Wuyuan

Not far out of the city as we were driving through the rural countryside around Wuyuan we stopped to watch a flock of noisy Masked Laughingthrushes and as we retuned to the minibus a Chinese Bamboo-partridge began calling from above us on the steep slope. As we pulled alongside the area a pair of bamboo-partridges were seen fighting and rolling down the earth bank towards us, when suddenly they realised they were being watched and ran for cover. A short wait then resulted in further views of a slightly ashamed looking individual walking up the slope and away from us. Having just said this species hardly ever shows out in the open, how wrong can you be! 

Masked Laughingthrush

We then returned to the secluded valley again this morning and split up in search of the tough skulkers we wanted to see, which turned up several brief Elliot’s Pheasants and a Tiger Shrike for one group and a juvenile Silver Pheasant for the other. Several Dusky Fulvettas were present this morning and showed very well for everyone, whilst plenty of other common birds were seen. Leaving here we paid a visit to another site for Short-tailed Parrotbill but only succeeded in adding Cinnamon Bittern and Yellow-bellied Prinia to our list. 

Chinese Pond-heron

Red-billed Starling

In the afternoon we headed back to the laughingthrush wood and had Black-collared Starling on some telegraph wires along the way. Once at the wood we walked to the far side where Menxiu found a couple of drake Mandarin Ducks roosting in a tree on the opposite bank, and in the end we counted five males. Also here was a Black-winged Cuckooshrike, as well as several fine Black-naped Orioles and a Grey-faced Woodpecker.