Sichuan Birding (4 Viewers)

Interesting Sid - we also got a few Crimson-browed Finch at Balang, along with Sharpe's Rosefinch.
Something of interest - what is the status of Mandarin in Sichuan? We found a male on the pond at Labahe, amazingly, appears ideal for them, and we also got a pair feeding on a reservoir half way between Jiuzhaigou and Chengdu.

I also got 2 Sichuan (and world!) lifers last week, at perhaps the most amazing reserve I've yet been to in Sichuan - Tang Jai He, what a stunning, stunning place. Not only did we get nesting Tawny Fish Owl (adults and 2 youngsters), but also my final parrotbill - Przwalski's, along with 65 Takin, more monal and breeding Baikal Bush Warbler (alongside Spotted, interestingly).

Just outside of Sichuan, a male Blackthroat feeding young in Shaanxi was very nice...

J

Ouch! sounds like a rocking good trip James.

china guy said:

Another bird I've never before seen on Balang were Tibetan Partridge, and a Snow Partridge, a bird we usual see on the top, was found at the Monal stakeout (Monals also present).

Click to expand...

Funnily enough we also saw a single Snow Patridge on the ridge at the km91 monal spot - seems a good year for galliforms there.

I remember when I stayed at a farmers hut 10 yeas ago on Balang Shan, walkng down 11km pre-dawn in the pouring rain for Wood Snipe I found a Tibetan Partridge water-logged in the middle of the road - I had to actually pick it up and put it on the grass, poor thing. Previous to that we had them at km91 (same day we found the monals there for the first time!), but never since...

I will try and upload some photos next week, just busy in Qinghai at the moment...

James

Hi all and Sid ,
I'm Augusto Faustino and finally manage to post on Sichuan Birding. I was on the early spring tour in Sichuan with Sid and what to say... It was an incredible trip!!! not just because of the birds, landscape and so on but mostly because of Sid. He is not only one of the BEST and most dedicated bird guides I have met but is also a committed and passionate nature lover. It was a privilege to have done that trip with him and I hope to manage to go on the wild with him again.
Of the trip, Sid had already posted the list and the more relevant comments. I'll use this forum to post some photos and personal thoughts about the birds and the places.
Nothing better to prove Sid's care for nature then the next picture where Sid is fighting with 2 illegal hunters (just one in the picture as the other manage to escape a furious enraged Sid running to them!!!) on the lower forest of Moxi... He just did not thought twice and run to the guys chasing them away... brave as just Sid can be!!!
The other is a pic of Emei Leaf Warbler form lower Western Wawu... What a magical incredible forest! and what a sad memory of what lower Sichuan must have been long long time ago...


Hug for all and Abraço for Sid

AuF

Pleased to have you with us Augusto. By the way your photo of the Emei Leaf Warbler is a the first of this species we have on Birdforum so will be getting included in Opus!

I look forward to hearing and seeing your comments on here about your trip. We all have a soft spot for Sid....Well done Sid on sorting the hunter out, is it too late for your to be considered for the Olympic Wrestling team

Stunning pic of Emei Leaf Warbler Augusto.

A bearded monster chasing hunters in the forest - sounds like Sid is on the way into local folklore as as the Monster of Moxi - great stuff!

Sid has taken the birding to next level. Great job Sid, a great lesson for the locals!

Hi all,
here are some pics from Chengdu...
We went to the river by the conference center and despite the brown color of the water we manage to find some nice birds. Always amazes me how birds manage to live in such places...
However the most impressive, at least for me, was an afternoon trip to the "forest spot" in the University grounds... Probably the smallest forest I've been and with the highest concentration of bird photographers... all parked 2 meters from where the birds were and all loaded with impressive equipment. A sight in itself!!!
Anyway, we manage to found some very nice birds, no blackthroat unfortunately, but the picture of Fujian Niltava shows well how such a small place can hold such nice birds... probably these fellows just don't have any other place to stop by during migration...
Hugs
Augusto

Just back from my latest trip - and finally time to write a post!!!!!

Thanks Augusto and Rhion for those great pics - and of course the pic of me tussling with the nasty man was part of my training build-up to the new Olympic sport of hunter tossing. Its a bit like throwing the hammer - you pick them up by the legs and spin them around and cast them off the side of a mountain. I actually hope China win all three medals in that sport - we could do with a good hunter tossing team out here!!!!!

This last trip once again got Crimsom-browed Finch - this time at Mengbishan - a pair that included a male in full breeding plumage. Other birds were more Yellow-bellied Flowerpeckers at Labahe - where the Pair of rather confiding Tragopan, that includes a stunning male, were once again entertaining us with close views. Unfortunately there was only one chick - I hope the bad early summer weather hasn't caused too much of a problem for our gamebirds.

Another bird of interest included our Sichuan version of Long-tailed Rosefinch - we saw it in two locations in the Jiuzhaigou area (outside the park) and a spot outside on the road between Rilong and Mengbi. MacK calls this ssp henrici - but it certainly looks a lot different from most of the images on OBI.
We managed to get a pic of the male with a small digital camera and I got a recording of the call. Certainly looks like something for the splitters. Pic and call are attached - thanks to Barry Edmonston for the photo

James mentions the Mandarin Ducks between JZ and Chengdu - we got a pair displaying, in what I'm sure is the same location, during early May. We also recorded a lot more Mandarin Ducks this winter during our survey work in NE Sichuan - and the question of Sichuan status of this species has also occurred to me. However on this last trip, on our way home from JZ, we couldn't find the ducks on the the reservoir (two days ago) - and if the pond at Labahe is that one on the bottom road, then I'm afraid it's been drained (probably yet another managerial attempt to improve on nature - like the new concrete water fall and all the other goodies around that grotesque new hotel).

One species we had a brief fling at this trip was the Przewalski's Parrotbill. Chinese birders have now been getting them again in the JZ area - so we visited a site outside the park, at 3000m, which includes a good habitat of bamboo and open forest habitat. Rain and time meant a brief stay - but, as you can see from the pic, this is a promising site, where you can find bamboo on all the valley sides, that merits further investigation.

Yesterday we got Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher just outside Dujiangyan - and the day before the heartening site of a family of Collared Crow close to Pingwu - where an adult bird was flying with three imm birds.

Finally back home and attempting to sort through 7 weeks of photos after visits to Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Qinghai and Xinjiang - a quite amazing trip, and I even managed at least 10 lifers!

Photos attached are all from my new favourite Sichuan site - Tang Jia He. Golden Bush Robin was about the most numerous species present (excluding warblers!).
White-browed Bush Robin showed well, finally I managed a decent photo of this elusive species.
Tawny Fish Owl - an unexpected bonus was a pair breeding actually above the road, though the chicks fledged the previous day, we managed to track them down, eventually, though they showed better at night, with an adult fishing along the river.
Baikal Bush Warbler - Not sure on the status of this species in Sichuan... I've regularly encountered them at Jiuzhaigou, presumably on passage, but here we found 3 pairs feeding young, so they definitely breed in the province. What was of added interest was also finding Spotted Bush Warbler breeding here (the two used to be lumped).
And finally, the whole reason of our trek and camping here - Przewalski's Parrotbill. This was my final parrotbill, and meant a lot seeing it after spending weeks at Jiuzhaigou 10 years back in search of bamboo to find this species, failing miserably, a nice moment in the mist!

More to follow over the course of the week...

James

ps - Mandarin at Labahe was at the Deer Pond, half way up...

Well done James with the trip, you have 2 new ones for Opus as well, they are the Prezwalskis and the Tawny Fish Owl.

Hope you didnt have any trouble with hunters or you may have to start a tag team with Sid.

Some excellent photos James and Augusto ! Enjoyed reading your reports.

Well done Sid ! And that's an excellent photo to illustrate the event too.

Some more photos from my recent Sichuan visit, though I generally didn't do so well with photography to previous years, I'm blaming the incredibly bad weather we encountered throughout (and carried on for the next 4 weeks in China - even raining in the Taklimakan Desert!).

Brown Parrotbill, Labahe - We found 3 nests of this conspicuous species at this site, the easiest parrotbill here...

Black-browed Tit, Wolong - Seems to be regular here now (and Maerkang), the species seems to be extending its range into Sooty Tit areas, with the 2 being separated on habitat (Sooty is in good-quality deciduous, Black-browed in mixed deciduous/scrub and conifers).

Slaty Bunting - many pairs at Labahe feeding young already, never come across so many in a day, 10+.

Emei Leaf Warbler, Emei Shan - The original site for the species, and still common here. Though easily separated from Kloss's and Claudia's on both song and contact call, silent birds are very tricky - Emei flicks both wings at the same time (as Kloss's do), and if you pay special attention to the central crown strip, you will notice it only really becomes noticeable towards the crown and becoming broader a the nape, being absent from the forecrown.

Sichuan Treecreeper, Jiuzhaigou - We were delighted to find them easily at Jiuzhaigou, nesting in the very same area I found the birds in 2004, and hadn't been there since as it's well off the trodden-path, but since Wawu Shan's closure we were struggling for them, as many other spots appear to only be wintering sites. Since that I found them to be very common at Tang Jia He.

J

James

Your comments on Emei Leaf Warbler are interesting. I had a bird doing the double wing flick in Ng Tung Chai a few years ago.

Have you ever seen other phylloscs doing this? It would be great if it was diagnostic (although I suspect the records committee would not necessarily be persuaded this was enough for a first for HK!)

Cheers
Mike

Hi Mike,

Claudia's alternates wing-flicking, flicking one at a time, that is diagnostic to the 'Blyth's' complex (Hartert's, Claudia's and Blyth's), no other phyllosc does it in such a way...

Kloss's-types (Kloss's, Davison's, Grey-hooded and presumably Hainan also) and Emei flick both wings at the same time - unfortunately these two species are indistinguishable in plumage in the field, apart from the central crown stripe I noticed, and, a potential field-mark which I need to do more research into is the supercilium, note on Kloss's the super reaches the bill, whereas on Emei it narrows towards the bill, stopping just before - in the few Emei I have seen well (it's usually a canopy bird) this appears to stay true...

In brief - you need to get a very good photo of the head!

The warbler that Sid had in the grasslands still has me a little puzzled, as the head pattern really doesn't look contrasting enough for Gansu in my eyes, and the darkish lower mandible and seemingly dark legs don't help, even got me wondering about Hume's, as they respond to Gansu LW on migration (As they breed side-by-side in northern Gansu)...

Cheers

J

MKinHK said:

James

Your comments on Emei Leaf Warbler are interesting. I had a bird doing the double wing flick in Ng Tung Chai a few years ago.

Have you ever seen other phylloscs doing this? It would be great if it was diagnostic (although I suspect the records committee would not necessarily be persuaded this was enough for a first for HK!)

Cheers
Mike

Click to expand...

Many thanks James

I'm pretty sure that Emei Leaf Warbler is the only one of these that breeds in northern Guangdong . . .

My only real chance is to catch one of them singing!

Cheers
Mike

Kloss's is Jiangxi and Fujian, so I presume it would be at Babaoshan for example? Kloss's/Blyth's-type winter in small numbers in northern Vietnam - no idea which ones these are, would be fascinating to know as I assume Hartert's would reach here...

Still plenty to learn, and I wouldn't be surprised if there is still something new out there...

J

MKinHK said:

Many thanks James

I'm pretty sure that Emei Leaf Warbler is the only one of these that breeds in northern Guangdong . . .

My only real chance is to catch one of them singing!

Cheers
Mike

Click to expand...

Dear all,

On 18 July me and my girlfriend observed a male White-throated Rock Thrush at Tang Jia He along the Fragrant Princess Forest Trail close to the fancy hotel. Considering the time of the year that is quite peculiar. Does anybody know of any nearby breeding records?

Kind regards,
Ben Wielstra

P.S. Did not manage to try for the parrotbill

Hi there I'm just back from survey work - far too hot in Sichuan just now!!!!!!

Ben - congratulations with the White-throated Rock Thrush record. There's a record for this bird For the Jiuzhaigou area,
http://www.birdtours.co.uk/tripreports/china/china1/CHINA2.htm
- this is a species I'd like to find

all the best
Sid

Hey Sid,

Thanks for the info. Don't you get it in Sicuan in winter or during migration? Perhaps the one at Jiuzhaigou was a migrant, considering it was early June? I get the impression that there are no confirmed breeding records nearby so perhaps we just saw a 'loser' bird that was just wasting a breeding season?

Cheers,
Ben