John and Mary Kormendy: Birding Trip to Yunnan, China (November 2018)
These are the pictures from our second trip to China in 2018, a tour to Yunnan with one short stop in Sichuan. The trip was arranged and guided by China Birding Tour, a local Chinese tour company based in Chengdu. For birders from outside China who don't know what to expect, we can happily report that we were very happy with the arrangements, the guiding, and the driver (the Yunnan driver was also good at spotting birds). Glitches can happen during almost any tour; there were few tour-related glitches -- none major -- in this trip. Our guide, Kevin (email birdtours@hotmail.com ) was exceedingly good at tweaking the organization to fix surprises. He and our driver, Dario, were cheerfully an enormous help in carrying heavy camera equipment. Without their help, the successes illustrated in this web site would mostly not have been possible.
Our tour was customized for bird photography, which is a special interest for us. In this web site, even bad pictures are included, because this is our "digital memory" of the species and scenery that we saw. This web site is a record of the species that we saw during the whole trip, including one day of birding in the vicinity of Chengdu. We have had two previous major birding trips to China and three to the south-east foothills of the Himalayas in India. Therefore, our list of new birds is short: John got 37 life birds and Mary got 45. But the quality of the new birds was excellent.
This trip also focussed heavily on birding in hides. There are astonishingly many bird hides in Yunnan -- bird photograpy is a Big Deal among the Chinese. In no previous trip has John spent most of his time birding via a camera viewfinder instead of via binoculars.
A convenient occasion for this trip was provided by an astronomy conference on The Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Their Central Regions" in the historic city of Dali, Yunnan, China. The conference was anjoyable and successful, and the city was absolutely enchanting. A few pictures from Dali and the conference are posted here.
In this web site, pictures are largely arranged chronologically. Eventually, I will make a public web site of the best bird pictures in taxonomic order. The present web site is not public. Effective 2019 January 2, it is essentially finished, although a few pictures and movies may still be added.
The pictures and movies are copyrighted and should not be used without permission.
Trip Birds
We found it impossible to single out one "trip bird". John's three "trip birds" are:
Gray peacock pheasant (This male is our life bird.)
Silver pheasant (This male is John's life bird.)
Gray-bellied tesia (We worked hardest on this tiny skulker for several days. This is John's life bird. Mary got hers several days before.)
Baihualing
Our first birding destination was Baihualing.
Daurian redstart (on the way from Dali to Baihualing)
Crimson sunbird, along the road approaching Baihualing, was the first life bird of the trip. This male is gorgeous. Females are green and more cryptic.
Red-tailed laughingthrush was the second life bird of the trip. These birds are colorful and brash, coming often in noisy flocks through most of the trip. We have a special liking for laughingthrushes, which are among the most iconic birds of the Himalayan foothills. We have been looking forward to seeing this species one for many years. There will be many more pictures of it below.
Assam laughingthrush -- this bird -- was the third life bird of the trip. We did not realize this at the time, because the MacKinnon & Phillipps ID guide still considers it conspecific with Chestnut-crowned laughingthrush. But (for example) Assam has a gray front and upper chest (vs. chestnut in Chestnut-crowned); it has almost unmarked ear coverts (vs. strongly "scale"-marked in Chestnut-crowned), and this bird also has some blue in the wings. I think that this is Assam laughingthrush ssp woodi, listed by Clements 2016 as appearing in SW Yunnan. For a contrasting picture of Chestnut-crowned laughingthrush, see my picture of one that I saw near Mayodia Pass in Arunachal Pradesh, India.
Assam laughingthrush (different bird, later in the trip)
Blue-winged laughingthrush (This bird was exceedingly difficult for John in India, and Mary never got it there. Here, the bird was easy for both of us, although this one is a bit unkempt.)
Blue-winged laughingthrush (another bird from later in the trip)
Red-faced liocichla (Again, this bird was exceedingly difficult in Arunachal Pradesh but very easy in Yunnan. Moreover, it overlapped with -- and was easily distinguished from -- Crimson-faced liocichla, below.)
Red-faced liocichla (another bird from later in the trip)
Crimson-faced liocichla (from later in the trip, at HongBengHe)
Slender-billed scimitar-babbler enjoying lunch (This is Mary's life bird. John got this species near Mayodia Pass in Arunachal Pradesh, India.)
Black-streaked scimitar-babbler (We checked this bird carefully, because scimitar-babblers have complicated splits in recent years.)
Streak-breasted scimitar-babbler
Verditer flycatcher
Ashy drongo
Rufous-throated partridge (This is our life bird.)
Mountain bamboo-partridge (in a small flock of our life birds)
Flavescent bulbul (new for Mary on this trip)
Olive-backed pipit
Japanese white-eyes
White-gorgeted flycatcher (This is Mary's life bird -- we got only a brief view of it, far away in the undergrowth.)
Gray-throated babbler
Black-headed sibia (This is ou life bird.)
Whiskered yuhina is just about the cutest and most ubiquitous bird in the Himalayan foothills.
The movie is a big file -- 75 Mb -- so you may want to download it first and then watch it.
Hill prinia (This is our life bird.)
Gray bushchat
Vinaceous rosefinch (female)
Great barbet
Chestnut-vented nuthatch (new on this trip, but this is not our life bird)
Red-tailed minla -- another iconic bird of the Himalayan foothills
Blue-winged minla (also)
Heeee's back! Slender-billed scimitar-babbler
Rusty-fronted barwing (This bird is elusive in India: John has been trying to get a good picture for 3 trips there. The fruit is delicious!)
Streaked spiderhunter (Also in India)
Spot-breasted parrotbill (in a small flock of our life birds)
Yellow-cheeked tit
Black-throated tit
Scaly thrush (I think that this is correct, although White's thrush -- split by Clements from Scaly thrush in 2015 -- could also be here. Scaly thrush is not new: our records say that we saw it in India, where it has to be Scaly.)
Black-breasted thrush (male -- our life bird -- and female)
Black-breasted thrush (better picture of a male bird)
Davison's (formerly White-tailed) leaf warbler
Maroon-backed accentor
Red-tailed laughingthrush puts in another appearance ...
Black-throated sunbird
Black-streaked scimitar-babbler (There's reason why they call them "babblers".)
Whiskered yuhina
Rufous-gorgeted flycatcher (male)
Black-headed sibia (new on this trip)
Golden bush-robin (Shy and fast: You have to anticipate where it will land, focus there, and start shooting continuously at the fastest camera rate as soon as you see it start to fly out of the bushes.)
Gray-throated babbler (reaching for ... the prize)
Red-tailed laughingthrush (ubiquitous)
Beautiful sibia
Ash-throated warbler
Scaly-breasted cupwing (formerly wren babbler) (Well, this is embarrassing. Wren-babblers are among my favorite birds, and I remember when this one popped out of the underbrush very briefly. Mary saw it. I, however, do not remember seeing it. During busy moments, I sometimes photograph a bird that I don't take time to ID, and that could have happened in this case. But it seems more likely that our guide, Kevin, took this picture with my camera while I was looking at a different bird. Anyway, I am very happy to have a pretty good picture, considering the difficulty of seeing this bird.)
Small niltava
Golden-throated barbet
Slender-billed scimitar-babbler (You can run, but you can't hide.)
Mountain tailorbird
Whiskered yuhina enjoying a bath
Large niltava
Yunnan fulvetta
Rusty-capped fulvetta
Rufous-capped babbler and Japanese white-eye vying for a bath
Streak-breasted scimitar-babbler
Red-billed leiothrix (We got our life bird in -- of all places -- Hawaii, where it is well established on the Big Island, Maui, and Oahu. Here is a picture taken at Hakalau National Wildlife Refuge on the Big Island of Hawaii. But it feels virtuous to see it in its native habitat in India and in Yunnan, China.)
Rusty-fronted barwing (ubiquitous and easy in Yunnan)
Golden babbler
Long-tailed sibia
Himalayan bluetail (female)
Large nultava
Chestnut-bellied rock thrush
Yellow-browed tit
Chestnut-vented nuthatch (again)
Pale-rumped warbler (Phylloscopus chloronotus chloronotus)
Streaked spiderhunter (on banana flower, in the lower picture)
Snowy-browed flycatcher (This male is our life bird.)
Yellow-bellied fantail
Black-headed greenfinch (new the previous day)
Common rosefinch (did not come close)
Purple sunbird (male in eclipse plumage)
Purple sunbird (This male in the same trees is in breeding plumage, showing off his orange pectoral tufft. This is on the drive from Baihualing to Hongbenghe: we tried again to photograph Crimson sunbird but saw only Purple sunbird well.)
Mary's 76th Birthday
On November 19, the tour company arranged to have us stay in a four-star hotel in Tengchong. And they provided this surprise birthday celebration for Mary. Accommodations ranged from excellent to fairly good throughout the trip, but the luxury here was very welcome.
Hongbenghe
Our second major stop was Hongbenghe in SW Yunnan. The backdrop of our dinners here was the river and the forested mountains of Myanmar. Birding here was very good.
Dinner at our (spartan) hotel at Hongbenghe, again: with Myanmar in the background
White-tailed robin (This male is our life bird.)
Pin-striped tit-babbler (This is Mary's life bird. John got his during the March 2018 trip to India.)
Hill blue flycatcher (I think this is a juvenile male -- note the blue tail. Comments or corrections welcome.)
Hill blue flycatcher (This is a female -- note the rufous rump and tail.)
Blue whistling-thrush
Brown-cheeked fulvetta (This is our life bird.)
Brown-cheeked fulvetta (later the same day)
Blue-naped pitta (This is our life bird. It's always a coup to get a pitta.)
Rufous-bellied niltava (male)
Rufous-bellied niltava (female)
White-tailed flycatcher (This female is our life bird. We never saw a male.)
Little pied flycatcher (male)
Hill blue flycatcher (male)
Gray-eyed bulbul (This is our life bird.)
Red-vented bulbul (an old friend from Hawaii, here in his natural habitat)
Red-whiskered bulbul (another old friend from Hawaii)
White-throated bulbul
Black-crested bulbul (seen the next day, also at Hongbenghe)
Puff-throated babbler
Gray-throated babbler
Gray-backed thrush (This female is our life bird. It is hard to distinguish the female of this species from female Black-breasted thrush, which we got earlier in the trip and saw also this morning. The ID looks OK -- this bird is grayer on the back, whiter in the throat, and more flesh-colored (less orange) in its legs. However: comments are welcome.)
Gray-backed shrike
Gray peacock-pheasant (This is our life bird.)
Coral-billed scimitar-babbler
Rufous-backed sibia
Gray treepie
Collared treepie (This is Mary's life bird; John got his in India in March.)
Bronzed drongo
Greater racket-tailed drongo
Golden-fronted leafbird
Orange-bellied leafbird (juvenile: the embarrassment of adolescence)
Red junglefowl (male)
White-browed fantail
White-crested laughingthrush
Black-throated laughingthrush (It was new on this trip, but this is not our life bird.)
Lesser necklaced laughingthrush (We had seen it before, in India, but always far above our heads. And we never got better than brief, poor views.)
Rufous-headed parrotbill (This is the south-of-the-Brahmaputra split of what used to be called Greater rufous-headed parrotbill. We saw the northern split, now White-breasted parrotbill, in the Eagle Nest area of Arunachal Pradesh, India, near Lama Camp. This is our life bird of the southern species.)
Asian emerald dove
Kalij pheasant male (We got our life bird long ago in Hawaii, but it feels virtuous to see him again -- and very well -- in his natural habitat.)
Kalij pheasant (female)
Mystery pheasant (This looks like a Kalij-Silver cross, but several such birds have been seen for, apparently, at least several years. We don't know what it is, and we didn't count it.)
Gray peacock-pheasant (female)
Red-billed scimitar-babbler
White-hooded babbler
Buff-breasted babbler (This is our life bird.)
Greater yellownape (male)
Greater yellownapes on a twisty vine
Lesser yellownape (terrible pictures, but it never came close and never landed in good light)
Gray-headed woodpecker
Common green magpie
Hill blue flycatcher (male)
Gray-bellied tesia (We worked hardest on this tiny skulker for several days. Note that the bird has almost no tail -- this is a sign that he rarely emerges from the safety of dense bushes. This is John's life bird. Mary got hers more easily several days before.)
Collared falconet (never came close)
Oriental pied hornbill (ditto)
Here again is a dinner at our hotel in Hongbenghe, with Myanmar across the river in the background.
Nabang
Our last major stop was the now-sleepy town of Nabang, also in SW Yunnan amd just across the border to Myanmar. This used to be a major border trade center, but with better river crossings to Myanmar in other places, Nabang threatens to become rather a ghost town. Birding here was poor, as the Chinese government tries to develop the city and its surroundings. Because of ongoing construction, we do not recomment coming here.
Red-breasted parakeet
Gray-headed parakeet (These are our life birds -- not cooperative.)
White-rumped munia (One bird in a small flock of our life birds)
Collared myna (These five are our life birds.)
Collared myna
Oriental magpie-robin
Rufous-necked laughingthrush
White-breasted waterhen
Gray wagtail
White wagtail (Looks intermediate between Motacilla alba personata and M. a. alboides. Is this a different subspecies?)
Green bee-eater
Striated grassbird
Slender-billed oriole (This is John's second-last life bird of the trip, seen in the Buddhist monastery gardens in TengChong.)
Gray bushchat (in the deep, dark forest of the Buddhist monastery gardens in TengChong)
Red-tailed minla at work in the forests of the Buddhist monastery gardens in TengChong)
Leshan -- ~ 3 hour drive south of Chengdu
Silver pheasant (The male is John's life bird -- the last one of the trip.)
Our bird pictures from around the world follow standard ecozones approximately but not exactly:
Birds from the USA and Canada: our house, Hornsby Bend and greater Austin, Texas, California, Hawaii, Canada,
Neotropic birds from Central America and the Caribbean: Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago
Neotropic birds from South America: Ecuador, Ecuador 2017, Brazil.
Western palearctic birds: Europe: Germany, Finland, Norway, Europe: United Kingdom, Europe: Spain, the Canary Islands, Europe: Lesbos, Greece, Israel
Eastern palearctic birds: China
Birds from Africa: The Gambia, South Africa
Indo-Malayan birds from India: North-west (Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand) India: North-east (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya) India: Central (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh)
Birds from Australia, New Zealand.
For our 2014 December trip to India, see this travelog.
For our 2016 May-June trip to India, see this travelog.
For our 2017 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.
For our 2018 March trip to India, see this travelog.
For our 2018 May trip to China, see this travelog.
For our 2018 November trip to China, see this travelog.
For our 2019 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.
For our 2019 July trip to China, see this web site.
For our 2021 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.
For our 2021 December trip to Ecuador, see this web site.
For our 2022 January trip to Peru, see this web site.
For our 2022 July-August trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea, see this web site.
For our 2022 September trip to Bolivia, see this web site.
For our 2022 November-December pre-trip to Argentina (before our Antarctic cruise), see this web site.
For our 2022 November-December cruise to Antarctica, see this web site.
For our 2023 January birding in Chile, see this web site.
For our 2023 January-March cruise from Chile to Antarctica and around South America to Miami, FL, see this web site.
For our 2023 March-April birding in south Florida (after the Seabourn cruise), see this web site.