Birding in Taiwan

 

 

Birds in Taiwan

Endemic Species

Black-necklaced Scimitar Babbler

Buffy Laughingthrush

Collared Bush-Robin

Flamecrest

Formosan Magpie

Formosan Whistling-Thrush

Mikado Pheasant

Rufous-crowned Laughingthrush

Steere's Liocichla

Styan's Bulbul

Swinhoe's Pheasant

Taiwan Barwing

Taiwan Bush-Warbler

Taiwan Fulvetta

Taiwan Hwamei

Taiwan Partridge

Taiwan Scimitar Babbler

Taiwan Wren Babbler

Taiwan Yuhina

White-eared Sibia

White-whiskered Laughingthrush

Yellow Tit

 

Endemic Sub-Species

Alpine Accentor

Besra

Black-browed Barbet

Black-naped Monarch

Black Bulbul

Black Drongo

Bronzed Drongo

Brown Bullfinch

Brown-eared Bulbul

Chinese Bamboo-Partridge

Collared Finchbill

Collared Scops-Owl

Collared Owlet

Crested Goshawk

Crested Serpent-Eagle

Eurasian Jay

Eurasian Nutcracker

Gray-cheeked Fulvetta

Gray Treepie

 Grey-headed Bullfinch

Green-backed Tit

Hwamei

Island Thrush

Lanyu’ Scops-Owl

Mountain Scops-Owl

Oriental Skylark

Oriental Turtle-Dove

Pygmy Wren-Babbler

Ring-necked Pheasant

Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler

Vinaceous Rosefinch

Whistling Green-Pigeon

White-bellied Green-Pigeon

White-browed Bush-Robin

White-browed Shortwing

White-tailed Robin

Winter Wren

Vinous-throated Parrotbill

 

More Birds in Taiwan

Black-faced Spoonbill

Black-naped Oriole

Black-throated Tit

Black-winged Stilt

Chinese Crested Tern

Common Kingfisher

Common Moorhen

Daurian Redstart

Fairy Pitta

Gray-chinned Minivet

Gray-faced Buzzard

Gray Heron

Greater Painted-Snipe

Japanese White-eye

Little Forktail

Malayan Night-heron

Red Collared-Dove

Spot-billed Duck

Spotted Dove

White-breasted Waterhen

 

 

 

Green-backed Tit

Parus monticolus insperatus

Endemic subspecies

 

The Green-backed Tit (13 cm) is a very  small, active bird with a black head, neck and bib extending as a line down the centre of its breast and belly, and a conspicuous white cheek.  Its sides are bright lemon yellow washed with gray, its back is light yellowish green and its tail is bluish gray. Its wings bear two white wing bars and the Taiwan race insperatus has bluish fringes on the tertials and broader white tips on the secondaries, tertials and wing coverts than mainland forms.  The eyes and bill are blackish and the legs are gray. 

Green-backed Tits feed on a variety of insects and seeds.  They are agile and acrobatic as they feed, and often travel in mixed species flocks with other tits and small babblers.  Their call is a persistent, ringing “chew chew chew”.  Green-backed Tits nest in tree holes and in Taiwan they are a common bird of mid-elevation broadleaf forests, descending to lower elevations in winter.

 

 

References:  A Field Guide to the Birds of China (Mackinnon and Phillipps); 100 Common Birds of Taiwan (Wild Bird Society of Taipei); N. J. Collar, “Endemic subspecies of Taiwan birds—first impressions”, in Birding ASIA, Number 2, December 2004