Pa-Ka-Rang Beach
Krabi Province

        Pa-Ka-Rung or coral beach is located in the Andaman Sea side of the south of Thailand. It is the "center" of those significant migrants of the western coastline like Wader, Gull and Tern. In the same coastline-side, there are other two birding points which are not situated on the land, Phra Thong island (Phang-Nga Province) and Lib island (Trung Province). Nevertheless, this beach is the most convenient site of all.

        The land condition is generally sandy beach. But its outstanding points are: some parts of the beach are mixed sand and mud; some are mixed sand and coral fossil, thus, most of the birds join together there; while the other is general beach which composed of Common Iron wood, scrubs, coconut garden and 2-3 fishermen's cottages.

        Pa-Ka-Rung or coral beach is made of ruined corals those affected by the explosion-approached fishery then waved onto the shore. So, this beach is a good food supply of those Waders. Actually, birdwatchers both Thai and foreign know this location quite well, however, they do not come often.


        Because it is very far from Bangkok and it takes a long time to move to another birding place. Nonetheless, there are some near National Parks like Tone-Chor-Fah waterfall, which is about 7 kilometers away from Pa-Ka-Rung Peninsula's entrance; and Khao Lum Plee-Had Tai Muang National Park which is 20 kilometers away. These two locations support quite a lot of bird species.

        We insert this location in the south program, Khao Sok National Park-Ka Pong (70 kilometers from Khao Sok or 26 kilometers from Ta-Gua-Pah). On this route, you are supposed to see no less than 70 kinds.



Interesting Birding Point

        Starting from the entrance, you can see the villagers' desolated prawn ponds. The surroundings there are mostly coconut garden and scrubs. We often see Little Grebe and Little Cormorant, however, we also used to see Great Cormorant. At the early of the night, Collared Scops-Owl is sometimes seen still hanging on coconut tree's branch.

        Passing the entrance along the way, on the left hand side is a beach and the Andaman Sea. Then, after driving under the Pine Trees' shades for about 3 kilometers, we will meet the end of this cape which its condition is different from that at the entrance. It is 2-sided sandy beach, the left-hand side and the cape's end are filled with the coral fossil while the other side is mixed sandy-muddy beach. There are many birds in both sides. When the sea rises up, the area those scattering birds are finding for food will be narrower, narrower and wide piece of land eventually become only a narrow strip of coral barrier. Thousands of birds, then, are on the barrier and we can relaxingly birding through telescope under a shady pine tree.

        The most suitable period for birding is in winter, from November to February, that number of birds is the maximum. While in summer, from April to June, we can still see birds but the number will be lesser. The superstar of this location is Chinese Egret, which is one of the most rare and is risky to extinction. The population size all over the world is only around 2,000. The maximum number they have ever been found in this location is eleven.

        Moreover, there are those of Crab Plover and Saunders' Tern which are rare in Thailand but can be easily found only in this place. As for number of bird species, we have ever found about 39 kinds. Though it seems quite a few, we set another birding point in the program so that you can see (in winter) about 40 - 50 kinds totally in all day.

The recorded bird list is as follows:

        Beside birds, one thing that you should not miss is fresh seafood from Andaman Sea. In the evening, we often bring our customers to have dinner at Bang Sak Beach which is not far from Pa-Ka-Rung Beach. We can testify that you will be impressed in Thai seafood cuisine and the sunset atmosphere. And that is the excellent ending of the day.