China: Birding with a Camera® (BwC)

This is a Birding with a Camera® Tour (BwC). We try to balance seeing as many birds as possible while also trying to take great photos of them. Long considered off limits to western travelers, the borders of China have been open for some time, and with it came an incredible array of birds and photography opportunities. The sites for the latter have developed amazingly in recent years in particular. From the mountainous jungles of Baihualing to the breathtaking limestone pinnacles of Nonggong, this tour provides an epic journey to see and photograph some of China’s most memorable species. Over the last decade the country has changed in many significant ways, allowing ecotourism for western tourists to be easier than ever before! The local communities are filled with friendly faces, the food is diverse and delicious, the highways have been repaved to allow for easier travel, and even the bathrooms at most hotels have been converted to western-style, “sit-down”, toilets. Most importantly, the visa process for Americans is much easier than it was in past years, with places like Hainan even being visa free for most nations! Traveling to China has never been easier, so now is the time to see one of the world’s most incredible nations for bird diversity.

​

The tour begins in the lush jungles of Hornbill Valley, close to the border of Myanmar, where we will explore the trails and hides for birds like Gray Peacock-Pheasant and White-cheeked Partridge, as well as dozens of babblers, laughingthrushes and more. Then, we will continue for several days in the Bahihualing area, a relatively new birding hotspot that has revolutionized what a bird blind can be. The blinds here are undoubtedly some of the best in the world, allowing once in a lifetime photo opportunities of enigmatic birds like Cachar Wedge-Billed Babbler, Slender-billed Scimitar-Babbler, Scaly Laughingthrush and countless more. The area is also great for game birds, most notably the endemic and highly sought after Lady Amherst’s Pheasant.

The next several days will then take us to several other localities, visiting places like Li Ju for Biet’s Laughingthrush, Yunnan Golden Monkey National Park for the Yunnan Snub-nosed Monkey, and Li Jiang for Yunnan Nuthatch and Brown-winged Parrotbills. The main tour will end in Nonggong where we will see one of Asia’s most iconic landscapes, karst forests. The limestone obelisks spike out of the Earth, creating an equally strange and beautiful landscape. Here we will search for the highly localized Nonggong Babbler, along with several other birds that are nearly impossible to photograph anywhere else.

​

Two extensions will provide extra opportunities for birders to see all of the once elusive Hainan endemics and/or travel to the eastern countryside. The eastern pre-tour extension is for several crane species (Siberian, White-naped, Hooded and Common Cranes) and dozens of other memorable birds like Scaly-sided Merganser, Pied Falconet, the very rare Baer’s Pochard, and Chinese Bamboo-Partridge. The Hainan extension will bring clients to the southern forests of Hainan. Here we will focus on finding the three endemic birds of Hainan, along with any subspecies likely to split into full species in the near future.