My
maiden trip to the beautiful island
of Taiwan has left quite
an impact on me – both emotionally and physically. This trip was not a pure
birding trip but a promise that I made to my better half that we would go for a
long vacation just to get away from it all. And away we went - an 8-day guided
tour of the entire island
of Taiwan. We had quite a
memorable experience but it was also rather taxing. The itinerary, as with most
tours of this nature, is all about quantity and not quality. We were taken to
as many tourist locations as possible within the 8 days and with very little
time to rest and truly soak in the sights and sounds of this amazing country.
Taichung City
Taipei 101 Tower
Love River (Kaohsiung City)
Hualien Town
Chiufen Old Town
Wen
Wu Temple (Sun Moon Lake)
European
Court Garden (Sun
Moon Lake)
Countryside
(Taitung District)
Taroko National
Park
Yehliu Geo
Park
The
renowned Taiwanese night markets were one of the things my wife was looking
forward to in the trip and at the end, she was certainly not disappointed. In
fact, it is safe to say she had a very enjoyable and memorable trip. My only
qualm about the night markets were they can sometimes be quite crowded.
As
for me, I am a simple man with simple needs. Give me a chance to do a little
birding in a foreign land and I will be a very happy man. Although I did not
have much opportunity to bird, I am quite satisfied with the results in the
end.
The
very first bird that I managed to photograph in Taiwan simply blew me away. I did
not imagine I would be able to see Black-billed Magpies at the outskirts of Taipei City.
But I did and the magpies were just foraging on the compound of a popular
tourist destination – the C.K.S. Memorial Hall. They seemed to be accustomed to
human presence and that in turn provided me with some good photographic
opportunities. And my birding excursion in Taiwan was off to a very good
start.
The
Japanese White-eye is another species that was regularly encountered within
townships throughout the trip. As usual, these active little birds were a
nightmare to photograph.
The Styan's Bulbul, an endemic to Taiwan, was regularly encountered along forested areas. It looks quite similar to the commoner Light-vented Bulbul and thanks to Dave for correcting my such earlier error and giving me another lifer for the trip!
I managed
to see a few species that reminded me of home like these Eurasian Tree Sparrows
behaving very much like how they would behave.
Egrets
were also regularly seen during the trip and because I have had plenty of egret
time back home, I only stopped once to shoot an egret – a lone Great Egret
foraging at the edge of the Love
River.
The
birding highlight of the trip took place in the least expected locality – a Buddha Memorial
Center in Kaohsiung. I do not consider myself a
religious person but when of all places I came across a fruiting tree here, I
guess it is high time I start to renew my faith in religion.
As
expected, the fruiting tree was a center of bird activity and I was a simply
overwhelmed – just like a kid in a candy store. I did not do much home work
before my trip here and without the aid of a printed field guide, I was
struggling to identify some of the bird species that were present. A little
woodpecker foraging on the tree trunk turned out to be a Grey-capped
Woodpecker. I was a little disappointed as I was hoping for it to be a new
species for me.
The
Collared Finchbill was a lifer and I took quite a number of shots of this
interesting species. Unfortunately, it preferred to stay slightly concealed by
the vegetation and I was not able to obtain a single clean shot.
The
Black Bulbul with its striking colouration and unmistakeable character was quite easy
to identify.
The Light-vented Bulbuls are the equivalent of the ever-common Yellow-vented Bulbul back home. Not surprisingly there were quite a number of them present at the fruiting tree. In fact, I think the majority of the birds were of this species and they are ones who usually come the closest to where I was standing.
The
presence of a brownish thrush got me all excited but after much scrutiny, it
turned out to be an Eye-browed Thrush – a species that I have recorded before
back in Malaysia.
The
star bird of this fruiting tree was the Grey Treepie. It arrived at the feast
half way through my observation and basically stole the limelight from everyone
else. It is a beautiful bird indeed and I fell for its charms immediately.
At
another tourist destination, the Sun
Moon Lake,
I almost mistook this Oriental Turtle-dove for a Spotted Dove and I was lucky
to be able to obtain this record shot without the aid of my telephoto lens.
This
was the closest I came to seeing an owl in Taiwan…
There
is a small bird aviary at Sun
Moon Lake
and here, a number of Blue Peafowls are kept. However, captive birds are not
quite my cup of tea. It also took some effort for me to explain to my tour
guide the difference between shooting captive birds and wild birds.
The
star bird of Taiwan
is undoubtedly the Taiwan Blue Magpie. It is a good enough reason to plan for a
pure birding trip here in future if given the chance and hopefully, capture one
of these stunning birds in their natural habitat.
