My parents had planned a weekend trip to Taipei City from the 21st-23rd of June. The main reason for this was that was because my sister had a harp competition with another family, and I was going to do a bit of birding.
Day 1 – 21st Friday 2024:
Our flight was at 9AM, but there was some slight delay on the runway, and it took us 50 more minutes of wait time before we even took off! Luckily, once we were in the air, there was no more problems and we landed in Taoyuan International Airport at 11:45AM.
After we checked in the hotel (Cityinn Taipei), we headed to a studio where my sister had to practice her harp, and while we were waiting, we decided to walk around and do some birding.
The first bird that we found was a flyby of a black drongo, which was surprising as I had never expected to find it in a city!
Black Drongo
Next, we walked into a small patch of trees not even a park, though I saw some movement above my head and when I got my bins on it, I saw that it was a Taiwan barbet! I knew that the barbet was common, though I had never expected to see it on the first day. Although the bird was not a lifer, it was still a joy to see it! It was a bit high up, but I found an angle where I could see it clearly.
Taiwan Barbet
Walking around the patch of trees, we also found other common species, such as a friendly immature oriental magpie robin.
Oriental Magpie Robin
The other “surprise” that we got was a juvenile Malayan night heron, where at first stood so still that I thought I was fake. It gave great views under the afternoon light, and was completely unfazed by me approaching it. It even caught an earthworm right in front of me!
Malayan Night Heron
After that, we headed to Taipei 101 to do some sightseeing, and by the time we got back to the hotel, it was dark out with a beautiful moon.
Moon
Day 2 – 22nd Saturday 2024:
Today was probably the most effective in terms of birding, as me and my dad were going to Da’an Forest Park (大安森林公園), one of the top hotspots that is within the proximity of the city. We arrived at the park at 8:15AM, and immediately a trio of asian glossy starlings flew in, two males and a female. One of the males even caught what seemed like a slug.
Asian Glossy Starling – Male
Asian Glossy Starling – Female
When we started walking into the park, we saw a few pallas squirrels which was completely unfazed if we got close. They were obviously fed by the residents.
Pallas Squirrel
As we walked deeper into the park, we came across a mature male Malayan night heron, which was good to see as we had only seen the immature one yesterday. As I was photographing it, it suddenly raised up it’s wings and kept completely still. I don’t know if it’s a territorial or threatened display ( I think the latter but not sure), but even if I moved around to it’s backside, it still kept in the position.
Malayan Night Heron – territorial display ?
We soon reached a pond with a island in the middle, which was home to a egretry, with species such as Eastern cattle egret, Black crowned night, little egret and a few great egrets. Along the footpath, I a common kingfisher flew past, though it was too fast for my dad and a photo. A friendly Taiwan barbet came down to eye-level in order to feed on a fruiting tree, giving us a great opportunity to observe and photograph it, a big difference from yesterday.
Eastern Cattle Egret – breeding plumage
Taiwan Barbet – feeding
In front of us, a group of photographers attracted our attention, and it turn out to be an almost eye-level view of a Taiwan barbet’s nest! In the proximity of the nest, we added a juvenile Malayan night heron and a Black bulbul.
Taiwan Barbet – at nest
Malayan Night Heron – juvenile
Black Bulbul
Further away, another group of photographers were looking at a nest of crested goshawks, it seems like a female brooding it’s eggs, but it was a bit far and high and after a quick look we decided to move on.
Crested Goshawk – female at nest
Before we left the park, we decided to visit the barbet nest again, but on the way we found a pair of grey treepie, as this was the first time I got a chance to photograph it, I took more photos.
Grey Treepie
The barbet soon came, and this time came better views before we headed back to our hotel. As we passed the egretry, we found a swimming eurasian moorhen and a black-crowned night heron partly submerged.
Taiwan Barbet
Eurasian Moorhen
Black Crowned Night Heron – cooling off
When we got back to the hotel, we found out that when we got to the park in early morning, it was 31 degrees, but by the time we left it was 37!
Day 3 – 23rd Sunday 2024:
Today was our last day in Taipei before we headed back to Hong Kong in the evening. As my sister had her harp competition yesterday after noon, we could chill today. Our original plans were to go to Guandu Nature Park ( 關渡自然公園 ), but then we saw that the birds where quite similar to the ones back at home, so we decided to go to Jiufen old street ( 九份 ), which was a popular tourist hotspot. I thought that the day would be wasted, so I decided on the way to Jiufen, we were going to make stop at Aboriginal Cultural Theme Park ( 原住民文化主題公園 )to look for the Taiwan blue magpie, which I had seen on eBird that there was a nest.
When we arrived, we spotted a local birder and she tipped us off on the location of the nest, and sure enough, we found it with the parents giving close views. There were even some young in the nest, though we did not know if it was from a Asian koel or from the magpie itself.
Taiwan Blue Magpie – nest with young
What I did not expect was that the magpies were really aggresive, and attacked me and my dad multiple time, I managed to get a record shot of one trying to get one of the other kids.
Aftermath of the attack from the magpie
Magpie “attacking” with other photographers in the background
With our main target, we headed towards Jiufen, where we there were not much birds, mainly barn swallows, a black kite and a mountain hawk eagle, while was miles away.
Barn Swallow – at nest
We decided to head to the airport, but the surprises were still not over from here, as my parents spotted a male Black Paradise Flycatcher in full breeding plumage fly across the road as we were driving!!
And that is the end of my trip to Taipei 2024. Overall, I would rate our trip pretty successful, totalling 37 species with 4 lifers, and a time zone which did not even reach one day!
