Tsai's Nature Blog: Spring Break in Taiwan 2

Jinshan

I had never been to Jinshan before so many birds here were new for me.

Wetlands of Northern Taiwan, like the scattered remaining wetlands around other parts of the country, are important migration destinations. More than a year ago (2?), an unusual sighting of Siberian Crane was reported in the privately-owned fields. Since then, the farmer has voluntarily stop cultivating the area where the crane likes to forage the most. It has established an amazing relationship with humans; often found approaching the old farmer and visitors. It flew to the busy streets of Songshan in Taipei city once. I missed all of the cranes in Taiwan, a pair of whom took off 2 hours before I arrived a few years ago, until this one which was found at the same spot for more than a year almost everyday until this week.

Siberian Crane

As much as I understand, this is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan. It was only a young bird when it first seemed stranded, possibly was separated from its flock in a bad weather. Now it almost looks like an adult except a brown patch on its neck. It decided to speculate the visitors closely during the morning. With a 200-400 mm lens, I was only able to include the head and the neck in most of my pictures.

Siberian Crane

de-clawing a crab

Siberian Crane

Common Buzzard
several raptors were heard and seen

Common Buzzard

Black-shouldered Kite

This species was a rare vagrant in Taiwan about a decade before, but they now nest in many parts of Taiwan and has a greater range than original nest sites. This is my first Black-shouldered Kite in Taiwan.

Spot-billed Duck
as the name indicates, duck with spotted bill

Green-winged Teals
same species as the ones found in North America.
Also called Common teals or Eurasian Teals

Gray-headed Lapwing
quick fly-by of second lifer of the day

Barn Swallow

Most of the ones in Asia have white belly.

Jinshan Youth Activity Centre

is located close to the most north coast line of Taiwan, many birds spend some time here during spring and fall.

Black Kite/Black-eared Kite
this resident raptor was common throughout Taiwan before the mass use of pesticide and rodent poisons. Now only less than 300 of them are left. I am fortunate to have about 3 of them, which I sometimes see from my balcony, living near my place in Daxi, Taoyuan, though I wasn't able to get any photo of them at home during my stay.

White-cheeked Starling
Another lifer. White-cheeked Starling was recently found on Vancouver Island for the first time, but some argue that it was ship-assisted and cannot count as a new wild bird species on checklists.

Dusky Thrush

Eurasian Hoopoe
I think this is the bird illustrated in the story of Kirikou. You can look it up if you have never heard of it. I have watched the movie a few times in my French class, and my classmates still seem to enjoy it when we re-watch it.

Red Collard-Dove

This is one of a number of the common species that seemed to evade me during the trip. At last I had a distant view.

Tainan
Guantian Pheasant-tailed Jacana Ecological Education Park

When High Speed Rail was planned to cut through one of the most best Jacana habitats, a few ponds, 15 hectares in total according to the Council of Agriculture, were set aside as a habitat reserve. This is not a large area, but does attract many, possibly 200 of them to breed here during summer.

Pheasant-tailed Jacana
the tail hadn't grown to its full length at this time, but just seeing Jacanas is exciting enough.

Pheasant-tailed Jacana

Wings are clean white with black border in flight. The red in the background are eggs of an invasive aquatic snail, Pomacea canaliculata. The snail was introduced to be farmed as a food source, but because of its taste and dangerous parasites in them, they were released in the wild and started eating almost every plant submerged in water. Wikipedia said they don't taste good.