Sichuan Birding (3 Viewers)

Hi Sid,

Nice shot of the Tibetan Lark. I am off tomorrow to do our trip. Thanks for keeping me up to speed on the road conditions. They seem ok as I understand from yours and James posts.

I hope to be able to share my experiences from the coming two weeks here with you guys. Looking forward to it a lot though seeing the pics of James did make me a bit anxious! What great sightings!

Best,

Jacob

p.s. congrats on the upcoming addition to the family!

Hi Jacob - things should be okay on the roads in Aba. Everybody seemed very relaxed around Ruoergai - there were the usual Police street patrols - but apart from telling me to drive on when I stopped to let my guests off at a Restaurant - they held no interest in us.

Those Tibetan Larks are a highlight of the Ruoergai area - I've uploaded their song

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your trip.

The other calls on this post are a White-bellied Redstart (Chinese Shortwing) from the top of Wawu (feint Aberrant Bush Warbler calls can be heard in the background in between each song phrase of the Redstart)

and Golden-breasted Fulvetta from Wolong - a Golden Pheasant can also be heard on this recording.

Attached is the results of our final pre-dawn excursion by Jiuzhaigou - fantastic views of Pere David's Owl after just a couple of minutes waiting, leaving our only real dip of the trip Golden Pheasant - thanks to the rain ruining our stake-out for the second year running!

Flower Lake will be interesting with raised water-levels, great migrant trap - definitely worth a visit - anybody want a stab in the dark at the attached?
I don't mind it being dammed too much - I find it amazing it hasn't been drained in the past - so it is better than the potential alternative - I always try to take the positives out of the negatives!

Cheers,

J

ps - Congratulations on the forthcoming addition Sid!

Brilliant James - lovely pics!!!!!!! There's so much good habitat outside the ticketed area in JZ - where one day I hope the holy-grail will turn up - an alternative RH Robin site.

Nearby we tried to drive to the Blackthroat site at Beihe - the road is nearly finished but the bridges most definitely aren't - and we played safe and tuned back. However this reserve looks like it could be ready for next year.

as for looking on the positive side - this is also part of my philosophy, but at the same time I don't think we should simply ignore developments that will affect birdlife!!!!!! If they build a dam for the tourist trade - what next - a tea house on the lake shore??????????? In Yunnan I visited a so-called wetland reserve where you could hire a rowing boat.
Part of the reasoning of mentioning potentially harmful changes stems from the fact that we know Chinese birders also read these posts. They are proud that parts of china still remain as great birding sites - its only right to inform them of the changes we notice on our trips.

The stab in dark you mention must be the Warbler pic - the Greenish looking thing with a crown stripe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Best I come up with is either Hume's or Yellow-browed - with aberrant wing barring - but like all Phylos call testing is the great decider with ID

Here's a phylo call you can't mix - a Chinese Leaf warbler we recorded at Wolong

Indeed Sid, let's hope not too much more gets developed - though having seen how crowded the place gets over the Dragonboat weekend I'm sure a coffeehouse is in preparation!

Taking the short road from Rouergai to Jiuzhaigou is most interesting - so much habitat and areas that look good for Rufous-headed Robin, we tried for a couple of hours but no joy, but I'm sure they are along that road - plenty of bamboo growing there too, so I expect parrotbills and Blackthroat somewhere nearby - we did get a Chinese Serow crossing the road too.

Keep trying with that warbler - lack of tertial tips and contrasting bright tertials and mantle are worth looking at - I'm 90% on what it is, just waiting on confirmation from a friend first...

Cheers,

James

If you're only 90% certain then we have a very tricky bird!!!!!!!!!!
Where was the pic taken - location, habitat and altitude can be useful pointers - and how much more of the bird did you see?????????

china guy said:

If you're only 90% certain then we have a very tricky bird!!!!!!!!!!
Where was the pic taken - location, habitat and altitude can be useful pointers - and how much more of the bird did you see?????????

Click to expand...

Flower Lake - bird was obviously grounded by the weather, feeding underneath the boardwalk most of the time! A key feature not shown is the yellow-rump, after that, note the ear-covert pattern and we can quickly whittle it down to what I assume it is...

J

Gansu Leaf ?????

We got a calling bird with playback at our Chinese Grouse site at Baxi - not so far from Flower Lake

A few post before James and Sid were mentioning Steppe Eagle and Tibetan Fox.

Here are the corresponding images.

Both show the younger generation

Wow... you guys! These foxes do look a little like you bought them at the store though - are they real? Very fuzzy and rather short legs. Nice to see the next generation coming on for the Steppe Eagle too.

Fantastic photos Roland - and yes that's what Tibetan Foxes looks like - even though they're cubs they still show the short ears and legs and that characteristically shaped head - surely a model for some future Disney fox!!!!!!!!

Hope we can get a pic of the other grassland specialty we saw on that last trip - Pallas's Cat. That animal, very furry, which gives it its own unique 'fat cat' appearance, also has immense cartoon potential.

Both me and Roland will be out on the grassland again this summer (best not let Meggie read that - shell be chaining me to the door post ) -so a few more chances

Here's a rather distant pic of an animal we saw in the Baxi area - just 40 minutes from Ruoergai town - a Chinese Serow. Seen a few of these animals - but never in such a spectacular black body and pure white mane version

Usually Chinese Serow gets this coloured fur in summer when it looses its winter hair. I published a similar picture of one of those at page 13 of this thread. At first I had the same impression: What monster is this???

James,
I am really jealous of your Sichuan Wood Owl picture (Pere David's Owl). Finding it is one thing taking such pictures is another.
I just wonder about the flashlight you apparently used to take this picture. I am always afraid of using too bright torches or even using flashlight for photography. Are owl's eyes not very susceptible to brightness?


Attached I got three images of snowfinches (taken in Qinghai and Sichuan):

Rufous-necked Snowfinch: Even from far distance the reddish parts of this bird are easy to spot or guess: one of the most important features of this species to distinguish it from other snowfinches. Another feature is the "black cross" diagonal over the face. Usually they are found in small groups or pairs.

White-rumped Snowfinch is the most common bird on high altitude pasture or grass land. It obviously breeds in empty pika holes. Easiest way to distinguish it is the white rump when it flies. It really is a big bright white spot on the back, well visible before landing when it starts to hover. The eyes have a black mask. Besides it is quite pale or white throughout without any further black features.

White winged Snowfinch: Not very common and you have to look carefully not to mix it up with other snowfinches. But, is misses the white rump spot and the reddish colour. It obviously shows white spots on the wing while flying. Also it seems to be a bit bigger and more massiv than other snowfinches and is not so lively, e.g. no flicking around as white-rumped. Of course the face pattern - black chin and black part between eyes and bill (lores) - are the main features to look at.

sichuan jiujiu said:

James,
I am really jealous of your Sichuan Wood Owl picture (Pere David's Owl). Finding it is one thing taking such pictures is another.
I just wonder about the flashlight you apparently used to take this picture. I am always afraid of using too bright torches or even using flashlight for photography. Are owl's eyes not very susceptible to brightness?

Click to expand...

I think if it was harmful and irritable to the bird it would just fly-off, rather than appear perfectly happy by just sitting around and even carrying on hunting - like many other night-birds do.

I definitely could have got better photos - a nice front-on photo but we decided to leave the bird after 5 minutes of watching it so it could carry on doing its own thing without all of our prying eyes...

I've just finished uploading 70 photos from the tour on our Facebook page - can be viewed here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Birdtour-Asia/112873442081547

Cheers,

James

Illuminations are something I've also thought about - especially when I've had mammal guests who've come with very strong lighting equipment.
The first pic is of a Complex-toothed Flying Squirrel, at Wanglang, that was being illuminated by three very strong light sources, one of which was powered by the van battery - it didn't seem to be overly concerned. If it had been human eyes that were subject to this kind of light then it would have resulted in discomfort and the illuminated subject would have soon moved on. Animals also normally react and move if they feel discomfort - but nocturnal animals seem to be tolerant of bright light, and when they do decide to move they don't show any signs of being blinded. Some night watchers use green or red filters - but this mainly applies to Cat watching with cats supposedly being easier to watch with green light. The same night we got the squirrel we also had a Leopard Cat on white light - although we got an exceedingly close look, it was a very brief view - it would have been interesting to see if green light would have worked better.

I've been out in NE Sichuan for the last week - and during today's biding I got a call that left me head scratching. But using playback it didn't take long to get my bird in - a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo. Last Autumn I got a young bird - today it was couple of splendid adults.
The pics show a calling bird, and one, about to land, that's displaying it's distinctive wing coloring.
And that call - a glorious racket

Brilliant - one of my favourite calls is of that cuckoo, I remember the first time I heard it a few years ago, it took me ages to realise it was coming from a bird!

For mammals (not just cats), using a red beam - just using red tissue paper, is brilliant, even for birds, as they can't sense the light so will nearly always hang around longer, or enable you to watch them as they feed and go about their business.

Looking forward to heading back to Chengdu next week - unfortunately it is only a brief stop of 3 hours as I head to Qinghai for a week.

Cheers,

James

Here I found some more images from my last trip on the high plateau.

Tickell's Leaf Warbler actually belongs to the most common warblers in higher altitude. It is not shy and its call - it is calling permanently actually - makes it easy to find this bird within a few seconds.

Upland Buzzards like to sit on telegraph posts - the only higher position on the grassland. That's for sure. And this is the reason that makes it easy to spot this bird. Once I took the train from Lhasa to Chengdu and on a certain section of the railway literally every five minutes an Upland Buzzard was flying off. I was sitting in the first waggon and after a while I understood that these birds were chased away from their seat (on the post of the power cable) by the train.
In areas where is a lack of grass, branches or other shrub you often find nests which are fitted with litter. I hope the insulation of the nests does not suffer from this "modern" furniture and the eggs can be kept warm enough.

Sid, that's an impressive cuckoo - your two shots really give a good sense of what he looks like, and the flight photo is especially nice. Yes that call almost sounds mechanical, except for the slight variation every few notes - quite distinctive.

You guys all have some different birds in your corner of the country!

Jiujiu - very interesting nest picture!

Really appreciate all the helpful and interesting photos you all are putting up!

Birding trip in 2012

Hi -- we are hoping to go birding in Sichuan next summer (June or July). Any advice as to how to arrange this? We've never been to China and hope to combine a birding trip with a visit to the Woolong panda reserve. Is this feasible? Any advice, information on local tour companies or birders, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hi Trogon - your query although seemingly straight forward needs to be a little more specified to get a detailed answer - since there are many ways of taking a birding tour of Sichuan.

Most importantly anybody planning a trip needs to tell about how many days they're giving to birding Sichuan. Most birders,who are concentrating on getting large Sichuan bird lists, are spending between 2 and 4 weeks in the province. While other bird interested visitors come into the area as part of normal China tourist visits - and maybe are only able to give 2 or 3 days to birding.

If you're planning spending weeks rather than days here - then there are many options - just google the words Sichuan birding holiday - and you'll get both local and international firms that will offer trips - both in respect to joining group tours and tailor made private trips. If you find offers that interest, it can be an idea to get contact with past participants - just to give a little insurance that you'll be taking the kind of trip that suites your preferences and needs.

If you're making a short trip of days - then you'll have to focus on local guides and agencies to help. In such circumstances getting driver and transport - where driver is informed over locations of birding sites and will help booking hotels and ordering food - is not so difficult. But it's best to make sure that the driver knows they're driving for birdwatchers, which obviously may entail sudden stops for roadside birds and very early starts and late evenings. However getting a good and knowledgeable guide could be difficult - and here first-hand references from past clients with regard to guides are very useful. No point paying extra for a guide when they don't know their birds.

And of course any serious advice also depends on your budget - if it's huge then you'll obviously have far more options - but a tight budget, especially in a peak season like June, may restrict you to driver/transport only. And on the tightest end of the budget scale, some birders do Sichuan DIY - by public transport.

The other thing I'd like to pick up on your post is the reference to Wolong panda Reserve. Wolong is situated within a massive nature reserve - because Panda habitat and Pandas are found in the area. However for many reasons - the nature of the terrain, the scarcity of Pandas, the altitude, the viability of access - then finding a wild Giant Panda is extremely unlikely at Wolong - while birding in the same area can be extremely rewarding. However pre-2008 earthquake there was an open to the public Giant Panda Breeding center, where you could view captive Pandas in pens - which was a big tourist venue for Panda fans. In some tourist literature this place has been marketed as a Panda Reserve - but in truth, even though pens were open and Pandas could roam a little in enclosed semi-natural habitat - it was more Panda zoo. The earthquake closed this site - and even though animals have again been brought back, for a release into wild project, it was still very much closed the last time we drove past in May. If you were hoping to combine birding with a visit to a panda breeding center - then, unless Wolong suddenly opens again next year, you have to think in terms of a visit to either Bifengxia and Chengdu breeding centers

Hi Trogon,

Although Sichuan and Wolong are most known panda places, apparently no Western tourist ever saw a giant panda in the wild there. Captive ones are in many zoos, eg Chengdu zoo, Chengdu breeding station, and Beijing.

For wild giant pandas go to Foping reserve near Xian in Shaanxi. We saw a panda three times in five days this April, with the help of WildGiantPanda.com. Also Crested Ibis is a bonus.

They also talked about branching out to include birding trips to Sichuan. But for now more feasible is driving to Sichuan on your own by train, bus or car, which might take about a day.