• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Sichuan Birding (4 Viewers)

Ok, thanks for the info. So the map in the MacKinnon guide is a little misleading when it shows the Brown-breasted Flycatcher as resident across it's range in China, but it might over-winter in the most southern provinces. The species does however appear to over-winter as far south (and west) as Sri Lanka.
 
I think it's fair to say the maps in MacKinnon are a very rough guide to where birds may be - it's quite hard to make accurate range maps in a very large and underbirded country |:S| That's why sharing info is very important :-O
 
After fleeing the February Sichuan - we're now back home from Hainan. In Chengdu, although temperatures aren't too bad, zero building insulation and no central heating system, means that mid-winter often feels like life in an ice-box. This year we reckoned the best solution to this problem was to take down south.

Takes us a couple of very long motorway days to drive to the Hainan boat - and join the crowds from Northern China who are escaping the real cold of snow and ice.

There are excellent reports on Hainan in Birdforum from Shi Jin - and on the web by John and Jemi Holmes.
We can add to these that our trip spent a bit of time at the Hainan Gibbon site - Bawangling National Nature Reserve.
I'm afraid it looks like time has run out for the Gibbon - it hasn't been seen for years. The last count was around 20 individuals.
However all the roads have been improved in the reserve - you can drive for over 100km - and there's some stunning forest. There are a couple of checkpoints but we were let through after we explained we were birders - nobody required permits - but before they let you through the first checkpoint you have to pay a 30RMB ticket.
As for birds - well easier to say what we missed!!!!!
No - Hainan Partridge, Hainan Peacock Pheasant or White-winged Magpie - but a load of other good stuff.
Pics -
- That Bawangling Forest. nice if Gibbons were still hanging about out there!!!!

- Rufous-cheeked Laugher. These guys really can laugh - and in unison as a flock!!!!

- Sultan Tit, that guy needs a punker's safety pin through its beak

- A bird that doesn't appear to be on too many Hainan lists - Ashy Wood Swallow

- and finally a bird that brings us back to Sichuan - a Radde's/Yellow-streaked Warbler. Couldn't get a call out of this chap - but with that beak I want to swing towards Radde's
 

Attachments

  • jungle.jpg
    jungle.jpg
    79 KB · Views: 57
  • Rufous Cheeked Laughingthrush.jpg
    Rufous Cheeked Laughingthrush.jpg
    56.7 KB · Views: 62
  • Sultan Tit.jpg
    Sultan Tit.jpg
    65.3 KB · Views: 76
  • Ashy wood swallow.jpg
    Ashy wood swallow.jpg
    46.9 KB · Views: 62
  • radde's.jpg
    radde's.jpg
    218.1 KB · Views: 77
Last edited:
Love the Sultan Tit - great looking bird - more impressive here than the illustrations in books!

Hope that it is warm enough there so that you have truly stayed thawed out. Signs of spring all the way up here, so guess it should be improving there (though you do like to travel to those high up places with late snow, don't you?).
 
Hi Gretchen - we certainly like those high places with lots of snow - what we don't like are chilly poorly insulated houses!!!! I'm afraid the story goes - that a rather important gent declared that housing in all areas south of the Yangtze don't need no winter heating - which results, especially during those days when we have falling snow, in arctic indoor climates. We've been pretty rigorous with radiators and multi-layers of curtains and carpeting - but in Sichuan a winter at home can turn into a bit of an ice box existence!!!!!

But last week we got sunny spells - which got me and Meggie to drive off to Wolong. Of course the day after we arrived it started to rain and then snow - but birding in that kind of weather is far more pleasant than shivering at home!!!!!

The news from Wolong is that they've started building a new tunnel on the Balang Pass!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's going to cut through the top part of the pass - and start about 10km further up the road from the Monal site - so won't affect birding activities too much - apart from generating yet more eyesore and obnoxious, honking dumper truck traffic.

The bad news however is that the tunnel construction team have taken over the best hotel in town for the next 2 years (Yuan Shen Tai the hotel just past the army barracks that was used by many birders last year) - so its back to using the more basic alternatives!!!!!

Another interesting thing observed was a tractor load of bamboo going into the partly derelict, quake damaged Wolong Panda breeding center - they've moved at least 1 panda back in, from Bifengxia, for a reintroduction project. This sounds very exciting - and is hopefully an answer to the numerous criticisms over the lack of work in this area. A future with more Pandas in the wild will surely give more impetuous for further habitat conservation and protection???
There's still no public access to the center.

With the cold snap the birding was very quiet - we saw a few migrants in the form of Barn and the year's first Red-rumped Swallows. Otherwise it was winter birds -
Pic 2 is Rufous-breasted Accentor - lots of these in the dense scrub, but you need a call to encourage them to show.

Pic 3 - Wallcreeper. Quake damaged Wolong must now offer a great deal of habitat for this bird.

And finally a call. This year I'm going to spend a lot more time collecting calls. This is an interesting one - Black-faced Laughingthrush responding to playback
 

Attachments

  • Panda Center.jpg
    Panda Center.jpg
    91.1 KB · Views: 65
  • rufous breasted accentor.jpg
    rufous breasted accentor.jpg
    60 KB · Views: 65
  • wallcreeper.jpg
    wallcreeper.jpg
    88.3 KB · Views: 63
  • Black-faced Laughingthrush.MP3
    487.7 KB · Views: 87
Last edited:
Sid,

Is that new tunnel the one at km102? They started that in 2007 then halted for a couple of years, though I noticed a bit of work there last year. I hope not as it isn't far from a couple more 'monal sites' ! Sorry mike, couldn't resist!

Already looking forward to returning in May - not long now!

James
 
Hi Mike - Monals and Shanxi Brown Eared Pheasant twitches - looks like your better half had better chain you up this year!!!!!!!

I'm just getting my birding toys ready for a new season -

Pic 1 - last year I stumbled upon a local piece of sound equipment that I initially thought would be junk. A small MP3 player - costing just 100RMB (about 10pounds) - with its own built in speaker. Amazingly these things work pretty well - the speaker has enough quality to be very handy for playback and I have no problems with transferring files from PC through an English version of XP. However I usually use an external speaker to save on the battery, ensuring the machine has enough juice to get through a whole day's hard birding. I've now got 4 of them - and the original two have survived a year of rigorous work.

Pic 2 and 3 - our night-watching torch. This thing is a magic piece of equipment. It has an extending head with a big lens that focuses the LED to produce a very strong beam. When the head is pushed back you get wide-angle. I bought this at a police equipment store - for 180RMB - it comes with removable rechargeable batteries that are charged inside the torch. We got our Chinese Tawny Owl with this light.

Pic 4 - is my directional microphone. Hardly premium equipment so it goes well with my highly battered voice recorder that's done sterling service for the last 3 years. But all these things are cheap - that mic costs just 150RMB - although I won't be winning any awards for sound quality it certainly produces results that make for usable recordings. Most importantly you can change cords through the standard 3 pin socket - I've already swapped the original for a handier spring coil arrangement.
 

Attachments

  • mp3.jpg
    mp3.jpg
    105.8 KB · Views: 58
  • Torch.jpg
    Torch.jpg
    65.9 KB · Views: 58
  • Torch 2.jpg
    Torch 2.jpg
    53.5 KB · Views: 51
  • mic.jpg
    mic.jpg
    124.2 KB · Views: 64
Last edited:
Hi James
you posted while I was editing that last post!!!!!

It depends on what KM signs you're using - last spring we noticed two sets of differing km marks - I haven't noticed if they've now got rid of the old ones!!!!

The actual location is that big bend that comes about 10kms of relatively straight road after the small tunnel past the popular monal site - there are already huts, gravel works and a water station at that spot. The locals refer to this area as a Monal spot - but you now have to walk those ridge paths to get away from the areas of disturbance. There was work going on there last year, with gravel - but maybe they started a tunnel in that area in 2007 - this year its certainly on the go : (
 
Hi James
you posted while I was editing that last post!!!!!

It depends on what KM signs you're using - last spring we noticed two sets of differing km marks - I haven't noticed if they've now got rid of the old ones!!!!

The actual location is that big bend that comes about 10kms of relatively straight road after the small tunnel past the popular monal site - there are already huts, gravel works and a water station at that spot. The locals refer to this area as a Monal spot - but you now have to walk those ridge paths to get away from the areas of disturbance. There was work going on there last year, with gravel - but maybe they started a tunnel in that area in 2007 - this year its certainly on the go : (

Thanks for that Sid. I know exactly where you mean - the hut at the big bend is where I stayed for 5 nights many years ago and where they originally started blasting in 2006/2007. Though the old hut we stayed in (2 5-foot single beds for four of us!) has been replaced by something a bit more grand and respectable!

I doubt the monals would be bothered to be honest. When we found the original monal spot some 8 years ago now there was plenty of workers there (50+), and in 2007 my group actually watched the monals vibrate with the rest of the hillside as they blasted out the km91 tunnel just below them!

Last year, at a different monal site, higher up, there were plenty of workers just below a male, in the heat of the day, and it just walked not appearing to fussed by all action below it.

Cheers,

James
 
Last week me and jiujiu (Roland) took a trip surveying one of the last Sichuan breeding areas for Derbyan Parakeet (we'll be writing that trip up soon) - but on the way back it we got the opportunity to cross the Balang Pass and take some pics of that new construction work.

The first pic is of where the entrance is going to be on the Wolong side of the pass - the white buildings are accommodation huts and they've already started to clear the way and lay a road for the drilling equipment

Second pic are the buildings for workers on the eastern side - close to where we presume the tunnel comes out. These buildings are annoyingly close to one of the more convenient sites for Himalayan Rubythroat/White-browed Tit Warbler - and in a area that has been badly damaged by the dust generated by the nearly gravel workings!!!!!!

Third pic is the most worrying - habitat destruction with the building of a new road in an area just bellow the that entrance area shown in pic. I just hope this wont be used so the can dump rock extracted from the tunneling!!!!!

However regardless of all these nasty images - in an area designated as a UNESCO world heritage site - we believe the greatest damage done to this habitat doesn't come through diesel motors, but on 4 legs - overgrazing by Yaks that can eventually result in irreparable soil erosion!!!!

As James stated the birds here are often amazingly unconcerned by this kind of development - and it seems the workers don't hunt or unnecessarily disturb the birds - and have always been a good source of info on local wildlife and birds. The biggest direct damage they cause is felling scrub at lower levels for cooking fire wood. Unfortunately this latest tunnel project is due to last 4 years - so it would nice if someone connected with the conservation and protection of this area could persuade the site company managers to provide their workforce with alternative, more environmentally friendly, cooking fuels - and hopefully encourage them to try and leave as small a development footprint as possible.

PS - now no Kl marks left on the road at all - they're close to finishing that safety barrier over most of the route and all those kl stones have gone!!!!
 

Attachments

  • 2.jpg
    2.jpg
    193 KB · Views: 88
  • 3.jpg
    3.jpg
    134.3 KB · Views: 75
  • 1.jpg
    1.jpg
    255 KB · Views: 99
Last edited:
On our way to the before mentioned Parakeet survey - we ran into a bit of a problem. In all ignorance we'd chosen to drive west the day before the anniversary of the 2008 troubles - so not far past Ya'an we were stopped by armed police and told that foreigners weren't allowed further up the road!!!

Being in the vicinity of Yinjing we decided to cut our losses and explore the west side of Wawu mountain. Yingjing is around an hour from Ya'an and the alternative - non tourist side of Wawu can be reached with another 30km - following the signs to the Longcang Forest Park. Decent accommodation can be had in Yingjing and we found one decent farm hotel at the bottom of the park. This site gives around 50 km of rough track - at the habitat ranges from plantation at the bottom to primary forest, with lots of bamboo, closer at the top. It looks like they're planning to improve the road.

The weather was truly awful - we enjoyed mist and rain!!!!!
But we still got some decent birds -

pic 1 - another great Pheasant site - male Lady A. Wet days are often good for these birds - they seem to enjoy a drier road rather than a damp forest floor.

pic 2 - bird of the day - Silver Pheasant. We saw a pair. This bird is rarely reported in Sichuan. On China Bird Report we found a single 2010 Wawu record - which I think comes from Robbi who's written a couple of posts here
Another single record is from Laba He in 2006 - before some clown decided to build a Ski Resort in the park (plenty of habitat still left - but all year skiing could well bump the price of entrance ticket and accommodation for those who only want to watch birds). Meggie has also seen this species close to this site. According to MacK and distribution our bird must be of the Central Chinese race Omeiensis.

Pic 3 - Red Pandas on this side of the mountain as well. Here's a fresh sign that a Red Panda has recently been through. Lots of interesting prints and droppings - pretty sure the mammal people would have fun here!!!!

The day after we got through the block and headed west - the secret to getting this permission is that one man shows off a copy of Mack's fieldguide, while the other birder amuses a guy with a sub-machine gun by playing Laughingthrush calls. All these restrictions are now well past and the west is again fully open!!!!!
 

Attachments

  • Lady A.jpg
    Lady A.jpg
    150 KB · Views: 91
  • silver pheasant.jpg
    silver pheasant.jpg
    62.3 KB · Views: 104
  • red panda dung.jpg
    red panda dung.jpg
    133.3 KB · Views: 98
Last edited:
We're out at the moment on survey work in NE Sichuan - and are happy to report that spring is finally here!!!!!!!!

That first pic shows a Brown-flanked Bush Warbler all pumped up - giving those calls that are such a distinctive sound of a Sichuan spring.

Pic 2 is also pumped up bird - this Collared Owlet in the process of giving a recital of 'bop-ba ba - bop' that lasted a whole morning.

pic 3 - a couple of interesting passage birds were a pair of Mandarin Duck - this pic of the drake gives the impression of a visit to pleasant parkland - in reality if involved viewing a river from a busy, dusty main road - dodging dumper trucks - and balancing on the edge of a crumbly, soon to fall embankments

Pic 4 - a laugher we haven't shown in previous posts - White-throated Laughingingthrush. In 2008 I saw a pair of these birds in the Panda Breeding Center in Chengdu - but have a feeling they were either escapes or liberated birds.

And a song - Dusky Fulvetta - a skulker that's nearly always picked up from call
 

Attachments

  • Brown Flanked Bush Warbler 700.jpg
    Brown Flanked Bush Warbler 700.jpg
    66.4 KB · Views: 87
  • Collared Owlwt 700.jpg
    Collared Owlwt 700.jpg
    118.3 KB · Views: 74
  • Mandarin Duck 700.jpg
    Mandarin Duck 700.jpg
    67.7 KB · Views: 83
  • White throated Laughingthrush s.jpg
    White throated Laughingthrush s.jpg
    99.2 KB · Views: 68
  • Dusky Fulvetta.MP3
    357.1 KB · Views: 400
Last edited:
Thanks for keeping us up on your travels. Sounds like your use of ingenuity is an important part of getting places to see birds! I think I need a little more of that sometimes. (As well as facing danger and dust Re pic 3.) Great to see your pics as always. The BF Bush warbler picture is a great action shot -looks like he's about doubled his neck length trying for a wonderful song.
 
Hi Gretchen - I've loaded the song of that Brown-flanked Bush Warbler. Listening to it you'll understand why it has to go through those un-warbler like contortions (birds in background are - Streak-throated Scimitar Babbler, Rufous Capped Babbler and Collared Finchbilll)

The first pic is the same warbler in a more normal pose. Interesting to compare it with a pic of the other common Bush Warbler out here - pic 2 - Yellowish-bellied Bush Warbler. This pic was taken in the same area this winter. The two species look pretty similar - but their songs are chalk and cheese - the Yellowish-bellied having one of the strangest songs!!!!!!
Listen to these - http://www.xeno-canto.org/asia/browse.php?query=yellow+bellied+bush+warbler

These birds also range in different breeding habitat - Brown-flanked commonly found in lower farmland while Yellowish-bellied breeds much higher in bamboo rich areas. In winter they can be both found in lower ground - and their rasping calls are very similar.

And the second recording - today's common song - Elegant Bunting. A lot of these birds in full voice today.
 

Attachments

  • BF Bush Warbler.jpg
    BF Bush Warbler.jpg
    69.4 KB · Views: 74
  • YB Bush Warbler.jpg
    YB Bush Warbler.jpg
    62.8 KB · Views: 82
  • brown flanked bush warbler.MP3
    359.5 KB · Views: 468
  • elegant bunting.MP3
    372.2 KB · Views: 447
Last edited:
Thanks for these two recordings - nice to hear the brown flanked as he was calling, though I wish I could have identified all the songs there - quite noisy in your woods! (the expression chalk and cheese is new too - but it makes a strong image) The yellow bellied is quite a piercing song - not really heard a birdsong quite like that before.

I'm especially glad to hear the "elegant bunting" (what's this about yellow throat? it's elegant!) who is my current favorite bunting. (As a matter of fact, just saw one on campus for the first time last week.) I don't think I've heard one singing yet though - just calling. Downloading songs can be slow, and it's hard to know where to begin sometimes, but very nice to hear the elegant which I will definitely be looking forward to seeing and hearing a bit more.
 
Our Leaf Warblers are on the way back - which of course will cause us the usual fun and headaches.

That first pic is an Eastern Crowned Warbler - which owns the wonderful Latin title of Phylloscopus coronatus. What a regal ring to that name!!!!!
This bird really didn't show much of the crown stripe that's depicted in the guide books - in the field it gave the impression of having a full crown. A couple of the pics of this species on OBC images also show indistinct crown markings - but there's no disguising that broad orange bill lower mandible.
The bird was singing and I've uploaded its song. To get confirmation of that I was directed to this site - http://avocet.zoology.msu.edu/ - another good sound resource. Background calls include a distant Collared Owlet and Grey-headed Woodpecker

The second warbler is about the easiest Phyllo to ID - Sulpher-breasted Warbler. This guy was a little nosier than the Eastern-crowned - and also gave me a chance to record its song - background calls are mostly from Collared Finchbill
 

Attachments

  • Eastern Crowned Warbler.jpg
    Eastern Crowned Warbler.jpg
    70.2 KB · Views: 83
  • Sulpher-breasted Warbler.jpg
    Sulpher-breasted Warbler.jpg
    86.7 KB · Views: 84
  • Eastern Crowned Warbler.MP3
    389.8 KB · Views: 415
  • Sulpher Breasted Warbler.MP3
    408.5 KB · Views: 439
Last edited:
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top