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Taiwan Birding Trip Report (1 Viewer)

schiffornis

schiffornis

AWBirder
Had a very successful 10-day birding trip in Taiwan in mid-May 2014. The illustrated trip report and bird list is on my blog, available here.

The main target of the trip was Fairy Pitta and then as many of the endemic species/sub-species as possible in the time available. We visited Huben, Kwangua, Alishan, Yushan, Huisun, Wushe, several east coast locations and Lanyu Island.

We did well, saw 157 species, all endemic species and most endemic sub-species. Fairy Pitta, Swinhoe's Pheasant, Mikado Pheasant, Taiwan Hill Partridge etc., Lanyu Scops Owls and all the specialties on there.

Cheers, Andy
 
Wow, very very very nice!! Compliments!!

I am planning what to do few days in Taiwan and this will prove to be very helpfull!!

Can I PM if I will have some questions?


Thanks and all the best!!
Cheers

Pietro

Italy/Germany
 
Nice report Andy.

I was actually there overlapping with you - May 13 to 21 then on Dong Yin, one of the Matsu Islands to the 24th. Like you we were badly hindered by the rain but managed all the endemics, the last one being the partridge from the Fireflies hide just like you. We never found Island Thrush nor the Tawny Owl but we did get Varied Tit in the Wuhlei area on the one day we had after coming back from Dong Yin. For Fairy Pitta we used a local guy who makes a living out of locating them and their nests for researchers - he showed us one at the nest and we heard at least three others in different spots, including behind the Huben temple.

We went to Lanyu on the 19th - you can get the ferry there and back on the same day, which we did. You get four hours or so on the island, which was long enough as we had seen all the targets inside two. We had two Lesser Frigatebirds from land that started miles out but got blown in and ended up soaring near the lighthouse.

Dong Yin was like birding on a very hilly St Mary's - on foot most of the time. Very wet but that produced good numbers of migrants such as Pechora Pipit, Korean Flycatcher and massive numbers of Yellow Bitterns and Brown Shrikes. Migrants boosted our trip list to just over 200 species.

Steve
 
Last edited:
pietrod said:
Wow, very very very nice!! Compliments!!

I am planning what to do few days in Taiwan and this will prove to be very helpfull!!

Can I PM if I will have some questions?


Thanks and all the best!!
Cheers

Pietro

Italy/Germany
Click to expand...

Hi Pietro, thanks, and yes please feel free to PM me.

Cheers, Andy
 
Steve Lister said:
Nice report Andy.

I was actually there overlapping with you - May 13 to 21 then on Dong Yin, one of the Matsu Islands to the 24th. Like you we were badly hindered by the rain but managed all the endemics, the last one being the partridge from the Fireflies hide just like you. We never found Island Thrush nor the Tawny Owl but we did get Varied Tit in the Wuhlei area on the one day we had after coming back from Dong Yin. For Fairy Pitta we used a local guy who makes a living out of locating them and their nests for researchers - he showed us one at the nest and we heard at least three others in different spots, including behind the Huben temple.

We went to Lanyu on the 19th - you can get the ferry there and back on the same day, which we did. You get four hours or so on the island, which was long enough as we had seen all the targets inside two. We had two Lesser Frigatebirds from land that started miles out but got blown in and ended up soaring near the lighthouse.

Dong Yin was like birding on a very hilly St Mary's - on foot most of the time. Very wet but that produced good numbers of migrants such as Pechora Pipit, Korean Flycatcher and massive numbers of Yellow Bitterns and Brown Shrikes. Migrants boosted our trip list to just over 200 species.

Steve
Click to expand...

Thanks Steve, sounds like you had a great trip too. I think we went out with the researcher guide. At least there still seems to be quite a bit of suitable habitat around Huben for them, at least it looked like it in our few hours there. We thought the temple area looked good but it was late by the time we got round there.

Didn't know about the ferry unfortunately as given the option after seeing the birds so quickly we'd have probably come off that day. Nevermind, we saw some decent birds over there which was the main thing, and we still had plenty of time for the Partridges! Interesting about your Frigatebirds. The Frigate we saw was not that far out of Lanyu itself, probably the same bird!!!

Sounds like you got a good list of migrants.

All in all it shows what a good two weeks birding you can easily have over there!

Cheers, Andy
 
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