2 Days West Yunnan Birding Tour to Yingjiang Hornbill Valley
On the morning of December 9, 2016, just after the Baoshan Conference, I left the hotel in a hurry and went to the Baoshan Passenger Station to take a long-distance bus to Yingjiang. Tickets booked online are easy to collect and the price is 120 yuan. Actually, there are not many passengers. We can buy tickets at the station at any time, only 92 yuan.
The bus left on time at 1:30 p.m. and passed through Tengchong to Yingjiang Passenger Station. Although the expressway along the way is winding, it is in good condition. When passing Tengchong, we entered into the mixed lane.In Yingjiang, we joined three bird friends who arrived the day before yesterday. They patted birds in pond No. 5 and harvested birds such as blue-pillowed eight-coloured owl （蓝枕八色鸠）and grey peacock pheasant（灰孔雀雉）.
On the morning of the 10th, before dawn, we set out for Rhinoceros Valley（犀牛谷）. It is 70 kilometers from Yingjiang to Rhinoceros Valley; it is border mountain road and road condition is good, but mountain road twists and turns, GPS and mobile phone signals are not good. Driving in the dark road before dawn, we didn’t dare to drive too fast, so it cost our more than an hour to reach Rhinoceros Valley Management Office（犀牛谷管理处）.
1.Rhinoceros Valley Management Office（犀牛谷管理处）
The Hornbill Valley Management Office is just a small wooden pavilion. Cai Si, the administrator, is a Lisu （傈僳族）woman. Located in the southwestern part of China, the sun does not rise until 8 a.m. Although it was still dark, there were many cars, many birdfriends already there. We registered, and then guided by different pond-birds guide to go bird-watching and bird-shooting.
The target bird this morning is the red-legged falcon. They are in the canyon near the Dayingjiang Grade 4 power station （大盈江4级电站）, not far from the hornbill valley. Cai Si as our bird guide and we paid her 100 yuan .
2. Canyon full of Red-legged Falcon (红腿小隼活动的峡谷)
Red-legged falcons are a group of smaller birds (15 centimeters long) larger than sparrows. Bird guides say they fly to the dead tree in the canyon next to the Dayingjiang Grade 4 power station（大盈江四级电站） at 9:00 a.m. every day. It is said that they live in a tree cave in the valley. I saw that they did appear on time. First one flew to the dead tree, then the other one flew in sequence. When the seven red-legged falcons gathered on the branch, one suddenly flew to the side of the diagonal branch. Then the other falcons flew to the branch and stood close, like a bunch of sugar gourds. It was very interesting. The falcons that followed probably could not stand steadily, and two falcons flying to another branch below. I hesitated for a moment and only caught five bunches of “sugar gourds”. When they get together, they play with each other and arrange their feathers. It took a long time to disperse and fly away, maybe looking for food. Watching them come, line up, stand up and disperse one by one is like watching a wonderful performance! What a group of lovely birds!
3. Parties of Red-legged Falcon
Of course, there are many birds in the canyon: in the jungle, a male pepper bird （山椒鸟）is singing happily, its red and blue figure is very beautiful; grey curly tail（灰卷尾）, big plate tail (female)（大盘尾）（雌）, black throat red buttock Bulbul （黑喉红臀鹎）are flying in the forest. A noisy bird flew to the tree in front of us sometime, and in a few seconds it flew away. Suddenly, a forest sculpture（林雕） flew by in the sky. The dark brown body made us mistake it for a black sculpture（乌雕）. It looked like it was looking for prey. Along the highway down the hill, birdfriends harvested Streaked Spiderhunter （纹背捕蛛鸟） and I photographed the long-tailed pepper birds (females)(长尾山椒鸟)（雌） .
4. Long-tailed pepper birds (长尾山椒鸟)
5.Noisy thrush（噪鹛）
6.Forest carving（林雕）
7.Long-tailed pepper birds （female）(长尾山椒鸟)(雌)
A woman in the power station provided us with lunch: 30 yuan per person, 4 kinds of dished mixed with vegetables, meat and soup, and the lunch was good.
Bird watching in the pond 7 afternoon. According to the bird guide, Yingjiang’s ponds (bird spots) are basically located near the rhinoceros valley, imitating the construction of Baihualing’s（百花岭） puddles. Rhinoceros Valley is rich in rainforests, streams and has a good environment. Unlike Baihualing, in order to see rare birds, Yingjiang’s ponds are often built in dense forests far from the highway. After getting off, we need to walk a long dirt road.
Pond 7 is on a stream in the dense forest halfway up the hill. The stream is running beside our seats. There are only five observation (shooting) holes in the shed, that is to say, at most five birdwatchers can watch birds at the same time. Because of the dense forest in the canyon, the disadvantage of pond 7 is that the light is darker and the light is worse in the afternoon. The photos taken need to be processed later to get satisfactory results. Therefore, it is better to go to pond 7 in the morning to watch birds.
We sat down for a while, and the birds came on! First, the white-crowned swallow tail（白冠燕尾）, then, the spot-backed swallow tail（斑背燕尾）, black-backed swallow tail（黑背燕尾）, grey-backed swallow tail（灰背燕尾）, four kinds of swallow tail appear in turn, seeing four kinds of swallow tail in a pond at the same time brought us surprises! Because swallow-tailed birds like dense forest streams, except white-crowned swallow-tail, the other four species of swallow-tail are really not easy to see! This time, together with the small swallow tail I have seen in Baihualing, there are five kinds of swallow tails in China in total.
8. White-crowned swallow tail （白冠燕尾）
9.Spot-backed swallow tail（斑背燕尾）
10.Black-backed swallow tail（黑背燕尾）
11.Grey-backed swallow tail（黑背燕尾）
Other birds appeared one after another, and we bird friends were all attentive. We took photos continuously and no one spoke.
12.White crowned noisy thrush （白冠噪鹛）
13.Emerald dove (绿翅金鸠)
14. Wren-Babbler with short tale （短尾鹪鹛）
15.Squirrel
On the evening of the 10th, we lived in Hongbeng Village（洪崩村）. Hong Ben Village is a small border village. On the other side of Hong Beng River is Myanmar. There are three hotels in this village, a shopping street, several restaurants, and dishes in the restaurants were good. The standard room is 100 yuan, the condition is just so so. The advantage here is that it is close to the Dayingjiang Grade 4 power station of Rhinoceros Valley and Red-legged Falcon, and only takes about 20 minutes to drive to Rhinoceros Valley.
On 11th, we went to No. 2 Pond for bird watching. This is also the bird spot near Rhinoceros Valley.
The car stopped at the side of the highway, we got off and walked about 1 kilometer. The bird guides opened a simple path, and the downhill road was difficult to walk. It was just dawn when we arrived at the birdhouse, and the birds had come one after another. The black and purple feathers and the Phoenix crown on the head and the elegant tail wings of large tales（大盘尾）are very beautiful. Unfortunately, the light was so poor that it was barely photographed. Grey peacock pheasant（灰孔雀雌） is surprising. It mainly distributes in the tropical rain forest, monsoon rain forest and bamboo forest about 1500 meters above sea level. It is Burma’s national bird. It is also the first-class protected animal in China. Its food is almost entirely insects and worms, which are very rare in pheasants and chickens. They only distributes in the southwest of Yunnan and Hainan Island in China. Because of its scarcity, it is difficult to see it. In the Manual of Chinese Wild Birds（中国野外鸟类手册） compiled by Dr. Ma Jingneng, an Englishman, the items of Grey Peacock Pheasant are missing, which shows the difficulty of its research.
In addition, some rare birds, such as the Kalij Pheasant（黑鹇），the rborophila atrogularis（白颊山鹧鸪）, the brown-bellied fairy partridge（棕腹大仙鹟）, the white-tailed blue fairy partridge（白尾蓝仙鶲）, the brown-necked partridge （棕颈幽鹛）and the purple whistling partridge（紫啸鸫）, also appear in our shots from time to time.
16. Polyplectron bicalcaratum（灰孔雀雉）
17.Large tales（大盘尾）
18. Kalij Pheasant（黑鹇）
19. Arborophila atrogularis（白颊山鹧鸪）
20.Brown-bellied fairy partridge（棕腹大仙鹟）
21.white-tailed blue fairy partridge（白尾蓝仙鶲）
22.Brown-necked partridge （棕颈幽鹛）
23.Purple whistling partridge（紫啸鸫）
24.White-throated Fantail（白喉扇尾鹟）
On the evening of December 11, we finished bird watching and returned to Yingjiang County.
On the morning of the 12th, we drove back to Kunming from Yingjiang, more than 700 kilometers away, and arrived easily in nine hours. We flew back to Beijing in the evening.
Yingjiang county is the southwest end of the Hengduan Mountains （横断山脉）extending from Himalaya Range（喜马拉雅山脉）. The highest point is Mount Sina（支那大娘山）， 3404.6 meters above the elevation . The lowest point is Nabanrasha Estuary（那帮拉沙河口） ， 210 meters above the elevation . The great difference in elevation makes Yingjiang typical “three-dimensional climate”, and the forest coverage rate reaches 73.9%. Therefore, there are various kinds of birds in the forests in every corner. According to statistics, more than 550 species of birds have been found and recorded in Yingjiang, accounting for more than one third of all birds in China. I only watched birds around Rhinoceros Valley for 2 days, and I caught 28 kinds of birds, which shows it is very rich in birds. But it’s a pity that there are no hornbills this month. Because Yingjiang is located in the southernmost part of Yunnan, with winding mountain roads, inconvenient traffic, poor mobile phone and GPS signals, and no road signs on the highway, it is necessary to invite local bird guides for bird watchers who was the first time to Yingjiang. If you watch birds in rhinoceros Valley and in ponds (bird spots), it is more convenient to live in Hongbenghe Village（洪崩河村）.
More than 700 kilometers from Kunming to Yingjiang, we rent cars from Kunming to Baoshan and Yingjiang. The cost is low. The rental cost of SUV for 4 days is only 728 yuan, and the effect of mobility and flexibility is very good. There are abundant bird spots in Yingjiang . There are different bird species in Hongbeng River（洪崩河）, Rongshuwang（榕树王）, Nabang （那邦）farmland and other bird spots. Because of the time, we did not go there. We look forward to seeing them next time.
http://www.birdnet.cn/thread-1990311-1-1.html
