White-browed Bush Robin, My Lifer.

Taiwan has three recorded species of Bush-Robin, the endemic species of Collared Bush-Robin, sub-endemic species of White-browed Bush-Robin, and the migrant species of Orange-flanked Bush-Robin. All these three species of Bush-Robin are the montane bird, they have the same physical size and almost similar plumage, especially the female.

White-browed Bush Robin (Tarsiger indicus formosanus, 白眉林鴝) is one of the three lifers I sighted and the only lifer I managed to digiscope in my birding trip in Dasyueshan on last Saturday. 

Male

Female

Collared Bush-Robin (Tarsiger johnstoniae, 栗背林鴝), which I sighted in 2009 in Alishan National Forest Recreation Park. I would like to share again in this blog for the purpose of species comparison.

Male

Female

and besides the bird, Montane Wild Lily is also one of my lifers, haha...

Hope this blog provides sufficient information to differentiate both endemic and sub-endemic species of Bush-robin in Taiwan. Happy Birding.

Nutcracker With Perfect Camouflage

On last Saturday (14-7-2012), I visited Dasyueshan in Taichung for a birding day trip. I have three lifers on that day, they are the Coal Tit, Brown Bullfinch and White-browed Bush Robin. Coal Tit and Brown Bullfinch were sighted at the location near to Tianchih.

Tianchih (Sky Lake, 天池) is actually located on the southern slope of the Siaosyueshan at 2600 meters above the sea level, it is the last accessible section by car in the Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Park.

Tianchih 天池 

The Eurasian Nutcracker or Spotted Nutcracker ((Nucifraga caryocatactes, 星鴉) was the only bird I digiscoped at Tianchih (Sky Lake, 天池). It was my first up close sighting of this bird. 

The Eurasian Nutcracker

I was really amazed to learn that the plumage of this bird is perfectly camouflaged in the montane forest, a forest mainly with lichen covered pine trees. If without following it's call, I wouldn't be able to locate the bird effectively. Finally, I got the answer from my observation, for the question why the plumage of the Nutcracker is not in black or white, like most of the Corvidae. Nutcracker is indeed a beautiful and a smart bird.

The perfect camouflage.  
(click on the pictures for the enlarged view)

 

 

Happy Birding.