This year, I spent the winter break visiting family in Vietnam. Although I had been to Vietnam twice before, this trip was the first time I would bring binoculars and make note of the birds in the local environs. I’ ve only been seriously birding since the fall of 2023, prior to that I noticed birds if they were obviously singing but never purposely sought them out to observe and wonder about them as beings. On my previous trips, I ' m sad to admit, I didn’ t really notice any birds. I remember being awe struck by the water buffalo and the little egrets perched on their backs and that’ s about it. Now, as an enthusiastic birder, I couldn’ t help but hear the cacophony of bird song despite the nuisance of city traffic. I couldn’ t help but look skyward and catch the sight of small flocks of birds busy and on the go.
Here is a recap of one of my birding adventures that took place in-between family time and eating good food.
Sơn Trà, Đà Nẵñg, Vietnam Tuesday, December 23, 2025
There’ s something familiar about the thickness of the jungle air, the scent of the sea and the timber of the spoken language, yet everything is still so foreign as I am a visitor to these lands, even though my ancestors are buried deep in the highlands of Quảng Ninh. I also felt this way about the birds we saw as we hiked up the paved roads behind a fancy resort situated between the jungle and the beach. Birds familiar in shape to the birds I often see here in Vancouver, but also foreign in their calls and the colour of their feathers.
My partner and I saw and heard many birds on our 2 + hours walk, but without a local guide, we were unable to identify much of what we saw. The birds we could identify, with the help of Merlin( a bird identification app) and me furiously studying birding guides before leaving for Vietnam, were obvious and could be nothing else but that particular bird.
For example, we heard a flock of White-crested Laughingthrush before we saw them, their laughter clear and loud through the palms and the banyan trees. They jumped from tree top to tree top with their highly visible white-crest stark against the dark green vegetation. What a joy it was to see them, their laughter contagious.
Another clearly identifiable bird was the Stripe-Throated Bulbul, a pair of them dropping down from a tree branch onto the road to pick at bugs. The yellow streaking down their throat, visible and bright in the sunlight.
We likely saw an Indochinese Blue Flycatcher, but it was just a quick flash of bright blue before disappearing into the undergrowth. There were so many moments like that, tiny birds, smaller than an American Robin, quickly disappearing before we could get a clear look.
We did get some great looks at a Lineated Barbet, with its big yellow-orangish beak and clear orangish eye ring, sitting up and calling with an echoing thrill.
Spotting the male Crimson Sunbird, as he fed on the nectar of the ginger plants was another highlight for us. He was so reminiscent of an Anna ' s Hummingbird and yet so completely different, violently red and iridescent. We watched for 15 minutes as he moved from flower to flower, chasing away a female of his own species.
Now that I know that Merlin is so poorly populated with the calls of Vietnamese birds, I’ m considering getting some audio equipment to record bird songs. There was such a rich diversity of bird calls on our short 1.15 km walk, most of it unidentifiable to Merlin. We will likely try to return every few years to visit with family and I look forward to contributing my own recordings as a citizen scientist.
On a side note, we also saw two primate species. The first was several Red-shanked Douc Langars, a critically endangered primate, endemic to Southeast Asia. The second, was a family of Longtailed Macaques sun bathing on the roof of a tiled pavilion. My partner was fascinated and much more concerned about getting good photos of the monkeys over all the excellent birds we saw.
Here is my checklist for this outing: https:// ebird. org / checklist / S289913250