I endured a bone-shaking 45 minute motorised rickshaw ride to get up to Rong Shu Wang at first light. The "one-tree forest" is certainly an amazing sight. But it's the birds of this area that are worth getting up early for. Last year I had seen Collared Treepie and Banded Bay Cuckoo here. Others have seen even more exotic birds, such as Grey Peacock Pheasant and Hodgson's Frogmouth.

A close up view of the blue-bearded Atherton's Bee-eater was a nice opener, as were the Long-tailed Sibias and perched Mountain Imperial Pigeon, but I didn't find very much else here this morning.

I met some Chinese birdwatchers (there were more than a dozen birding the area) who kindly gave me a lift further up the mountain. It was there, near the highest point of the road, that I ran in to a flock of about 30 Grey Sibia, which entertained for more than 30 minutes.

It was only this evening, as I was going through today's photographs on my computer that I discovered another sibia species I actually hadn't seen - or at least hadn't noticed in the field - a Rufous-backed Sibia! The Grey Sibia I was trying to photograph had just flown and I got a picture of a tree trunk instead... but near the top of the frame was a Rufous-backed Sibia dropping onto a branch. The comedy of errors continued as one of the later shots of a sibia in flight was not what I thought it was. It was another, or perhaps the same Rufous-backed. Here, then, is the downside of taking photos of birds in a dimly-lit forest, sometimes you don't actually know what you are photographing!

What's all the fuss you may be wondering. Well, the dilemma is that I have not actually seen Rufous-backed Sibia in China or anywhere for that matter. And yet I have two photographs of one (the flight shot of which I'm attaching). How funny (not to mention incompetent).

The hit (and mostly miss) photo day continued until the early evening when I saw a flock of 4 parakeets zipping around a fruiting tree that was on a ridge, a long way off. Frustratingly, I failed to get them in my viewfinder, so their identity remains a mystery. I then convinced myself that they had actually flown into the fruiting tree. I couldn't get any closer to the tree , and I was struggling to pick anything up with my bins, but nevertheless I waited.

Then, 20 minutes later, out came a parakeet flying slightly towards me and the bright, low sun that was behind me. Strangely, it looked bigger than the four I had seen earlier with the naked eye. I thought I'd better get a photo of it.

I'm pleased I did, because it was an Alexandrine Parakeet.. a bird that breeds in Burma and Assam, but has only been seen a few times in China. Talking of Burma, the Alexandrine just kept on going, all the way to and across the river that marks the border with that country.


19 species photographed today, 15 species (in bold) new for 2010:

Mountain Imperial Pigeon (ssp griseicapilla), 1
Long-tailed Sibia (nom. ssp picaoides), 5
Greater Racket-tailed Drongo (ssp grandis), 2
White-throated Bulbul (ssp burmanicus), few
Long-tailed Thrush (monotypic)
"Himalayan" Bluetail (ssp ??)
Atherton's Bee-eater (nom. ssp athertoni), 1
Nepal Fulvetta (tentative ID) If this, then ssp commoda, sev
Crested Serpent Eagle, (ssp burmanicus), 1
Striated Bulbul (ssp?), c20
Grey Sibia (monotypic), c30
Short-billed Minivet, sev
Scarlet Minivet (ssp elegans), sev
Streaked Spiderhunter (nom. ssp magna)
Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher (ssp. calochrysea), 1
"Blue-throated" Barbet (? ssp ?? ... the prominent black malar stripe on this bird is not described in available literature)
Alexandrine Parakeet (ssp avensis...), 1, the third or fourth record for China as far as I know
Bronzed Drongo (nom. ssp aeneus), c20
Rufous-backed Sibia (nom. ssp annectens), 1

Other birds seen:

Lesser Yellownape, 1
Grey-headed Pygmy Woodpecker, 1
Blue-throated Barbet (nom ssp asiatica ie without black malar), c20
Drongo Cuckoo, 1
Harwick's Leafbird, 1
Grey Treepie, 1
Ashy Drongo, few
Bar-winged Flycatcher Shrike, few
White-throated Fantail, 1
Yellow-bellied Fantail, few
Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush, 1
Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher, few
Siberian Rubythroat, 1
White-capped Water Redstart, 1
Plumbeous Redstart, few
Siberian Stonechat, sev
Pied Bushchat, 1
Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, 1
Grey-throated Sand Martin, 1
White-eye sp, c20
Flavescent Bulbul, c doz.
Sooty-headed Bulbul (few)
Black Bulbul, c20
Mountain Bulbul, few
Hume's Leaf Warbler, 1
Puff-throated Babbler, 1
Red-billed Shrike Babbler, 1
White-browed Shrike Babbler, 1 fem
Grey-cheeked Fulvetta, few
Beautiful Sibia, 1
Silver-eared Mesia, c15
White-bellied Yuhina, c doz.
Black-throated Sunbird, 3
White Wagtail, few
Olive-backed Pipit, few

2010 = 157 species photographed