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China Hainan

Plain Prinia Prinia inornata ©Alister Benn http://www.availablelightimages.com

Tropical Hainan Island is the most southerly part of China, and its’ sandy, palm-fringed beaches are popular with visitors from the colder parts of the country. It was visited in the 1860s by Robert Swinhoe and in the 1890s by John Whitehead, who discovered the spectacular White-winged Magpie there. Whitehead died of malaria near the capital Haikou in 1899.

Hainan is home to a number of endemic island races of birds it has in common with adjacent Guangxi Province and Vietnam, such as Yellow-billed Nuthatch and Rufous-eared Laughingthrush.

The National Nature Reserve of Bawangling, four hours by bus from Haikou, is home to the world’s rarest primate, the Hainan Gibbon, as well as Hainan Peacock Pheasant, Hainan Partridge and Red Junglefowl. Closer to Sanya in the south of the island, the more visitor-friendly Jianfengling National Nature Reserve is a place to see Sultan Tit, Silver Pheasant and Ratchet-tailed Treepie.

A lot of research work on Hainan is being assisted by the Hongkong-based Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, http://www.kfbg.org/kfb/text2image2.xml?fid=165&sid=197 with new species being added to the Hainan Island birdlist all the time.

Haikou and Sanya are served by short, direct flights from Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Wintertime – October to April – is probably the most comfortable time to visit.

contributor

John & Jemi Holmes
johnjemi@netvigator.com

useful information

Provincial Bird

Hainan Hill Partridge Arborophola ardens

reserves

Dongzhaigang Nature Reserve

http://www.ramsar.org/profile/profiles_china.htm
Small shallow sea bay of extensive intertidal mudflats and mangrove swamps. The swamps are important feeding and nursery areas for waterbirds...

Dongzhaigang Nature Reserve

http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_21379.htm
...there are 159 species of birds such as egrets and ducks in the Reserve. Dongzhaigang is also the good habitat of marine animals, mainly including fish, shrimps, and shellfish such as sipunculid worm, perch and oyster...

Sanya Coral Reef Nature Reserve

http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_21379.htm
The seawater there is limpid and transparent, and in the water there are more than 100 species of reef corals...

trip reports

Travelling Birder
http://www.travellingbirder.com
The Travellingbirder.com birding trip report search engine guides you to 7,000+ birding trip reports on the Internet. You can search for trip reports from a specific country and time of year. Not all these reports are in English. So, if you can’t find the trip report you want on this Fatbirder page… give them a try!

2005 [January] - Björn Anderson - Bawangling

http://www.club300.se/Files/TravelReports/Bawangling,Hainan0501-BA.pdf
A weekend trip with the purpose of seeing Hainan Hill-Partridge and Hainan Peacock-Pheasant. Given all the trouble I had with logistics and inflexible reserve staff, I counted myself lucky to see the former species. The Peacock-Pheasant is very difficult to find during the winter and I could not find any sign of it during a total of seven hours spent at the best sites and known territories...

China Bird Report

http://www.cnbirder.com/
For the most part these are just lists of birds seen on individual dates at locations across the whole of China - but none-the-less, useful... In Chinese and [mostly] English.

tour operators

Birding Pal

http://www.birdingpal.org/China.htm
Local birders willing to show visiting birders around their area...

Yearly report from Bawangling National Park

http://www.birdforum.net/archive/index.php/t-54599
The past weeks a major wildlife survey has been carried out in the Bawangling national park on Hainan, a Chinese/Vietnamese has documented the fauna and flora of this, so far poorly known park...