CHINA’S EXTRAORDINARY WILDLIFE: Sichuan’s amazing Pheasants, Golden Snub-nosed Monkeys and Chinese Red Pandas

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CHINA’S EXTRAORDINARY WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY TOUR: DETAILED ITINERARY

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Day 1  Our tour begins this morning at our airport hotel at Chengdu Tianfu International Airport.

From Tianfu onwards, we will have a first-hand experience of China’s simply amazing modern expressway network for the first time. Not only does the country have a remarkable number of expressways, but mountainous areas like much of Sichuan are now served by expressways that punch through mountain ranges up to 5,500m (18,000ft) high by way of a succession of long tunnels up to 20km (12 miles) or more in length. And they are finishing new expressways year after year! Journeys that took us 2 days in the 1980s now take 3-4 hours!

Our first destination is the beautiful Tiangjiahe mountains, where we will spend three nights. After crossing Sichuan’s Red Basin, the ‘breadbasket’ of Southwestern China, we will enter the mountains that occupy much of the province. We will arrive at Tangjiahe in time for some initial exploration this afternoon and into the evening.

(Chengdu Tianfu is served by a number of direct flights from Europe and the Gulf, as well as numerous flights from Chinese gateway cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou.)

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Days 2-3  The Tangjiahe mountains, which rise to well over 4,000m (13,000ft), support a great diversity of habitats from foothill forests right up to the alpine zone. The area is very rich in both mammals and birds, including some rare species.

Among the more obvious mammals is the ancient-looking Tibetan Macaque. We are sure to come across them at least a couple of times, and the troupes provide great photographic subjects. At this season, the females, which have a red patch around the eyes, often have newly born young. The big males are an impressive sight, and as feeding by visitors has been controlled in this part of Sichuan, the macaques generally do not expect handouts.

A very special mammal of Tangjiahe is the ‘Golden’ Takin, a subspecies of the more widespread Chinese Takin that has a striking, pale creamy-gold pelage. The takins, which are as big as a wildebeest (gnu), but more heavily built, are numerous and easy to find at night and in the early morning. Quite often, a fearless individual grazes right beside the road or near visitor facilities!

Other mammals we are likely to come across include Reeves’s Muntjac, Chinese Goral, Perny’s Long-nosed Squirrel and the big Masked Palm Civet. While spotlighting, we also have chances for Malayan (or Himalayan) Porcupine and Greater Hog Badger.

However, the mammalian star of the area is without a doubt the beautiful, approachable and highly photogenic Golden (or Sichuan) Snub-nosed Monkey. We can expect a couple of encounters with an extended family group during our visit, comprising an alpha male, adult females, perhaps one or two young males and some youngsters. We should be able to get close to these surprisingly gentle and unafraid creatures, allowing for some great portraits, and we should see and photograph plenty of action. Likely scenarios include the family moving through the trees, including thrilling leaps between branches, groups of resting animals in the trees, the alpha male baring its teeth when annoyed (although by monkey standards these are very gentle animals, there are limits…!), mothers squabbling over young babies, suckling, boisterous youngsters at play, feeding behaviour and the like.

The Golden Snub-nosed Monkey encounters will be a major highlight of our Sichuan adventure, that is for sure, and we will be sad to leave these extraordinary animals behind.

Birdlife in the Tangjiahe mountains is rich and varied and includes a variety of species that are endemic to China. However, the most impressive species regularly encountered in the area is the huge, barrel-shaped Tawny Fish Owl, a localised species that we should be able to find along one of the rivers. Other species of particular interest include such endemics and near-endemics as Vinous-throated Parrotbill, David’s and Spectacled Fulvettas, Sooty Bushtit and Slaty Bunting, while others include the tiny Pygmy Cupwing and the range-restricted Claudia’s Leaf Warbler and Zappey’s Flycatcher.

Perky Brown Dippers, showy White-capped Redstarts, Plumbeous Water Redstarts and distinctive White-crowned Forktails haunt the rivers and streams.

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Day 4  After a final session in the Tangjiahe mountains, we will return to the Red Basin for a time before heading back into the mountains in the Dujiangyan region for an overnight stay.

Late this afternoon, we will visit a hide/blind high in the mountains where we have a very high chance of an encounter with the glorious Temminck’s Tragopan, a bird largely restricted to western China. We could see several individuals, including both the strawberry coloured male and the cryptic-brown female. The tragopans are, of course, one of the most sought-after group of species in all of Asia, and Temminck’s Tragopan has to be the best of themn all with its numerous white dots delineated by a dark surround, its white crescentic underpart markings, electric blue wattle, orange crest and strange pale blue tubular ‘ears’. Talk about a bird photographer’s dream bird!

While we await the appearance of the monarch himself, showy Mrs Gould’s Sunbirds may feed on the nearby rhododendron flowers.

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Day 5  Even China’s expressway system cannot link every place in the mountains, and so this morning we will head back into the lowlands and then penetrate yet another mountain area in the Wenchuan region, where we will stay overnight at a pleasant resort.

This afternoon we have another ‘pheasant extravaganza’, this time featuring the gorgeous Golden Pheasant, a species endemic to China. After walking up to the hide/blind, we will await the appearance of the pheasants. Typically, just one or two showy males in their glorious red, gold and yellow plumage appear at first and begin to strut their stuff, but after a time, a female or two will appear, and then mayhem breaks loose as other males materialise until perhaps 6-8 are chasing the females around! Each male expands the golden disc of feathers on either side of its face until just the eye is visible. When the ‘trying to impress her ladyship’ action dies down, the males spar with each other or drift back into the forest. It is an extraordinary spectacle that one will remember forever!

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Day 6. We may return to the Golden Pheasant hide this morning, depending on the quality of the action from the previous afternoon.

Afterwards, we will return to the Red Basin and travel southwards to Wawu Shan for a three-night stay.

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Day 7-8  Wawu Shan is the most famous ‘table mountain’ in China, and the spectacular views of the surrounding hills, valleys and mountains from the summit area attract people from all over the world. From our perspective, it is, however, Wawu’s well-deserved reputation as a faunistic and botanical paradise that brings us to this remarkable area.

Our hotel on the mountain is situated at about 2,000m (6,600ft), and modern cablecar systems connect the hotel with the base station at the foot of the mountain and with the summit area at about 2,700m (8,900ft). The ascent to the summit area in particular is breathtaking, with wide mountain vistas and hundreds of rhododendrons in full flower passing underneath us! Once at the summit station, a truly superb series of wide walkways allows visitors to access swathes of fine spruce and fire forests and bamboo ‘seas’ dotted with emergent deciduous trees. As we will see, these walkways allow us to look for both Chinese Red Pandas and many birds with little physical effort at all. If only more mountain areas were so well served!

We will be taking the earliest cable car up the mountain, so we will be there long before most day visitors, and the only other folk on the walkways are likely to be a few birders and photographers. Sometimes in the early morning, one can see the summit of Mount Gongga (7,556m or 24,790ft), Sichuan’s tallest peak, in the distance. Our number one target will, of course, be the delightful and much-wanted Chinese Red Panda. Red Panda was formerly treated as a single species, but more recently, some taxonomic authorities have started treating the eastern form as a species distinct from Western or Himalayan Red Panda.

Red Pandas are relatively easy to find at Wawu Shan at this time of year as the deciduous trees they rest in and partly use for feeding are still in bud, and the obscuring leaves are yet to open. Over the years, they have become rather fearless as regards the human visitors to the area, as they have learned that people are restricted to the walkways and pose no threat. As a result, close views are possible, and indeed we have observed them down to about 10m (33ft) at Wawu! It is easy to use a tripod on the wide walkways, and we can spend as long as we like with these superb critters, without any major physical effort, provided they stick around. The usual pattern is for a Red Panda to be spotted in a tree, either resting between meals of bamboo leaves and shoots, or moving through the trees or stumps trying to get at the most succulent parts of the bamboo. When on the ground, moving between feeding sites, they can be hard or impossible to detect.

These adorable little ‘minibears’ are not closely related to the Giant Panda (or indeed to bears) but show similarly endearing features, and they are a lot easier to find! We are sure to greatly enjoy our encounters with them. Sometimes one can stay with an individual for hours at a time.

Wawu Shan has a rich birdlife, and a star attraction is its diverse array of parrotbills. Best of all is the fluffy little Grey-hooded Parrotbill, a species endemic to a small area in Sichuan centred on Wawu, while other species include the endemic Golden Parrotbill, Brown Parrotbill and its frequent companions the endemic Three-toed Parrotbill, the pretty little Fulvous Parrotbill and the aptly named Great Parrotbill.

Other great birds of the area include the smart Darjeeling Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Bush Warbler (a small bird with a beautiful descendinbg song), Buff-throated Warbler, Sichuan Leaf Warbler, the beautiful, near-endemic Red-winged Laughingthrush, the endemic Buffy Laughingthrush, White-collared Yuhina, Red-billed Leothrix (or Peking Robin), the stunning Golden-breasted Fulvetta, the endemic Grey-hooded Fulvetta,  White-browed Bush Robin, the even more striking Golden Bush Robin, perky Rufous-vented, Grey-crested and Green-backed Tits, the rather odd-looking Yellow-browed Tit and the endemic Sichuan Treecreeper.

Less common species include Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker, the endemic Emei Liocichla and the range-restricted Sharpe’s Rosefinch.

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Day 9  After a final session at Wawu, we will head westwards to the spectacular mountains of the Luding area for a two-night stay. We are in for another scenic and wildlife treat.

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Day 10  We will rise well before sunrise, and after a hot breakfast, we will use 4×4 pickup trucks to drive up a rough, narrow road high amongst the peaks. The skill and careful attention of our Tibetan drivers in this difficult terrain are remarkable. This alpine zone, where the forest gives way to scrub and rocky slopes below the dramatic snow-capped peaks, is the home of the endemic Chinese Monal, one of China’s most spectacular endemic birds.

This huge and strikingly coloured pheasant has not been molested in recent times in this part of Sichuan, and in the early morning, the birds fly across a valley from their roosting places on trees and crags to their display and mating area. The males whistle plaintively as they patrol the slopes in search of receptive females, sparring with other males they encounter and sometimes making their astonishing ‘flat to the ground’ display complete with fanned tail and ‘wing rowing’ motions. As you will see, the monals are losing their fear of humans (who used to hunt them) and some individuals now allow birders and photographers to get within a few metres! How amazing is that?! Especially for someone who is used to using a telescope to watch monals from hundreds of metres away!

It is hard not to spend most of the time with the monals, but other great birds live here as well, including the near-endemic White Eared Pheasant, Blood Pheasant, Snow Partridge, the awesome Grandala (the males are an impossible blue), the endemic White-backed (or Kessler’s) Thrush, Red-billed and Alpine Choughs, Rosy Pipit and the endemic Chinese White-browed Rosefinch.

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Day 11  After a last morning with the amazing Chinese Monals, we will head for the town of Kangding for an overnight stay.

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Day 12  Today, we will visit yet another pheasant hide/blind, situated not far from Kangding. This time, it is the stunning Lady Amherst’s Pheasant that is the star of the show, and the hide owner has become so familiar with the local pheasants that they scurry around him while he puts out food for them!

With their ultra-long black-barred white tails, contrasting orange-red upper tail coverts and blue, green, yellow, white and black body plumage topped off with a red crest, these near-endemic pheasants are way out in front among the pheasant tribe. If a receptive female appears, we may well see a male erecting its black and white facial discs until just the eye is visible. We can expect to see adult males, immature males and females flying to and from tree branches or standing on rocks with just a beautiful distant mountainside background. Perfect!

The shy endemic Barred Laughingthrush, often a devil to see well, regularly visits the hide and comes out in the open, while other nice birds include the endemic Elliot’s Laughingthrush and Chinese Babax, the near-endemic Black-browed Bushtit, White-browed Fulvetta and the impressive Spot-breasted Parrotbill.

Afterwards, we will travel westwards to the Xibnduqiao region for a three-night stay, crossing a high pass at over 4,000m (13,000ft) en route.

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Days 13-14  Our time in the Xinduqiao region will be spent concentrating on fantastic encounters with the huge White Eared Pheasant, the pretty little Blood Pheasant, the beautiful Buff-throated (or Szechenyi’s) Monal Partridge and the delightful Tibetan Partridge.

We will go out one morning with a local Tibetan who, along with his family, has been feeding White Eared Pheasants for many years. Nowadays they are crazily tame and, after he calls out to them, they will scamper out of the forest and scrub and hare across the open meadows for their ‘breakfast’ treat! It is a wonderful experience to have lots of these huge and usually shy birds coming so close, and if you want to get low and take frame-filling photos, then a wide-angle lens can come in handy!

We can also expect stunning close encounters with the lovely Blood Pheasant, of both sexes, the handsome Buff-throated Monal Partridge (actually the size of a large pheasant!) and the ‘scared little weird guys’ of the bunch, the Tibetan Partridge, which sometimews takes a bit more work but whiuch should eventually come close.

Other birds of interest include such endemics or near-endemics as Black-rumped Magpie, the beautiful Crested Tit-warbler, Hodgson’s, Blue-fronted and and White-throated Redstarts, Chinese Fulvetta, Giant Laughingthrush, Sichuan Tit, Robin and Rufous-breasted Accentors Streaked Rosefinch, Pink-rumped Rosefinch and Himalayan Beautiful Rosefinch. More widespread are the equally pretty White-browed Tit-warbler and White-winged Grosbeak.

Mammals are not a big feature of this area, but we may well get the chance to see and photograph Himalayan Marmot and Woolly Hare, and probably Rhesus Macaque monkeys.

Late on the second day, we will return to Kangding for an overnight stay.

China’s Extraordinary Wildlife (Sichuan): Day 15  After another morning at the wonderful Lady Amherst’s Pheasant hide and after a celebratory lunch in Kangding, we will travel by expressway back to Chengdu’s Tianfu International Airport, where our tour ends late this afternoon.

(Chengdu Tianfu is served by a number of direct flights to Europe and the Gulf, as well as numerous flights to Chinese gateway cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou.)