BWT Travel Guide

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BIRDING 

TEXAS HERZEGOVINA MALAWI 

Keel-billed Toucan 

Robert Bannister/Alamy 

TAIWAN ROMANIA COSTA RICA

UNITED STATES 

UNITED STATES 

Bob Gibbons / Alamy 

TEXAS 

It’s birds aplenty in this grand, rich and varied habitat 

WORDS: STUART WINTER 

T 

here is certainly no better way 

to embrace TexMex species in 

all their colourful grandeur than 

by participating in the Rio 

Grande Valley Birding Festival (RGVBF). 

British expat Julian Hough, who lives 

in Connecticut, has become a leading 

light on the American birding scene, and 

helped introduce me to some of the Rio 

Grande’s most eagerly-sought birds, as 

I worked through a five-day itinerary of 

field trips that the birding festival 

organisers had customised to help me see 

most of the valley’s specialities. 

Leading a crocodile of birders – or 

should that be alligator in these parts 

– along the labyrinthine trails of the 

famous Santa Ana National Wildlife 

Refuge, Julian was quickly pointing out 

birds that had been high on my wish list. 

Feisty Great Kiskadees with their 

bandit masks held us up as they dashed 

from look-out to look-out. Even brighter 

Green Jays, a dream for any colouring 

book fanatic, played tag in denser cover, 

their striking green and yellow plumage 

absorbed by the leaf colour. An Altamira 

Oriole exploded into view in all its fiery 

glory. Think flying Christmas lights! 

As we made our way out of the riparian 

forest into open wetlands, Julian served 

up another Rio Grande delicacy, Green 

Kingfisher, an emerald gem of a bird but 

surprisingly easy to overlook on a 

concealed perch. Amid the hubbub of 

wildfowl and shorebirds, there were 

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge 

Common 

Pauraque 

Black-crested 

Titmouse 

much-sought Least 

Grebes and Mottled 

Ducks to pick out from 

the Blue-winged Teal 

and countless American 

Coot. Suddenly, the 

already buoyant mood 

went up several 

notches. Julian was on 

a Hook-billed Kite. The list-hungry 

Americans went into a frenzy. This was 

a lifer for many of them, a real doodledandy 

of a bird for those who had 

travelled from New York, Washington 

state and California to see Texas’ finest. 

On paddle-like wings, it soared 

effortlessly over the dense stands of 

moss-covered ebony trees, avoiding the 

attentions of a passing Harris’s Hawk, 

before disappearing from view. The hawk 

had no doubt found a supply of its 

favourite food – tree snails. 

One day’s Texan birding, a notebook 

littered with asterisks denoting lifers, 

and the adventure was only beginning. 

Mike Weedon 

TEXAS 

Mike Weedon 

Santa Ana 

National 

Wildlife Refuge 

Two hours 

upstream of the 

festival headquarters, Salineno, with its 

population of 302, is unlikely to feature 

on many tourist itineraries, but for 

American birdwatchers, the views this 

hummingbird of a hamlet provides over 

the Rio Grande has made it a place of 

legends. The dusty shoreline is pockmarked 

with tripod feet and engrained in 

the memories of all those have made 

a pilgrimage here over the years to see 

truly wild Muscovy Ducks. I had to make 

do with three species of kingfisher. 

Belted and Green were quickly under 

the belt, but a copper-breasted Ringed 

Kingfisher, a brash, bruiser of a bird that 

has ‘gone large’ with the bill order, was 

simply mesmerising as it disintegrated 

the Rio Grande’s tranquil somnolence 

with its raucous calls. 

A soaring Zone-tailed Hawk, shining 

out amid a huge flock of Black Vultures, 

followed by a ghostly Grey Hawk, 

quickened the pulse to such an extent 

that some people needed a sit down. 

There was only one place in town: the 

nearby winter feeding station with its 

amphitheatre seating plan to allow 

perfect viewing of more RG – I was now 

using the local language – specialities. 

Among the ostentatious Green Jays and 

blazing Altamira Orioles, squabbling over 

strategically positioned orange slices, 

diffident Olive Sparrows lurked. A 

Black-crested Titmouse, a recent split 

from its Tufted relation, and superb 

Altamira Oriole, another Mexican 

speciality with a restricted range in 

2 World Birding 2016

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Mike Weedon 

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Black-necked 

Stilts 

Mike Weedon 

Flycatchers from taking up squatting 

rights on virtually every post. 

Next was a three-hour coach journey to 

the legendary frontier town of Laredo. 

The gunfighters have long gone. 

Perhaps they were driven out of town 

by the seedeaters? These birds sure are 

mean. The Rio Grande’s reedy river 

margins are the only place in the USA 

to see White-collared Seedeaters, though 

even in the thin ribbon of habitat, they 

are as skulking and secretive as any 

Locustella or Acrocephalus warbler. We 

searched and searched. A whisper 

trickled through the group: seedeater 

showing. Even with 20 trans-Atlantic 

trips under my belt, the RGVBF provided 

me with 26 lifers. 

They included: Golden-fronted 

Woodpecker, Tropical and Couch’s 

Kingbirds, a best-by-call identification 

challenge, Long-billed and Curve-billed 

Thrashers, Clay-coloured Thrush and, 

remarkably approachable – though 

camouflaged – Common Pauraques. 

Altamira Oriole 

Mike Weedon 

With thanks to: Bird Watching attended 

the festival, courtesy of Nancy Millar, 

director of McAllen Convention & 

Visitors’ Bureau. web: mcallencvb.com 

A great place to stay in the valley is at the 

Alamo Inn B&B, a few minutes’ drive 

from Santa Ann National Wildlife Refuge. 

Visit alamoinnbnb.com 

Mike Weedon 

Texas, kept the life list rolling. 

Cattle country came next. The festival 

programme’s exhaustive trip itinerary 

had me venturing into Kleberg County. 

Shorebirds, never waders the other side 

of the Atlantic, took advantage of a 

rolling landscape dappled with pools as 

they arrived fresh from the Arctic tundra. 

Peeps Caption – for Western, on a Semipalmated and 

Least picture Sandpipers – scuttled between the 

legs of lanky American Avocets and 

Black-necked Stilts. 

Stilt Sandpipers looked on with 

a suspicious air, wary of any marauding 

raptors. There were plenty to fear. 

Northern Harriers seemed to be 

patrolling every field, outnumbered only 

by the American Kestrels on top of each 

telephone pole. Crested Caracaras and 

delectable White-tailed Hawks were a 

reminder that we were in deepest Texas. 

A huge flock of American White 

Pelicans, numbering at least 5,000 birds, 

turned the famous Texan ‘big skies’ into 

a monochrome kaleidoscope with their 

abstract shapes set in the pale, milky 

afternoon sky. Only the purple-painted 

fence posts provided an incongruous 

dash of colour. The reason for the colour 

wash was chilling: purple denotes a land 

owner’s right to shoot first, ask questions 

later. Worrying, indeed, but it failed to 

deter the migrating Scissor-tailed 

NATURE DX 8X25 

Even if you’re taking a full-size pair of binoculars 

on your travels, a pair of compacts is a good 

back-up to have handy in all situations, and the 

Nature DX 8x25s, which are waterproof, offer 

great optical performance in a small package, 

producing a bright, sharp, natural image with a 

user-friendly design. At just £113, they’re not 

going to break the bank, either – for more 

details see celestron.com 

birdwatching.co.uk 3

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 

SPONSORED BY 

Livanjsko Polje 

karst field 

BOSNIA & 

HERZEGOVINA 

HERZEGOVINA 

An enjoyable visit to Herzegovina found plenty of birds but very few birdwatchers 

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS: DAVID CHANDLER 

Herzegovina is not really on the 

birdwatching map. It’s the 

southern end of Bosnia and 

Herzegovina, with wonderful 

limestone landscapes, lots of birds, but 

only a handful of serious birdwatchers – 

there are about five! So, when you are 

birding, you don’t bump into hordes of 

birdwatchers, which for me, makes it an 

attractive destination! 

Getting there is easy. I flew to 

Dubrovnik, in Croatia, for less than £130, 

as a guest of Wild Herzegovina. I was 

met by Denis, my guide, at the airport. 

My Balkan birding bonanza, with one 

other guest, Dermot, had begun. 

Herzegovina has caves, underground 

rivers, spectacular plains, imposing 

mountains, extensive forested areas 

and glorious wetlands. Our programme 

started low, got higher, and then 

switched to wetlands. The pace was 

relaxed and the weather wasn’t always 

on our side, but we still recorded more 

than 150 species in seven days. 

Our low level forays focused on two 

karst fields, which, typically, are plains 

hemmed in by mountains. Most are 

seasonally flooded. Spring is a great time 

to visit, as migrating birds flow through 

the Adriatic Flyway. 

Kravice 

Waterfalls 

Popovo Polje, our first karst field, 

covers almost 120 square km and greeted 

us with glorious blasts of Nightingale 

song. I had a fleeting view of a tit, one 

that looked different from those I’m used 

to. It wasn’t the best view, but made me 

think ‘Sombre Tit’ and our guide agreed. 

Nightingales were almost ever-present 

but this was the only time a Sombre 

Tit, a south-east Europe speciality, 

was recorded. 

We birded against a cloud-shrouded 

mountain backdrop, with a bit of rain, 

Tawny Pipit, Whinchats, Corn Bunting 

and Hawfinch. The sounds of distant 

Hoopoe and Bee-eater added a taste of 

the exotic, and Eastern Orphean Warbler 

put in its first appearance. 

This large Sylvia is a close relative of 

Whitethroat and Garden Warbler, and is 

another south-eastern speciality. It sang, 

maybe like a mix of Blackbird and 

Blackcap, and called croakily. 

But the star of day one was a bird that 

builds a mud nest on rocks – a bit like 

a House Martin’s, but with an entrance 

hole fit for a woodpecker. A short-tailed 

bandit-faced bird stuck its head out, and, 

later, gave us a great view on a big chunk 

of limestone – Western Rock Nuthatch. 

‘Western’ sounds counter intuitive, but 

its range is significantly more western 

than its Eastern counterpart! 

Livanjsko Polje was even more 

impressive. At more than 400 square km 

this is the world’s largest regularly 

flooded karst field. A small marshy area 

gave us Little Bittern, in flight, briefly, 

as is often the case with this delightful, 

diminutive heron. 

We pondered the identity of an ‘Acro’ 

(an Acrocephalus warbler – Reed and 


BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 

Sedge for example), checked a record-shot 

against the Collins Guide app – and added 

Moustached Warbler to the list. 

There was impressive waterside 

birding, with up-close Wood Sandpipers, 

Ringed Plover, Greenshank, and perhaps 

my favourite ‘Acro’ – a super-sized reed 

warbler, chuntering out a sore throat song 

– Great Reed Warbler. A ‘wet-my-lips’ 

Quail stayed invisible and some distant 

marsh terns evaded ID at first, but 

succumbed later, a dozen buoyant-in-theair 

breeding plumage Black Terns. 

We travelled further up the karst field, 

through Montagu’s Harrier habitat, seeing 

male and female, and loitered by a 

still-flooded part of this remarkable area, 

adding Redshank, Lapwing, and later, 

Spotted Redshank, which obliged us with 

a view of wings and rump. 

A Bittern boomed, and a Hobby hunted, 

then perched, giving a glorious view of 

this always-good-to-see falcon. 

Enticement enough, but nothing 

compared to last spring’s spectacle of 

a thousand or so Red-footed Falcons. 

This one karst field is home to about 400 

calling Corn Crakes. They were silent in 

our presence – but the nocturnal 

soundscape must be incredible. 

Day three kicked off at a former 

recreation centre with mature trees and 

open habitat near the Buna and Bunica 

rivers, not far from our Mostar guest 

house. There was fluty Golden Oriole 

song, rich Nightingale song, and the 

sound of Wrynecks, which are 

woodpeckers, albeit small and peculiar 

ones, and we saw several. A Turtle Dove 

purred, a Hoopoe 

poo-poo-pooed, a 

Spotted Flycatcher 

spotted flies, and a 

rain-sodden Hobby 

just sat in a tree. 

Our guide had 

a guaranteed spot 

for Lesser Spotted 

Woodpecker – a nest 

site. We watched and 

waited, but the 

woodpecker proved to 

be completely un-spotted! Denis has 

6 World Birding 2016 

Sand Martins 

been back since and seen the Lesser Spot, 

as well as Wryneck and Syrian 

Woodpecker, all at their nests and all 

from the same spot! 

The more open, slightly scrubby habitat 

provided good birding, too, with plenty of 

Whinchats, four Whitethroats in two 

bushes, and seven paint-palette Bee-eaters 

on a wire. Later, over a riverside lunch 

with Golden Oriole accompaniment, 

Syrian Woodpecker came our way, 

prompting discussion over its ID. The 

head markings were good for Syrian, but 

the vent was as red as a Great Spot’s and 

we couldn’t see any flank streaks. 

Helpfully, the Collins guide describes 

the head markings as the ‘safest feature’. 

We finished the day with a convincing 

view of a Middle Spotted Woodpecker, 

a calling Quail, Tree Sparrows, and a 

Rock Partridge, 

through a rainy 

windscreen! 

yellower-than-yellow Golden Oriole. 

I can’t think of anywhere else I’ve been 

with as many Golden Orioles. 

The village of Blagaj is only about 

seven miles from Mostar as the oriole 

flies. Famed for its historic Dervish 

Monastery, Blagaj sits at the source of the 

Buna, against a massive, cliff-face 

backdrop. This was once home to Griffon 

Vultures, but alas, no more, so after 

walking past pomegranate bushes, we 

contented ourselves with Alpine Swift, 

Blue Rock Thrush, Crag Martins, Dipper 

and Grey Wagtail. 

Podrelezje Plateau gave me my first 

encounter with subalpine karst fields, 

with Wood Lark, Eastern Subalpine 

Warbler and more Bee-eaters. We pulled 

up for coffee and I opened the van door. 

A Lesser 

Whitethroat rattled, 

a Wood Warbler 

trilled, and two 

Hawfinch showed 

themselves nearby! 

We strolled past an 

Blidinje Nature 

Park 

early Christian cemetery, then an early 

Muslim cemetery. This country has plenty 

of history and plenty of birds. An Eastern 

Orphean Warbler took to the wing – big 

and grey with a dark head. Then Blackeared 

Wheatear. There are two morphs of 

this bird, pale-throated and blackthroated. 

We saw both, and a pristine 

black-throated sang for us – buzzy and 

scratchy. A very different sound reached 

our ears, too, as the local mosque 

signalled prayer time. 

We headed on. A Tawny Pipit showed 

us the dark centres on its coverts, but the 

Rock Thrush behind distracted, as did 

Hutovo Blato 

Marshlands

MALAWI 

MALAWI 

MALAWI 

SOUTH 

AFRICA 

If you don’t want to miss out on some wonderful sights, then 

consider this lovely African country for your next birding trip 

WORDS: DOMINIC COUZENS 

I 

t was late afternoon at a guest 

house in one of Africa’s less 

well-known capital cities, 

Lilongwe. I was sitting opposite 

my guide, Abasi Jana, reviewing the 

day’s birding with cup of tea in hand. 

The last of the sunlight twinkled on the 

garden pool and a gecko roused itself 

from slumber to scuttle across the wall. 

Our attention was caught by a small bird 

in one of the garden shrubs. 

“Collared Sunbird,” called Abasi after 

the briefest scan with his binoculars. 

“That’s a new one for the day”. 

He was right, it was yet another. Much 

as I always think it’s rude of a new bird 

to appear when you are actually tallying 

your day-list, this intrusion was, in a way 

symptomatic of the happy profusion we 

had experienced in the last few hours. 

Collared Sunbird was species 109, on 

a curtailed day – we hadn’t even started 

at dawn. Malawi, you might say, was 

showing off. Perhaps, though, it needs to. 

This small republic in south-central 

Africa, a third submerged under the 

eponymous Rift Valley lake and its 

southern half surrounded by 

Mozambique, is far from a famous 

birding location, seemingly outshone by 

the safari centres of neighbouring 

Zambia and Tanzania. 

Yet it punches above its weight 

bird-wise, 650 species cramming into 

a country smaller than Greece, owing to 

A wealth of great wildlife 

can be enjoyed in Malawi, 

including Hippos 

a rarefied mix of different habitats and 

high number of localised species that 

make even hardened Africa-philes 

salivate. As to this opening salvo of 

birds, it happened that we had seen most 

of them in relatively unusual 

circumstances – in miombo woodland, 

a well-defined habitat made up from 

modest-sized trees without much 

understory, on poor soils. 

Miombo hosts a profusion of birds, 

but seeing them can be far from a doddle. 

Success depends entirely on finding 

roaming bird flocks that come and go as 

they please. At Dzalanyama Forest 

Reserve there’s 100,000 hectars of the 

stuff, plenty in which to hide. 

In the end, it took all of 15 minutes to 

find our first flock. Just beyond the 

entrance gate, Abasi stopped the car and 

declared “Pale-billed Hornbill”. 

A scramble led us to a clearing and 

a great view of this decidedly scarce 

species; it was perched resplendent on 

a treetop and making a sound like a very 

panicked Green Woodpecker. 

Within seconds 

we were 

distracted by 

movement in the 

greenery a few 

metres away at 

eye level, and 

were amazed to 

see one of 

imageBROKER/Alamy 

John Warburton-Lee Photography/Alamy 

Dzalanyama’s most sought-after species, 

a Souza’s Shrike. In contrast to our own 

shrikes, which are generally birds of open 

areas, this small grey and olive-brown 

shrike specialises in feeding low down in 

the shade of the woodland, making it 

easy to overlook. 

Souza’s Shrikes habitually join bird 

parties and, sure enough, the sunlit 

canopy was soon 

White-backed 

Night Heron 

alive with flitting 

shapes. This is 

always a thrilling 

spectacle, eliciting 

a wholesome mix of 

excitement and 

panic, and here in 

the heart of Africa, 

exotic names came 

thick and fast – 

Yellow-bellied 

Hyliota (like 

a colourful Pied 

Flycatcher), 

Green-capped 

Eremomela (yellowish, warbler-ish), 

Black-eared Seedeater (sparrow-like) 

and African Paradise Flycatcher (caramel 

brown, opulent long trailing tail). My 

notebook was hot for half an hour, before 

the feeding party ghosted out of sight. 

“Good start,” I remarked to Abasi. 

“Stierling’s Woodpecker!” he replied, 

eyes fixed behind me. This was another 

“mega”, hardly found anywhere else in 

the world. It looks like a cross between 

a Great Spotted and a Green Woodpecker, 

with a bold black stripe through the eye, 

8 December 2016

SPONSORED BY 

AfriPics.com/Alamy 

Racket-tailed Roller 

African Paradise 

Flycatcher 

View from the 

Zomba Plateau 

robertharding/Alamy 

and two of them pecked away at close 

range, adjacent to a plain-faced Cardinal 

Woodpecker. The woodpeckers were part 

of a new flock, and we were rapidly 

immersed again in shifting shapes. 

Several species, including the hyliotas, 

had disappeared, while new ones 

appeared such as Southern Black 

Flycatchers – no flock in miombo 

woodland is exactly the same. 

The variety kept up: we clocked the 

scarce and smart Rufous-bellied Tit 

(African tits are languid creatures, 

seemingly robbed of the family 

effervescence by the heat), plus Blackthroated 

Honeyguide, the bird that leads 

people to bees’ nests and waits for the 

comb to be extracted as its reward. 

Flock three turned up about 40 minutes 

after that (with one of my favourites, 

Spotted Creeper, one of the few land 

birds that inhabits both Africa and 

India), and flock four just before 

lunchtime (with Violet-backed Starling, 

a bird of salivating 

gorgeousness). By the time 

we were settling into what 

was packed-lunch enough 

for eight, it seemed we had 

seen almost every top 

quality bird – except one. 

“We should see 

Anchieta’s Sunbird by the 

dambo,” Abasi reassured 

me. But I was twitchy. You 

see, Anchieta’s Sunbird is, 

to Malawi, what a 

completely gorgeous 

Spotted Creeper 

actress or actor might be to a film – 

worth the entire spectacle. I remembered 

seeing the plate in Birds of Africa 

depicting this gem, years before, and 

taking a sharp intake of breath. 

The bird has a glittering blue head and 

a brilliant yellow breast, but it looks as 

though somebody has taken a dagger to 

the latter and there is a splash of vivid 

crimson flowing down the front. 

The dambo, a wet area within the 

forest, delivered, of course, with a male 

sunbird in a flowering protea. And this 

being Africa, a habitat shift offered 

another spike of new species, including 

Scaly-throated and Pallid Honeyguides, 

Flappet Lark and, presumably 

embarrassed by the plenitude, both 

a Red-faced Crombec and a Red-faced 

Cisticola (tiny warbler-like birds). 

Despite the wonders of miombo 

woodland, to many birders the biggest 

joy of Malawi is in its remaining patches 

of highland forest. Continent-wide, this 

is now a very scarce habitat, and the 

feathered gems 

associated with the 

Afro-montane biome 

seem to be 

diminishing by the 

day. You could 

actually see this at 

two of our next 

destinations, on the 

Zomba Plateau a few 

hours south of 

Lilongwe and further 

south at Thyolo, where 

FLPA/Alamy 

the vegetation is almost completely 

denuded, leaving only remnant patches 

to hint at the riches of the past. 

We saw a number of woodcutters even 

during our short visit to Zomba. 

Admittedly, it does make forest birding 

easier, and over the next few days we 

caught up with almost all the 

specialities, including such sought after 

species as Bar-tailed Trogon, Whitestarred 

Robin, African Broadbill, 

Square-tailed Drongo and a host of 

sociable, thrush-like birds called 

greenbuls, which are bewitchingly 

difficult to identify. 

We also scored a hat-trick of gorgeous 

mini-finches: Red-faced Crimsonwing 

and both Green and Red-throated 

Twinspots, each of which has white dots 

on the underparts. Several inhabitants of 

these forests are rare even within 

Afro-montane biome, and are currently 

confined in this small corner of Malawi 

and neighbouring Mozambique. 

Arguably the two biggest stars are the 

colourful White-winged Apalis, a small, 

long-tailed canopy species with bold 

Joe Vogan/Alamy 


MALAWI 

Mount Mulanje – 

a bird-rich habitat 

Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Alamy 

yellow, black and white coloration, and 

the Thyolo Alethe, which is a chunky, 

oversized Robin-type bird that feeds on 

or just above the forest floor, lapping up 

its favourite food, ants. 

The triumph for us of finding the latter 

species was tempered by the fact that 

some of its more assertive prey found 

their way up our trouser legs and effected 

a seriously painful bite. 

Another favourite, although slightly 

more widely distributed, is the Greenheaded 

Oriole, which I actually spotted 

before Abasi (equivalent to getting the 

ball off Lionel Messi once in five days). 

Another species to 

make Southern 

African birders go 

weak at the knees, 

this oriole has, as 

you can guess, a 

moss-green head 

and mantle. 

Malawi’s highest 

mountain is Mount 

Mulanje, an 

inselberg rising 

from the 

surrounding 700m 

plain, with several 

peaks topping 

2,500m and one, called 

Sapitwa peak, at 3,002m. 

Here there is enough luxuriant forest to 

give you hope that some of the Afromontane 

specialities will survive. We 

spent an intoxicating afternoon 

obtaining magnificent views of Silverycheeked 

Hornbill and a little flycatchertype 

gem known as a Blue-mantled 

Elminia, while Scarce and African Black 

Swifts rode the updrafts on the cliffs 

high above. What a place! 

There could hardly be a greater 

contrast between the high mountain 

10 World Birding 2016 

F1online digitale Bildagentur GmbH/Alamy 

forests and our next location, Liwonde 

National Park. Lying on the plain next to 

the Shire River that drains Lake Malawi, 

it provides a dose of what any tourist 

would think of as “wild Africa”. 

Only 540 square km in area, Liwonde 

apes its host country in miniature by 

encompassing a network of different 

habitats, including marshes, savannah 

and a type of tall woodland known as 

mopane. Within this rich mix, game 

animals are everywhere indeed, from the 

restaurant of my accommodation, the 

luxurious Mvuu Lodge, you could see 

Waterbuck, Bushbuck, Impala and 

Warthogs every time 

Silvery-cheeked 

Hornbill 

you glanced up from 

your ice-cold beer. 

(At night, we saw 

a Pel’s Fishing Owl 

from the dinner 

table, a common 

experience here). 

The river froths 

with Hippos, living 

in one of the 

Pel’s Fishing Owl 

AfriPics.com/Alamy 

highest densities in the world. Together 

with a more than healthy population of 

Nile Crocodiles, and 900 elephants, this 

is not a place to go swimming, or indeed 

wandering off. 

The richness of Liwonde extends to its 

birds, with more than 400 species 

recorded in this relatively tiny area (one 

of the highest totals in southern Africa). 

This means that you can hardly go 

anywhere without seeing a glittering 

away of colourful, iconic and – frequently 

– unusual birds. For example, you can 

enjoy such African staples as bee-eaters, 

rollers, woodhoopoes, hornbills, weavers 

and sunbirds around the camp, while 

you’re enjoying a cup of tea, or on a short 

daytime walk (a treat in wild Africa). But 

you can hardly avoid coming across 

delights such as Böhm’s Bee-eater, 

a small, dainty species that frolics 

around the chalets here, but is actually 

pretty rare everywhere else in the world. 

On the boat trips to enjoy the Hippos 

(and the elephants, which often swim 

across the Shire River), it is quite easy to 

see African Skimmers and White-backed 

Night Herons. The many palm trees host 

Dickinson’s Kestrels and Red-necked 

Falcons, and the mopane woodland just 

drips with birds, including rarities such 

as Lilian’s Lovebird (a tiny parrot) and 

Racket-tailed Roller. The variety is 

dazzling, and indeed we again saw 100 

species in a single day here. 

Malawi is fabulously rich in wildlife, 

safe, genuinely friendly and small, 

meaning that the distances between sites 

are easily manageable. The only thing 

that Malawi seems to lack is visitors – 

and they are missing a treat. 

With thanks to: Central African 

Wilderness Safaris (cawsmw.com) and 

Malawi Tourism.

HUNGARIAN BIRD TOURS 

7 day flight inclusive (BA) birdwatching 

holidays in Hungary for only £990 staying at 

the outstanding Hotel Villa Volgy in Eger famous for 

its fine wines and historic 

buildings. This hotel has just 

upgraded all its rooms to 4 

star standard! Hungarian 

Bird Tours offers that mix 

of outstanding birdwatching 

with plenty to see, drink 

and eat in your spare time. 

Eger is a hugely popular 

destination and offers many 

different attractions. It is 

also ideally placed on the 

southern slopes of the Bukk 

WHITE BACKED 

WOODPECKER 

National Park with its four species of Eagle and eight 

species of Woodpecker to see Hungary’s spectacular 

birds. Hungarian Bird Tours is run by Roy Adams 

who lives in a village close to Eger. 

He is mostly known for his work on Hawfinches 

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For full information visit 

www.hungarianbirdtours.com 

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TAIWAN 

CHINA 

TAIWAN 

INDIA 

TAIWAN 

A wide range of birds that live in or pass through this 

beautiful island make it a must-visit destination 

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS: MIKE WEEDON 

T 

he genius of Darwin was in the 

simplicity and clarity of his 

thinking. Tiny genetic 

mutations will result in slight 

differences in organisms’ ability to 

survive and reproduce. Given enough 

time, the pressures of selection will lead 

to the development of different species. 

When populations are isolated, such as 

on islands, the effects may become 

magnified and accelerated. For instance, 

Darwin famously noted the radically 

different bill structures of the apparently 

closely related finches of the different 

Galápagos islands. 

In extreme cases, where there has been 

considerable isolation, such as Australia, 

New Zealand or Madagascar, there are 

a large number of endemic bird species. 

But on little island groups, like the British 

Isles, which are close to, and formerly 

joined to, the continental land mass, we 

have just one (controversial) endemic 

species (Scottish Crossbill) and several 

endemic subspecies. 

Taiwan lies somewhere in the middle. 

It is a decent-sized island, nearly twice 

the size of Wales, 180km off the southeastern 

coast of mainland China. It has at 

least 15 endemic bird species but dozens 

of endemic subspecies, several of which 

are on the cusp of being given full 

species status, or have already been 

given full species status by some 

authorities. There are also several 

regional endemics found there. 

So, Taiwan offers a good chunk of 

endemic birds, but owing to its position 

off the Chinese coast, it is also a great 

place for seeing migrating Asiatic birds. 

I was there with a small group, last 

autumn, and in a week or so, our bird 

haul included nearly 50 birds which were 

either full endemic species or subspecies, 

or regional endemics. But we 

also got a fantastic taste of 

autumn migration, Taiwan 

style. Add to that plenty of 

non-endemic birds of high 

calibre, one or two endemic 

mammals, fabulous scenery, 

and spectacular butterflies in 

profusion, wonderful people 

and fantastic food (and, yes 

I am a vegetarian!), and you 

can see it could be very easy 

to fall in love with Taiwan. 

Taiwan is a long north-south 

island, with the capital Taipei 

in the far north. As most 

visitors do, we started our 

adventure here, getting our eye 

Yellow Tit, 

Mike’s favourite 

endemic species 

in Taiwan 

Taiwan Barbet 

Taiwan 

Macaque, an 

endemic 

primate 

in at the botanical gardens. We arrived 

a couple of days after a typhoon, so there 

was a certain amount of tidying being 

done. But we were soon ticking our first 

endemic: the attractive and colourful 

Taiwan Barbet, plus seeing our first 

Black Bulbul (a bulbul in Chough’s 

clothing), Grey Treepie (like a small 

colourful Magpie), Chinese Bulbul and 

Malayan Night Heron. 

The older people of Taipei clearly love 

the gardens, and were gathered in groups 

doing Tai Chi or just walking around 

enjoying the air. There were also a group 

of 30 or so photographers all trying to get 

a snap of Dark-streaked and Brown 

Flycatchers as well as a young Crested 

Goshawk. Overhead, a pair of adults of 


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The coast at the 

southern end of 

Taiwan, showing 

the beautiful 

forested hills 

Grey-chinned 

Minivet 

this spectacular hawk were displaying. 

With our eyes now partly in, we hit the 

northern tip of the island, at Yehliu Geo 

Park. The car park was jammed with 

coaches, and the paths densely crowded 

with parasol-wielding, shuffling masses. 

But, after a couple of hundred yards, the 

crowds vanished and our group ploughed 

on to the Magic Toilet, a shaded loo block 

renowned as a migrant stopover, where 

we added Japanese Paradise Flycatcher 

and Arctic Warbler to our trip lists. 

In the early evening, we paid our 

respects to a pair of local celebrities. At 

the Chingsui Wetland at Jinshan a young 

Siberian Crane had arrived in 2014. By 

autumn 2015 it had developed a healthy 

symbiosis with a local farmer, who dug 

in the paddyfields while the Crane stood 

beside him, looking for morsels. 

Also there were great flocks of mixed 

herons and egrets, Black Drongos, 

Spot-billed Duck and best of all, 

a beautiful female Painted Snipe. 

For the next few days we would 

venture south. Despite having 

a population of 

24 million people, 

most of Taiwan, 

away from the 

western plain, is 

covered in lovely, 

forested hills and 

mountains. It 

didn’t take too long 

driving through the 

hills to encounter 

Alpine Accentor 

(endemic 

subspecies) 

A classic Taiwan 

endemic, the 

Swinhoe’s 

Pheasant 

(this is a male) 

our first flock of the one bird I wanted to 

see above all others, Taiwan Blue 

Magpie; a spectacular, blue, black and 

white, red-billed, long-tailed beauty of an 

endemic bird! Taiwan Scimitar Babbler 

(like a big grumpy, white-throated Wren) 

was very pleasing, too, rather rescuing 

a rainy second day, largely on the road. 

On our third morning we made 

a tactical decision to check out the car 

park area, first thing, at nearby Taroko 

National Park. It is 

curious how often 

car parks are the 

best places! This 

one yielded some of 

the best birds of the 

trip, with the small 

trees dripping with 

endemics, flocks of 

them: Taiwan 

Yuhina, like a 

Crested Tit, but 

unrelated, and 

calls like a 

Goldfinch; Yellow 

Tit, a big, feisty tough guy tit with an 

open yellow face and long crest; and 

Varied Tit, of the potential split Taiwan 

subspecies/species. Then there was the 

gorgeous Grey-chinned Minivet (like 

a colourful, arboreal, red wagtail). 

That morning we rose through the 

spectacular Taroko gorge, heading up 

into the mountains. We stopped off for 

a coffee by a Sacred Tree (don’t ask me 

why it was sacred), where we were given 

honey on a cocktail stick (don’t ask me 

why). And, as luck would have it, a group 

of endemic laughingthrush-like bird, the 

Steere’s Liocichlas (don’t ask me how to 

pronounce it), were in the bushes nearby. 


TAIWAN 

Taiwan 

Whistling 

Thrush 

Here is the 

bridge over the 

gorge from 

where the 

whisting-thrush 

was seen 

We crossed 

a terrifying 

rickety bridge by 

a waterfall, which 

produced that 

mountain stream 

staple, the 

Plumbeous 

Redstart, as 

well as another 

endemic, namely 

the Taiwan 

Whistling Thrush (which 

was resplendent in navy blue). 

But when we reached 3,000m, things 

got even juicier. Up there, in the pines, 

we encountered the renowned 

Flamecrest, a fancy relative of our 

Goldcrest, with a voice so high I could 

only hear it with my right ear! There 

were tame endemic White-whiskered 

Laughingthrush, and even tamer Alpine 

Accentors (Taiwan subspecies). 

But the star high altitude endemic for 

some in our small group was the Collared 

Bush-robin, or Johnstone’s Robin, a very 

pretty ash, chestnut and white endemic 

relative of the Red-flanked Bluetail. 

The forested mountains of the 

Dasyueshan Forest are fantastic places for 

a drive and for birding. Here we got great 

views of the amazingly colourful and 

distinctive endemic Swinhoe’s Pheasant. 

The forests near the top produced some 

lovely little birds with fancy names, 

including the Rufous-faced Warbler, 

Grey-cheeked Fulvetta, Fire-breasted 

Flowerpecker and a tiny, exquisite 

relative of our Long-tailed Tit, called 

Black-throated Tit. 

The next day we were down in the 

western lowlands, in a world of fishing 

ponds and muddy paddyfields. There 

were Long-toed Stints, Marsh Sandpipers 

and Lesser Sand Plovers. We flushed 

a couple of tiny Yellow Bitterns and saw 

a flock of 75 Black-faced Spoonbills, the 

vanguard of the 2,000 (half the world 

population!) which winter in Taiwan. 

Then it was down to the southern tip of 

the island near Kending. We were in the 

far south to witness the start of the great 

raptor migration which passes through 

each autumn. We were too early for the 

Grey-faced Buzzard passage, but bore 

...And here is the view from the above 

bridge, showing the Taiwan Whistling 

Thrush habitat 

witness to the passing of several hundred 

Chinese Sparrowhawks, plus Oriental 

Honey Buzzards, and such bonuses as 

White-throated Needletail, Oriental 

Pratincole and Ashy Drongo, as well as 

our first views of the endemic Taiwan 

Macaque and Taiwan Green Pigeon. 

Taiwan is a beautiful country full of 

fascinating wildlife. I haven’t even had 

space here to describe the bat-catching 

antics of a Kestrel; the curious display 

flight of the Black-shouldered Kite; the 

subtle beauty of the endemic Owston’s 

Bullfinch or the Grey-capped Pygmy 

Woodpecker. And I haven’t been able to 

convey the wealth of food delights on 

offer or to do justice to the landscape. 

You are just going to have to see, hear 

smell and taste for yourself. 

But the lasting message, is that this is 

a land of speciation in action. Even the 

humble, familiar Coal Tit has its own 

Taiwan subspecies, with an elongated 

crest: ripe for ‘splitting’. 

There is no doubt, Darwin would have 

loved this place! 

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of Celestron’s astronomical eyepieces, giving extra 

versatility. At £300, the price is far from astronomical, 

though. For more details, go to celestron.com 

Taiwan Blue Magpie 


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ROMANIA 

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ROMANIA 

ROMANIA 

It’s a case of ‘the birds and the bears’ in this rich and varied 

eastern European wildlife haven 

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS: MIKE WEEDON 

E 

uropean birdwatching trips are 

not really supposed to be like 

this. One day, you are watching 

a Ural Owl and Chamois in the 

morning, a dozen close-up Brown Bears 

in the evening. And a couple of days later 

drifting along by a floating Whiskered 

Tern colony, with White and Dalmatian 

Pelicans overhead, enjoying more 

Squacco Herons than you can imagine. 

And, moored up at night, the frog and 

toad chorus is so loud that you can barely 

dream, let alone sleep. 

But Romania presents a different kind 

of European birding, offering several 

different worlds within its borders. 

I was there in June, accompanying a 

group from the Ramblers Worldwide 

Holidays. The trip was split between 

exploring the Carpathians and Dracula 

country in Transylvania; the steppe; and 

five nights sleeping on a ‘floating hotel’ 

in the mind-blowing Danube Delta. 

The bears were the highlight of the 

first couple of days of the trip, in the 

Carpathians. We visited a little hide and 

watched the 

glorious mammals 

emerging from the 

forest to come to 

biscuit bait. Brown 

Bears are nervous 

and sensitive to 

each other’s 

positions and 

movements. 

A sneaky Fox, 

which came in to 

pinch some biscuits, 

set the younger 

bears and females 

on edge. But not as 

Male Brown Bear 

much as the appearance of a big brute of 

a male, massive and muscular, and 

already mostly in his short summer coat. 

One of the females flirted with him, 

outrageously, leading him into the forest. 

But the highlights, for me, of the whole 

bear-watching experience included 

hearing the blood-curdling, instinctjarring 

roars of nearby bears in the 

forest. That and the all-too-brief 

appearance of a mother with two tiny 

cubs which almost looked like they 

wanted to come and explore in the back 

of our (open-doored) hide. 

Delta drifting 

The core of the whole trip was cruising 

the myriad water ways of the Danube 

Delta. There are 3,446 square km of this 

incredible delta system in Romania. 

Channels take you through subtly 

different vegetation systems and forest 

types. There are vast floating reedbeds, 

damp forests, dunes, lagoons, and richly 

vegetated banks. And there are masses of 

birds, everywhere! 

The excitement started when we first 

boarded our floating hotel at Tulcea, the 

gateway to the delta. House Sparrows, of 

all the exotic birds you could choose, 

were sweeping majestically over the 

water by our boat and catching giant 

yellow Tisza Mayflies (Europe’s biggest 

mayfly). We even got excited by our first 

passing Whiskered Terns. I say ‘even’ not 

because Whiskered Terns are anything 

other than fantastic birds, but because we 

were to see thousands of them over the 

next few days in 

the delta. I love 

Whiskered Terns, 

but they are so 

common there 

that, when a 

couple of (for us, 

more familiar) 

Black Terns 

White Pelicans are 

more numerous than 

Dalmatian Pelicans in 

the Danube Delta 

joined one feeding flock, these grabbed 

all the attention. 

The Danube Delta is a massive source 

of food for a great variety of birds. There 

are feeding herons everywhere, with 

different tracts attracting Night Herons, 

Squacco Herons, Purple Herons and Little 

and Great White Egrets, Pygmy 

Cormorants and Cormorants, and of 

course White, and a lesser number of, 

Dalmatian Pelicans. 

But above the water, there were great 

riches, too. Never have I known such 

numbers of Cuckoos. There is a constant 

accompaniment of the males’ song and 

occasional females’ ‘bubbling’ calls. 

There are Icterine and Eastern 

Olivaceous Warblers warbling, Golden 

The landscape 

of the 

Carpathians is 

truly beautiful 


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Whiskered Tern 

Orioles orioling, Grey-headed 

Woodpeckers pecking wood, Hobbies 

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round every corner. 

And turning a corner is part of the joy 

of the delta. You may come across a 

basking Grass Snake, a quick splash of an 

Otter, the odd Musk Rat, or the nesting 

pond of Red-necked or Black-necked 

Grebes. Drift round another corner and 

there could be a White-tailed Eagle 

waiting in a tree. Or you could drift, 

engine off, up to the hanging nest of 

a tiny Penduline Tit. 

Night life 

For all its rich birdlife, the most amazing 

magic the Danube Delta had to offer 

came with its night life. When your 

‘floating hotel’ is moored in the middle of 

nowhere in the middle of the Danube 

Delta, next to the largest reedbed in 

Europe, you are in the heart of the action. 

There are barking Little Bitterns and 

booming Bitterns and plenty of croaking 

Great Reed Warblers, but, though they 

are not far away, these are hard to hear 

because of the sheer volume of frogs and 

toads. The sound is overwhelming. It 

engulfs you, hypnotises you, snatches 

you with its long sticky tongue and spits 

you out, goggle-eyed. 

Back on dry land 

One gets used to life on the water and it 

was strange even after just five nights to 

be back on dry land, where frogs and 

toads don’t shout you to sleep. But with 

the richness of the birding, flowers and 

insect life of the rolling oak woods and 

steppe country of Dobruja meant the 

delta was soon not missed. We were in 

Lesser Grey Shrike and Red-backed 

Shrike heartland, with Honey Buzzards 

overhead and an abundance of the 

mighty Cardinal Fritillary butterfly 

feeding on every large purple flower. 

I missed the only Levant Sparrowhawk 

of the trip as we were picnicking in a 

forested area. I had snuck off to 

photograph Middle Spotted Woodpecker 

in a beekeeper’s field and perhaps the 

singing Icterine Warbler which was 

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multi-coated lenses and the 6x magnification mean it can cope 

with all conditions. There’s 20mm of eye relief, and it’s 

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overhead. We found Spur-thighed 

Tortoises and Green Lizards and massive 

Bradyporus crickets, which look like they 

are made of riveted bronze plates and 

could bite your thumb off. 

There were Spanish Sparrow 

condominiums in White Stork stick nests, 

Little Owls peering at us over flowerfilled 

ancient ruins, where Wheatears 

and Tree Sparrows fed their young. 

Out in the steppe, grazed by tiddly, 

cute European Sousliks (a ground 

squirrel), were Isabelline Wheatears, 

Tawny Pipits and Stone-curlews. 

The glory of Romania is in the contrast 

between the different landscapes. It is 

wonderful to know that parts of the EU 

still preserve traditional landscapes. 

Some directives designed to protect 

habitats may have negative impacts, but 

at present there are great riches there. 

From the roar of the bears in the 

mountains to the cacophony of frogs in 

the Danube Delta, Romania provides 

a wealth of treats for all the senses. 


COSTA RICA 

Carara National 

Park is a popular 

birding hotspot 

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RGB Ventures/Alamy 

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COSTA RICA 

A whole host of bird species can be enjoyed in this Central American country 

WORDS: SETH INMAN 

Nature Picture Library/Alamy 

I 

n the lower folds of Poás 

Volcano’s foothills, overlooking 

the city of Alajuela and Costa 

Rica’s Central Valley, Xandari 

Resort & Spa offers travellers what Forbes 

Magazine has called ‘a mountainside 

slice of paradise.’ 

The 40-acre property includes diverse 

tropical gardens and a forest reserve with 

several miles of trails that lead to 

multiple waterfalls – one of which is 

between 60ft and 70ft high. 

A total of 130 bird species have been 

reported on the resort’s eBird hotspot 

(an online birding resource, which you 

can view at http://bit.ly/2dpcyy1), but 

Xandari is a mere 20 minutes away from 

the country’s main international airport. 

Hummingbirds and tanagers flit 

year-round among the flowering bushes 

and fruiting trees, Blue-and-white 

Swallows commonly swoop down by the 

sunset pool to sip water. 

Strange vocalisations of the 

Montezuma Oropendola, diverse tunes 

from the Orange-billed Nightingale- 

Thrush, and eerie whistles from Rufousand-white 

Wrens drift up from the woods 

below, while various species of raptor 

soar thermals in the skies above. 

Spot White-eared Ground-Sparrows 

foraging among the leaf litter, Red- 

Rufous-tailed 

Hummingbird 

crowned Ant-tanagers 

chattering in the dense vine 

tangles, and Long-tailed 

Manakins performing their 

mating rituals. To say 

nothing of all the migratory 

warblers and other families 

of birds that find Xandari’s forest and 

gardens to be a little oasis in the greater 

overwintering haven of Costa Rica! 

An orange grove is a popular area for 

the local community of Blue-crowned 

Motmots and one of the resident pairs of 

Hoffmann’s Woodpeckers, as well as 

three types of saltator that fly through 

almost daily for their breakfast. 

At dusk, calls from the Common 

Pauraque and Laughing Falcons echo 

across the hills, and if you’re lucky and 

have a good torch you might spot a 

Mottled Owl or Tropical Screech-Owl, 

National Geographic Creative/Alamy 

as well as the cute but deadly 

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. Dawn choruses 

resound with Rufous-naped Wren chatter 

and whistles from Costa Rica’s national 

bird, the Clay-colored 

Thrush, often 

interspersed with 

Yellow-throated 

Euphonia and Barred 

Antshrike song 

depending on the 

location of your villa. 

One of the advantages 

of being in the Central 

Long-tailed 

Manakin 

All Canada Photos/Alamy 

Valley is the proximity 

to several key Costa 

Rican birding hotspots. 

Costa Rica’s dry season, 

or summer, runs from December to April 

and corresponds with the North 

American bird migration, so despite the 

higher rates on hotels throughout the 

country it makes for better birding. The 

rainy season is more affordable given the 

lower amount of tourists in the country, 

and often the mornings are sunny and 

clear before the afternoon downpours. 

With nearly 900 species recorded in 

a country two-thirds the size of Scotland, 

Costa Rica is a top candidate for any 

birdwatcher’s holiday destination, 

whether they be casual or avid! 


Finland & Norway • Estonia • Lesvos • Canary Islands • Spain (Extremadura) 

Spain (Iberian Lynx) • New Zealand • The Gambia (a BWM Reader’s Holiday) 

Morocco • Tanzania • Alaska • Arizona • Florida (photographic) • Texas 

New York • Peru • Brazil • Cuba • St Lucia • Honduras & Grand Cayman 

www.avianadventures.co.uk 

01384 372013 avianadventures@btinternet.com 

3367 

2016 / 2017 Programme

BWT Travel Guide

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