sichuan birding 2016
Just came back from the last birding tour in Sichuan, too many photos to share, but only 5 pics in one post, choose 15 pics to share here

more photos can be seen in the reports, but just came back from the last tour, not finish any report yet
Grey-hooded Parrotbll , took long time and hard work to get it eventually in early May in Longcanggou…
Three-toed Parrotbill, quite easy this year in early May, got many good photos of it there in Longcanggou…
Golden-fronted Fulvetta, the same one in the same place as last year, last year got great close open view, but didn’t bring my camera, this time had camera with me but a bit too far and over exposed
Chinese Blue Flycatcher, in early May in the regular place didn’t hear them, so we went to another valley in lower altitude, we heard many of them alone the way, but they were very hiding never showed up until this one, showed well in the bamboo, we were underneath so got great views of it!
Chinese Monal, got great photos in middle May, in early June got 5 males and 1 female in the tunnel place together, amazing…they were walking up to the roadside, almost to cross the road, but the local Chinese photographers getting too close to them, scared them, then they all flew down to the lower slope just under the tunnel.
Snow Partridge, in Balangshan, early May, nice to get a above view of it! not like normally it’s always above us high up in the mountain!
Verreaux's Monal-partridge, 3 of them together, we hided behind our car, so they didn’t notice us, showed very well, took video too….
Sharpe’s rose, in early May, 4-5 males, in early June, 4-5 female….in the same place in Balangshan.
Barred Laughingthrush, great view and photos of it in early May in Balangshan.
Firethroat, first time in Chengdu Sichuan University in early May, then in Balangshan and Erlangshan in usual places, all great view…
Przevalski’s rosefinch, got it just 1 minute after we arrived at the spot.
Sukatschev's Laughingthrush, got a pair in early May, very shy, took some time to get good view of it.
Sichuan Wood Owl, got it in the day time, nice view in morning light…
Wolf, got them in the pine forest in Ruoergai, at the beginning we heard “dog” calling, I thought maybe a different call of Blue-eared Pheasant in the pine, Tom said he heard a dog and saw a dog tail, then later I spotted some animal moving in the forest, put bins on “wolf !!!”, we watched them walking through the forest, we thought there were two of them, but when I waited and photographed them crossing a open snow slope, one by one, 3 in total !
Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, except the only “chocolate and white” Giant Panda , we also had great close view of a wild family group of the golden snub-nosed monkey in Foping Giant Panda Reserve, the monkey trackers climb up 3-4 hours to high mountain area where monkeys overnight in 5:00 AM every morning to get the monkeys into the lower tourists area, and stay with monkeys the whole day in case the monkeys move away soon, trackers said if they left the monkey after get them to the lower area, then the monkeys will go away into the mountain in 15 minutes, so they have to spend their day with the monkeys to keep them stay in the tourists place until tourists leave in the afternoon…the next morning they go up to the monkey’s sleeping place in high mountain again to get them down….and they will attract the monkeys to different place after one month, so that the monkeys wouldn’t destroy the trees and plants on the the same slope, if the monkeys stay in one slope over one -two month they will destroy the habitat in the slope, so have to keep change slope every month…
I had been to Changqing NNR in Shanxi last year , there is also a place nearby the NNR where tourists can see the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, they use the same way to attract the monkeys, but they didn’t change place every month, so the habitat on the monkey’s place was totally destroyed, just ugly mud slope , all the grass are gone, trees are dead…….
Blackthroat, in early May I tried not to disturb it so early, so didn’t go there in the first trip, went there in late May, a male gave us a quick but close and open view, but never came back…….no photo this year
Spot-breasted Parrotbill in late June had one near to the gate of Jiuzhaigou National Park…..seems like it’s very lonely, calling all the time, but I didn’t take my camera with me at that time, no photo