MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Just back from a 5 day quickie to Wuyi Shan, a forest reserve on the Jiangxi/Fujian border in SE China, with a quick detour to dip on Cotton Pygmy Goose for my China list at Nanji Shan (on the southern edge of Poyang Lake) on the way.
Our driver and guide is the increasingly famous Mr Lin, who showed us 4 female Cabot's, and was very disappointed not to find us a male (he showed me several here in 2004). He has a terrific record - in 18 trips since my first with him to Wuyi in in April 2004 - when we saw 12 in 2 days- he has found birds on 16 of 18 visits!
Cabot's apart, August is not the month to visit Wuyi, and although we did OK, there were major absences among the supposedly resident species, which I suspect is because this is prime post-breeding moult season, and such goodies as Rusty Laugher, White-browed Shrike Babbler, Spotted Wren Babbler, almost all the woodpeckers were sulking and moodily moulting out of sight. Amazingly we failed to see or hear a single Grey-cheeked Fulvetta - the hoards of Red-billed Leiothrix filled the gap, however.
As the vast majority of our birding was done between 1000m and the 2136m summit, it was a cool respite from the armpit-sticky humidity of Hong Kong in August. We had to dodge the odd rainshower and mountain mist, but lost almost no birding time. Things are pretty dead between 11am and about 2:30 and little is lost by eating/sleeping/driving during these hours.
However, there were a few goodies on offer - an over-summering Swan Goose at Nanji Shan was a surprise and carefully checked for signs of being a feral bird - many domestic geese in China are derived from this species. Other lowland birds at or on the way to the site from Nanchang (the capital of Jiangxi Province, and the place we flew into) included several Black Bitterns (rare in HK so very much enjoyed at close range here), gawky-looking juvenile Pheasant-tailed Jacana chicks, recently discovered breeding Great Crested Grebes (all previous Chinese breeding records are from much further north or the Tibetan Plateau), several hundred Whiskered Terns and Zitting Cisticolas, Cinnamon & Yellow Bittern, Striated Heron, Long-billed Plover, and Brown Crake. After singing Japanese Marsh Warblers were reported here in June we hoped to find evidence of breeding, but failed. Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Siberian Stonechats and a few Brown Shrikes were early migrants.
A five hour drive east to Wuyi Shan brought us into the mountains. Good birds in the foothills included a couple of female Common Rosefinches, a rare breeder in Southeast China.
This is perhaps the oddest thing about Wuyi - it is the easternmost breeding site for several birds from western China including: White-browed and Green Shrike Babblers, Naga Nuthatch, Small Niltava, Rosy Pipit, & Golden- Parrotbill. We saw the middle three easily and missed the others.
Other birds of note include Silver Pheasant (we saw a female with chicks on the Jiangxi side), Rickett's Hill Partridge (arch fiend) heard but not seen every day, including a bird less than 100 yards from our accommodation!(seen five times previously by Mr Lin), Elliot's Pheasant (seen four times previously by Mr Lin, not seen by us), Black Eagle (3 birds), Mountain Hawk Eagle (2), Brown Bullfinch,Brown Bush Warbler, Streak-throated Fulvetta, a couple of Speckled Piculets, Rufou-faced and Chestnut-crowned Warblers, and several hundred breeding Asian House Martins (cliffs and old military buildings).
Juvenile male Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrushes were a real joy - they have the spotting and head patterns of females, with the shining blue tails and wings of adult males - a stunning combination! Bizarrely, male Fujian Niltavas also show the same combination of features, but are much shyer and harder to see.
However the outstanding birds of this visit were the noisy, approachable, and apparently highly sexed Barred Cuckoo-doves. We enjoyed several close, eye-level views of this lovely but normally very shy dove. August seems a wierd time for them to be courting, but they were certainly excited over something.
Other interesting birds here included a nightmare blend of phylloscs and goldspecs that is right at the cutting edge of taxonomy - we saw mostly Goodson's Leaf Warbler P goodson fokiensisi (a yellowish-bellied Blyth's type), while below 1,000m Sulphur-breasted Warblers, P ricketti appeared (even yellower below, with black head stripes) and heard and saw lots of Bianchi's Warblers Seicercus valentini.
We failed to satisfy ourelves over Ogilvy-Grant's Warbler P.ogilvy-granti (a White-tailed split), White Spectacled Warbler Seicercus affinis intermedius which has a yellow eyering and Plain-tailed Warbler S. soror, which have previously been recorded as breeders here.
Have they left already? Did we look in the wrong areas? Did we just cock them up completely? Answers on a postcard . . .
Just to add to the mix we are considering a couple of small, pale-rumped phylloscs may have been early arriving Chinese Leaf Warbler, while two of us have brief neck-cracking views of possible Sakhalin/Pale-legged Leaf Warblers.
Furthermore, the first Eastern Crowned Warblers of the autumn were rcorded in HK just before we left, so could have been around on passage. Thankfully, we didn't see any contenders.
On the way back to Nanchang - going out the Fujian side and over the Fengshui Shan Pass we added White-browed Laugher, Blue-throated Bee-eater and Crested Bunting for a total of around 130 spp.
Mr Lin is THE MAN for driver/birding in Jiangxi, but doesn't speak much English. He knows sites around the province for all of the above plus Yellow-throated Laugher, Pied Falconet, Chinese Merganser, Short-tailed Parrotbill, plus the winter birds that Poyang is already famous for. He is a self-confessed learner birder and photgrapher, but has amazing eyes and is a great fixer for accommodation, entry to reserves etc.
If you're interested in going to Jiangxi,please contact me privately for his number - I prefer not to disclose it on a public forum.
Our driver and guide is the increasingly famous Mr Lin, who showed us 4 female Cabot's, and was very disappointed not to find us a male (he showed me several here in 2004). He has a terrific record - in 18 trips since my first with him to Wuyi in in April 2004 - when we saw 12 in 2 days- he has found birds on 16 of 18 visits!
Cabot's apart, August is not the month to visit Wuyi, and although we did OK, there were major absences among the supposedly resident species, which I suspect is because this is prime post-breeding moult season, and such goodies as Rusty Laugher, White-browed Shrike Babbler, Spotted Wren Babbler, almost all the woodpeckers were sulking and moodily moulting out of sight. Amazingly we failed to see or hear a single Grey-cheeked Fulvetta - the hoards of Red-billed Leiothrix filled the gap, however.
As the vast majority of our birding was done between 1000m and the 2136m summit, it was a cool respite from the armpit-sticky humidity of Hong Kong in August. We had to dodge the odd rainshower and mountain mist, but lost almost no birding time. Things are pretty dead between 11am and about 2:30 and little is lost by eating/sleeping/driving during these hours.
However, there were a few goodies on offer - an over-summering Swan Goose at Nanji Shan was a surprise and carefully checked for signs of being a feral bird - many domestic geese in China are derived from this species. Other lowland birds at or on the way to the site from Nanchang (the capital of Jiangxi Province, and the place we flew into) included several Black Bitterns (rare in HK so very much enjoyed at close range here), gawky-looking juvenile Pheasant-tailed Jacana chicks, recently discovered breeding Great Crested Grebes (all previous Chinese breeding records are from much further north or the Tibetan Plateau), several hundred Whiskered Terns and Zitting Cisticolas, Cinnamon & Yellow Bittern, Striated Heron, Long-billed Plover, and Brown Crake. After singing Japanese Marsh Warblers were reported here in June we hoped to find evidence of breeding, but failed. Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Siberian Stonechats and a few Brown Shrikes were early migrants.
A five hour drive east to Wuyi Shan brought us into the mountains. Good birds in the foothills included a couple of female Common Rosefinches, a rare breeder in Southeast China.
This is perhaps the oddest thing about Wuyi - it is the easternmost breeding site for several birds from western China including: White-browed and Green Shrike Babblers, Naga Nuthatch, Small Niltava, Rosy Pipit, & Golden- Parrotbill. We saw the middle three easily and missed the others.
Other birds of note include Silver Pheasant (we saw a female with chicks on the Jiangxi side), Rickett's Hill Partridge (arch fiend) heard but not seen every day, including a bird less than 100 yards from our accommodation!(seen five times previously by Mr Lin), Elliot's Pheasant (seen four times previously by Mr Lin, not seen by us), Black Eagle (3 birds), Mountain Hawk Eagle (2), Brown Bullfinch,Brown Bush Warbler, Streak-throated Fulvetta, a couple of Speckled Piculets, Rufou-faced and Chestnut-crowned Warblers, and several hundred breeding Asian House Martins (cliffs and old military buildings).
Juvenile male Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrushes were a real joy - they have the spotting and head patterns of females, with the shining blue tails and wings of adult males - a stunning combination! Bizarrely, male Fujian Niltavas also show the same combination of features, but are much shyer and harder to see.
However the outstanding birds of this visit were the noisy, approachable, and apparently highly sexed Barred Cuckoo-doves. We enjoyed several close, eye-level views of this lovely but normally very shy dove. August seems a wierd time for them to be courting, but they were certainly excited over something.
Other interesting birds here included a nightmare blend of phylloscs and goldspecs that is right at the cutting edge of taxonomy - we saw mostly Goodson's Leaf Warbler P goodson fokiensisi (a yellowish-bellied Blyth's type), while below 1,000m Sulphur-breasted Warblers, P ricketti appeared (even yellower below, with black head stripes) and heard and saw lots of Bianchi's Warblers Seicercus valentini.
We failed to satisfy ourelves over Ogilvy-Grant's Warbler P.ogilvy-granti (a White-tailed split), White Spectacled Warbler Seicercus affinis intermedius which has a yellow eyering and Plain-tailed Warbler S. soror, which have previously been recorded as breeders here.
Have they left already? Did we look in the wrong areas? Did we just cock them up completely? Answers on a postcard . . .
Just to add to the mix we are considering a couple of small, pale-rumped phylloscs may have been early arriving Chinese Leaf Warbler, while two of us have brief neck-cracking views of possible Sakhalin/Pale-legged Leaf Warblers.
Furthermore, the first Eastern Crowned Warblers of the autumn were rcorded in HK just before we left, so could have been around on passage. Thankfully, we didn't see any contenders.
On the way back to Nanchang - going out the Fujian side and over the Fengshui Shan Pass we added White-browed Laugher, Blue-throated Bee-eater and Crested Bunting for a total of around 130 spp.
Mr Lin is THE MAN for driver/birding in Jiangxi, but doesn't speak much English. He knows sites around the province for all of the above plus Yellow-throated Laugher, Pied Falconet, Chinese Merganser, Short-tailed Parrotbill, plus the winter birds that Poyang is already famous for. He is a self-confessed learner birder and photgrapher, but has amazing eyes and is a great fixer for accommodation, entry to reserves etc.
If you're interested in going to Jiangxi,please contact me privately for his number - I prefer not to disclose it on a public forum.
Last edited:
