Myanmar July – August 2013, Inle Lake

This site is another major touristic attraction that is also on the birding radar. Access to the gate-way town of the lake, Nyaung Shwe, is vere easy. Here accommodation can be found for every budget. We stayed in the Four Sisters Guest House, which can highly recommend for its cheap, but nice rooms, with views over the rice paddies that might yield Sarus Cranes. However best of all are the reliable and very tame Collared Scops Owls which show up in the tiny garden everyday around 20:00. For birders this site is known for its healthy population of Jerdon´s Bushchat and for being a reliable site for Collared Myna. In 2012 two other key species were added in the form of Sarus Crane and Chinese Grass Babbler, which were discovered in the North-eastern edge of the lake. Chinese Grass Babbler is the striata subspecies and a potential split form the Rufous-rumped Grass Babbler complex (formerly Rufous-rumped Grassbird). If being split, Inle Lake would be the sole place to see this species!

Collared Scops Owl (Otus lettia)

We first did the standard touristic boat ride every tourist does on the lake, visiting local shops and monasteries with the thought: what birds can we see on this tour? This turned out to be a good idea for we managed to see two male Jerdon´s Bushchats on the eastern side of the main channel connecting Nyaung Shwe with the lake and around ten Collared Myna´s on the floating gardens in the middle of the lake! Other interesting birds included Yellow and Cinnamon Bittern, many Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, Striated and Wire-tailed Swallow, Yellow-bellied Prinia and Clamorous Reed Warbler.

The next day we walked into the fields and marshes South-east of Nyaung Shwe, mainly in search for Sarus Crane. We did not the cranes, but we did find a pair of Jerdon´s Bushchats with juveniles east of the side channels of the main channel. More surprisingly and excitingly: we found two Chinese Grass Babblers a bit north of this site. This species was only seen from boat rides before! Other good birds included Lineated Barbet, Plaintive Cuckoo, Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Chestnut-capped and Yellow-eyed Babbler, Paddyfield Pipit, Crested Bunting and Black-tailed Crake.

Female Jerdon´s Bushcat  (Saxicola jerdoni)

Male Jerdon´s Bushcat (Saxicola jerdoni)

Plaintive Cuckoo (Cacomantis merulinus) 

Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus)

Yellow-bellied Prinia (Prinia flaviventris)

Although this is a highly touristic site, visited heavily by birders and non-birders, there is still a lot to be discovered. Therefore I recommend looking on different spots than just the main spots the birding tours always visit (Bushchat site on the main channel and the “birding platform”). We did not go to any of these and still saw almost all key species.