That beautiful long tailed Mnt bird

I have to drive my son up to school in San Xia every day, and we keep seeing this really cool looking bird. It’s the size of a small pheasant, black head, and blue black feathers. The blue tail is about a foot long. It is really a stunning bird and I wanted to tell my son what it was called. We saw six of them sitting in a tree during a morning rain last week.

Anybody have a clue? Thanks.

Formosan blue magpie?

feathersite.com/Poultry/NDG/ … KSwin.html

I’ve never seen a group though–just pairs.

That looks like the one sandman, thanks.

That’s a pretty bird. I’ve been out and about down south and I’ve never seen one before. My guess is they are found in northern Taiwan or I’ve never been lucky enough to spot one.

I saw a whole flock of them when I was hiking up Yangmingshan three weeks ago. I was walking up towards Qixingshan from the Visitor Center and had just turned right towards Lengshuikeng when I saw them. There was nobody else around (it was during the week), and about seven of them kept flying ahead of me and then would wait for me for at least five to ten minutes. I got so close to one of them, I got a fairly good shot even though it was foggy and all I had was my digital camera.

Iris

[quote=“iris”]I saw a whole flock of them when I was hiking up Yangmingshan three weeks ago. I was walking up towards Qixingshan from the Visitor Center and had just turned left towards Lengshuikeng when I saw them. There was nobody else around (it was during the week), and about seven of them kept flying ahead of me and then would wait for me for at least five to ten minutes. I got so close to one of them, I got a fairly good shot even though it was foggy and all I had was my digital camera.

Iris[/quote]

We just saw 4 of them at very close range on YMShan too. Cool song too.

Beautiful birds and yes they usually travel in packs. Whenever I see them there are at least 6. My wife and I were hiking near Pingxi last saturday when we looked up at saw a flock of them (over 10) fly overhead. Lovely. They are mid-altitude birds so you will see them often in Yangmingshan. Strange but I never see them in the hills around Mucha.