Tangjiahe

Spent the whole day hiking up into the hills of Tangjiahe and although it was a long, tough slog we had decent weather and the habitat and scenery were outstanding. And the birds weren’t too shabby either. A male Golden Pheasant approached so close across a meadow that it was a little too close for photos at one stage. 

A stunning Golden Pheasant....

There was also a Sichuan Bush Warbler calling and seen quite well here. Our path is made up of concrete steps all the way up the mountain and it’s slow going with frequent stops to search for birds, but what happened next left us all stunned. I mean, there’s two male Temminck’s Tragopans on the path in front of us, no more than 5 metres away and they just don’t care. They are feeding and totally ignoring us, so we watch them for half an hour with cameras clicking away. It’s an unbelievable privilege to see these stunning birds so close. Eventually they walk into the bamboo and head away up the hillside. Wow!

Temminck's Tragopan - what more can you say....?

We followed this with a close Spectacled Fulvetta, Baikal Bush Warbler and higher up a pair of Fulvous Parrotbills showed well. 

Baikal Bush Warbler

We reached the top around 12:15 and there to greet us were a pair of Sooty Tits taking food to their hidden nest, so we stayed up here for quite a while to eat our picnic lunch and rest up. 

Sooty Bushtit

The downward journey was enlivened by several Slaty Buntings along the path to round off a great walk.

The endemic Slaty Bunting

Upon arrival back at the hotel, a Tibetan Macaque was seen, plus we also had Brown Dipper, Golden-breasted Fulvetta and a bunch of commoner species. So a successful day with most of our target species seen for this site – time for some beer!