Have you ever thought it would be fun to see a local shag or some tits?
Well, here are the two main birdwatching organizations in Taiwan.
There’s some nice info on their websites. These groups also have trips (I don’t think you need to be a member to take part).
Chinese Wild Bird Federation
http://www.bird.org.tw/English/English.htm
Wild Bird Society of Taipei
http://www.taipeibird.org.tw/English/redirect.asp
I’ll post more info if anyone is interested.
More info
Chinese Wild Bird Federation
(02)8663-1252
In Taipei they have two outings on Sundays, using public transport (bus/MRT) and led by volunteer guides. No reservations are needed, nor membership. Free except for the public transport. Meet in front of the China Hotel, Guang Chien Rd, near the train station at 7:00 a.m. For info call (02) 2325-9190 ext. 1.
There are also overnight trips, for which membership (NT$1300) gives you priority for a place and a discount.
Those Wild Bird Society of Taipei people are cool. Last week my wife found a freshly killed bird in our yard (it had flown into a window on the apartment building next door or something) that we couldn’t identify from our fairly comprehensive Taiwan bird book, so she took it to these people, who have an office around the Heping/Fushing intersection. A guy there spent the best part of the afternoon with her and they finally identified it as a juvenile emerald dove from northern Australia. No idea how it got here, but probably escaped from an aviary somewhere.
If any of you are at all interested in “adopting” a bird, they sometimes have some around that they’ll give away – people bring them all kinds of injured wild birds that they try to restore to health, but the fledglings usually become too used to humans and therefore can’t be released back into the wild.
Pitt Island Shag
If you don’t use those yellow laughing smiley things, I don’t know if it’s a joke or not. My mother used to call me The Englishman, because it took so long for me to catch on sometimes.
I know what tits are. I wasn’t sure about shag.
Whoops! Saw the title and thought this was for Carnegies! 
Plenty of fine looking birds there! 
CK
[quote=“almas john”]Have you ever thought it would be fun to see a local shag or some tits?
[/quote]
LMAO
藍鳥ANYONE?
Never having lived in such an unnatural environment before, I take pleasure in the birds. My apartment is great, on the fourth floor, with trees outside every window and, particularly when the trees are in blossom, the tree-tops are just full of birds. My favorites, that are very common, are small and extremely vibrant green (wrens? sparrows?). I also like the scissor-tailed birds (mockingbirds? nightengales?) that I’ve seen flying around lights at night eating insects (when I first noticed that I initially mistook them for bats, which I’ve seen lots of in my neighborhood).
And just now I returned from riding beside the river, where I am always impressed with how many egrets there are, as well as other heron-like birds wading in the murky river, eating polluted fish.
Are there any decent bird books for Taiwan in English?
I love birdwatching but am far from expert at identifying birds. I’ve seen loads of birds just around my house and at Chung-Hsing uni campus nearby.
In the neighborhood I often see Japanese white eyes, wagtails, drongos, black crowned night herons, Himalayan tree pies, crested mynas, and egrets. I’ve also seen a Taiwan bulbul just the once in the back garden. Dong-hai uni campus is also good for birdspotting within the city.
I’d love to go on a birdwatching trip [sigh]. Have to wait 'til the littlun gets abit older.
They’re called Japanese white-eyes.
They’re called black drongos
Cattle egrets
Snowy egret (note the black legs/yellow feet)
Black-crowned night heron
Not that I’ve found, but there’s a great little book in Chinese that I use. Good for identification. Latin names and common names are in, erm, Latin and English (duh!) but the actual descriptions are in Chinese. I ID the bird from the book and then look it up on the net if I want more info. The book is small enough to carry around with you when you go out.
Very unlikely - unless MT has massive bats where he lives. 
They’re probably swallows, martins, or swifts.
There are plenty round my house in the evening too, though I’m not very good at distinguishing between these species, especially when they’re constantly zipping about like crazy.
http://www.rspb-images.com/ has tons of great pics of birds which has helped me with identification on several occasions.
Here’s a swallow:
Ooh! Ooh! I’m getting into a pissing contest with Spack! 
Just kidding Spack.
No, I still say they’re probably drongos. Yes, they’re a good deal bigger than swallows and martins (not swifts, they hunt way up high in the air and don’t compete for food with swallows and martins) but there are several bat species around here. The ones I see down at Bitan are either mouse-sized or rat-sized. The big ones can easily be mistaken for a drongo. Plus, swallows and martins are pretty much on the roost when its dark, whereas the drongos will stake out a streetlamp and hunt well on into the evening. MT, if you watch whatever-it-is, its pretty easy to tell what it is – a drongo will stake out a “watching spot” – usually a nearby telephone wire or something – and will periodically launch itself off in pursuit of a particular insect, whereas swallows, etc. will remain pretty much on the wing for the whole time, swooping back and forth repeatedly.
Phew! My bladder is about empty. Your turn. Bet you can’t write your whole name out in the snow!
Maybe swallows – there are some nesting in the overhang of a shop about a block from Alleycat’s. (We had a near-miss when I was walking home last week.)
Here’s a nice site for information on tits:
nice-tits.org/
They also sell tee-shirts – their models are definitely worth a look.
I go with the drongo. I’m familiar with swallows and I think I’ve seen them here, below the bridges by the river. When I mistook this bird for a bat, momentarily, it wasn’t due to its size or appearance so much as just the fact that it was swooping around the light eating insects. After that initial impression, my second thought was that it was larger than a bat. And as Sandman described, it would make a few swoops then return to perch on the light pole.
As for the Japanese White-Eye, you’re correct on that too, although that photo really doesn’t do them justice. Sometimes they are an incredibly rich emerald green.
[quote]although that photo really doesn’t do them justice. Sometimes they are an incredibly rich emerald green.
[/quote]
I know, its the best I could find. They’re especially brightly coloured at this time of year. I like these little birds. Used to get stunning views of them one year when Timogan had one nesting about a foot from his livingroom window. There’s a flock of them going apeshit right now over the tamarind blossoms in my next-door-neighbor’s yard.
I also have a pair of Formosan whistling thrushes nesting somewhere close by:
Very beautiful and not at all afraid of humans – they sit on our wall even when we’re outside in the yard. Their name is all-too apt, though – beautiful sounds, but they start their dawn chorus at about 3:30 am and they are LOUD!
You know when you’re in the woods and you hear a kind of “boo-boo-boo-boo” call that gets answered back and forth from different parts of the forest? That’s made by the Muller’s barbet, which is a spectacular treat to see and also very common, although sometimes difficult to spot.
Sounds like they are drongos then, but if there are lots
of 'em then I still say they
That’s the Taiwan whistling thrush, but again, the photo is not very representative, as they don’t look like that unless they’re in full sun. Usually they’re much darker blue, although when they take wing, the undersides of their wings are startlingly bright iridiscent kingfisher blue. Really beautiful creatures.
Kingfishers are pretty common round my way, too.
I bought a nice birdwatching guidebook for Taipei last week at Page One, Taipei 101. It’s in English and titled “Birdwatcher’s Guide to the Taipei Region”, ISBN 957-01-7797-7, and is a very reasonable NT$320. I found it on a table near the travel guide section, and there was just one copy left (so it would be a good idea to call before going there).
The book, part of the Taipei Reading Series, was published in July, 2004, by the Taipei government. It is divided into four seasons, in which various trails are described. There are lots of nice pictures and some good practical info.
It’s really great to see the enormous amount (well, compared to five or ten years ago) of information that is becoming available in English, both in print and on the web.