Birdwatchers can find a treat along Taipei’s riverside cycling paths, where wild birds of the Anatidae family, red-tailed shrikes, kestrels and white egrets have been arriving since late September, a spokesman for the city’s Hydraulic Engineering Office said on Thursday.
Taipei has a 112km network of bikeways and parks along the Keelung (基隆河), Tamsui (淡水河), Xindian (新店河) and Jingmei (景美溪) rivers, according to the office, which is responsible for the maintenance and management of river-related construction projects.
Until the end of March, cyclists along these paths can watch the arrival of migratory birds from the north that overwinter in Taiwan, the office’s spokesman said.
Photo: Ho Shih-chang, Taipei Times
He said red-tailed shrikes usually arrive early at the riverside parks, around late September or early October, adding that herons, sandpipers and little ringed plovers can be seen at the intertidal zone of the low-lying Shezidao (社子島) peninsula at the confluence of the Keelung and Tamsui rivers in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林).
For those interested in birds of prey, the spokesman recommended visiting the riverside parks along the Xindian and Jingmei rivers, where kestrels and black kites can be spotted gliding along as they hunt for food.
Wild birds from the Anatidae family, including geese and ducks, have also started flying into Taipei’s wetlands, the spokesman said, adding that large flocks can be seen on the riverbank near Huajiang Bridge (華江橋) during winter.
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