Dermot Breen's Blog: Taiwan 26th March 2018

Saturday, 22 September 2018

Taiwan 26th March 2018

On our last full day in country we birded back up in the hills in the general area of the Huisun Forest Area and the Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area. This was the highest we reached during our Taiwan trip at around the 3,000 metres mark. It was unsurprisingly rather chilly up there and there was some snow on the ground on the surrounding peaks. It was here that we found a few of the species that are only really found at the highest elevations in Taiwan such as the Eurasian Wren and Alpine Accentor.
Lifers for the day included Brown Dipper, Asian House Martin, Taiwan Wren-Babbler, White-browed Shortwing, Siberian Rubythroat and Eastern Buzzard. The Wren-Babbler and the Shortwing were both excellent species to get as they take a significant amount of time to see properly. We had encountered both species on call previously on the trip and a few had been lucky to get short views of each. I had given up hope on seeing either and it was equally satisfying to get the Wren-Babbler as this was the last of our targeted endemics for the trip. The Shortwing like many of the other distinctive Taiwan subspecies are a possible likely split in the future. The Rubythroat was incredibly brief and I was about the only one to get onto it other than our guide. We had heard several during the trip but none showed.