Birds Watching and Wildlife Tours in Cat Tien National Park

Why is Cat Tien National Park famous for tourists?

• This is a quite well protected National Park. Separating natural geography from the population by the Dong Nai River is a great advantage of this National Park, local people cannot easily go into the forest to hunt. Therefore, animals here are still very rich.
• This is a place that was marketed early, there are many projects of WWF, USiad… on rhino conservation, crocodile reintroduction to Crocodile Lake… that have been implemented more than 30 years ago, making this National Park more “famous” than many other National Parks.
• This national park is easy to reach, it is not too far from Ho Chi Minh City (160km) and is located between Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat, two tourist cities in the south of Vietnam. To get here from Ho Chi Minh City, there are at least 8 bus trips per day. Not to mention the continuous sleeper buses every 5 minutes on Highway 20 (HCMC to Da Lat route), from here you can take a taxi, motorbike taxi… another 22km to the National Park.
• A lot of Vietnamese people come here, mainly to walk, take pictures and eat. Normally they don’t care much about wildlife, but welcoming about 2 million local visitors each year also makes makes this National Park famous.
• Foreign tourists often research via the internet before participating in wild tourism in Vietnam. Of course, the top showing result is still Cat Tien National Park, but to be honest there are many national parks that are not as famous, such as Dong Nai nature reserve, Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park… which are places worth visiting more for the purpose of sightseeing and approaching wild animals, especially amphibians, reptiles, and birds.

Where is Cat Tien National Park?

• Nam Cat Tien commune, Tan Phu district, Dong Nai province.
• Located at an altitude of 150m-250m above sea level, extremely humid, average annual temperature ranges from 20-32C, rainy season lasts from mid-May to mid-October.
• The peak dry season is from January to April.
• The rainy season is cooler and more pleasant than the dry season, because the climate here is very hot, the humidity is always higher than 90%, making many foreign visitors here feel short of breath and get tired quickly if walking…

Cat Tien National Park is a place for experience the humid rainforest. With a diverse flora and fauna, especially birds, animals, and reptiles …. This is the place where supports a variety of:

• Primary and secondary lowland evergreen forest.
• Freshwater wetlands with open lakes and seasonally inundated grasslands
• Dipterocarp forests lose their leaves in the dry season.

How to go to Cat Tien National Park?

Cat Tien National Park is located between Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat, two tourist cities in the south of Vietnam. To get here from Ho Chi Minh City, there are at least 8 bus trips per day. Not to mention the continuous sleeper buses every 5 minutes on Highway 20 (HCM City to Da Lat city route), from here you can take a taxi, motorbike taxi… another 22km to the National Park.

By private car: from Ho Chi Minh City and it takes 3.5 hours to travel.

Birds in Cat Tien National Park?

• The hotspot for birding and birds photography tour in Vietnam, with list highlight birds: Bar-bellied Pitta, Blue-rumped Pitta, Germain’s peacock pheasant, Siamese fireback, Banded Broadbill, Black and Red Broadbill, Orange-breasted Trogon, Green-legged Partridge, Orange-necked Partridge, Pale-headed Woodpecker, …

• More with some nice birds we can meet on the trails : Scarlet minivet, Banded kingfisher, Square-taied Drongo-cuckoo, Thick-billed Green-pigeon,  Common Flameback, Lesser yellownaped, Laced Woodpeckers, Great-slaty woodpecker, Blue-eared Kingfisher, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Van hasselt’s Sunbirds, Ruby-checked Sunbird, Crimson Sunbird , Green peafowl,…

• We can see on the trails understory of humidity forest : Woolly-necked Stork, Indochinese cuckooshrike, Large woodshrike, Violet Cuckoo, Indian Cuckoo, Banded Bay Cuckoo, Indochinse Blue Flycatcher, Hainan Blue Flycatcher, Stripe-throated Bulbul, Black-headed bulbul, Black-crested bulbul,  Greater Coucal, Black Drongo, Greater racket-tailed Drongo, Bronze Drongo, Blue-winged leafbird, Chestnut-fronted leafbird, Common tailorbird, Dark-necked Tailorbird, Ashy Tailorbird , Pale-legged warbler, Yellow-browed Warbler , Grey-faced Tit-babbler, Pin-striped Tit-babbler, Red-legged Crake, …

• Some water-birds in Crocodile lake : Asian golden weaver, Baya weaver, Lesser Adjiutant, Little Egret, Castle Erget, Yellow bittern, Chinese pond-heron, Javan pond-heron,Purple Swamphen, White-breasted Waterhen, Slaty-legged Crake, …
• Raptor and Accipiter : Crested Goshawk, Shikra, Besra, Oriental honey buzzard, Black kite, Black-winged Kite, Crested Serpent Eagle, Osprey, Lesser fish-eagle..
• Owls: Barn owl, Brow boobook, Asian barred Owlet, Collared Scop-owl, Spot-bellied Eagle Owl, Brown wood-owl, Oriental Bay-owl, Blyth’s frogmounth, Large-tailed nightjar, Great-eared nightjar.

Bird-hide for bird photography in Cat Tien National Park is available for rent?

Birds and wildlife in Vietnam are not human-friendly, due to over-hunting, which has been going on for decades.

Therefore, different from many neighboring countries, want to take pictures and have many beautiful photos of birds in Vietnam. You can only use bird-hides.

Currently in Cat Tien National Park, Vietnambirds have built 2 bird-hides for important and hard-to-reach birds. They are attractive birds and specialties here: Bar-bellied Pitta, Blue-rumped Pitta, Germain’s peacock pheasant, Siamese Fireback, Partridge, babblers, flycatchers, bulbuls… you can get a lot of great photos from our bird-hides.

You can contact the National Park’s visitor center to rent this bird-hide.

How is the wildlife in Cat Tien National Park?

Cat Tien is one of the most important sites in Vietnam for the conservation of large mammals. Among the large mammal species that have been confirmed to occur at the national park are: Gaur, Sambar deer, Asian Elephant , Red-muntjak, Lesser mouserdeer …

In addition, due to the strict protection of natural forests, small carnivores (Civets, cats, squirrels, lorises, etc.) can also exist in Cat Tien.

Cat Tien National Park is also a nationally important site for primates conservation, including: Black-shanked Douc langur, Annam Silver Langur, Northern Pig-tailed macaque, Long-tailed macaque and Yellow-cheeked Gibbon.

Snakes : Ruby-eyed Green Viper, Malayan Banded Krait, King Cobra, Indochinese Spitting Cobra,  Vine Snake, Kuri Snakes… When arrive to the lake, some of lizards can be seen around these lakes, as well as Siamese Crocodile.

More with reptiles: Calotes bachae  , Cyrtodactylus cattienensis, Draco indochinensis, Eutropis macularia, Gekko gecko, Sphenomorphus maculatus, Takydromus sexlineatus, Varanus salvator …

Trails in Cat Tien National Park?

Have many trails under the canopy of primary forest in areas near the center of the National Park, The trails are usually easy to go, the terrain here is flat and without slopes. However, you must have a local guide with you if you don’t want to get lost.

This is the biggest note you should remember, getting lost here is always easy to happen, and it will be dangerous if you get lost overnight in the forest. There are some cases of death due to getting lost in Cat Tien National Park.

Rescue center in Cat Tien National Park?

There are 3 wildlife rescue centers in Cat Tien National Park: a bear rescue center, a primate rescue center located on a small island in the middle of the Dong Nai River (Dao Tien island), and a rescue center mixed-use households located in the center of the national park.

How to discovery wildlife at night in Cat Tien National Park?

You cannot go on your own to discover the diversity of animals in Cat Tien National Park. This is illegal, the law in Vietnam prohibits the act of entering protected areas after 18:00pm without permission.

Mass tourism in Cat Tien National Park offers a “nocturnal animal viewing” service in a way that allows visitors to sit in Safari cars with rear seats to be able to see a few species of herbivores. This ride is not cheap for 40 minutes, and you will be disappointed in its results.

Vietnambirds is currently a wildlife tourism company that is allowed to carry out the type of tour that takes visitors to discover wildlife at night in Cat Tien National Park. We have local guides to get you into the forest after 18:00pm with the protection of the rangers. On the trails, streams in the National Park, you will be guided to find and take photos of the wonderful snakes, reptiles, insects… in this National Park.

Should you choose a hotel inside the national park or outside?

In the rainy season, the humidity in Cat Tien area is very high, the air is always stuffy, this will make you feel hot and uncomfortable. Therefore, you should choose to stay in hotels outside the National Park.

The dry season, which usually lasts from November to April, when you can choose to stay inside the NP, although the rooms are old, you have the advantage of not having to take a boat across the river to enter the NP every day (you will have to buy tickets to re-enter the park). If you likes to explore nature at night, you should choose to stay inside the NP because after 9:00pm, the river transport service will not work, you have to stay inside the NP.

Vietnambirds will advise you where the accommodation has good conditions such as: clean rooms, beautiful views and a restaurant serving delicious food.

Are there any dangers visitors face?

Wild animals like Elephants and Gaurs are rarely seen, and they always find a way to stay away from humans, so there will be no danger from wildlife in Cat Tien. However, visitors should not disturb or disturb wildlife if they accidentally encounter them on the way.

However, visitors should not go alone in the forest, the trails here can quickly lead you to get lost. It is very difficult to find the exit if you get lost in Cat Tien National Park. There is no phone signal in the forest, so getting lost will make you exhausted before anyone else’s help is available.

Exploring the S’tieng ethnic group and ethnic traditions?

Today, the indigenous minorities have almost assimilated, they no longer dress and live as their traditions.

Many tourists visit Cat Tien with the eager hope to discover new things from the ethnic minority culture here (the Stieng people), the results will not be as expected.

Community-based tourism associated with the interests of ethnic minorities has not been paid attention in Cat Tien.

What is the difference that Vietnambirds’ package tour service brings to you?

How will we move inside Cat Tien National Park?

The tours organized by Vietnambirds always take care of the clients. With fixed bird watching spots near the accommodation, visitors will walk, with the help of guides, visitors can comfortably without fear of having to carry their photography equipment heavily. With some locations far from the center of the National Park, we always bring the most comfort to visitors with the use of a pick-up car as part of our all-inclusive service. Visitors can comfortably sit in the car and observe and take pictures of birds and animals in the grassland areas.

Does the restaurant serve meals that suit guests’ taste?

It’s an important question that needs answering when tourists visit a place. Eating to ensure enough health during the journey, it also requires not causing trouble due to sudden changes in portions and foods. In addition, food is also a form of tourism that brings joy and comfort to tourists watching birds and discovering Vietnam’s wildlife.

The restaurant serves a variety of Asian and European menus, and features traditional Vietnamese local flavors.

Guests will be very satisfied with the quality of meals we serve during the trip.

We have excellent quality wildlife guides:

Around Cat Tien National Park, there is no local guide that can help you.

To be honest, the total number of bird-guides in Vietnam (working for all wildlife travel companies, and individuals) is about 10 people, it is difficult for you to find a bird-guide if you just suddenly contact.

Wildlife guide (can guide you about wild animals, forest ecology…) has only 2 people. This is a very modest number compared to Vietnam’s population of 100 million.

Currently, our bird-guide, in addition to his skills in guiding visitors to watch birds, search for birds, call and lure birds to visitors, can also guide you on how to take many beautiful photos.

What extra things do visitors need to prepare when coming to Cat Tien National Park?

When participating in bird watching and spotlighting tours, visitors need to prepare clothes suitable for walking in the forest, clothes that are easy to sweat and dry quickly, should not wear colorful clothes, In addition, it is necessary to prepare socks made of thick fabric and long enough to cover the ankles. (Vietnambirds will provide such socks for free to visitors if you do not prepare in time.)

Insect sprays to avoid mosquito bites and insect attacks are important to carry. These drugs are available for sale near the ticket gates of the National Park. On Vietnambirds tours, we give our visitors free sprays that we have found to be very effective against mosquitoes and leeches.

Most of the travel to Cat Tien is done during the dry season, however, there are still unseasonal rains that appear suddenly. Therefore, visitors should prepare a raincoat or gear to protect their camera from getting wet.

Outside the National Park is a densely populated area, where we can easily buy medicines for basic needs such as antipyretic, anti-headache medicine, anti-diarrheal medicine, …

TIPs to remember when birding in Cat Tien National Park?

• Leechesare common residence in Cat Tien National park, so you should prepare some restriction medicine (sprays, creams…). Our services will provide to you the spray for restrict leeches, mosquito…
• The Climate in Cat Tienin the dry season (December to April) is very hot, humid and uncomfortable. So, you must prepare conform clothes, hats.
• You are not allowed to entrance into the forest after 18:00 pm. So with spotlighting, we will contact with the rangers to arrange your tour. That payment included in your tour cost.
• Some people choose bus from Ho Chi Minh city to Cat Tien NP, but that way not easy for foreigner, the public bus in Vietnam is noise and dirty, the bus does not stop at the prescribed place but drops around along the way…