The Deskbound Birder: South-east China

Thursday, 3 May 2018

South-east China - 3rd May (Day 13)

We spent all day birding the Dongzhai area, mainly in the nature reserve. We commenced the day in the Reeve's Phesasant hide at 06:00. Our walk to the hide produced three fly-over Asian Crested Ibis which were seen rather too briefly. Settling into the hide which cost 50 yuan per person, we watched the comings and goings of Vinous-breasted Parrotbill and White-rumped Munia and had an intimate window into the world of Oriental Turtle-dove which were feeding on the grain put out for the pheasants. Everything seemed very quiet and there was little to be seen. Then, at around 07:00 a stunning male Reeve's Pheasant wandered through the clearing in front of the hide, displayed a little and then disappeared back into the forest. The display consisted of the bird standing on top of a rock and flapping its wings loudly in a similar manner to Common Pheasant in the UK. The sound generated is fairly loud and at close range almost sounds like the thudding of a Chinook helicopter. What an amazing bird with a beautiful golden plumage, scaled black with a rich rufous breast spotted white, a black and white head pattern and a stunning 2m long tail. Leaving the hide we birded down the track back to the vehicle getting brief views of a Mugimaki Flycatcher as it sung from the tree tops. We then headed to Linshang where Birdquest and others have seen Reeve's Pheasant and Fairy Pitta but the situation at the site seems to have changed with no access for our vehicle and only golf buggies ferrying people to a temple so we abandoned and headed back to the nature reserve where we birded a steep forested trail until lunchtime seeing relatively little but for Yellow-rumped Fycatcher, Yellow-browed Warbler, Yellow-bellied Tit, Japanese White-eye, Black-thoated Tit and Olive-backed Pipit. We headed back to the hotel for lunch and had our first siesta of the trip in the heat of the day.

Male Reeve's Pheasant - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Vinous-breasted Parrotbill - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Oriental Turtle-dove - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Demoiselle species - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Collared Crow in the rice paddies outside of Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Incense - Linshang

Siberian Weasel - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Speckled Piculet - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Fritillary species - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Apollo species - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Admiral species - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Great Tit of subspecies artatus - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

After our siesta we birded a little outside the hotel where Azure-winged Magpie and Brown-rumped Minivet showed well. We then spent a little while driving the rice paddies outside of the reserve looking for Asian Crested Ibis but with no luck and so we headed back into the forest and back to the pheasant hide. We watched the love life of Oriental Turtle-dove from the hide but had no luck with the pheasant, we decided to leave by 16:00 to look for the final remaining target of the site - Fairy Pitta. We headed onto a branch of the trail that we had birded in the morning chasing a reported Fairy Pitta but we had no luck and saw little but for Oriental Scop's-owl in a pot erected for nesting birds and heard Reeve's Pheasant displaying very close by. We decided it was probably a little early in the year for the Fairy Pitta as the species is a migrant arriving in early May and we felt we were probably just a little too early for the bird. After dinner we did a little half hearted owling and we saw distant Northern Boobook and heard at least five others. After dinner we crashed at around 22:00 ready for our final few hours birding in the morning in this part of China.