Classic China: Hong Kong & Sichuan: May 10—Jun 02, 2010

Pearl Shoal Waterfall, Sichuan — Photo: Dion Hobcroft

The incredible mountain forests of Sichuan have lured naturalists and botanists for centuries. This tour will combine exceptionally beautiful scenery, tasty Sichuan banquets, and some of the most spectacular and rarely encountered Chinese birds imaginable.

Pride of place will be awarded to the fabulous pheasants. Sichuan is the epicenter of pheasant diversity, and time will be spent searching for the cosmic Temminck's Tragopan, Golden Pheasant, Lady Amherst's Pheasant, Koklass and Blood pheasants, White Eared-Pheasant, and Blue Eared-Pheasant. Patient scoping of mountain faces may reveal one of the rarest birds in China—the incredibly-colored Chinese Monal. Other elusive skulkers we will search for include Verreaux's Monal Partridge, Snow Partridge, Chinese Bamboo-Partridge, Severtzov's Grouse, and, on the high passes, the robust Tibetan Snowcock.

There will be much more to keep us on our toes. A flock of glowing blue Grandalas feeding amongst patches of snow is one of the great birding highlights in the world. Black-necked Cranes nesting on remote Tibetan marshes surrounded by Citrine Wagtails and Tibetan Larks is another of the world's great birding highlights. A spirited song bursting from the bamboo will lead us to a superb male Firethroat. There will be rosefinches, tesias, laughingthrushes, warblers, fulvettas, parrotbills, bush robins, redstarts, woodpeckers, vultures—including the awesome Lammergeier, falcons, buzzards, eagles, accentors, dippers, tits, cuckoos, grosbeaks, and buntings, to name a few.

Sichuan is most famous as the home of the enigmatic giant panda, although we will be unlikely to see this living icon, as the dense bamboo forests will not give up its greatest prize without much fortune. Other mammals we will look for include the red panda, yellow-throated marten, Chinese ferret badger, and lesser Indian civet, among others.

Since VENT first operated tours to China, the changes in the infrastructure have been astonishing. Good paved roads now provide access to just about all the sites we visit, and the quality of the accommodations has improved markedly. The birding has also improved; with increased forest protection and a ban on hunting, we are now finding a lot more of the rare and shy species.

Excellent to good accommodations with one night (optional) at a Panda Field Research Centre; very good food; largely roadside birding with some optional uphill hikes for rarer target birds; some higher altitude birding with time spent acclimating; climate varies from warm and occasionally hot and humid, to cool and mild with cold conditions likely at high altitude (bus always available nearby).