Taiwan 2024 - VII

The hotel we stayed in Taichung was right next to a large park - Taichung Park and of course we didn't miss an opportunity to go around and find some urban birds in Taiwan.

The first bird! a Spotted dove (kanokobatoカノコバト) on the path

They are a common urban bird a bit like Oriental turtle doves in Japan or Wood pigeons in Britain.

Most common ones are Light-vented bulbuls (shirogashiraシロガシラ), which we saw in every tree in the park! They are very vocal and colourful in the light.

Taiwan has a native myna called Crested myna but in urban environments, the introduced species, such as Common myna (Indo-hakkaインドハッカ) and Javan myna (Jawa-hakkaジャワハッカ), are the ones you see more often. 

Pallas's squirrels are common in the park as well.

We spotted unusual starling-like birds in a tree.

We showed the picture and asked Ko-san, who confirmed they are introduced and wide-spreading Chestnut-tailed starlings (Indo-komukudoriインドコムクドリ).

The starlings are pretty but I found a scary article in the Taipei Times saying they increased in number by 7,618% between the year 2009 and 2020! I wonder if they may have been having a big impact on native birds and natural environment in general.

a pond and a pavilion in the park

Black-crowned night heron (goisagiゴイサギ)

Little egret (kosagiコサギ)

Tree sparrows (suzumeスズメ)

We walked to another park with a large pond. 

I can't just not express my disappointment towards the shopping mall LaLaPort!😤

An Eastern cattle egret (amasagiアマサギ) was panting in the heat. so were we!

An Intermediate egret landed in the grass opposite from the cattle egret. We weren't sure if they were both cattle egrets, intermediate egrets or one of each. After examining the pictures and advice from Ko-san, the one on the island in the pond was a cattle egret and the other in the grass was an intermediate. Are we right? 

Our trip to Taichung came to an end but we will definitely come back to Taiwan in the near future. We also recommend all the birdwatchers to visit this wonderful island. 

Good-bye snack (douhua豆花) & Taiwan beer at the airport 😁👋