One more subspecies of Common Iora and small group of Spot-billed Pelican were record by observation of Vietnambirds.net birding tour

One more subspecies of Common Iora (Sub: 𝑨𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒂 𝒕𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒂 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒊) and Small group of Spot-billed Pelican were record by observation of Vietnambirds.net birding tour in some small mangrove forest along to the coast of Mekong delta.

At the end of June, we took a 4-day trip to the southern coastal mangroves. We had the task of counting and observing birds in the estuary area of Soc Trang province. In addition to some migratory birds feeding along the coast such as: Kentish plover, Malaysian Plover, Greater Sandplover, Lesser sandplover, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwit, Collared kingfisher, Little cormorant, Blue-tailed Bee-eater… we also met many other species of birds only distributed in the mangrove forests of the lower Mekong River such as: Mangrove Blue Flycatcher, Mangrove Whistler, Pied Fantail, Asian golden weaver, Baya weaver, Scaly-breasted Munia, White-headed munia, Chestnut Munia, Laced Woodpecker, Freckle-breasted Woodpecker…

One more subspecies of Common Iora

Especially, in the afternoon of the last day of the survey, we encountered many times (4 times in a forest about 3km long) along the coast, there was a completely new subspecies of Common Iora bird in Vietnam. Sub: 𝑨𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒂 𝒕𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒂 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒊

In database of this species, this sub A.t.humei just recorded in west-central of India.

So, in Vietnam, now we can observed 3 sub of Common Iora: A.t.philibi (north and central), A.t.cambodiana (South) and more in coast mangrove as mentioned above.

Small group of Spot-billed Pelican

In addition, an interesting finding when we sailed along the major estuaries, we discovered 4 individuals of Spot-billed Pelican feeding and resting in the My Thanh estuary – a tributary of the Mekong river.

The Spot-billed Pelican is a NT-rated bird in the IUCN redlist assessments. This bird is widely distributed from mainland India to southern and southeastern Asia. However, in Vietnam, this is a bird severely affected by loss of foraging habitat, hunting (due to its large size), has made Spot-billed Pelican species become very difficult observed in Vietnam for over the years.

The Spot-billed Pelicans observed this time is a good sign, they have adapted to feeding in large estuaries, where humans are difficult to access and cannot hunt them. However, foraging in deep water is not easy for Pelican birds.