Bustling Bangkok offers local goodies in urban Lumphini and Rot Fai Parks and many waders and migrants in Bang Pu wetland. We face exotic bird trade at a local market and see a lost species on a museum.

Vietnam’s capital city gardens are a passerines haven. We bagged gray-throated martins, sooty-headed bulbuls and gray-breasted prinia on a Red River island and ‘commixtus’ Asian tit in the Botanical Gardens.

The first stop of a long backpacking trip allowed us to get the hang on Southeast Asian birds. Gardens by the Bay and Singapore Botanic Gardens are mandatory stops in the Lion City.

A full-day stopover in Dubai can provide some goodies despite extreme heat. We connected with Indian rollers, purple sunbirds, shikras, white-cheeked terns, Socotra cormorants or sooty gull within the city.

Within Ankarafantsika National Park, Lake Ravelobe holds an enchanting, mysterious beauty. Highly endangered Coquerel’s sifaka, Madagascar fish-eagle, and Madagascar jacana are some specialties.