Black-and-red Broadbill

Today was a holiday Monday in Thailand. As a result of the amount of traffic going to the top of the Kaeng Krachan National Park the previous day, our tour leader chose to start the day birding the lower forests and we found a good birding spot along the main road. This adult Black-and-red Broadbill Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchos was one of a pair and one of the undoubted highlights of the day and the whole tour for a number of reasons: it is a species not normally found in this part of Thailand; it was in a tree at the edge of the road and everyone obtained excellent scope and binocular views as well as photographs; it is an attractive species in a very attractive bird family.

The global population size of Black-and-red Broadbill has not been quantified, but the species is reported to be uncommon to locally common. The population has decreased considerably as a result of ongoing destruction of lowland rain forest.

Reference: BirdLife International (2017) Species factsheet: Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchos. Downloaded from BirdLife on 11/01/2017.

Black-and-red Broadbill is found in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical mangrove forests.

Reference: Wikipedia

It was early morning and the bird was in a very dark tree. The camera settings were 1/500 sec, ISO 3200 and f8 at 400mm focal length.