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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The perfect camouflage. (click on the pictures for the enlarged view) |
Happy Birding.
The perfect camouflage for a bird which hunts for food amongst lichen covered branches. It's always a delight to take a trip through your blog :)
ReplyDeletethanks, Vera, I like to observe the behaviour of the bird rather than just photograph the bird, I prefer to share my thought from my observation. It is very delighted when I can find my answers for my own question from the nature. Sometimes, I ask myself too many questions.
ReplyDeleteIt is by asking questions that one learns. Great job spotting this hard-to-see bird.
ReplyDeleteWow. This is very interesting. Nice to know about the nutcracker. It is so hard to see the brown bullfinch in Malaysia. The only place that I know of is Gunung Brinchang in Cameron Highlands. Going there at the end of this month. Hopefully I'll get lucky. Still remember the Little Cuckoo Dove in Cameron Highlands.
ReplyDeleteMark Ng
Eu Meng: thanks
ReplyDeleteMark: yes, I know what you are hiding..haha. The Brown Bullfinch, I saw it very clear through my naked eyes, a pair perched in front of me, but I couldn't find it from my scope coz it was too near to my scope, so too bad, I missed the shot to share with you all.