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In recent weeks a bird has been flying around my neighborhood at night. It repeatedly calls âcheeeEEEP! cheeeEEEP! cheeeEEEP!â It gets louder as it flies closer, and then fades as it flies farther away. Itâs pretty loud. Any likely culprits (not that it bothers me)?
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I noticed this year that mynas have infiltrated our neighborhood; other birds, like the light-vented bulbul, are singing much less in the mornings.
Japanese white-eyes come to my balcony occasionally. They make âcheep, cheepâ sounds.
Or are you referring to a mistress complaining about you not taking her to fancy restaurants any more?
maybe a formosan whistling thrush, theyâre very loud.
That page didnât help me with this, but I saw an African Sacred Ibis plucking through the mud in the Huangxi yesterday. Looked pretty ragged
There is a new English field guide to the birds of Taiwan which was released in December 2017. I obtained a copy today through the Wild Bird Society of Taipei.
It is an excellent book, with great illustrations.
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Those guys do good work. I often bump into them when Iâm out shooting.
Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. You are going straight to birding hell.
By shooting I mean taking photographsâŠ
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Oh, of course⊠I new that.
Itâs probably a night hawk. They emit that piercing cheep cheep sound to echo locate their prey I believe.
They like to perch and possibly nest on tall buildings and then theyâll fly around for hours doing their screechy thing. Used to have one flying around our complex in Taichung.
Seems itâs called a nightjar .
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I think a nightjar is something different
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOAGUfBFcvM
This sounds about right, but itâs American
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qpsyjmda5Q
Maybe some kind of hawk, but canât pin it down. It seems to have moved on lately
Can you explain that a little more? How can we buy it in Taiwan? Do they have a shop somewhere? I was looking at that book online a few months ago, but Iâm pretty sure there are cheaper ways than ordering from the UK.
(The book does look great!)
EDIT: Hereâs the page for the book from the organization in Taiwan; you can pick up the book in their office (easy enough if youâre in Taipei), or by mail order.
http://www.wbst.org.tw/layout/birds-library/item/204-èșçŁééł„æçčȘćéè±æç.html
I bought a copy in Eslite last week.
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I have just moved to Hualien and emailed the local birders, âWild Bird Society of Hualienâ about joining their club. The very helpful woman who got in contact with me, said she would order a copy for me as I had asked about a Taiwan field guide in English. That she did, and gave it to me this morning when we went birding around the Shoufeng aquaculture ponds (excellent spot for birds by the way). I paid her $950, and that was with a discount.
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Welcome to Hualien. I live in the Shoufeng countryside and enjoy a fair amount of birdwatching while outside messing with our fruit trees. Unfortunately my activities do disturb the birds who have moved into our land now that we have planted trees and shrubsâŠe.g.pruning trees without seeing their nests first or cutting the long grass which contained quail eggs.
Has anyone gone on one of the bird walks with the Wild Bird Society of Taipei? Recommended or not? Especially for someone with crap Chinese?
Not Taipei, but I am going on my first official walk with the Hualien group on Sunday. I emailed them initially, and I was assigned to a woman who is a senior member and speaks great English. My Mandarin is limited as I am a beginner learner myself. The Hualien group goes out every two weeks or so for half day trips, and they also do overnighters in the mountains. From my personal experience with only the one person so far, it has been great and I am glad I contacted them. I will post here next week on how it went if you like?
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