This book is complete, and highly recommended.
So, I sent irishstu’s pic of that bird to my friend back in the States, who has been a professional ornitholigist for 20 years and he spoke without hesititation: “yep, definitely a peregrine.” Pretty cool. It was an extraordinarily beautiful bird.
But then again, I was excited recently to see one of those huge birds with extremely bold, distintive black and white coloration up on our rooftoop. Not a rare bird, but still pretty awesome.
[quote=“sandman”][quote=“Icon”]My biologist coworker says that as long as he hasn’t performed a through autopsy and dissection of the bird, he cannot be certain of what it is. 
He says he doubts it was a peregrine falcon.[/quote]
He can’t tell a peregrine from a kestrel? And he calls himself a biologist! :roflmao: Yeah! Let’s kill it and cut it open! THEN we’ll know! 
I used to do a fair bit of falconing and have actually handled these birds, as well as MANY other raptor species. I’ve also watched them in the wild here in Taiwan for over two decades. I can tell you without any shadow of a doubt that the bird Irishstu photographed is a peregrine.
Why does he doubt it? They’re not that uncommonly seen in Taiwan and they commonly live around high buildings in urban areas.
Plus, I used to be a member of the Young Ornithologist Society of Great Britain! So THERE! With a wee enamel badge and EVERYTHING![/quote]
Man, he’s good. It is just that he’s pulling my leg -of sorts. He prefers his birds stuffed and mounted with a little label with their Latin names. What he wanted to say was that he’d love to practice his taxidermy skills on the birdie.
He knows I’d rather have the bird flying around freely and happily.
He doubts it not because the image is not clear, but rather because he’d prefer to have his hands on this specimen. Sour grapes, you know.
Is he Taiwanese?
Taiwanese biologist – almost an oxymoron, isn’t it?
Nope, but he did study here. 
I prefer to mount and stuff my birds, too, but that’s for the dating and relationships forum, surely?
Last weekend, my children were given copies of a book “100 most common birds of Taiwan”. It has full-color photos, English and Chinese names, then short description in Chinese. It sells for just over 100nt. My son identified several birds using the book as we were driving back from Miaoli.
Apparently, there is a store/info center in Taipei city that has a number of different bilingual publications including this one. I’ll post the address once my son brings the books home from school.
[quote=“Mucha Man”]This book is complete, and highly recommended.
amazon.co.uk/Birds-East-Asia … 0713670401[/quote]
Great! I suspected I’d have to search further afield, as it were. Thanks.
Where we live in Yang Mei seems to be along the migratory route of many bird species. I regularly see birds that are definitely not local. There are also a couple of resident pairs of serpent eagles along with the occasional peregrines that hunt along the corridor. Just this morning I was treated to the sight of a pair of serpent eagles circling quite low over the tea fields squawking and waiting for the snakes to come out and sun themselves.
However, I’ve never seen so many different species as I have this year. I don’t know if it is a conscious decision on the part of the local governments not to dredge the waterways or kill the vegetation around the irrigation channels with herbicides, but it has made a huge difference in terms of attracting bird species.
So far this year I’ve seen on quite a few occasions migrating waterfowl that I have yet to identify and…twice this year I’ve seen from about 30 meters…Black-headed Ibis. Imagine!
I know, this should be a regular phenomenon, and it will be, I think, if the widespread “engineering” of waterways comes to a halt.
wookie, I’ve also noticed a huge increase in migratory birds this fall-winter. On a one hour walk on the Jingmei River from the zoo I spotted 16 different species without even trying. Also noticed kingfishers, which I’ve never seen along this stretch before. In general wildlife has been making a nice comeback these years. I’ve even seen civets up on the uni grounds late at night.
The Wild Bird Society of Taiwan has a Chinese translation excel file of the book “Birds of East Asia” on their site. I know they also have a number of books for sale at their office. You could call them and see if they have that one available in Taipei.
English contact info:
http://www.wbst.org.tw/english/wbst_en.html
Here’s a list of books with images from their Chinese-language site. There is one English one: Birdwatching In Taiwan:
http://www.wbst.org.tw/index.php?option=com_productbook&func=viewcategory&Itemid=60&catid=8&Itemid=61
Yeah, I also saw a kingfisher along the same river channel yesterday morning. Shocked the piss out of me. I’d only ever seen two in Taiwan previously and only along the rivers up near Shiao Wulai in the summer. Beautiful bird. I watched him make two dives into the water before moving off.
[quote=“asiababy”]The Wild Bird Society of Taiwan has a Chinese translation excel file of the book “Birds of East Asia” on their site. I know they also have a number of books for sale at their office. You could call them and see if they have that one available in Taipei.
English contact info:
http://www.wbst.org.tw/english/wbst_en.html
Here’s a list of books with images from their Chinese-language site. There is one English one: Birdwatching In Taiwan:
http://www.wbst.org.tw/index.php?option=com_productbook&func=viewcategory&Itemid=60&catid=8&Itemid=61[/quote]
Thanks for this asiababy!
[quote=“sandman”]Those things really ARE arguably the lords of the air. There is really nothing quite like a peregrine.
What’s THE most advanced fighter jet in the world? That’s the peregrine.
In the days of heraldry in Britland, I think it was only royalty that were allowed to carry peregrines.
Here’s a PBS vid of what these things can do.
http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=15297[/quote]
That was a fantastic vid. 
I’m not a fighter pilot but I’d love to be reincarnated as a peregrine.
There are several good birding books listed at booksfromtaiwan.com/
Hope it’s useful. Email me with any constructive suggestions.
If you are a regular and long-term Forumosa contributer, pm me and I will send you a code for deep deep discounts.
Also, while on the subject: As a long term resident of this island, and someone who wasted many years NOT birding [hear the remorse?]. I must encourage my fellow Forumosans to go (a) buy the best 8X 10X binoculars you can afford (b) enjoy the mad variety of birds on this island.
Just browsed that website and it has some lovely looking books! I’ve had that Field Guide to the Birds of Taiwan since its 1991 publication and despite being described as “dated” I’d still highly recommend it. It hasn’t failed me yet and its small enough and easy enough to use that you can carry it with you when you’re out and about. Mine even has a stain on it from grey minivet shit. We were THAT close! 
Saw this guy in our neighborhood park yesterday, about 1/2 mile from the river, walking across the grass and stabbing earthworms and/or other bugs as the typhoon was winding down.
I’ve seen his family/friends in the same park before after other storms. Always a startling sight, as they’re quite big – as big as my head is how my daughter put it.
Apparently the weather’s too wild for them by the river, where they live, so they come inland a bit to shelter in our park. Pretty cool. According to my ornithologist friend to whom I sent the pic it’s a Striated or Green-Backed Heron.
I would bet my wife on the fact that it’s a Malayan night heron. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayan_Night_Heron
Yea, good call. My friend’s a very skilled birder, but he travels mostly from the NW US to central and south america, so those are the birds he knows best. His green-backed or striated heron looks similar to what I saw, but your pick is a spitting image (below image from your link). . .
and it’s very common in Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia, so it seems much more likely.
I guess you get to keep the wife this time.
I was bittern by one of them once.
There’s one that roosts in the park close to my house. It arrives punctually at dusk every day. Yeah, they’re not shy creatures. The wild cats steer clear of it, too.