Birding

Birding Kangding and Wenchuan, Sichuan, China

November 24, 2025 by Kai Pflug No Comments

Whenever somebody I do not want to spend time with asks me about birding together, I tell them how much I love warblers: Buff-barred Warblers …

… and Greenish Warblers. That usually puts them off.

The Verditer Flycatcher is a much more attractive option. Even the fact that NepalDesk calls it “The Azure Blue Beauty of Woodlands” does not turn me against it.

The Golden Bush Robin lives higher up – I saw it at almost 4000 meters in Kangding county. The male – which I did not see – looks even nicer, though “golden” (also in the scientific name, Tarsiger chrysaeus) is still an exaggeration. But then again, we do not spend our lives complaining about McDonald’s Golden Arches either.

The Golden Eagle – seen in Wenchuan – is an even more obvious euphemism – in most light, the eagle looks simply brown. Admittedly, Brown Eagle sounds far less majestic – generic, and unworthy of such a majestic raptor, while “golden” gives it a noble and majestic air.

Then again, the scientific name Aquila chrysaetos also implies that the bird is golden.

The Green-backed Tit is not particularly green-backed either.

For some reason, this part of Sichuan has several bird species with names starting with “White” – and in their case, the color description is justified: White-browed Fulvetta …

… White-collared Yuhina …

… White-eared Pheasant (only seen from quite a distance) …

… and White-capped Redstart (near most larger streams).

The redstart often shares these streams with the Plumbeous Water Redstart.

Other birds of the area with colors in their names are Black-streaked Scimitar Babbler, a bird with an intense dislike of its scientific name Erythrogenys gravivox (gravivox indicating that it has a disagreeable voice) …

… which also feels it has been unfairly singled out, as the HBW describes its vocalization as “very similar to that of others in species complex” …

… Grey-chinned Minivet (a female) …

… and Rufous-breasted Accentor.

When Elliot’s Laughingthrushes hear the word “Farming”, they shudder. The reason becomes obvious when reading a recent scientific paper with the slightly gruesome title “Asian Koel removes nestlings of Elliot’s Laughingthrush from their nest: farming or retaliatory mafia behavior?“

The paper describes said koel “removing” (i.e., killing) three chicks from a nest and gives as the most likely rationale something called farming behavior. This would mean that the koel, which never brings up its own chicks and thus needs hosts, may have discovered the nest too late to add her own eggs and thus removed the chicks to force the parents to restart breeding and thus give the koel a new opportunity for parasitism.

The “mafia behavior” refers to another explanation: That the laughingthrush ejected some eggs of the koel, and the koel was seeking revenge for this – the authors think this is less likely, though it makes for a good title of the paper.

Finally, Ms. Gould’s Sunbird is named after Elizabeth Gould (1804-1841), the wife of John Gould. She was the first one to draw the bird, though despite being a woman, she focused on the much more striking male of the species (below, public domain).

It was named by zoologist Nicholas Vigors, who wanted to honor her artistry (there is another bird species, Gouldian Finch, that was named after her by her husband).

That is the kind of bird I do not mention to people I do not want to go birding with.

Written by Kai Pflug
Kai has lived in Shanghai for more than 21 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well. He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.