Bird Watching in Taiwan

[smirnoff]

Friends are coming to visit me over Chinese New Year and are keen bird watchers/photographers. Does anyone know where I can take them to see/find birds? They travel a lot, taking pictures and adding to their profiles of birds around the world, and I'm a bit nervous that Taiwan will be a bit of a downer to them if they can't take at least a few pics Please help

[Nuit]

you could contact these guys, and get some good areas to go to
http://www.birdingintaiwan.com/

also, search on line for birders blogs. All 'big listers' come to Taiwan to pick up the endemics here. I remember reading about some easy well-known trails where there's a great chance of seeing Swinhoe's Pheasant, and that other one. Mikado Pheasant.

Last year i cycled into (almost literally) a group of birders who were just stopping and starting along the Central Cross Highway. Of course the trip leader was playing back bird-song recordings, which help to lure the little critters into viewing range.

[cranky laowai]

Mazu is a good spot for birding. Closer to Taipei there's the birding park at Guandu. I don't know about either location around CNY, though.

That time of year I think the spoonbills will be at Qigu, Tainan. They're certainly rare enough.

I remember reading about some easy well-known trails where there's a great chance of seeing Swinhoe's Pheasant.

There were a couple of families of those in the park near the Tianmu Mitsukoshi Department Store. But I haven't seen any there lately. One can often spot night herons there as well. And wuseniao which are easy to hear but hard to spot.

[Mucha Man]

Contact Barking Deer. Richard Foster regularly takes serious overseas birdwatchers out around Taiwan. He knows the right spots and is becoming a pretty adept birder himself.

barkingdeerinfo AT gmail.com

One of the top spots is Daxueshan forest recreation area (aka Anmashan). I was part of a bird spotting race in the spring and the winning team spotted 100 species in 24 hours. My team, amateurs and two Malaysians spotted over 40. We also managed to spot over 20 endemic species in 2 days here and at Basianshan Forest.

We also saw flying squirrels each night around the visitor center. It's a cool spot.

[smirnoff]

Thank you so much for all the info!

[Bobarctor]

Some update on this thread ? I would definitely be interested to know more, any tours are still organized by the "Birding in Taiwan association" ?

[StevenCrook]

If you haven't seen the most recent issue of Travel in Taiwan, you can read my birdwatching article here:

http://crooksteven.blogspot.com/2012/03 ... el-in.html

Another good resource is the birding year blog written by the aforementioned Richard of Barking Deer Adventures:

http://birdingtaiwan.blogspot.com/

[Icon]

This is a great season for bird watching. Had one of these close to my house the other day, so pretty:

http://www.birdingintaiwan.org/Birdsint ... barbet.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/punct ... 1/apr/30/4

Thought it was a parrot until I saw his "face"!

[Icon]

This is a great season for bird watching. Had one of these close to my hous ethe otehr day, so pretty:

http://www.birdingintaiwan.org/Birdsint ... barbet.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/punct ... 1/apr/30/4

Thought it was a parrot until I saw his "face"!

Found this too: http://www.natural-kingdom.com.tw/en/index.htm

[mangoholic]

Taiwan will not be a downer for birding. Easy places to reach: Yangming Shan: you can see Crested Serpent Eagles on fairly clear deays from the areas around Xiao Yu Keng (the fumorole) and higher. I have also spotted Formosan blue magpies up there on several occasions, and also in the hills of Neihu (Wu Chi Shan -5-finger mountain; sorry, I don't know pinyin or whatever you call it).

Danshui: walk along the boardwalk between Hongshulin and Danshui Stations: spoonbills hang out in there, and black drongos are commonly found on the telephone wires. On campus at Tamkang University in Danshui I commonly hear then see -with some effort (it pays to know what they sound like and then you try and locate them): Muller's barbets, Crested serpent eagles, black drongos, other species.

Actually, Muller's barbets and Japanese white eyes -both pretty birds- can be found in many places in Taipei, even downtown. Here is a video with a good look at a Muller's barbet and it's call (in this video, the one you see is communicating with another): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXfAokTrRH4

I live south of Taipei up on the Linkou/Gueishan plateau, and in the community where I live I see all of the birds listed (minus the spoonbill) plus the very rare Malayan Night Heron, of which there are 2 or 3 that live in the forested hills on the edge of the area. Malayan Night Herons are not to be confused with the common Night Heron, which can be easily found staring into the murky waters of the Keelung (Jilong) or Danshui Rivers every day.

I would say trying Yangming Shan on a weekday morning/afternoon, and also Wulai, getting off at the Cheng Kung stop and walking down to the river for a look. Your guests will be delighted with the birdlife in Taiwan.