Since beginning his birding career at the age of 10, Noah Strycker has always kept his eyes skyward.
“Birds are a great way for people around the world to connect with nature. Birds are accessible, interesting and somewhat mysterious,” said the 29-year-old from the US, who set a world record on Sept. 16 for notching up the most birds spotted in a calendar year — which is known in the birding world as the “Big Year” challenge.
For Strycker, the magic bird — No. 4,342 since Jan. 1, helping him break a record — was a Sri Lankan frogmouth, a greyish bird he spotted in the Thattekad Bird Sanctuary in India.
However, Strycker — who is recording his journey in a blog called “Birding Without Borders” for the US-based National Audubon Society, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to bird conservation — is not satisfied with his tally.
Aiming to observe at least 5,000 bird species in his Big Year challenge, the globetrotting birder is to visit Taiwan this week in a bid to add 100 new species to his count in four days.
The task might sound daunting, but luckily Strycker is to be assisted by the Chinese Wild Bird Federation, Taiwan’s most established birding society, and two of the nation’s foremost birders.
With the help of Wayne Hsu (許哲瑋), the federation’s director of conservation and international affairs, and Hung Kuan-chieh (洪貫捷), a former director of the federation, Strycker said he is expecting to see a lot of birds.
“Taiwan is an important stop on my 2015 world Big Year effort to become the first human to see half of the world’s bird species — about 5,000 — in a single year,” Strycker said.
However, to meet that goal a precise, but flexible plan is needed, Hsu said.
“The focus will have to be the Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Area,” Hsu said, referring to Taiwan’s birding paradise, where 26 of Taiwan’s 27 endemic bird species can be observed.
Although the objective is clear, the plan cannot be fixed and has to take numerous variables into consideration, including weather, traffic and, most of all, luck.
For now, Strycker’s whirlwind tour is to start with camping on Dasyueshan (大雪山) in Taichung County from tomorrow to Friday. That is to be followed on Saturday with a visit to the nearby Huisun National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County for birds like the Taiwan blue magpie and the varied tit.
Finally, after a trip on Sunday to southern parts of the nation to see Taiwan bulbuls and black-faced spoonbills, Strycker is to conclude his journey at about midnight and take an overnight flight to the Philippines for the next stop of his odyssey.
The main focus of the trip is to observe as many bird species as possible, Strycker said, adding that it would still be nice to simply marvel at beautiful creatures that can only be found in Taiwan.
“I hope to get a glimpse of the rare and magnificent Mikado and Swinhoe’s pheasants in their natural environment at Dasyueshan,” Strycker said.
“And I don’t think any trip to Taiwan would be complete without a look at a Taiwan blue magpie — Taiwan’s national bird, beautiful and awesome,” he said.
Strycker’s visit could stir up interest in birding and raise conservation awareness in Taiwan, Hsu said.
“Taiwan has one of the highest densities of bird species in the world, and is seeing a growth in the number of people interested in birding,” Hsu said.
“Hopefully, through Noah’s journey, Taiwan can raise its global profile and share its experiences in conservation,” he added.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of