Taiwan Tour Day 1 or Mikado in the Mist!

An early start saw us driving the short distance to the spectacular Dasyueshan Mountain where we spent most of the morning birding the lower elevations. A reliable site for Taiwan Hwamei proved justifiably still correct as we enjoyed good views of a bird singing from an exposed perch and feeding in some bushes. The same site also produced wonderful views of several Vinous-throated Parrotbills, low flying House Swifts, Chinese Bulbul, lots of Collared Finchbills, Japanese White-eyes, and an extremely co-operative Rufous-capped Babbler. Moving up a little higher we took a side lane and bumped into a few Taiwan Scimitar-babblers, Grey-cheeked Fulvetta, Black-naped Monarch, Rufous-faced Warbler, and after a bit of a wait we had an Oriental Cuckoo perched on some telegraph wires. 

Taiwan Scimitar-babbler

Just up the road we had good scope views of Taiwan Barbet and an obliging Brownish-flanked Bush-warbler came in very close. Moving on we made our second attempt at luring in some calling Taiwan Bamboo-partridges which were ridiculously close, and in fact there were at least three different groups calling around us but none of which deigned to come out into the open. As we were working on the first group a Black-necklaced Scimitar-babbler called from below us just to make things a little more frustrating! However, with a little perseverance a pair of this very skulking species eventually showed quite well if a little briefly. With Striated Prinia, 4 migrating Oriental Honey-buzzards, a brief Japanese Sparrowhawk and a telegraph line with over 20 Oriental Turtle-doves, we were doing quite well. Beside a narrow stream a pair of Taiwan Whistling-thrushes, Brown Dipper and more Plumbeous water-redstarts were present, with White-bellied Green-pigeon, Grey Treepie and White-tailed Robin seen nearby. Our first Taiwan Yuhinas were seen here as well, along with another Rufous-faced Warbler and Grey-chinned Minivet as well. 

Mikado Pheasant

Unfortunately in the early afternoon as we headed up towards the higher elevations the weather came in badly with very low cloud and mist, and regular heavy showers that turned into prolonged rain in the late afternoon. After spending quite some time at a stake-out for Mikado Pheasant and drawing a blank we decided to drive down to the lodge. Amazingly, a dark mist-enshrouded blob at the roadside turned out to be a beautiful male Mikado Pheasant. It was such a stunning bird and was absolutely unperturbed by our presence as we watched him in the rain for a good 20 minutes at close distance before leaving him to it and bowling up at the lodge looking like drowned rats!

Taipei

Not much time for birding until I went to pick up the group from Taipei airport and managed to squeeze in a quick hour a few kilometres along the coast before they arrived. In a tidal creek were lots of summer-plumaged Red-necked Stints and Lesser Sandplovers and a few Kentish Plovers, but i'm guessing the male Merlin that rocketed by is quite a good bird in Taiwan? Some partially flooded rice fields just inland held a male Greater Painted Snipe, a few introduced Sacred Ibis and a Crested Bunting was perched on a bush. And then I met my group and we headed down to Fongyuan and a great posh hotel for the night, after eating in the night market and visiting a temple. No more culture please!!!!

Basianshan Mountain

After a breakfast consisting of chicken nuggets & noodles garnished with tomato ketchup I made my way slowly up Basianshan mountain, reaching the Visitor Centre by midday. The road followed a beautiful river valley through a spectacular mountain range and although the birding was slower than yesterday it was a fine walk! There was several Plumbeous Water-redstarts and a Brown Dipper along the fast flowing river, and once the road began climbing steeply birds began to appear. Japanese White-eyes and Grey-cheeked Fulvettas were common, but I was more interested in the Taiwan Bamboo-partridges that were calling. I spent a long time (too long) trying to find them but really never had a hope. A few Grey-chinned Minivets, Rufous-faced Warbler, Black-naped Monarch and other common stuff showed. My highlight was firstly some very close views of a Taiwan Barbet in a roadside tree, followed by a nest-building Taiwan Whistling-thrush.

Taiwan Barbet

But these were eclipsed by numerous views of some very sexy Taiwan Scimitar-babblers: several were along the road but the best showing came when I was walking back down towards the river on the steep boardwalk. I sat down on one of the steps and watched a pair feeding in the lush under storey, and they didn't seem concerned at all by my presence. At one stage one of them perched up on the handrail and began to call, just a few metres away from me! It's not just a split from Streak-breasted Scimitar-babbler  because of its geographical location - oh no there's far more than that to these beauties. The crown is darker, the black ear-coverts are bigger, the thick black breast streaking is darker and heavier and on a persil white background, the lower belly is dark chestnut and checkout the obvious rufous nape.

Taiwan Scimitar-babbler

There was also a Maroon Oriole up near the Visitor Centre. Well, actually it's not. Rumours of a potential split have been rumbling on for ages and it seems like at least one authority has upgraded it to full species status. So now it's called Red (or Claret) Oriole Oriolus ardens and just take a look at the photo below to see how different it looks to Maroon Oriole Oriolus traillii. Another Taiwanese endemic!

Taiwan Bird Race

Taking part in the Dasyueshan Bird Race was a great start to my time in the wonderful country of Taiwan. With my group not arriving until Monday and just a few 'westerners' present I was made to feel very welcome indeed and it was great to see so many Taiwanese birders thoroughly enjoying the event. They were so helpful and willing to offer advice, despite the alleged 'competitive' edge to the day - something a few Brits could learn from! Anyway, thanks to Richard Foster for his company and local knowledge and letting me join his team.

Well, I managed to see 16 currently recognised endemics, along with Taiwan (Vinaceous) Rosefinch and Taiwan (Viviv) Niltava - these last 2 might be split soon. Also heard Taiwan Cupwing. A few other nice birds seen today included White-bellied Green-pigeon, Grey-cheeked Fulvetta, Spotted Nutcracker (future split?), Ferruginous Flycatcher, Black-throated Tit and Yellowish-bellied Bush-warbler amongst others.

One feature of the birding at Dasyueshan Mountain was the great views of the birds. Highlights not photographed were Taiwan Shortwing, Taiwan Bush-warbler, Taiwan Bush-robin, Rufous-crowned Laughingthrush, Taiwan Yuhina and Taiwan Fulvetta.

Here's a few photos from the day:

Swinhoe's Pheasant (female)

Mikado Pheasant (female)

Flamecrest

Steere's Liocichla

White-whiskered Laughingthrush

White-eared Sibia

Taiwan Whistling-thrush

Taiwan Hill-partridge

Vinaceous (Taiwan) Rosefinch

Taiwan Barwing

Collared Bush-robin

Taiwan Bird Race 14th April

Looking forward to participating in the Anmashan International Bird Race on Saturday. Hoping to see most of the endemics in the 24 hours including this little beauty below.

Collared Bush-robin

Eaglenest 2012

We have a tour to Eaglenest in the mountains of north-east India departing soon. It's definitely one of my favourite places in the world and to be in the Himalayas in springtime is to be in birding heaven. In fact we've been guiding groups of birders here longer than any other tour company - FACT! So here's just a few photos of some special birds we've seen there over the years.....

Beautiful Nuthatch

Fire-tailed Myzornis

Grandala

Green Cochoa

Office Work!

This late March/early April period is a time for us at ZOOTHERA to catch up with the office work before heading out on short holidays and preparing for tours to Taiwan & Lesvos later in the month.

Exciting new tours currently being prepared include Northern Peru (Jan 2014), Peninsular Malaysia (April 2013), West Java & Sumatra (Nov/Dec 2013), Japan (Nov 2013), as well as several new Brazil tours.

Well here's a few nice shots from our last Brazil - Atlantic Rainforest tour:

Saffron Toucanet

Shrike-like Cotinga

Streamer-tailed Tyrant

Swallow-tailed Hummingbird

Versicolored Emerald

Yellow-fronted Woodpecker

Fraser's Hill

Our last morning was spent along the Telecom Loop and will probably be remembered by most of us for the pair of Pygmy Wren-babblers giving prolonged views on a relatively bare earth bank. They gave the full show of singing, feeding and just looking cute and it was a rare opportunity to study them at leisure. And as so often is the case, ‘yesterdays lifer is todays dross’ which appeared to be the case when a Long-tailed Broadbill was out in the open calling from the top of a bare tree and promptly ignored! Well we were looking for a Bay Woodpecker at the time, which incidentally failed to show despite calling for ages. A nice Slaty-backed Forktail, a perched Mountain Imperial-pigeon, numerous Blue-winged Minlas and Little Spiderhunter followed, along with lots of other decent birds as we walked along the road. In particular views of Fork-tailed Swift flying at eye-level, as we admired a wonderful view of forested ridges stretching to the horizon, allowed us to see far more plumage detail than before. However, just when we were beginning to think our time was up and thoughts turned to packing our cases than a Malayan Partridge burst from the undergrowth at the side of the road and flew right in front of us. Then another called from the hillside above and was being answered by others on the opposite side. Eventually another flew across the road and as we waited patiently one bird materialised out of the forest and walked slowly across the road in front of us. Simply amazing. Then, as we approached our waiting minibus a random trawl of the ipod resulted in a Rusty-naped Pitta responding from the slope below us but it just didn’t move its position, and we were already behind schedule so had to leave. We headed to a restaurant for lunch before returning to the hotel to shower and pack before saying our goodbyes to Mike and Marilyn. Our last new bird for the trip was Rufous-bellied Swallow down by the reservoir before we reached Kuala Lumpur and caught our evening flight back to the UK and conclusion of a great tour.

Pygmy Wren-babbler

Pygmy Wren-babbler

Pygmy Wren-babbler

Malayan Partridge (record shot)

Fraser's Hill

Inevitably the birding was a little slower than yesterday, but was nevertheless full of quality with a number of sought-after species found. We began at a stake-out for Mountain Peacock-pheasant which failed to show but we more than made up for that with a Silver-breasted Broadbill that came in very close. As we looked at this little beauty a pair of Greater Yellownapes flew in and gave us good comparisons with the Lesser Yellownape we’d seen earlier. Then we began walking along the road to the Waterfall Trail, the road being closed to traffic due to a landslide. This turned out to be a good move as we initially heard and then a few of the group managed to see a Ferruginous Partridge after a lengthy search. We also had Hill Blue Flycatcher, male Red-headed Trogon, Ferruginous Flycatcher and Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, and Ian managed to spot a Spectacled Spiderhunter as well. After lunch we drove around to The Gap and slowly walked uphill for a few kilometres. This resulted in decent views of a pair of Checker-throated Woodpeckers performing in the roadside trees, as well as Orange-breasted Trogon, Silver-rumped Needletail a gang of 4 Dusky Broadbills, Javan Cuckooshrike, Ashy Bulbul and Arctic Warbler. A couple of calling Marbled Wren-babblers remained invisible despite us putting quite some time in for them, and we also heard a Red-bearded Bee-eater as well before returning to the hotel for dinner.

Dusky Broadbill

Silver-breasted Broadbill

Silver-eared Mesia

Long-tailed Sibia