This was one of my target species for the trip to Kaeng Krachan. I spent 2 and a half days up at km27 and walked up and down the road from the parking carrying a 10kg camera equipment. Knowing that I had a good chance of spotting the White-hooded Babblers moving through the forest gave me extra energy :). And my patients paid off, I encountered the babblers three times and managed to get some pictures. But this is a difficult species to photograph, they move in dark areas, doesn't stay in position too long and requires a demanding exposure control. Manual exposure settings seems to be working best, if you can figure out the light. Using a flash to photograph a magnificent bird like this is for me unthinkable and simply not an option.

The White-hooded Babblers moves in flock and slowly works their way through the forest in the same manner as laughingthrushes, though they don't burst into the hysterical cackling laughter as the laughingthrushes has got their name from. I observed them both low close to ground as well as 10 meters up in the trees. One flock I observed on the hillside below the parking at km27, there was a lone White-browed Scimitar Babbler in that flock which moved up the mountain side towards the parking. About 1 hour later the same flock, with one lone Scimitar Babbler, came through the parking right above our car. I estimate their speed to about 150 m/hour. I also took a picture where you can see the babbler eating some kind of fruit (not posted due to poor quality).

Photographed life species #456