For Chinese New Year I went to Green Island for three days, and got a chance to do some birding, though not as much as I would've liked. I had a very difficult time finding any information in Chinese or English about birding on Green Island, or what is most commonly found there, so I thought I would publish my list here.
The most notable thing was the number of raptors. At any time on any part of the island you can find some sort of raptor circling. The Grey-Faced Buzzards were particularly active and vocal. The Common Buzzard was also a surprise. The other notable things were the numbers of Brown-headed thrushes (at dawn on the mountain road they are everywhere) and Brown-eared Bulbuls, which might have been the most populous bird on the island. Noticeably absent were any other Bulbuls.
In general not a lot of waders, but I stumbled upon a group of different plovers. I think I'm confident of the ID but I've put up a thread over at the ID section just in case.
Unfortuantely several times I flushed birds that I wasn't able to identify or see again, including some doves, which I had heard there were some less common doves on the island. So I'm sure there's a lot missing from my list.
Long story short, here's the list:
Gray Heron
Great Egret
Pacific Reef-Heron
Osprey
Oriental Honey-buzzard
Gray-faced Buzzard
Common Buzzard
Pacific Golden-Plover
Greater Sand-Plover
Long-billed Plover
Common Sandpiper
Ruddy Turnstone
Rock Pigeon
Pacific Swift
Common Kingfisher
Eurasian Kestrel
Pacific Swallow
Brown-eared Bulbul
Yellow-browed Warbler
Japanese White-eye
Daurian Redstart
Blue Rock-Thrush
Scaly Thrush
Pale Thrush
Brown-headed Thrush
Dusky Thrush
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
The most notable thing was the number of raptors. At any time on any part of the island you can find some sort of raptor circling. The Grey-Faced Buzzards were particularly active and vocal. The Common Buzzard was also a surprise. The other notable things were the numbers of Brown-headed thrushes (at dawn on the mountain road they are everywhere) and Brown-eared Bulbuls, which might have been the most populous bird on the island. Noticeably absent were any other Bulbuls.
In general not a lot of waders, but I stumbled upon a group of different plovers. I think I'm confident of the ID but I've put up a thread over at the ID section just in case.
Unfortuantely several times I flushed birds that I wasn't able to identify or see again, including some doves, which I had heard there were some less common doves on the island. So I'm sure there's a lot missing from my list.
Long story short, here's the list:
Gray Heron
Great Egret
Pacific Reef-Heron
Osprey
Oriental Honey-buzzard
Gray-faced Buzzard
Common Buzzard
Pacific Golden-Plover
Greater Sand-Plover
Long-billed Plover
Common Sandpiper
Ruddy Turnstone
Rock Pigeon
Pacific Swift
Common Kingfisher
Eurasian Kestrel
Pacific Swallow
Brown-eared Bulbul
Yellow-browed Warbler
Japanese White-eye
Daurian Redstart
Blue Rock-Thrush
Scaly Thrush
Pale Thrush
Brown-headed Thrush
Dusky Thrush
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
