Thursday, December 20, 2018

Chiayi Taiwan Birdwatching During Post-Fair tour

Grey-capped Woodpecker. Much larger than our Sunda Pygmy. Spotted at the end of our morning excursion to Goddess Mazu temple in Chiayi County. A pair was seen and heard in a park where our coach was parked at. Belongs to Picidae family, and is one of the 4 species of woodpecker described and illustrated in A Field Guide to the Birds of Taiwan (Hsiao, Mu-chi and Li, Cheng-Lin, Wild Bird Society of Taipei). Got a copy of this 2015 Field Guide, which came with a WBST bookmark magnifier, which is very handy since the name of each bird is really in small text. 
White-backed woodpecker which is larger than this Gray-capped, was seen later during our trip to Alishan mountains. The White-backed was heard earlier before it was seen flying behind trees and climbing further up tree trunk. Frustrating for me since I wasn't able to get a good picture of this fast-moving woodie, with my camera. Could only marvel at the sight of the White-backed woodpecker for the precious few minutes when we were in Alishan as it flew off towards the other side of the mountains. Sunda Pygmy woodpecker was sighted during 2016 day trip organised by Wild Bird Club Malaysia to Sepang Goldcoast which can be read HERE. More pictures of the Gray-capped Woodpecker in action, as below. 

2 comments:

  1. Lovely brochure promoting some of the birds in Chiayi during Asian Bird Fair 2018 at https://asianbirdfair.org/9th-abf-chiayi-poster/9th-abf-chiayi-brochure-english/

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  2. More about the GC Woodpecker at https://ebird.org/malaysia/species/gycwoo1/MY

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