In November 2005, my wife Helen & I joined a group of bird watchers from Canada on a 10 day trip to Taiwan.  The birding was excellent, the mountain vistas breathtaking and the hospitality of our Taiwanese guides and hosts was outstanding.

 

The majority of our time was spent in the “high mountains” that occupy the central portion of the island.  Toward the end of the trip we birded the coastal lowland plains in the vicinity of Changhua and Tainan.  

 

Our trip was followed in the Taiwan press - both in newspaper articles and with television coverage - due to the growing local concern with the imminent arrival of H5N1 bird flu.  “Why are these crazy North Americans running all over looking for birds when any sensible person will stay as far from birds as possible?”  We tried to answer their concerns to quell the rising hysteria.

 

Our group spotted 10 of the 15 species endemic to Taiwan and 161 species overall. We had excellent & exciting views of many birds; sightings of the tiny but elegant, Flamecrest, a passing group of Steer’s Liocichla, and painted snipe dashing through the rushes...come immediately to mind.  As Simon Liao our most excellent guide would say, “Good Birds!”

 

 

The photographs below were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 4500,  some through a Kowa spotting scope.