 14-day Cambodia birding tour planned. This extensive cross-country trip, also acts as a fundraiser for our conservation work. It starts in Siem Reap, at Angkor complex, and then heads to the wetlands of the Tonle Sap floodplains Prek Toal. We then continue to Ang Trapeang Thmor, Changkran Roy, the Florican Grassland, TmatBoey (in the northern plains) and the Vulture Restaurant, at Boeng Toal. Our journey continues to the eastern plains, to Kratie, Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary and Dakdam Highland, with a final birding stop at Chaktomuk Marshland, before concluding our adventure in Phnom Penh, or Siem Reap.

Our guide, who has been specially selected for this tour, will help you explore the Cambodian countryside and identify the key bird species. Target birds include the Giant Ibis, White-shouldered Ibis, Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoo, Bar-bellied Pitta, Oriental Bay-Owl, Bengal Florican, Sarus Crane, Milky Stork, Greater Adjutant, Red-headed Vulture, Slender-billed Vulture, White-rumped Vulture, Mekong Wagtail, Green Peafowl, Cambodian Tailorbird, plus many others.

It is possible that we will see up to 300 species, on this two-week tour.  Additional species may include.

 

 

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Accommodation in Siem Reap/Kratie/Mondulkiri will be in comfortable air-con rooms (two single beds in each room). In Tmatboey, the accommodation is basic, with only solar power electricity. In Okoki and Boeng Toal, the accommodation is in safari-style tents, at a camp.

Single supplement is not valid for Tmatboey / Okoki / Boeng  Toal, however, we could arrange it with no extra charge when there is a room available.

 

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14-Day Itinerary:

Transfer to your hotel for an overnight stay in Siem Reap.

Our first birding hotspot is Angkor temple complex, where we will combine birdwatching with a tour of the Angkor Temples. This full day tour includes the magnificent 12th century Angkor Wat, the mysterious Bayon Temple. We will also visit the fabulous Ta Prohm Temple, embraced by the roots of enormous fig trees and gigantic creepers. Intertwined with the temple tour we will see a number of bird species, including: the White-throated Rock-thrush, Black-capped Kingfisher, Black Baza, Alexandrine, Red-breasted Parakeet, Hainan Blue and Taiga Flycatchers. Day 2 ends with an overnight stay in Siem Reap.

On day 3, we have an early start as we head to Tonle Sap Great Lake. We will spend the day birding at the Prek Toal Biosphere Reserve. This is a trip we will make by boat, taking up viewing points in this flooded forest.  Prek Toal has one of the largest concentrations of waterbirds in South-East Asia, including: the Oriental Darter, Spot-billed Pelican, Painted Stork, Milky Stork, Asian Openbill and the Greater and Lesser Adjutants. We will return to Siem Reap in the late afternoon. The itinerary may vary a little depending on conditions at Tonle Sap lake. Days 3 ends with an overnight in Siem Reap.

Day 4 and our birding hotspot is at the wetlands at Ang Trapeang Thmor, in search of the Sarus Crane, Black-necked Stork, Greater Spotted Eagle, Milky Stork, Painted Stork, Oriental Plover and many other species. About 200 bird species have been recorded at the reserve, so this is a birdwatchers paradise. We end the day, once more, returning to stay in Siem Reap.

We begin our day at a usual habit of birders heading north of Siem Reap town to Changkran Roy community managed ecotourism site for the target species e.g. Bar-belled Pitta, Oriental Bay-Owl, Siamese Fireback, Green-legged Partridge and so on. On the way there, we will stop at a few locations to see some DDF species e.g. Blossom Headed Parakeet, Black-headed Woodpecker, Common and Greater Flamebacks, and many other species of DDF habitat. Lunch will be provided at the community site. We will use hide for the afternoon and night birding after sunset.

AM at the same Pitta site and transfer back to Siem Reap town after lunch.

We will depart Siem Reap early morning and head to the grasslands of Kompong Thom, in search of the rare and endangered Bengal Florican and the wintering Manchurian Reed-warbler. Raptors including Eastern Marsh Harrier, Pied Harrier, and Greater Spotted Eagle, are often seen cruising over the grasslands here. After then we continue to Tmatboey, one of the last strongholds of the very rare Giant Ibis and White-shouldered Ibis.  We will be staying overnight at the community managed ecolodge, at Tmatboey.

We will devote the next two days to the Giant Ibis and rare birds of the dry dipterocarp forest. Other species we will be on the lookout for include:  White-shouldered Ibis, Brown Fish-Owl, Spotted Wood-Owl, and White-rumped Falcon and the Crested Treeswift. We also expect to see a large number of woodpeckers species, which will include: the Common Woodpecker, Greater Flameback, White-bellied, Black-headed, Grey-headed, Rufous-bellied, Yellow-crested, and Great Slaty Woodpecker. We will be spending a second night at Tmatboey Ecolodge.

After a final morning’s birding around Tmatboey, our group will head towards Boeng Toal. We will pass through Dongplet village and meet people here from the local community. Arriving at Boeng Toal at early afternoon, we will then go birding near the campsite.

Before dawn, we will make our way to a hide positioned close to the vulture restaurant. The scene is set, with the possibility of up to 70 vultures present. These birds often compete for the carcass of a cow with the Golden Jackal. After observing the vultures feeding at close range, we will leave Boeng Toal and head to Kratie.  Arriving in Kratie late afternoon, we will begin our search for the Asian Golden Weaver, Mekong Wagtail, and a variety of wetland birds. We will be staying overnight in Kratie.

Day 11 will see us on a 90-minute boat trip, from Kratie, along the Mekong River, to look for the Irrawaddy Dolphins. We will then head up to Seima Forest and Mondulkiri, near the Vietnam border. Subject to scheduling, we should have time to go birding, late afternoon, around Seima. This site is home to several species of Barbets, Green Pigeons and much more. There will be one more stop scheduled on this day and that is to see the rare Green Peafowl. We will be staying overnight at Mondulkiri, in a comfortable hotel.

Day 12 continues with birding at Seima Forest and then lunch at the Oromis Resort. This area is known for its strip of riparian forest. We will then head to some higher elevation spots, checking for the Crimson Sunbird, Black-throated Sunbird, Asian Fairy Bluebird, Banded Broadbill, Bar-bellied Pitta, Red-vented and Indochinese Barbet, Phylloscopus warblers, Changeable Hawk Eagle, Black Eagle and maybe also the Scaly-breasted Partridge. Seima is home to a number of monkey and ape species. It has the largest population of Black-shanked Douc in the world. It also has large numbers of the Northern Pig-tailed and Long-tailed Macaque, as well as the Yellow-cheeked Crested Gibbon. Most of these ape and monkey species are regularly seen on our tours. We will be staying overnight at Mondulkiri at the same hotel, in Mondulkiri.

Dak Dam is hill evergreen forest located just an hour from Mondulkiri, the hills along the Vietnamese border reach over 800m asl. Remaining forest patches here hold an interesting collection of birds unlike any other site in Cambodia. Black eagle, Pale-capped pigeon, Indochinese Barbet, Blue-winged Siva, Silver-eared Mesia, White-cheeked Laughingthrush, Rufous-capped Babbler, Black-chinned Yuhina, Black-crowned Parrotbill, and Black-browed Fulvetta are some of the records from this site.

We will spend our last morning birding to Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary and then set off around 9am in the direction of Phnom Penh. We will make one stop along the way at the Chaktomuk Marshland to locate a newly discovered species, the Cambodian Tailorbird (Orthotomus chaktomuk). This area of grassland is also home to species such as Plain-backed Sparrow, as well as waterbirds such as Oriental Darter and Painted Stork. Our tour will finish in Phnom Penh, at your hotel or at the airport. For those wishing to return with us to Siem Reap, that can be easily arranged.