Southeast China Birdwatching Tour

Southeast China Birdwatching Tour
When: Sat 5 May - Wed 23 May 2012
Leaders: Chris Doughty and Zhang Lin

Southeast China Birdwatching Tour
Melbourne/Melbourne (19 days) $7,490
Single Room Supplement $680
Ground Content (ex Shanghai) $6,140

China, whose characters translate to `Middle Kingdom`, is an ancient land with an incredible history and a unique cultural heritage, which dates back continuously for more than 4,000 years. In 1295 Marco Polo published `The Book of Marvels`; in this amazing journal he described a detailed account of his 17 years travelling throughout the Orient and of his time spent at the imperial court of Kublai Kan, grandson of the great Mongol warrior Genghis Khan. From this time onwards, this mysterious and culturally isolated kingdom has acted as a magnet for travellers throughout the ages. China is a vast country comprising 10 million square kilometres, 7% of all the land on the planet and supports almost a quarter of the world's human population. While the diversity and numbers of birds in the larger cities of China, where almost half of the population lives; is very low, in complete contrast, enormous areas of China's countryside is sparsely populated and offers some of the finest birding in Asia. China is home to over 1,300 species of birds, including numerous endemics and regional specialities, but in a rapidly developing China, the ancient Confucian philosophy of living in harmony with nature, is being severely challenged. On this unique and exciting tour we go birding in southeastern China, where very few western birders have ever visited and with the help of expert local guides we shall search for some of China's most beautiful, but least known, endemic birds. We begin our journey at Shanghai, searching for the attractive Reed Parrotbill. We then visit the estuary of the Minjiang River near Fuzhou, where the critically endangered Chinese Crested Tern occurs. Heading westwards into the interior, we climb up to Wuyi Shan Nature Reserve on the borders of Jiangxi and Fujian provinces. The star attraction here is the superb Cabot's Tragopan, but there is also a strong supporting cast of other Chinese endemics including Rickett's Partridge, Hartert's Leaf-Warbler, Buffy Laughingthrush and Pere David's Fulvetta. From Wuyi Shan we make our way to the Wuyuan area, where the extremely rare and range-restricted Courtois's Laughingthrush is known to occur, along with other Chinese endemics such as Mandarin Duck, Chinese Bamboo Partridge, Masked Laughingthrush and Swinhoe's Minivet. We then head for the hills visiting the Nanling Nature Reserve; where we will be looking for the stunningly attractive, but highly localised Silver Oriole. We then travel to Jiulian Shan in southernmost Jiangxi province, this little-visited corner of the province is home to the endangered and rarely observed White-eared Night-Heron. We then travel further to the southwest to Guangxi province. At the Nonggang Nature Reserve we will be seeking the recently-described Nonggang Babbler. Returning to Shanghai, our final destination will be Binhai, where we will search for the rarely observed Japanese Swamp-Warbler.