One Day Yunnan Birding Tour to Yingjiang Hornbill Valley

Being far from hustle and bustle, getting deep into the wild, listening to the twitter of birds, tracking the beasts’ shadow, taking pictures of the eye-catching in nature, embracing the surprise and excitement of encountering cute creatures, but besides poetic experiences, this is more about with heavy photographing apparatus on back, trekking under changeable weather, enduring great hardships and long waiting in the open. What drives these natural ecological photographers to get into the wild time and again without fear of all kinds of difficulties?

On the fifteenth day of the first month according to Chinese lunar calendar,2017

It was the exact day for Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Dehong（德宏）, Yunnan Province, to celebrate the “We All Dance And Sing ” carnival. I was of much fortune to witness the “hornbill paradise of China” in Yingjiang county, Dehong Prefecture（德宏盈江）, together with those photographers of “natural image.China”. I’ve never experienced true natural ecological photographing before, 20 hours’ personal experience gave me the reason why being a natural ecological photographer in China gradually became a very rare profession just as those endangered wild animals.

We left the hotel at 6:00am and started from Pingyuan town（平原）,then to Taipingtown(太平),next Mangyun village(芒允),then Xueli village(雪梨), and arrived inHongbenghe river(洪崩河),after 128 snaky curves,we finally were at the mysterious “hornbill paradise of China” as I was out of my bearings.

At that moment, I was eager to slap myself a couple of times, why did I waste this precious holiday to have this hell of life here instead sleep in? But before I could collect my mind, those seniors had already jumped off bus and rushed into the mountain with camera on their shoulder , I can’t but to brace myself to catch up with them.

In the morning, we photographed in the wild and then did car photographing along Hongbenghe river(洪崩河). Bumpy mountain roads, steep cliffs, a few hours of panic, we made it to take pictures of four kinds in Yingjiang(盈江) seven star birds,plus we had tires punctured.

At 14:00, we backed to the street near Hongbenghe river(洪崩河) to have lunch, I assumed that my teachers would have a big meal after such painstaking work. But I was completely wrong, we four just had a scrambled egg with onion, a bowl of cabbage soup, plus a bowl of garlic and shallot mixed with soy sauce.

The female owner can’t help making fun of us: “how stingy you are, four of you just have such little?”

At 15:00, we headed to the great valley to take pictures of oriental hobby in the wild. As soon as the veteran of 34 years’ driving experience stopped the four-wheel vehicles at the great valley, he carried apparatus of more than 20kg and walked through the steep slope of more than 600 meters to the photographing site. I gingerly moved forward, suddenly, we heard Mr Sun right behind me shouting out an “Ah”, it turned out that he rolled down the slope together with his camera bag, but all good and well, his quick agility prompted him to grab a withered plant, which prevented him from rolling downward further away.

ount the bamboo stage, more than 3 meters high, set up machines, one hour, two hours……the panic of Mr Sun’s danger was still wandering, a sound of crunch was heard, all of a sudden, half body of the veteran standing on the side was out of the stage, I took him by his arm with a quick move, the best luck was that the bamboo wasn’t broken. Oh, my god! This natural ecological photographer took pictures nearly at the cost of life. Finally, hard work paid off, the anticipated scene was on arrival.

It was told that the night world was also worth of expecting. At 21:00, I drank a bottle of yogurt in a haste, then watched the night scene along the road. My teacher told me that Paradoxurus hermaphrodites and flying squirrels would appear in this area. Although this night viewing lasted for 3 hours, those little things were of reluctance to show up. It was already 1:00am that we arrived in Yingjiang county, and we resumed watching those films and sifting out them, and made shooting plans for the second day, when I went to bed, the hour hand was pointing to “two”.

What is natural ecological photographers?

I think , they are experts who not only have a good command of equipments and do well in photographing, but also have a good knowledge of animals’ behavior and understand biological classification; they are not only experts who can surviv in the wild ,but also masters of outdoor sports. They can try their utmost to unfold the rarity of natural beauty and precious natural moments before people’s eyes, and deliver their insight of nature and respect for life to readers in a vivid way.

Through the strenth of photographing, once again, they let people have the eye for beautiful nature; Through the strenth of photographing,they let people know of what crisis is confronting nature; Through the strenth of photographing, they inspire the emotion of love and the sense of responsibility to improve the situation.

The galaxy of these devoted photographers of nature will continue to work in the wild,consistenly wait the timing to capture every moment of a fleeting glimpse,gradually show people Dehong’s natural ecology by means of photographing.

A day of great achievement and harvest

Yingjiang county(盈江县) lies on the southwestern end of Hengduan mountain, the spread of the Himalayas, inside distribute hills and basins crossly. Its peak point,Zhina Daniang mountain(支那大娘山), is of 3404.6 meters high, the rock bottom, Nabangla Shahekou(那邦拉沙河口), is of 210 meters high. This large elevation difference gives rise to a vertical three-dimensional climate in Yingjiang county（盈江县）. Besides, its forest coverage rate reaches 73.9%, thus, in every and each corner of forest live birds of various species. Statistics show that, at present, the birds species found and recorded in Yingjiang(盈江) has mounted to more than 550, accounting for more than 1/3 of that all over the country.

花冠皱盔犀鸟 Aceros undalatus
the second class animal under national protection,only distribute in Yingjiangcounty,Yunnan province（云南盈江）

双角犀鸟 Buceros bicornis
the second class animal under national protection

红腿小隼 Collared Falconet
One of the smallest predatory birds all over the world, the second class state key protected wild animal , it is only recorded in Yingjiang（盈江） as resident bird.

猛隼（交尾） Falco severus(they are mating)
the national second class key protected wild animal, it is very rare to see them in China, there are only 1000 to 10000 of them around the globe,and the number of them is in decline

巨松鼠
国家二级重点保护野生动物 Ratufa bicolor

National second class key protected wild animal

黄嘴河燕鸥 Sterna aurantia
中国罕见，目前国内仅盈江可见。
They are a rarity to China, at present,people can only see them in Yingjiang(盈江).

白冠噪鹛 Garrulax leucolophus

蓝喉拟啄木鸟 Megalaima asiatica

黄臀鹎 Pycnonotus xanthorrhous

白尾蓝仙鹟 White-tailed Flycatcher

白尾蓝仙鹟雌鸟 Female White-tailed Flycatcher

白顶溪鸲 Chaimarrornis leucocephalus

黑背燕尾 Enicurus leschenaulti

短尾鹪鹛 Napothera brevicaudata

Further Reading

In recent years, Yingjiang county(盈江县),in tandem with the construction of Yingjiang wetland park（大盈江湿地公园）, adhered consistenly to the philosophy, proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, that reinforcing the construction of ecological civilization, protecting ecological environment was equal to protecting productivity and ameliorating ecological environment the same as developing productivity. They focused on strengthening ecological construction and made changes in the mode of development continually.Basing on advantageous ecological resources and in virtue of enhancing protective measures and force, consummating the building of sightseeing infrastructure,setting up bird appreciation association and holding hornbills BBS,they explored and made full use of the hornbills resources, integrated fund and resource further more,and tried every effort to build and foster the two brands: “Hornbill valley of China” and “the NO.1 county tops the list of birds resources in China”,and combined ecological construction and the implementation of the policy of strengthening agriculture and benefiting farmers together flexibly, promoted actively green development,low-carbon development, and cyclicdevelopment, and lent a hand to poverty relief. They have sung a lively and resounding “beautiful song”.

Look at the Shiti villagers groups in Xueli Village,Taiping town, Yingjiang county（盈江太平镇雪梨村石梯村民小组）, along the way,trees are lush,birds singing, ripe fruits fragrant. Those mountain roads are cemented, whose pavements are wide and smooth. Wires and cables travel through mountain forests to light up thousands of windows. Families feed herds of livestock which are plump;row upon row of newly built houses stand on the mountain. Villagers are beaming with happy smiles,all villagers’ life standard is improved in an obvious way. Compared to the past,present Shiti Village is totally beyond your imagination, you can hardly believe that people here lived a primitive life from what the forest can give and had no running water,no electricity,and no cement roads and no advanced infrastructure before Yingjiang’s birds appreciation project was launched and implemented.

Now, almost every family of local villagers has their own “birds appreciation spot”. According to rough statistics, from September of last year to January of this year, the number of photographers from all over our country coming to Yingjiang（盈江）ecological birds gathering area to watch and shoot birds amounts to over 3000.And only in this year, this number is in excess of 1000. By means of providing one package service,which includes tour guidance, food, accommodation and transportation for lovers of birds appreciation, a good spot of birds appreciation could maximize villagers’earning at over 40 thousand RMB.

In future, with ecological civilization construction as its top priority and building a beautiful and rich Yingjiang（盈江） of a new look with scenic villages and liveable cities as its target,Yingjiang county will continue to apply the philosophy of green, ecology, low-carbon and cycle into its development and take the lead and set a good example in construction of ecological civilization. Yingjiang county will stick to the sustainable development concept:green development and persist in finding sustainable path of development characterized by enhanced production, prosperous life and sound environment, integrating ecological civilization construction with every aspect and the whole process of the entire county’s economy,politic,culture and social construction, and try hard to develop Yingjiang’s two brands: “Hornbill valley of China” and “the NO.1 county tops the list of birds resources in China”. Meanwhile,we expect all kinds of scientific research projects, habitat conservation projects,species saving projects and others can take part in Yingjiang’s（盈江） ecological civilization construction, by pooling the wisdom and efforts of everyone, we can protect Yingjiang’s（盈江）unique natural resources in a more sound way and do research in and utilize them effectively.