Juizhaguo National Park is famed as one of the most beautiful parks in the world. It's also very expensive and crowded with thousands of tourists. Though the park holds the famous Rufous-headed Robin, we didn't have time to fight the crowds. So we headed up the road to bend 7 where Sid has had good luck in the past. Looks like the folks on the bus might be having more fun the us.
Bend 7 had some birds but the weather was dreadful. We saw Martin's Warbler, Dark-sided and Slaty-backed Flycatchers, Green-backed and Yellow-bellied Tits and heard a calling Collared Owlet. But there was no light for photos so we headed down the road. Here's a poor shot of the Yellow-bellied Tit.
The entrance road to Beihe Nature Preserve also had some birds and more rain. There were more Collared Finchbills, Brown-breasted Bulbuls and White-browed Laughingthrushes. Gray-headed Canary-Flycatchers were common but uncooperative.
Got close to a Spectacled Fulvetta but couldn't get it in focus for photos. Finally was able to get some poor shots of Red-billed Blue-Magpies. They remind me of the Magpie-Jays of western Mexico.
The road climbed to another pass as we drove east of Jiuzhaiguo and Sid stopped to give me one last try for Blood Pheasant. It was foggy and drizzling as we glassed open an open area for chickens. No luck. Wait! What is that? It wasn't a Blood Pheasant but a Rufous-throated Partridge also know as Verreaux's Monal. Wow! This was a species I dared not hope for. I cautioned Sid to stay in the car as I was going to quietly sneak up on the bird alone for better photos. So the first thing I do as I exited the car was to noisily fall down in a ditch. Honey and Sid laughed it up in the car but lucky for me, the fool bird didn't even move. I managed a few shots.
We had a flurry of activity at this spot. Gray-hooded Fulvetta is not illustrated in MacKinnon and Phillips. It's a real cutie. The fulvettas have been moved from the babbler family to the old world warblers.
With white outer rectrices and buffy orange wingbars, Buff-barred Warbler is one of the easier Phylloscopus to identify.
Here's a Rufous-vented Tit. Though I saw several during our trip, I'm not happy with any of my photos of them.
Then I got another that I really wanted, a male White-browed Rosefinch. It was one of only three rosefinch species for the trip.
Sid found Black-faced Laughingthrushes but I only managed poor views and the Blood Pheasants failed to appear so we headed down the other side. A nice surprise were several winter plumaged Rosy Pipits along the road.
Eventually the road paralleled a river where a flock of White Wagtails included a Citrine.
At this lower elevation Sid made several stops to add birds to our list. Our only Black-throated Tits were not as close as I had hoped for.
Plumbeous Water-Redstarts played along the boulder strewn river.
Another stop produced a harsh "weh-weh-weh" call which Sid immediately identified as Spot-breasted Parrotbill. As we didn't bird any bamboo habitat, I was happy to get a good parrotbill photo.
A bit down the road we stopped again hoping for Brown Dipper. And we got one.
The flock of Asian House Martins swirling over the hillside contained a new species for us, Salim Ali's Swift.
We pulled into Pinwu at dinner time and Sid put us up in a hotel that sees few western tourists. Here's a shop next door selling mushrooms and various smoked pig parts.
We found a place to eat (but not here) and had some more good Sichuan food.
Afterwards we went for a stroll where I found an old long lost friend.
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