Chengdu Bird guiding – [email protected] - Chengdu, Sichuan, the gateway to Tibet - to see more travel pics of Sichuan go to my travel blog at - http://chengdutravel.blogspot.com/
To see more of our birding pics go to - http://sichuanbirds.blogspot.com/
A bird that has non skulking problems (somethimes I wish it would try to hide itself a little more) - Collared Finchbill. No Moustached Laughers showing well, but, as always, plenty of these
Well we've been out two times now for that pic of the Moustached Laughingthrush - but ohhh deary me them birds just don't wanna show!!!!
Laughers are usually great skulkers - and in the dense vegitation us birders have to deal with out here - well for much of the time there simply isn't any reason for these birds to come out and show. In the breeding season territorial display and song will get them to show a feather or two when they eye-up any potential competitors - playback working well during this time of year - but just now - well shortening days means the ol' breeding hormones aren't flowing so freely - playback isn't terribly effective. We're getting to hear the birds - on my second visit - I even got very brief glimpses of distant birds - but we haven't been lucky enough to stumble on any birds who are bold enough to pose for a picture - but they will come.
The rest of the birding was good - big flocks which mostly comprised of Tits (there were a few Yellow-browed Tits mixed in), Vinous-throated Parrotbill, Pallas's Leaf Warbler, Grey-cheeked fulvetta and Red-billed Leiothrix. We also found a couple of Speckled Piculet - a beautiful Wren-sized bird which is grouped together with the woodpeckers. This is another species on my - 'I want a decent pic' list.
Birds of prey were also still on passage - but the Peregrine I saw whizzing over the top of my mountain looked more like it was switched onto hunting mode than in the process of migration. I've actually seen Peregrines in the middle of Chengdu - once spotting a bird, cluchting the heavy load of a Feral Pigeon, valiantly trying to wing its way up to a safe eating location of a high-rise building.
The buzzards are tricky at the moment - there seems an influx of lighter colored birds - which you see soaring high overhead. I've now come to conclude that these must be Vulpinus (Common/Steppe Buzzard) which will winter in Southern China.
A vulpinus type Common Buzzard taken, very close to where we live, by my wife, the day after my last Qingcheng watch. I could have seen this bird out of my kitchen window.
This Sunday the sun suddenly started shining, and it seemed the right kind of day to take our nephew and one of our friends kids out for a Panda trip. But of course, as bird-crazed gaurdians we also had wee spot of birding on our minds - so we decided to make this Panda destination the Bi Feng Xia Panda Research Center, which is located a good two hours drive West of Chengdu (15 km's from Ya'an). We had never visited Bi Feng - but knew it should be located in a very scenic gorge - and through its proximity with Wawu, Emei and the other great birding locations in this area - well we hoped for a good birding spot.
The Panda pens inside the Bi Feng Research center - some good habitat here with lots of nice forest. Shame they have to destroy so much of it for those darn Pandas and the tourists - a bit ironic when you consider that the main threat to the Panda is habitat destruction!!!!! But lets look on the bright side - what's left of this forest hopefully gets more protection inside a well run tourist park than if it was left to be slowly erroded away by all the pressures that modern day China puts on the natural habitat. To see a travel report on our Bi Feng Xia visit go to our travel site at - http://chengdutravel.blogspot.com/
And a good birding spot it was as well. Down at stream in the bottom of the gorge just through the park entrance - Little and White-crowned Forktail and the usual 2 species of Water Redstart.
As we went towards the Center we could walk a motor road that was bordered by very nice dense forest - in here the usual flocks of Tits/Fulvetta/Warbler/Leiothrix/Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler - but also some rather loud melodious snippets of call - which sounded totally Rusty Laughingthrush.
A bit more mundane a bird than some of the more exciting species we've been listing - but a bird willing to pose for a pic or two - Grey-cheeked Fulvetta, exposing one of those cheeks!
Inside the Panda Research Center we spotted - lots more flocks and this time, high up in trees were Mountain Bulbul, - within a Panda enclosure a pair of Hwamei - joining one of the flocks we also got Black-chinned Yuhina and Rufous-faced Warbler - and from a forest path I got the glimpse of a noisy Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, as its wing-smaking flight took it up and away from the canopy.
Looks like this place aint just Pandas - have to get back here sometime - but this time, in the interests of total birding, we'll play selfish and leave the kids behind!
To see more of our birding pics go to - http://sichuanbirds.blogspot.com/
A bird that has non skulking problems (somethimes I wish it would try to hide itself a little more) - Collared Finchbill. No Moustached Laughers showing well, but, as always, plenty of these
Well we've been out two times now for that pic of the Moustached Laughingthrush - but ohhh deary me them birds just don't wanna show!!!!
Laughers are usually great skulkers - and in the dense vegitation us birders have to deal with out here - well for much of the time there simply isn't any reason for these birds to come out and show. In the breeding season territorial display and song will get them to show a feather or two when they eye-up any potential competitors - playback working well during this time of year - but just now - well shortening days means the ol' breeding hormones aren't flowing so freely - playback isn't terribly effective. We're getting to hear the birds - on my second visit - I even got very brief glimpses of distant birds - but we haven't been lucky enough to stumble on any birds who are bold enough to pose for a picture - but they will come.
The rest of the birding was good - big flocks which mostly comprised of Tits (there were a few Yellow-browed Tits mixed in), Vinous-throated Parrotbill, Pallas's Leaf Warbler, Grey-cheeked fulvetta and Red-billed Leiothrix. We also found a couple of Speckled Piculet - a beautiful Wren-sized bird which is grouped together with the woodpeckers. This is another species on my - 'I want a decent pic' list.
Birds of prey were also still on passage - but the Peregrine I saw whizzing over the top of my mountain looked more like it was switched onto hunting mode than in the process of migration. I've actually seen Peregrines in the middle of Chengdu - once spotting a bird, cluchting the heavy load of a Feral Pigeon, valiantly trying to wing its way up to a safe eating location of a high-rise building.
The buzzards are tricky at the moment - there seems an influx of lighter colored birds - which you see soaring high overhead. I've now come to conclude that these must be Vulpinus (Common/Steppe Buzzard) which will winter in Southern China.
A vulpinus type Common Buzzard taken, very close to where we live, by my wife, the day after my last Qingcheng watch. I could have seen this bird out of my kitchen window.
This Sunday the sun suddenly started shining, and it seemed the right kind of day to take our nephew and one of our friends kids out for a Panda trip. But of course, as bird-crazed gaurdians we also had wee spot of birding on our minds - so we decided to make this Panda destination the Bi Feng Xia Panda Research Center, which is located a good two hours drive West of Chengdu (15 km's from Ya'an). We had never visited Bi Feng - but knew it should be located in a very scenic gorge - and through its proximity with Wawu, Emei and the other great birding locations in this area - well we hoped for a good birding spot.
The Panda pens inside the Bi Feng Research center - some good habitat here with lots of nice forest. Shame they have to destroy so much of it for those darn Pandas and the tourists - a bit ironic when you consider that the main threat to the Panda is habitat destruction!!!!! But lets look on the bright side - what's left of this forest hopefully gets more protection inside a well run tourist park than if it was left to be slowly erroded away by all the pressures that modern day China puts on the natural habitat. To see a travel report on our Bi Feng Xia visit go to our travel site at - http://chengdutravel.blogspot.com/
And a good birding spot it was as well. Down at stream in the bottom of the gorge just through the park entrance - Little and White-crowned Forktail and the usual 2 species of Water Redstart.
As we went towards the Center we could walk a motor road that was bordered by very nice dense forest - in here the usual flocks of Tits/Fulvetta/Warbler/Leiothrix/Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler - but also some rather loud melodious snippets of call - which sounded totally Rusty Laughingthrush.
A bit more mundane a bird than some of the more exciting species we've been listing - but a bird willing to pose for a pic or two - Grey-cheeked Fulvetta, exposing one of those cheeks!
Inside the Panda Research Center we spotted - lots more flocks and this time, high up in trees were Mountain Bulbul, - within a Panda enclosure a pair of Hwamei - joining one of the flocks we also got Black-chinned Yuhina and Rufous-faced Warbler - and from a forest path I got the glimpse of a noisy Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, as its wing-smaking flight took it up and away from the canopy.
Looks like this place aint just Pandas - have to get back here sometime - but this time, in the interests of total birding, we'll play selfish and leave the kids behind!
