China July - August 2010, Lijiang

Lijiang is a rather big town in the province of Yunnan and probably the most touristic place in the entire province as its old and authentic center is world famous. It is very easily reached and finding accomodation should pose no problem, although during high season most hostels tend to be full. We spent a couple of days in this city and I got some chances to look at birds, mostly in the outskirts of the town.

We spent quite some time at the Black Dragon Pool Park (entree fee costs RMB 60), which is a very touristic place but also a reliable spot for Giant Nuthatch, but I never got any good looks at this species. The park is easily reached from Lijiang city center on foot. Besides the world famous Black Dragon Pool, for which most people come to this place, the park has quite a few nice big trees, so we observed some interesting species here including Ruddy Kingfisher, Green-backed Tit, Black-throated Tit, Plumbeous Water Redstart, Striated Grassbird, Black-headed Sibia, Himalayan Wagtail, Blyth's and Claudia's Leaf Warbler.

Oriental White-eyes (Zosterops palpebrosus)

Presumed Claudia's Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus claudiae) based on range and tail pattern. Compare with this individual.

We also spent a day cycling around the suburbs of Lijiang visiting the ancient village of Baisha and the Puji monastery. This cycling trip also yielded some interesting species like Barred Cuckoo-dove, Eurasian Hoopoe, Grey-backed Shrike, Black Bulbul, Himalayan Wagtail, Siberian Stonechat, Grey-crowned Warbler and Chestnut-eared Bunting. We also saw two laughingthrushes with red tails flying away from us at the monastery, so they must have been Red-winged or Red-tailed Laughingthrush, but we did not manage to coax them back into view...

Chestnut-eared Bunting (Emberiza fucata)

The Lijiang area is definitely of interest for birders for several good species can be observed here, provided you have prepared your trip well and therefore know where to look as this trip report by Bjorn Anderson proves. I obviously did not do this and therefore did not see the local specialties.  This post and other posts concerning my 2010 China trip can be downloaded as PDF here.