3 days in Xishuangbanna, SW Yunnan
30 June – 2 July, 2007
by Mike Kilburn
The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society is acting as a form of independent environmental checker for an Asian Development Bank project to build ecological corridors connecting the nature reserves of Xishuangbanna. As one of the supervisors of the HKBWS project I had the opportunity to visit the area and spent three days birding (also known as “assessing the current status of key indicator species”) in some of the reserves. This turned out to be more than ample compensation for the nine meetings in three days – all in Chinese – that left me mentally exhausted. My birding companions were Cheung Ho Fai and Maicha, both of HKBWS, and Da Fang and Lou Ai-dong of IFAW.
Saturday 30 June
Having arrived overnight in Jinhong from Kunming (45 minutes flight), we set off at 7am to Mengsong to search for any remaining habitat around Nabahe National Nature Reserve. In the low agricultural land around Jinhong we picked up Black-collared Starling, Black Drongo, Grey-breasted Prinia calling loudly, and three or four Zitting Cisticolas – a rather scarce species here according to Ho Fai (who has been many times previously). The highlight of this habitat was several Chestnut Bitterns seen flying above the paddies.
The forest at Nabahe bore an uncanny resemblance to Ng Tung Chai (my patch in Hong Kong – see “Your Local Patch” forum here) , with a range of species common (or actually very rare in some cases) to both including Great Barbet, Blue-winged Minla and Silver-eared Mesia, Grey-headed Flycatcher and White throated Fantail, Lesser Shortwing, Mountain Tailorbird (including an adult feeding two fledged juveniles), Chestnut-crowned Warbler, Crested, Sooty-headed and Mountain Bulbul, Great and Yellow-cheeked Tits (and Maicha even had brief views of a Speckled Piculet!). Other birds adding interest included a fine male Large Niltava that flew into the fruiting tree where the bulbuls were feeding, several Whiskered Yuhinas, a female White-browed Shrike-Babbler, a dozen Brown-breasted Bulbuls, a well-seen Blue-throated Barbet (plus several others calling) and a pair of Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrikes. Pride of place went to one of my personal favourites, a fine male Chestnut-fronted Shrike Babbler feeding a very pale young bird.
In the afternoon we drove to Caiyang He Forest Reserve, a more extensive range of forested hills with a spectacular hotel topped by a six-storey tower situated at the highest point. This being our only option, and being the only people there, we negotiated a 50% discount for the huge rooms, each with good views of the surrounding trees. Sometimes we conservationists really have to suffer!
Before arriving at the hotel we stopped a few times after entering the reserve and added some good medium-sized passerines including fine views of three Large Cuckoo-shrikes and the same number of Maroon Orioles and Ashy Drongos. Also good, but only briefly seen, were a Blue-bearded Bee-eater and a pair of White-crowned Forktails which flushed off the road. I even enjoyed the bulbuls - Ashy, Black, Flavescent and Mountain, added to Crested, Sooty-headed and Brown-breasted on the journey made seven species for the day. Other quality came in the form of a Red-headed Trogon and a Crow-billed Drongo (seen only by Ho Fai), and a single Slaty-bellied Tesia (only by Maicha). We all enjoyed good views of a male Little Pied Flycatcher and a male Buff-bellied Flowerpecker. A question mark remains over a female flycatcher seen in the gathering gloom, which was either a very monochrome Little Pied or a displaced Ultramarine Flycatcher. I favour the latter. It was distinctly steel-grey in tone, with no sign of rufous on the rump or tail, nor much of a wing-bar, the bill was black, and the white throat stood out as distinctive, with only a hint of an eyering.
As dusk fell birds heard around the hotel included the “one more bot-tle” of Indian Cuckoo, the high pitched, descending laugh of Bay Woodpecker, the “do . do-do . do” of Collared Owlet and from the room as I drifted off to sleep, the measured twin hoots of Mountain Scops Owl. However the real highlight of the evening for me was a superb cloud-dappled orange sunset over the forested hills, which made an amazing backdrop to dinner through the wall-to-ceiling windows of the dining hall.
Sunday 1st July
It’s always good to wake up right in the habitat, and an hour before breakfast produced a good range of birds. These included a pair of Pale Blue Flycatchers, Chestnut-vented and Velvet-fronted Nuthatches and a Grey-capped Woodpecker in the same flock, along with a Speckled Piculet, several Oriental White-eyes and tail-flicking White-tailed Leaf Warblers. After breakfast the same area held an Ashy Bulbul. Further down, Scarlet Minivet and the first Green-billed Malkoha appeared, and later in the day Maicha (to my envy) saw Common Green Magpie and Long-tailed Sibia here also.
After breakfast I birded the track to the right 100m below the carpark, where the birds really started to perform. A flock containing Lesser Racket-tailed, Ashy and Crow-billed Drongos, Scarlet Minivet, a couple of Maroon Orioles, Greater and Lesser-necklaced Laughingthrushes, a couple of Whiskered Yuhinas, a female Orange-bellied Leafbird and a Greater Yellownape – perhaps China’s most spectacular woodpecker. We failed to make a firm identification of what was either Red-or Coral-billed Scimitar-Babbler, but was too shy to reveal itself.
A second flock a little lower down the same track was headlined by Grey-headed Parrotbill and a Streaked Spiderhunter, which gave excellent views. Others in the same wave included an immature male Pale Blue Flycatcher, a female Black-naped Monarch, Puff-throated Bulbul, the slightly less spectacular Lesser Yellownape and the same drongos. As we came out of the forest and descended to the road through a tea plantation we came across a family party of four Grey Bushchat, a couple of the black-headed form of Long-tailed Shrike, and a flyover Oriental Honey Buzzard.
One the drive south between Caiyang He and Wild Elephant Valley in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve we added three Black-winged Kites, another Chestnut Bittern and a Grey-Breasted Prinia on the agricultural flood plain. However the undoubted highlight of the drive was a pair of Crested Treeswifts patrolling the environs of a large dead tree overhanging the motorway at our turn-off for Wild Elephant Valley.
One of the great pleasures of the trip was a wonderful forty-minute ride on an open air cable car into the heart of Xishuangbanna’s Wild Elephant Valley – not an ideal use of a national nature reserve for sure, but China is full of such contradictions. Drifting silently along at treetop height gave an extremely unusual view of the forest – one minute I could survey the whole valley floating over the trees like a very slowly soaring raptor, and the next minute came face to face with a typically contained and elegant Silver–breasted Broadbill as the car passed through a particularly tall stand of trees.
As we were staying overnight we had the chance for an uninterrupted tour along the elevated forest walk, which produced family parties of Puff-throated Babbler, Black-naped Monarch and Crow-billed Drongo, along with a number of other new birds. The best of these was a superb and very tame Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch, a couple of Yellow-bellied Warblers, Brown-cheeked Fulvetta, Striped Tit-Babbler, a fine male White-rumped Shama (not only spectacular, but helpfully inquisitive too) and a couple of Black-crested Bulbuls. Less exciting were two Common Tailorbirds, a possible Common Kingfisher, a calling Collared Scops Owl and (quelle surprise) unidentified swiflets.
Monday 2nd July
After almost constant overnight rain and a difficult night’s sleep in the walkway “treehouse” I was in no mood for an early start. When I did get going some time after 7 there was disappointingly little activity with a rather bedraggled female Hainan Blue Flycatcher the only bird on show for the first fifteen minutes. Things changed at the first bridge over the river, when I looked down and saw a tiny bird with a red head and tail and black wings disappear into cover just a few metres downstream. Half a minute later it flew back and landed for three or four seconds on a barely exposed perch surrounded by large dark leaves.
However, the two seconds of views through my bins allowed me to confirm it as Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher! The combination of the tiny size, along with the bright red bill, pinky-orange head with a black-above-white spot on the rear ear coverts, buffy orange belly, black wings morphing into a deep blue back, and the astonishing iridescent pink rump and tail it flashed as it flew off created the impression of an intensely coloured, dazzling forest firework, but a thousand times more lovely for the spark of life that animated it. Having examined with wonder a specimen at the Institute of Zoology in Kunming - with little expectation of ever seeing one - just a couple of days previously, to catch even this short glimpse this was truly mind-blowing experience!
A few minutes later Ho Fai and Mai Cha also had excellent views of a perched bird, and we witnessed the territorial display close up as it zipped through the forest at head height, calling shrilly.
Nothing afterwards was going to compete with that, but there could hardly have been more contrast than a pair of notoriously drab Buff-breasted Babblers (described in The Field Guide to the Birds of South East Asia as “very nondescript” – I read a fair degree of exasperation into that “very” - I imagine Craig Robson sitting morosely with a specimen, staring and staring and failing miserably to find some feature of note to write about in the field guide). They were far tamer than birds I’ve seen at Nongang in Guangxi, coming right in to look at me at very close range and giving a shorter, much less musical call.
I was able to confirm the Common Kingfisher I’d seen flying away the day before, and had good views of a pair of Blue Whistling Thrushes (with yellow bills) carrying moss for nestbuilding. Birds seen from the cable car included several pairs of Black-crested Bulbuls, a surprise Rufescent Prinia deep in the forest and an Oriental Turtle Dove perched, rather suspiciously, on top of the giant aviary.
The journey back to Jinghong proved more fruitful than expected. We stopped again to photograph the Crested Tree Swifts and enjoyed much better views of at least five birds, including one perched just a few metres above the road. I also found an adult bird on one of their characteristically tiny nests, which on close views through the scope, proved to be holding two down-covered hatchlings. By looking hard through the scope we could just about make out a couple of downy salt-and-pepper coloured head (with only the vaguest hint of a bill) poking over the rim of the nest from beneath the ruffled breast feathers of the parent.
This junction also held a pair of Coppersmith Barbets, a couple of Magpie Robins and a pair of either Striated or Red-rumped Swallows. They looked rather different from the HK Red-rumps, more elongated and much darker, especially on the underparts.
Another stop, this time in farmland, added a pair each of White-throated Kingfisher, Black Drongo , a lone Chestnut-tailed Starling, and an immature or female Indian Roller. As we were enjoying perched views of a Black-winged Kite, it very obligingly flew towards us and hovered over the nearest field to the road, before turning and making a half-hearted pass at a Common Mynah, which promptly departed with great and very vocal indignation!
Tuesday 3rd July
With only limited time before catching a midday flight to Kunming, we booked a taxi (150RMB for the morning) and made an 0600 start to return to Sancha He to photograph the Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher (Black-backed Kingfisher simply does not do it justice -and the back is actually a deep and very lovely blue - and the rufous one does not occur in China). Because the cable car did not open until 0830 we decided to walk the 3km trail, starting along the river from the main entrance at around 0700.
The first bird of interest was nothing but a high-pitched “zeeep” as we crossed the river. Intriguingly this was probably another ODK, but we failed to find it. We did have more luck with a Streaked Spiderhunter perched high in a large tree, and then, much closer in, first an adult Ruby-cheeked Sunbird, and soon afterwards a female Purple-naped Sunbird, gave good clear views. Having just seen the spiderhunter made it easy to note the shorter bill of the Purple-naped Sunbird, which, uncharacteristically for the family (at least in China) is streaked on the belly and rather large. The same area also held a couple of foolishly tame juvenile White-rumped Shamas (still too young to show any white on the rump) feeding around a wooden stairway, and a noisy White-bellied Yuhina.
Continuing the run of good form the open area at the bottom of the stairway produced a mixed flock of four or five Mountain Bulbuls, a couple of Puff-throated and best of all (only because they were new for me) four distinctly smaller Grey-eyed Bulbuls, which showed a distinctive rufous vent against an otherwise yellow-green belly. These were followed by good views of a pair of Blue-winged Leafbirds, which stayed in view long enough to confirm they did not have the bright orange forecrown of Golden-fronted, and a high speed flyby from a squadron of Asian Palm Swifts.
I caught up with Ho Fai at the ODK stakeout, and within a couple of minutes a juvenile bird showing a dull-yellowish bill and otherwise perfect plumage flew into view with a dragonfly, which it made rather a meal of swallowing. After a minute or so of the usual gagging it dropped it and had to fly down to retrieve its prey. It perched out in the open allowing Ho Fai to obtain some fine video footage. This was spoiled (if you can call it that!) by the arrival of a pristine red-billed adult, which immediately had the youngster flapping its wings to get its parent’s attention. Having done its duty the adult flew to a much closer and appropriately scenic creeper hanging just over the water, where it sat for a few seconds, again giving wonderful unobstructed views, before flying off upstream. Once again an adult whizzed through the forest at head height (to where we were standing on the elevated walkway) calling loudly.
On the way to the cable car station a loud and melodious song coming from high in the canopy turned out to be a Long-tailed Broadbill – a spectacular bird sporting a long blue tail, green body and a bright yellow face surrounded by a helmet of black on the crown, nape and ear coverts. The final farewell - almost - to Sancha He was of a male Fairy Bluebird singing from an exposed branch as the cable car made its final descent to the entrance of the park. However, as we stepped off a Striped Tit-babbler, a Puff-throated Babbler, and another juvenile White-rumped Shama all appeared at the side of the road, allowing close unobstructed views. Just 100 metres further down a short “zeek” in a flowering tree turn out to be a second, much better seen Purple-naped Sunbird, until our attentions was distracted by a Plain Flowerpecker in the same tree.
The final flourish came from a party of 20 White-rumped Munias on one of the lawns, and a couple of female Baya Weavers, which joined them as they flew up into a nearby bamboo. On the return to Jinhong, the same Black-shouldered Kite and Indian Roller were perched on the same wires as they had been the previous day.
A word of thanks to Cheung Ho Fai and Maicha of HKBWS and Da Fang and Luo Ai Dong from IFAW who kindly provided a vehicle and over the course of our visit gave us a great deal of insight into local conditions in nature reserves and the state of conservation in Xishuangbanna.