Birdwatchers in Taiwan are used to driving up into the mountains, or standing at windswept spots along the coast. Yet the big cities are not totally lacking in places where you can get in a decent afternoon of birding.
In the north, Taipei Botanical Garden (台北植物園) is probably the best location for urban birdwatching. In the built-up core of Kaohsiung, Niaosong Wetland Park (鳥松濕地公園) is the go-to for birders who have just a few hours to spare.
The 3.6-hectare park, named for and located in Kaohsiung’s Niaosong District (鳥松), was the first wetland in Taiwan planned and deliberately brought into existence. Of course, humans have inadvertently created others, such as Gaomei Wetlands (高美濕地) in Taichung.
Photo: Steven Crook
Until the mid-1990s, this parcel of land was occupied by the state-run water utility. After they stopped using it, conservationists lobbied the government to turn it into a wetland education park. The water company dropped its initial objections, and work got underway. In September 2000, the park was ready for its grand opening. Admission is free, the park is open 24/7, and getting there isn’t difficult even if you’re depending on public transportation.
According to the website of Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society (www.kwbs.org.tw/wetland/english/Bird.html) — the NGO selected by the government to manage and maintain the park — 96 avian species are regularly seen around the wetland. The park is also home to up to 30 types of aquatic plants, various turtles, squirrels, insects, amphibians, and piscine species such as Mosquitofish (which Taiwanese call 大肚魚, “big-bellied fish”).
BIRDWATCHING
Photo: Steven Crook
Over the space of a couple of hours on a recent Sunday afternoon, my wife, my son and myself identified more than a dozen different birds. We’re occasional and minimally-skilled birders, but we had a decent pair of binoculars and favorable weather.
We weren’t surprised to see Little and Intermediate egrets. Nor were we especially excited: These white birds are found wherever there’s some greenery and some water.
We were a little too early to find any Great Egrets, but if you go to the wetland between now and May, you’ve a good chance of seeing one or two. To tell these three species apart, look at their beaks. That of the Little Egret is black; its Intermediate counterpart has a short, thick yellow beak that turns red or black during breeding season; the Great Egret’s beak is longer and thinner, and changes from yellow to a darker hue in the breeding season.
Photo: Steven Crook
The Common Moorhen is another year-round resident. Its beak, which is mostly red with a yellow tip, is its most colorful feature. The body is almost entirely black.
In the bamboo on the southern edge of the wetland, several Japanese White-eyes (sometimes called Warbling White-eyes) were hopping around. In the same patch of semi-woodland, there were at least three Taiwan Scimitar-Babblers. This species is endemic, meaning it isn’t seen in other countries. It’s also a particularly handsome bird, thanks to the red-brown around its shoulders.
The Black-Crowned Night Herons were almost as numerous as the egrets. A few had positioned themselves on the banks of the main pond, while others stood on posts or floating branches. An adult specimen can weigh up to 800g, so a good amount of food is required each day. Like some other herons, they have been seen to throw tiny scraps into the water, to lure fish to within striking distance.
Photo: Steven Crook
Just as we were returning to our car, we found another kind of hunter on the very edge of the wetland park. My wife spotted a Crested Goshawk, motionless on a branch, almost within arm’s reach. These raptors are quite a bit smaller than some of the other birds of prey seen in Taiwan. I wondered if many people, seeing its grey-brownish patterning, assume it’s nothing but a well-fed pigeon.
There’s evidence from Southeast Asia that this species adapts fairly well to urban life, so perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise to see one here. In the countryside they hunt smaller birds, mammals and reptiles. In the city, there are plenty of rats.
If you want to make a full day’s excursion to this part of Kaohsiung, you can also visit Chengcing Lake (澄清湖, open Tuesday to Sunday, 6am to 5:30pm; admission NT$100 for adults but free for Kaohsiung residents), or take in a game at the nearby sports venue which takes its name, Chengcing Lake Baseball Stadium (高雄市立澄清湖棒球場).
Because the lake’s current name was chosen by Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in 1963, some think the authorities should restore the original Taiwanese-language toponym, Toapi Lake (大埤湖). Chiang had one of his many retreats by the lake, as well as an underground military headquarters. The old bunker is now an aquarium called Chengcing Lake Exotic Marine Life Museum (澄清湖海洋奇珍園).
Less than 1km northwest of the wetland, there’s further evidence of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s impact on this side of the city in the form of a landmark building which resembles Taipei’s Grand Hotel (圓山大飯店). The similarity is entirely intentional, because this is a sister establishment of the capital’s landmark called the Grand Hotel Kaohsiung (高雄圓山大飯店). If your budget stretches that far, consider finishing your trip in the cafe on the second floor.
Steven Crook has been writing about travel, culture, and business in Taiwan since 1996. He is the co-author of A Culinary History of Taipei: Beyond Pork and Ponlai, and author of Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide, the third edition of which has just been published.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built