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This Birding Tour around Ho Chi Minh City is designed to give you a good chance to spot the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, just a 2-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City, along with many other shorebirds and lowland birds.
We conducted an extensive survey of Spoon-billed Sandpiper roosts in Vietnam in 2011 and were successful in finding them, creating a good location for winter roosting and feeding (Tan Thanh). We have been observing them every year to offer you the opportunity to see them on Birding Tours in Tan Thanh.
Tan Thanh is located in Go Cong district, Tien Giang Province, in the Mekong Delta, 80 km from Saigon, which is a 2-hour drive.
The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is one of the most threatened birds on the planet. It breeds on the Chukotsk and Kamchatka peninsulas in the Russian Far East and migrates through Russia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and China to reach Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam to avoid the freezing winter.
The species has seen a significant decline, from an estimated 2,000-2,800 breeding pairs in the 1970s to 1,000 pairs in 2000, and fewer than 100 pairs in 2011. In recent years, the population has been declining at a rate of 26% per year. If this trend continues, the population could become extinct in 5-10 years.
Bird highlights in this tour
Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Nordman’s Greenshank, Red Knot, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Grey Plover, Pacific Golden Plover, Dulin, Eurasian Curlew, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit…
Itinerary
We will pick you up at your hotel in Saigon or another location, then drive to Tan Thanh, Go Cong, to find the Spoon-billed Sandpiper first and try to spot other species. We will spend a significant amount of time birding in the intertidal mudflats and the surrounding areas.
Afterward, we’ll have lunch in a local restaurant serving various local dishes and then continue birding before returning to Saigon in the late afternoon.
This tour will allow you to observe around 20 to 40 species of birds, depending on the time of year!
List of potential birds in Tan Thanh, Go Cong, Vietnam
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