I'd love to be knowledgeable about birds. I reckon I could have been a good twitcher. If only I actually knew one bird from another. Developing an interest in bird watching (one of those things that I once scoffed at and now embrace in all my middle-agedness) I was hoping to find a deeper appreciation for my Lao surrounds through knowing a little bit about what I was looking at. It's not easy. I've seen very few and I can't identify much of what I have seen.
Disappointingly, the only interesting birds I've spotted in Vientiane have been domesticated - mostly caged. Apart from sparrows and those annoying common mynas (annoying in Melbourne, anyway), there's not much around in town.
So I went to the pet shops with my camera.
Bulbuls
A pretty Red Whiskered Bulbul
More Bulbuls but much more crowded and much less pretty.
Stork
This large, startling stork lives at a temple - Wat Si Muang. Again, Finn identified it for me.
The Lesser Adjutant Stork
Swallows?
I don't know what these little birds are. They flit around the Patu Xai monument, live in mud pies attached to the inside ceiling and dart all over the place chasing insects and dropping poo onto tourists heads. I think they may be some type of fan-tailed swallow or martin?
Fast and furious
Gotta be quick to take a pic
Nesting on the ceiling
In the serpents' mouths. An appropriate place for a swallow
Sparrows
All over the world these boring old birds look the same. Maybe they aren't the same but they look it to me. Here they look thin.
Boring and brown
Turtledoves
I know these. I used to have one nesting near my front door at home. Not very exotic or interesting in Melbourne - you'd never see them caged for sale. Here things are different...
Poor little thing
These things talk a lot. They can mimic human voices so, despite being rather average to look at, they are common in cages across Asia. They squawk a lot too.
Hill Mynas- your classic angry bird.
Ugly, but they talk.
Don't know what sort of finch this is. It's kind of like a Zebra Finch but a bit different. There were about a zillion in one cage.
Finches
Love Bird
I think it might be a Peach-Faced Love Bird but the peach has faded - and he was all alone so not a lot of lovin' goin' on.
Solo - but smiling!
Dunno What This Is
Big brown head, short tail, bigger than a finch, kind of cute. What is it?
Big, unfamiliar bird
Quail or guinea fowl or something?
Dunno what ground bird this is - it's probably more often seen on skewers... like these...
Budgerigars
Good old familiar and colourful budgies are a pretty and joyful sight - except when there are too many crammed into a small cage.
Cages
Some of the wooden cages look gorgeous - ornate and pretty and they have a sort of Victoriana look about them. They are still cages though.
Cage hooks - I'm thinking I'll bring some home but not sure what I'll do with them
Pet shops
Kind of like a car crash - I wanted to look but I knew I wouldn't like what I saw.
Curious to look at but leave you with a sadness
And lastly... a chook
Probably not on the average twitcher's list
Always saddens me to see birds in cages, especially in crowded ones.
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