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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Sichuan Birding (2 Viewers)

More on Emei

There was a small element of magic that day - when Meggie went to buy our breakfast she accidentally walked into a belt of firecrackers that were just about to go off. To unknowingly step into exploding fireworks doesn't seem a wise thing to do - but everybody watching said that it was sign of good luck!!!! Amazingly, from that moment on our birding went up a gear - even when we filled up with petrol - we found a Brownish-flanked Bush Warbler perched up in the support girders of roof over the pumps. Hardly a rare bird - but not one you expect to find in a petrol station!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After that - what more could we expect than the Barwing?

I was also looking through our pics of Emei - we have been very lazy in taking good habitat pics - but there are a couple of shots showing what typical Emei offers - never ending stone staircases - which are often packed, especially during weekends and peak holiday periods, with teeming crowds - often going around in big package groups.
But its not too difficult - if you know your way around - to by-pass the masses. The trick being to find those small mud-tracks used by the locals. Thinking about a couple of these tracks we've not fully explored ( outside the ticketed zone) - and the winter period when the Emei bird flocks can be very interesting - gives inspiration for some winter birding out this way - if time permits!!!!!!

Also put in some of Emei bird shots - Blue-winged Minla, Maroon-backed Accentor and what we've called Alstroms Warbler (very distinctive grey crown and no white on outer tail feathers - plain-tailed).

Tomorrow were off for 2 weeks on more birding tasks (this time we're carrying out a bird survey and won't be visiting any recognised birding hotspots) - but we'll keep you posted if anything interesting turns up.
 

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Well we're still out on our survey - nothing earth shattering - but we had a couple of good days with raptor counts (pics on the Q/A forum - where I try to mutate a Oriental Honey Buzzard into a Juv Bonelli's Eagle). The rest of the birding has been quiet.

Yesterday we got a couple of harder to see birds - both of which can be easily confused with a common species - Grey-cheeked Fulvetta.

First is Dusky Fulvetta - we got three birds in a large flock of GC Fulvetta - you have to look hard, since the way these birds skulk around, a quick glance often isn't enough to register the differences between the species. The pic shows well that that Dusky lacks the white eye-ring of our Sichuan Grey-cheeked - and has a distinct but not very easy to see crown pattern. Those orangey-flesh colored legs are also a bit of a give-away.

the second is Green Shrike a Babbler - a bad pic, but its of yesterday's birds and illustrates well how you see these birds in the field. Our Sichuan birds have that grey breast and a large white eye ring. Usually very-active these birds can be difficult to focus on and its that white eye-ring that draws most attention. Since this bird can also join mixed flocks, is about the same size, and has similar plumage color to Grey-cheeked Fulvetta - then again a cursory glance is often not enough. What strikes you most with our Sichuan version of Green shrike Babbler is how distinct that eye-ring is - far bolder than the GC Fulvetta. Field guide pics - especially in the the MacK China field-guide - are next to useless for identifying this bird.

That third pic is of Grey-cheeked Fulvetta - a seen everywhere bird as soon as you start to hit any forest/small plantation/ dense tall scrub - over the 500m mark. That's a typical Sichuan bird with a faint but noticeable white eye-ring.
 

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Hmm this could be a bird quiz (at least for beginners). Helpful comparisons. I take it that the two fulvettas have similar beaks, just look different here because of the angle. Do I see that the Dusky has a lateral coronal black stripe (whereas your Sichuan version of GC doesn't)? That looks like it could be a good field mark too? Or maybe doesn't show that well as the eye ring?

I see that the Green shrike babbler doesn't look like the illustrations in either MacK or Brazil! Yours seems to have such a dark throat (or that's the shadow?). By the way, it almost looks as though you had been pishing at it or was there something else making it look so alert?

Sounds like things are going well! Enjoying your reports...
 
Hi Gretchen - the Dusky and GC Fulvettas have a similar shape and the same kind of bills. Those black stripes on the crown of the Dusky aren't that easy to pick up in the field - especially if the bird is skulking in a shady bush - white eye-rings and the lack of them are far more obvious feature in our Sichuan birds. But features with both these Fulvetta species change in different races found in other parts of China - I can see that some ssp. of Dusky have far more color contrast with regard to colouring on cheeks and crown than we have with our rather drab Sichuan version of this bird.
I must admit that this bird is so drab and inconspicuous that we only picked it up this year - realising it was a Sichuan bird we had missed - and that was after reading a Sichuan birding report here on Birdforum.

As far as the Green Shrike Babbler goes - take a look at them in OBC - you can see other races don't have that white eye-ring - but they still don't look like the Mack pic. Brazil has a better shape with his pic - but yes some our birds have grey breasts that make them look even more like GC Fulvetta. GSB also has dark wings with some specks of white - another pointer for making a snap ID under field conditions. And yes you are correct - that bird is coming onto us - through pishing and calls.

Both the Fulvettas will come to pishing.

Yesterday was a travel day to a new location - but we got a group of White-throated Needletail streaking overhead. These really are the supersonic jet-fighters of the bird world - their mastery of the air is quite awesome.
The distant pic is one we took today - but the close-up we took during our recent Moxi Trip. When flying close it's deadly difficult to get a decent pic - and me and Meggie had a competition to see who could get the best - great fun - but the winning pic is hers. In fact Swift snapping is such good sport it should be considered for the next Olympics!!!!!!
 

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Wow Sid,

Needletail's are one of my favourite birds! Well captured :clap: Very difficult indeed and totally agree, absolute 'jet-fighters' , did you hear them as well? a very audible 'wooshhh', magic!!
 
Hi mcaribou - Ben brought us a lot of luck that day - and the Tesia were very unexpected. I've got more pics to send to Ben, but they're at home - and we're still out in NE Sichuan.

Mark - I can really understand why Needletails rank as favorites. That Needletail "whoosh" experience is special - especially if the bird bounces you from behind and the sound hits you before you see it streak past.
For newbies out here - Needletails are big swifts - but you need to see them in company of other swifts before you fully appreciate their size - and remember even in big mixed swift flocks flying at different heights the high flying Needletails can look the same size as lower flying smaller species such as Pacific Swift.

We've had bad internet reception during the last couple of days - but a cold front has moved in - and visible BOP passage has just about dried up. However we're still getting birds - and we're pleased to be seeing Grey-faced Buzzard. This bird is a resident in this area - we also see it during the summer - when we get adult and Juv. birds. The question being is this resident population breeding or non-breeding - and if it breeds - where? Locals talk about a small brown Eagle that likes to look at baby chicks - that builds a nest in trees high up in the mountains - but this could also be Crested Goshawk. Folk in Taiwan who are studying GFB suspect that the bird could be expanding its range - so maybe with the forestation projects in NE Sichuan providing lots of conifer sites - we also have breeding population here.

Other stuff found on this trip that are not usually part of a Sichuan list are - Bull-headed Shrike and Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush.

Pics of an adult GFB from a couple of days back and the Necklaced Laugher
 

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Just to wish you a very Happy Birthday today....will be getting to mine in abot 6 months time.

Not been around BF much over past few weeks as went on holiday and ended up in Hospital.

Great to see the photos of what you have ben seeing around.
 
Meant to comment and forgot. I like the Necklaced Laugher (have seen a relative - Lesser Necklaced - in Thailand). Wish we had laughing thrushes up here (they remind me a little of American Blue Jays for some odd reason) - though I see there's one possibly in range occasionally (Pere's David/Plain)...

Great to hear that GFB could be expanding. Hope your detective work on that and other birds continues to produce useful info.

Hope all goes well if you're still out in the wilds. It's gotten cool here...
 
Hi Gretchen

Plain Laughingthrush is a hillside/scrubland bird. I seem to remember seeing it at Shanhaiguan back in 1990, when I climbed up to watch for raptor passage.

Cheers
Mike
 
Hi Gretchen

Plain Laughingthrush is a hillside/scrubland bird. I seem to remember seeing it at Shanhaiguan back in 1990, when I climbed up to watch for raptor passage.

Cheers
Mike

Yep still there Mike/Gretchen, best area seems to be the small valley and the ornamental gardens at the bottom behind the stalls selling tourist tat. They've been nesting in this area for the last few years. The area to the right above the top of the chairlift is also very good, where you can visit the original wall. They do occasionally pop up in Beidaihe and I would think, in a hard winter they'll move to lower levels and could turn up anywhere, bit like the Chinese Hill Warbler in the central reservation at sandflats bridge this year, madness!

Gretchen, there is a fairly large group of Greater-necklaced Laughingthrush that hang around in the valley next to the aviary on Lotus Hills. Nobody knows where they came from, they haven't escaped from the aviary but evidently attracted by all the noise and food have settled well. I think they must be now breeding as the numbers have increased steadily in the last few years. We don't count them but they are always entertaining to see.

Additionally, there is a group of Masked laughingthrush around Beidaihe, often seen in the more vegetated areas of the Dongshan and Friendship Hotels.

Sichuan however would take some beating!
 
Thanks Mark and Mike! I do stand a much better chance if looking in the right place! My husband and I have been remarking how long its been since we've been to Jiao Shan (Corner Mountain) - at the Great Wall close to Shanhaiguan (I assume that's where you meant Mark), but a friend just went and so we have a bit more idea about what things are like there now.

Also very interesting to hear about the Greater Necklaced and Masked LTs as well. I've heard some interesting sounds from the area of the aviary, I'll have to check out if that was the laughing thrushes' call. I don't know Mark if you saw the aviary in its heyday, but it seems quite possible to me that they might have had laughing thrushes there - though I only have vague recollections of what was there, with me knowing little about birds and them having few labels. Anyway, lots of good info - thanks.

bit like the Chinese Hill Warbler in the central reservation at sandflats bridge this year, madness!

Was this on the spring trip? What is the central reservation?

Sichuan however would take some beating!

I'm sure that's true! "Jia you" (keep it up) Sid and Meggie!
 
Thanks Mark and Mike! I do stand a much better chance if looking in the right place! My husband and I have been remarking how long its been since we've been to Jiao Shan (Corner Mountain) - at the Great Wall close to Shanhaiguan (I assume that's where you meant Mark), but a friend just went and so we have a bit more idea about what things are like there now.

Also very interesting to hear about the Greater Necklaced and Masked LTs as well. I've heard some interesting sounds from the area of the aviary, I'll have to check out if that was the laughing thrushes' call. I don't know Mark if you saw the aviary in its heyday, but it seems quite possible to me that they might have had laughing thrushes there - though I only have vague recollections of what was there, with me knowing little about birds and them having few labels. Anyway, lots of good info - thanks.



Was this on the spring trip? What is the central reservation?



I'm sure that's true! "Jia you" (keep it up) Sid and Meggie!

The central reservation is the bit between the crash barriers on the main road, you know, its about three meters wide with plastic flowers :eek!:

Apparently, the owner of the aviary had never had the Laughingthrush and in the decade or so I've been going, I'd never seen them there... who knows.

At Old Peak, the Monks have released lots of Silver and Arctic Fox hybrids because they thought it'd be good for tourists. They reckon that they won't hunt as they are still hand fed. Don't seem to be many pheasants up there anymore, hardly surprising! Strange things happen in China :smoke:
 
At Old Peak, the Monks have released lots of Silver and Arctic Fox hybrids because they thought it'd be good for tourists. They reckon that they won't hunt as they are still hand fed. Don't seem to be many pheasants up there anymore, hardly surprising! Strange things happen in China :smoke:

Release has become a problem in China. The Buddhist release everything they can buy. I ever saw released parrot in our garden. The strangest thing is after a Buddhist released some fish, you may see many fishers soon.
 
Just been having a few hectic days getting all sorts of stuff done - which included a day at Bi Feng Xia Panda Center (near Ya'an - about 160 km west of Chengdu) - where, as we've already shown, the birding can be interesting.

Marmot - we hope you're feeling better - we also nearly had a hospital visit - Meggie slipped over in a hotel shower and came out looking like she'd gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. However all the damage was superficial - and luckily it all worked out fine

Release has become a problem in China. The Buddhist release everything they can buy. I ever saw released parrot in our garden. The strangest thing is after a Buddhist released some fish, you may see many fishers soon.
I've seen that with the fish - in the river just by our apartment - one lot of folk putting them in another lot catching them up again for the dinner table!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At Bi Feng Xia - there's been a Grey Laughingthrush reported on the Chinese forums. Normally this is a bird for the very south of Sichuan - so I'm wondering if this is single bird whether this can also be a release - or an escape from the zoo that also lies in the gorge. In the posts there's no mention to how many birds there are - during our last two trips we haven't been able to find it or them!!!!!!!!!!

As for Plain Laughinthrush - that's another bird that's not very well captured in the MacK plates - but then again it's a difficult bird to illustrate, since on first sight it don't look the typical Laugher.
I've included a pic of one from our Plain Laugher hotspot - Northern Sichuan around Rou Er Gai and the JZ areas.

During this last trip again lots of Forktails - and a nice flock of Grey-headed Parrotbills. We always see this bird when we haven't got a camera handy - the most amazing sighting being in a built up area within Chengdu - a flock of about 30 were giving great views while they fed in a small park garden. But don't go expecting this as a regular Chengdu bird!!!!
Yesterday we actually got a pic of these Parrotbills - its pretty rubbish - but we finally nailed it onto a camera-card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That Parrotbill flock was flying about with Black-headed Sibia - but our guests were more interested in other stuff hanging from the trees. No that's not a Panda RIP pic - its just one of the center's captive animals taking a nap. It was actually pretty high up - at least 30ft - there are some good trees in the area.
 

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As for Plain Laughingthrush - that's another bird that's not very well captured in the MacK plates - but then again it's a difficult bird to illustrate, since on first sight it don't look the typical Laugher.
I've included a pic of one from our Plain Laugher hotspot - Northern Sichuan around Rou Er Gai and the JZ areas.

... but our guests were more interested in other stuff hanging from the trees. No that's not a Panda RIP pic ...

Thanks, for the Plain LT picture. I have "upgraded" to Brazil, which looks to have a nicer illustration than MacK, but it does look a lot lighter in color than your pic -maybe local differences or just "optimal" lighting in the guide picture.

The panda picture is wonderful! Looks so relaxing, doesn't it?
 
My experience with the Plain Laughingthrush is that you get to see it quite easily from the distance: a row of bushes or just an overgrown old fence on the wide grassland (e.g. Zoige/Ruoergai) and you can be sure that it will be there. But it is not so easy to get a closer view or even a good picture of it, as it is quite shy and hides promptly, if there is something coming closer.


This weekend I have been to Mt. Tiantai. This mountain still belongs to the Chengdu municipal area but closely borders Bifengxia of Ya'an. It was developed into a tourist attraction about 10 years ago and has gained major importance since the earthquake last year, when the other mountain sites near Chengdu were closed down or not accessible.

Although it was weekend - what means that there were a lot of screaming Chengdu tourists with their honking cars - it was possible to get to some nice places where I found some great birds:
Black-chinned Yuhina tamely showed up three times in big flocks with up to 50 birds. They took a bath in the waterfall! In the lower part I saw a small flock of Hwamei, jumping in-between abandoned tea plants. And, two Scaly-breasted Wren-babblers were this weekend’s highlight, as I didn't expect to find them so close to the Sichuan Basin.
However, this time I only could make out one little Forktail, one of the four Forktails you usually can find on Mt Tiantai (little, slaty-backed, spotted and white-crowned).

Unfortunately it was cloudy throughout and sometimes raining, so I haven't had the chance to make any good picture which I could post now.

There still is one bird I couldn’t identify yet. It seems to be everywhere at the moment - I also saw it last week on the rolling hills of the beginning Qionglai Mountain Range west of Chongzhou (belongs to Chengdu):
It is moving in bigger flocks high underneath the canopy, is quite noisy and flicks around nervously. I couldn't get a good glimpse of it right now: against the sky and with their quick moving. From what I could see so far, it just looked pretty much like Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher. But from call and behaviour that's hardly possible. Again, they were a little bit too big for Grey-cheeked Fulvettas. So I hope the next time I can get a half-decent picture of them in order to have something to post.
 
Those Scaly-breasted Wren Babblers are nice birds - I've had them in Yanzi-valley at Moxi - in the good old days when there was no ticket and you could hike into the area with a tent!!!!!!!
If they're about, they seem to be easier to see than the "Three blind mice bird" - Pygmy Wren Babbler - but our only pic of a Wren Babbler is PWB.
Usually these birds will be able to call 10cm from your nose - neee nuhh nahh (a slow version of three blind mice - but sometimes only two notes sometimes adding a fourth) from a dark crevice - and you just can't find them. However on one lucky day we got one to really respond to playback - coming right out and challenging our machine. The only drawback was that this all took place on Wawu Mountain during a real bad peasouper fog - so taking pics was pretty difficult.
By the way - If Chesnut-headed Tesia has the sexiest bird legs so Wren Babblers have the the most luscious feet - take a look at those monster claws in the pic.

Tiantai is just round the corner from Bi Feng Xia - its a very nice place - and those Black-chinned Yuhina are great birds. My pic is a Sept. bird from the area.
Another bird we've seen a lot flying about in flocks at Tiantai is Mountain Bulbul - they're already starting to flock at Bi Feng Xia - the pic is again from Sept. at Bi Feng Xia.
 

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Interesting description of the pygmy wren babbler call (song?) - quite memorable!

Nice to see the Mountain Bulbul. Bulbuls are an entirely new family (since we have none in North America - oops correction: I see that red-whiskered are introduced into Florida), but I really am taken with the two species met - Red Whiskered and Light Vented. They seem so cheerful, and I love the chatty but melodic songs of the LVB who spend the whole winter here. Hoping to meet up with more of the family... perhaps these mountain ones at some point.
 
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