Taiwan: Pheasant Jungles (Part One)

Eileen and I decided to break our April 2013 return to Canada with a visit to Taiwan, a new destination for both of us.  We spent ten days there, and were both enchanted with the place - a combination of beautiful scenery and some of the friendliest and most helpful people on the planet.

We spent much of our time in and around Taipei.  Eileen, though, indulged me by arranging, through an old friend, several days of birding in the island's central mountains - a generous act, since she is not a birder herself (though she claims to enjoy watching birders, if not birds).

Our host and guide was Bob Du, a Taipei businessman who is also a very good (and very committed) bird photographer. His Flickr site is well worth visiting (you can see, among other things, photos of the birds we saw together that are far better than mine).

On the morning of April 14, Bob picked us up at our Taipei hotel and whisked us off, at high speed, southward along the west coast of the island and up into a range of beautifully-forested - and, apparently, still quite pristine, not something you necessarily expect in this part of the world - mountains. 

Our goal for our first few nights was the Dasyueshan National Forest. "Dasyueshan" means "Great Snow Mountain" – a name that I for one find suitably evocative. The forest is home to both of Taiwan's endemic pheasants, two of the most spectacular birds of this (or any other) island. I was astonished to find that they are - thanks to some local tricks - surprisingly easy to see.

The forests were lush, green, magnificent, and we had a good view of them right from the door of our cabin.

This is a mixed broadleaf-deciduous forest, with some spectacular conifers in its midst. 

For a temporary forest, the tree diversity is remarkably high. There are several maples, trees that reach their highest species richness in eastern Asia and Eastern North America, and are responsible for splendid fall colors the both regions have in common. I think this is one!

Taiwan boasts a wide range of conifers, some found nowhere else in the world.  There are 26 species on the island, sixteen of them unfortunately under threat.

The short, scale-like leaves on this tree suggest that it is one of the native cypresses, probably the endemic Taiwan Cypress (Chamaecyparis taiwanensis) or its close relative the Hinoki Cypress (C.obtusa).

The spear-shaped leaves and drooping branchlets on this tree would appear to make it a Taiwania (Taiwania cryptomerioides) (not, despite its name, an endemic species, but a spectacular tree that can grow to a very great size). Bear in mind, though, that I am not a botanist!

After we got ourselves settled in, Bob drove us to the upper reaches of the reserve for our first bit if serious birding.

Taiwan has a very interesting avifauna. It's position, as a large and mountainous island on the cusp of both the Palaearctic and Oriental faunal regions, means that its bird life includes both northern elements like this Coal Tit (Periparus ater ptilosus) and southeast Asian species such as laughingthrushes and barbets.

Taiwanese birders, and bird photographers, have their own way of seeing them. Hint: it involves mealworms. I was a bit startled at the idea of baiting in birds, but I suppose it is no worse in its way than playing tapes (which some birders object to anyway) or setting up a bird feeder. Anyway, here is Bob setting up his camera to record some beneficiaries of the technique...

...and here we are birding (and photographing) Taiwan style.

Not every bird in the area was tempted, of course. This White-browed Robin (Luscinia indica formosana) simply hopped across the road near us, not deigning to stop by. The Taiwanese race of this species has list the bright colours of continental birds - a not unusual phenomenon on islands.

These birds, on the other hand, were more than willing to participate.

They are White-whiskered Laughingthrushes (Garrulax morrisonianus), a common and widespread mountain endemic that has obviously become very much used to people in general and birders (hopefully bearing food) in particular.

 

Here's a bit of video. We saw laughingthrushes almost everywhere we went in the mountains, where they greeted us with all the enthusiasm of squirrels in a city park. 

Speaking of squirrels, this Maritime Striped Squirrel (Tamiops maritimus maritimus) was as eager to grab a mealworm or two as any bird. This, for North American readers, is about as close as Taiwan gets to having a chipmunk in its fauna.

In China this is a lowland species, but in Taiwan it is commonest between 2000 and 3000 metres above sea level. It has the peculiar habit of robbing nectar from a particular species of ginger (Alpinia kwangsiensis) by biting through the base of the flowers.

Squirrels and laughingthrushes, enjoyable as they are, were not our main reason for being here. The pièce de resistance awaited us further up the road - as did a whole gang of fellow photographers.

Attractive bait having been suitably distributed, we settled down to wait.  It was almost four PM - time for the daily arrival (you could, I was told, almost set your clock by it) of the local Mikado Pheasant (Syrmaticus mikado), Taiwan's national bird.

Here he is, right on time: a gorgeously-plumaged male.  What a magnificent creature!

Mind you, squirrels stopped by to get their share of the bounty.  This is Perny's Long-nosed Squirrel (Dremomys pernyi owstoni), a species I had previously seen on Mount Huangshan on the Chinese mainland.

The Mikado Pheasant,  though, continued to seize the attention of the photographers (and mine, too, of course). Though it is still widespread in the highlands of Taiwan, its population is probably declining.  People still hunt them - even, apparently, within supposedly protected areas.  IUCN lists it as Near Threatened.  This bird, though, obviously felt (correctly, I hope) that he was safe, and appeared to have no objection to displaying himself to throngs of birders.  His female (or females), though, kept out of sight.

Eileen may not be a birder, but does enjoy watching birds that are (a) beautiful, (b) tame, and (c) easy to see.  As you can see from her expression, the Mikado Pheasant fit the bill on all counts.