Ho Chi Minh City 3

We were hoping to see the Purple Swamphen（セイケイ）in other countries but no luck till then. Now we couldn't believe how many of them were in one place!

a family of them - young ones haven't got a red beak yet.

 a chick was being fed:)

A curious one was taking a stroll on a path in the gardens.

Another type of big birds came out from the thicket of the island.

Black-headed Ibis（クロトキ）

There was a small (compared with the ibis and storks) heron-egret like bird standing on the log.

Chinese Pond Heron（アカガシラサギ）

We found more than one of them on the island, squabbling with each other for the better perch:)

An even smaller bird, but rather familiar to us, perched on a nearby lotus.
  a male Common Kingfisher（カワセミ）

It was a very good walk through the botanic gardens anyway but it turned out to be unexpectedly a great place for bird-watching in HCMC.


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views in HCMC

the Saigon River

Zebra (peaceful) Doves（チョウショウバト）in a park

Tree Sparrows（スズメ）were busy stuffing themselves with grains someone threw on the street.

History Museum (we didn't go inside)

It goes without saying that it was worth spending a few hours in the War Remnants Museum.

That's all from the holiday in Vietnam. We would like to go somewhere else in the country to see different culture and birds.

Ho Chi Minh City 2

As we were walking through the botanic gardens, a large bird was flying down from the top of a tree in the distance and disappeared.

That was him!

A pond with an island in the middle was a paradise for some water-related birds (and for us, of course!).

The big bird which looks scary is the Lesser Adjutant（コハゲコウ） and there was not only one but several on the island and around.

They are about 110-120 cm tall and have a wingspan of 210 cm!
This one allowed me to take a close shot:)

The bird of similar profile to the adjutant but smaller than it was the Painted Stork（インドトキコウ）and they are about 93-102 tall.

The one with a bare head is an adult.

This one is still young with feathers on its head and he was, we thought, hunting(fishing?) for a fish or something in the water by waiting with its long beak open under water. We didn't see any success at all though!

Cattle Egrets（アマサギ）were among the large birds but they didn't stay in one place, sometimes here, sometimes there.

 

You can tell the size difference between a cattle egret and a painted stork.

The familiar (to us) Black-crowned Night Heron（ゴイサギ) looked rather hot and tried to cool down with its beak open wide.

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views in HCMC

the Central Post Office

Notre Dame Cathedral

swiftlets over the city

beers at Saigon Saigon Bar in the Caravelle Hotel - The hotel was for foreign correspondents during the American War(Vietnam War) and a bomb exploded on the 5th floor in 1964, in which no one was hurt.

Pho Binh - this little noodle shop was once the secret headquarters of the Viet Cong in Saigon.

Ho Chi Minh City 1

The Saigon Botanic Gardens were founded by the French in 1865 equipped with a zoo.

An endangered Nothern White-cheeked Gibbon
 female

male

There was no cage or net around them but somehow they were staying in trees on a small island surrounded by a narrow waterway.

And on the same island, there were amazing birds, which we had never imagined to see in the botanic gardens!

Oriental Darter（アジアヘビウ）

 Little Cormorant（アジアコビトウ）

Ruddy Shelduck（アカツクシガモ）

Spot-billed Duck（カルガモ）

Purple Swamphen（セイケイ）

None of them seemed to be captive and were free to go whenever they felt like:)


Something very small was running around on the ground.

Lesser Mouse-deer（マメジカの仲間、カンチール？）

the smallest known hoofed mammal according to wikipedia:)
They looked slightly bigger than rats, which were also residents on the island.

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views in HCMC

the statue of Ho Chi Minh and the People's Committee Building

the Municipal Theatre(left) and the Continental Hotel

the Majestic Hotel

chaotic traffic in the city