Alex Vargas

Mom’s Feeder 2010 — Part 1 of 2

Thumbnail image for Mom’s Feeder 2010 — Part 1 of 2 by Alex Vargas 31 October 2012

The famous banana feeder at my mom’s house has been abandoned by periods, but everytime it gets re-activated, birds seem to be looking forward and remember quickly!… Such was the case in 2010… 23 years after my dad and I offered the very first banana… As soon as I showed 6 attractive plantains, members of [...]

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A Date with a Big Bill

Thumbnail image for A Date with a Big Bill by Alex Vargas 16 September 2012

The Stork-billed Kingfisher is one of the largest and most difficult -to photograph- Halcyonidaes of SE Asia… We got lucky as one mom was feeding two chicks in a park in Bangkok (yes! right into the city!) Kingfishers are very special and colorful in Asia. Everyone wants to photograph kingfishers and they are not easy. [...]

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Friendly Feathers

Thumbnail image for Friendly Feathers by Alex Vargas 21 May 2012

Every winter season (November – April) we get the colorful visit of many nice birds in Thailand, but none as friendly and showy as the Mugimaki Flycatcher and the White-throated Rock-Thrush in Khao Yai. I was very exited the first time I saw and got some lousy images of a White-throated Rock-Thrush in 2007. Then, [...]

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Mae Wong got Alive!!!

Thumbnail image for Mae Wong got Alive!!! by Alex Vargas 31 March 2012

Mae Wong National Park, really became the hotspot for a couple of months with many cool birds showing super well… I’ll show you some… Located between Kampaeng Phet and Nakorn Sawan provinces, Mae Wong covers about 900 km2 and is part of the western forest complex, said to be the largest remaining patch of forest [...]

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Up to 900 tropical bird species could “go extinct”

Thumbnail image for Up to 900 tropical bird species could “go extinct” by Alex Vargas 5 March 2012

Up to 900 species of tropical land birds around the world could become extinct by 2100, researchers say — a BBC Nature report by Anna-Louise Taylor for BBC Nature News (images in this post by Alex Vargas and Jorge Chinchilla) The finding is modeled on the effects of a 3.5C Earth surface temperature rise, a [...]

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Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoo… a dream come true

Thumbnail image for Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoo… a dream come true by Alex Vargas 19 February 2012

For years I hoped for an image of this large and enigmatic forest’s floors giant, and all came truth when visited Khao Yai National Park with my good friends Paul and Apiradee in December 2010, as 4 wonderful birds competed for our meal worms, filling our memory cards with grace, color and satisfaction! The Coral-billed [...]

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Birds and Elephants

Thumbnail image for Birds and Elephants by Alex Vargas 5 February 2012

During the crazy times of flooding in Bangkok, our family decided to spend some time in higher ground and what could it be better than Khao Yai, with the National Park of the same name which is a World’s Heritage Site from Unesco and a paradise of wildlife and with my good friend Guide A, [...]

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A Special Orange Beak

Thumbnail image for A Special Orange Beak by Alex Vargas 28 January 2012

Prasae it’s always been a birding and Bird-Photo hotspot, but in August-September 2010, the appearance of a red billed bird -which turned out to be an unusual RIVER TERN- placed that site in everyone’s map! In the calm waters of the Thai Gulf, Prasae has always been a good site to find waders terns and [...]

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Cede Prudente, a great Bird-Photographer in Malaysian Borneo

Thumbnail image for Cede Prudente, a great Bird-Photographer in Malaysian Borneo by Alex Vargas 14 January 2012

Cede Prudente is an excellent reference of first class Bird-Photography in Malaysian Borneo and he shares a bit of his history and fantastic work with us at BirdingBlogs I visited Sabah, Malaysian Borneo in a birding expedition back in 2010 with my friends Mario and Roxanne and quickly got in-loved with such a majestic paradise [...]

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Blue -river- Jewel of the South

Thumbnail image for Blue -river- Jewel of the South by Alex Vargas 6 January 2012

The Blue-banded Kingfisher isn’t the most colorful of his group, but certainly it is one of the most difficult to find and photograph! When I was coming to this side of the world, I was looking at the book in the plane and right away got amazed with the colors and crazy looks of the [...]

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Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey

Thumbnail image for Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey by Alex Vargas 1 January 2012

If you ever find yourself in New Jersey, don’t you dare to think no good birding is available, ’cause not far from downtown, you can visit the Great Swamp… a sweet birding area with cool drives, trails and lots of birds! I visited guided by the experienced Jane Kendall, who kindly took me around after [...]

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Laem Pak Bia… 3 out of 3

Thumbnail image for Laem Pak Bia… 3 out of 3 by Alex Vargas 23 December 2011

Third part -out of three- displaying some of my many photographic expeditions at Laem Pak Bia, a cool waders’ site that rocks indeed… August 15th, 2009 On Mother’s Day -American Continent’s Calendar-, my wife asked me to take her back to LPB for some birding (yeah… I know… I’m a lucky guy!) and she was [...]

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Birds from Laem Pak Bia, part 2 of 3

Thumbnail image for Birds from Laem Pak Bia, part 2 of 3 by Alex Vargas 16 December 2011

Second part that accounts some of my many photographic expeditions at Laem Pak Bia, a great area for waders and much more… December 23rd, 2008   &   December 27th, 2008 Just before Christmas (08), we visited the King’s Project on a sunny day and got a few images… it was already pretty dry around Central Thailand [...]

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Laem Pak Bia, another Bird-Photo Hotspot in Thailand!

Thumbnail image for Laem Pak Bia, another Bird-Photo Hotspot in Thailand! by Alex Vargas 8 December 2011

Several hotspots in the Laem Pak Bia area, are worth to mention, as these produce great birding and bird-photos all year around At less than 2 hours driving from Bangkok, in Petchburi Province, Laem Pak Bia it’s a fishing town that offers some rich and unique birding opportunities with many waders, gulls and more in [...]

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Red Beak, Big Lunch

Thumbnail image for Red Beak, Big Lunch by Alex Vargas 2 December 2011

Witness how a beautiful and aggressive Black-capped Kingfisher battles hard to prepare and enjoy a big crab for lunch! In october 2010, someone posted in my forum (birdphotoforum.com) a pretty decent image of the elusive and attractive Black-capped Kingfisher and that immediately caught my full attention. Turned out, the blue hunter was closer to my [...]

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Western Australia – Part 4 of 4

Thumbnail image for Western Australia – Part 4 of 4 by Alex Vargas 25 November 2011

Penguin Island: a small patch of land with some very special birds + Herdsman’s Lake: lots of waterfowl in the big -City- Park and Lake We decided to take one morning and sleep late (I know… lazy as birders). Then after lunch, we took the short ferry ride to The Penguins Island. Boy! what a [...]

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Western Australia – Part 3 of 4

Thumbnail image for Western Australia – Part 3 of 4 by Alex Vargas 17 November 2011

Pemberton, a beautiful town with beautiful people and many beautiful birds & Lake Monger + Erick Street Beachfront, cool birds in the middle of the City After all that fantastic birding and Bird-Photo adventures in Stirling and Cheynes, we were a bit concerned of having a bit too high expectations of the future… We couldn’t [...]

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Western Australia – Part 2 of 4

Thumbnail image for Western Australia – Part 2 of 4 by Alex Vargas 11 November 2011

Stirling Range – the best Bird-Photo spot of our WA trip & Cheynes Beach – truly a fantastic coastal paradise with really good Birding Getting to Stirling Range Retreat was not easy and although -today- we have a good laugh everytime we remember how the GPS got us lost and in the middle of a [...]

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Western Australia – Part 1 of 4

Thumbnail image for Western Australia – Part 1 of 4 by Alex Vargas 3 November 2011

Bibra Lake – a fantastic bird-photo introduction to WA & Dryandra Woodlands – a great site that deserves more time! My first bird-photo trip to the amazing Australia, was to the Western Part and in 2 weeks, barely covered a portion of this wonderful land of contrast and crazy biodiversity. Photography was pretty challenging, but [...]

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Blue-throated Bee-eater… a colorful sacrifice!

Thumbnail image for Blue-throated Bee-eater… a colorful sacrifice! by Alex Vargas 27 October 2011

Bee-eaters are fantastic and gracious birds, pretty colorful all of them. The Blue-throated it’s amongst my favorites as it is a beautiful -not so easy to get- target… and I love that kind of challenge! This is a quick story that involves a cool bird, a super hotspot -by all means- to go get it [...]

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