NaturePixels.org » Blog Archive » Birding in Southern China NPX Singapore Nature photography forum

Birding in Southern China

16 April 2009 No Comment

Author

Choo, Teik Ju

Brief Introduction about Guangdong

Located in subtropical region, famous for its mild winter, and hot and rainy summer. Guangdong is a place of plenty where her weather enables lots of life – plant and animals. In the last decade, after former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping started the economic reform in 1979, Pearl River Delta was designated Special Economic Zone, coastal cities here had undergone massive industrialization in the scale that human kind ever seen. As a result, most of the natural interests, e.g. forest, river, hills and grassland had been replaced with factories. Blue sky is never common here anymore as the sky is heavily polluted. Any kind of birds, even the most common of all birds – Eurasian Tree Sparrow, is rare in the cities. Thus, to find bird in Guangdong, you have to go far away from the city.

Map of Guangdong

guangdong_map

Birding Locations

Here are the birding locations that I had been to.

Shenzhen Coastal Ecological Park

Also known as Shenzhen Mangrove Park. This is a huge park located within Shenzhen City, opposite Hong Kong. This park is famous for migratory birds like Spoonbill during winter season. You may also find resident common birds here, which are tame and easy to shoot in close distance due to their familiarity to human presence, i.e. Red-whiskered Bulbul, Light-vented Bulbul, Black-collared Starling, White Wagtail, waders, with the exception of skittish Pied Kingfisher. Ideal place for new birders or birders with short focal lens.

black-collared-starling

light-vented-bulbul

red-whiskered-bulbul

(Picture from Kowloon Park, Hong Kong)

Liuxihe National Forest Park

Located in Conghua County, Guangzhou. Most of the forest area here is primary forest at the altitude between 500m ~ 900m. This place is also known as the oxygen bar of Guangdong due to unpolluted air and highest negative ion recorded in Guangdong Province. However, the only setback is most of the birding spots are steep and forested. Physical agility and stamina are highly demanded. Unlike Shenzhen Coastal Ecological Park, birds here are skittish and shy (as I never find any tame birds here). Chestnut Bulbul and Grey-cheeked Fulvetta are fairly common here but hard to get close. Silver Pheasant is the star bird here.

yellow-cheeked-tit

hill-prinia

himalayan-treepie

Huidong

Most of the flat land here is rice field, low land birds are common scene. Huidong has both hills and coast, thus, you may find both low land birds and water birds. Scaly-breasted Munia, Long-tailed Shrike (inclusive dark morph), Black Drongo, Sooty-headed Bulbul are common here along with Little-ringed Plover, Pacific Reef Egret and Little Grebe. I would say, this is this quiet coastal town is the town of Long-tailed Shrike, this bird is relatively common here.

sooty-headed-bulbul

long-tailed-shrike

Dongguan

Heavily industrialized county but with some ‘unprotected’ bush and farmland. City birds can still be found here, i.e. Plain Prinia, Scaly-breasted Munia, Oriental Magpie Robin and Siberian Stonechat (Winter)

plain-prinia

siberian-stonechat

Here is the consolidated table of birds by locations:

Location	County	Species
Liuxihe National Forest Park	Conghua	Yellow-cheeked Tit, Chestnut Bulbul, Grey-chined Minivet, Scarlet Minivet, Asian Drongo Cuckoo, Grey Treepie, Slaty-backed Forktail, Silver Pheasant, Partridge, Blue-winged Leafbird, Great Tit, Grey-cheeked Fulvetta, Common Kingfisher, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Blue Magpie, Scaly-breasted Munia, Hill Prinia, Hwamei, Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler
Shenzhen Coastal Ecological Park	Shenzhen	Great Tit, Oriental White-eye, White Wagtail, Light-vented Bulbul, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Pied Kingfisher, Chinese Pond Heron, Great Egret, Little Egret, Spoonbill (Winter), Asian Koel, Long-tailed Shrike, Black-collared Starling, Red-collared Dove, Red-billed Leiothrix, Masked Laughingthrush
Huidong	Huizhou	Long-tailed Shrike (inclusive dark morph), Chinese Pond Heron, Pacific Reef Egret, Black Drongo, Little Ringed Plover, Light-vented Bulbul, Sooty-headed Bulbul, Red-whiskered Bulbul, White Wagtail, White-throated Kingfisher, Little Grebe
Dongguan	Dongguan	Plain Prinia, Siberian Stonechat (Winter), Scaly-breasted Munia, Long-tailed Shrike, Grey-backed Thrush (Winter)

Traffic and Accommodations

Southern China is a convenience place to travel and live. I am cheap, so, for all the locations that I had been, I traveled by public bus, sitting together with locals.

Shenzhen Coastal Ecological Park (深圳红树林)

As it is located within the proximity of city center, the park can be assessable by cab, practically around SGD4, or by public bus, from the city depending on your pickup locations.

Liuxihe National Forest Park (流溪河国家森林公园)

The capital of Guangdong Province is Guangzhou, most of the destinations in Guangdong can be accessed from here. To go to Liuxihe National Forest Park:

Website: http://www.lxhpark.cn/

Accommodation: Youth Hostel (青年山庄), Reservation: +86-13380010603 (Mandarin only, preferably Cantonese), Room rate: RMB 250

[No internet connection, poor TV reception (no English channel), no room dining, no laundry service, no drinks, excellent night time: can hear stream, quiet and clear night sky, and if you are lucky, you can see foxes!]

Huidong (惠东)

This is an undeveloped place which I do not recommend as there is no direct bus service to this area. My only reason to go there is Sooty-headed Bulbul. If you are driving, here is the driving direction:

huidong

(Exit at Renshan稔山, drive for another 20km before you reach the hotel)

Accommodation: Sheraton Huizhou Beach Resort

[The hotel has free shuttle bus from Daya Bay, Hizhou County]

Birding Seasons

Like Singapore and Malaysia, most of the birds here are residence except winter visitors. It is said that it is easier to find birds in winter as leaf is less and food are rare. No typhoon in winter is a plus. Most of the bird species here overlap with those of S.E.A.

Do and Don’t

Do speak local dialects if you can as locals get much friendlier. Cantonese is common but not always the case. Locals in Huidong and other rural areas speak Hakka.
Do share with locals that you are coming for bird photography, they share their experience with you too.
Do prepare your camera and lens accessories before you come into China as these are hard to find in China. There is lots of fake battery here too.
Don’t tell them your lens price to locals, you are asking for trouble.
Don’t shoot bird at anywhere outside garden and national park as security is bad.
Don’t simply shoot, understand your location first as picturing military establishment is a serious offence.
Don’t have to wear like locals to look local as they wear smarter than us!

Conservation Status in General

Maybe I have not been to many places in Guangdong, but I could tell that most of the natural/primitive forests in Guangdong have perished due to development and illegal/unplanned agricultural needs. Most of the locals do not think there is a great need to protect wildlife as they think (1) wildlife is still abandon, (2) it is a privilege to consume wildlife. Local governments do not enforce or promote the importance of nature conservation in this area, economic development is always at the top of the agenda even in national parks. As a result, most of the national parks in Guangdong are commercialized, meat of wild boar, deer and pheasant are on the menu in restaurants within national park.

Pollution is another aspect of concern – littering and development works within national parks. There are too many roads and vehicles in national parks as well.

Poaching, littering and collection of wild plants are common in national park. One of the officers from Guangzhou Forestry Department who responsible for illegal activities in National Park, that I met recently, is also an animal poacher. You may imagine how severe the situation is.

Native plant is gradually replaced by foreign plant, e.g. Eucalyptus, to produce raw material for paper production. It is a sad scene as such tree species does not benefit local wildlife and it does not act as water catchment agent like most broad leaf species. Perhaps, human should understand that the term ‘green’ is not easy, as ‘green’ has to be balanced to sustain the supply chain and ecosystem for wildlife to thrive.

In summary, nature in Guangdong is under tremendous amount of stress due to low appreciation of their existence and massive development. Let’s pray for their survival.