The Taipei Botanical Garden (Zhihwu Yuan ) is a great place, right in the heart of Taipei City, to spend a few hours birding. If you're hoping to get a look at a Malayan Night Heron / Gorsachius melanolophus, the garden is well worth a visit.
The Taipei Botanical Garden was established in 1896 during the Japanese Colonial period (1895-1945) on Taiwan. The Taipei Botanical Garden is situated on Nanhai Road in the Chung-cheng District adjacent to the National Museum of History.
Apart from the garden being famous for it's Malayan Night Heron, it also offers views of Black-naped Blue Monarch*; Grey Treepie*; Japanese White-eye*; Black-browed Barbet*(currently under review to be raised to full endemic species status) ; Eurasian Tree sparrow; Spotted Dove*; Red Collared Dove; Common Moorhen; Light-vented Bulbul*; Black Bulbul*; White-breasted Water Hen; Pale Thrush#; Scaly Thrush#; Olive-backed Pipit#; Orange-flanked Bush Robin (rare)#; Brown Shrike#; Crested Goshawk*; Little Grebe; Common Kingfisher; Pacific swallow; Striated Swallow; Little Egret; White Wagtail; Black-billed Magpie; Black Bittern (very rare with no recent records).
The Taipei Botanical Garden, being in the heart of Taipei, is very easy to access.It's close to the Xiaonanmen MRT station and on a number of bus routes.Taking a taxi is also reasonably inexpensive.
The Department of Information, Taipei City Government publishes a book titled,"Birdwatcher's Guide to the Taipei Region" (ISBN 957-01-7797-7).This book covers the whole region including the Botanical Gardens and nearby Ta-an Park,which is also worth a visit.The book is available through the Wild Bird Society of Taipei.Pageone Bookstore in the well known Taipei 101 Mall stocks the book.
- Taiwan Endemic subspecies
- winter
Content and images originally posted by Mark Bruce
