Birdwatching in Taiwan

Val George

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Taiwan is a semi-tropical island lying on the Tropic of Cancer, about 90km off the SE coast of China.  We were on a mountain in the west-central part of the island, gazing at the clear, blue sky looking for approaching Grey-faced Buzzards.  It was the middle of March and these crow-sized hawks were migrating in their thousands to their summer breeding grounds in Japan and NE Asia.  The occasional Crested Serpent-Eagle and Crested Goshawk appeared in the sky, then some small black shapes in the hazy distance became a hundred or so buzzards effortlessly soaring northwards.  Several times during the day small groups of birds passed over us to the delight of the hundreds of Taiwanese observers with us on the mountain.  This event was part of the annual Bagua Mountain Bird Fair, sponsored by the local birding group, the Changhua Wild Bird Society.

Our group of five birdwatchers from British Columbia, Canada, were on a tour arranged by the British Columbia Field Ornithologists (BCFO), an organization that promotes the study and conservation of birds as well as their recreational enjoyment.  About eight years ago the BCFO had entered into a formal relationship with the Changhua Society.  Our leader for the tour was Jo Ann MacKenzie who is the BCFO’s liaison person with the Society.  We also had a local guide, well-known Taiwanese birder Simon Liao, who is President of the International Taiwan Birding Association.

For a small island, about 10 percent larger than Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Taiwan has an extremely varied range of habitats for birds, from the sandy beaches, estuarine mud flats, and rocky ocean headlands to the densely forested and alpine areas of the high mountain ranges that form the spine of the island.  Our challenge was to cover as many of these habitats as possible to fully sample the abundant bird life.  We, like most birdwatchers visiting foreign countries, were especially interested in the endemic species, i.e., those that can’t be found anywhere else in the world.

From Changhua we headed south and across the island to the east coast.  This involved traversing a 3000m highway pass which allowed us access to the alpine habitats with their specialized birds.  Taiwan, by-the-way, surpisingly for such a small area, has about 160 peaks over 3000m, the highest being the 3,952m (12,966ft) Yushuan or Jade Mountain.  Two of the birds we were especially looking for  were the Alpine Accentor, a brownish bird with rusty-coloured flanks, and the Vinaceous Rose-finch, a mostly red bird.  Being sparrow-sized birds, we expected to spend an hour or two searching the alpine scrub and talus slopes to find them.  However, to our surprise and delight we found both species foraging  where we parked our vehicle near the highest point in the pass.  Well satisfied with our luck, we were then able to spend some casual time wandering around in the thin, but bracing mountain air, enjoying the very scenic mountain vistas – the original name for Taiwan, Formosa meaning ‘beautiful island’, is well-deserved.

Leaving the mountains, we birded along the east coast to the city of Taitung.  From here we were able to take a small plane to the very small island of Lanyu, 90 km offshore.  This was a different experience for us, not only for the speciality birds but also because we were able to see the culture of the Yami people who have maintained their traditional ways of life, mostly fishing and agriculture.  The birding highlight was the cute little endemic subspecies of Ryukyu Scops Owl which Simon was able to lure with a recorded call into his light beam so that it posed for us on a tree branch not 10m in front of us.

Back on the mainland we continued to enjoy excellent bird finding opportunities.  We found the two native, exotically-coloured Swinhoe’s and Mikado Pheasants; the country’s national bird, the gorgeous, deep-blue coloured Formosan Magpie; the rare and difficult to find Taiwan Partridge, and members of bird groups unfamiliar to N. American birders such as Babblers, Fulvettas and Yuhinas, and many more.

After two weeks of excellent bird watching, experiencing the great hospitality of the Taiwanese people and sampling the delicious local food, we returned to the capital city, Taipei where we’d started.  We’d seen 195 species of birds, including all of the 17 endemic species and most of the 65 endemic sub-species  -  a most satisfying count for such a small area.  Our success was due to the expert guidance by Simon, very ably assisted by Jo Ann whose 16 previous trips to Taiwan made her also very knowledgeable about the bird life.  In addition to the birds, we also saw the endemic Taiwan Macaque monkey, and several species of endemic toads, reptiles, and butterflies, which greatly enhanced our overall experience.

Images by Val George.