Traveling Around Beautiful Taiwan for Thirteen Days and Not Just Looking for Birds

By Lucie Hošková, Head of Development in Czech Society for Ornithology
Photos By Michael Hošek
(written on behalf of the whole Hošek family)

It was over twenty years ago that a joint photo exhibition was organized by the Czech Society for Ornithology (CSO) and Taipei Economic and Cultural office in Prague. My organization, the CSO, supplied photos of Important Bird Areas while the Taiwanese side provided beautiful shots of Taiwanese nature. I remember even back then admiring the beauty of Taiwanese nature very much, but I never thought that I would see it in person twenty years later. Then last year,  CSO director and family friend Zdenek Vermouzek visited Taiwan and his enthusiastic description as well as his photographs capturing the island's beauty thrilled me again. Finally, after watching Scott Pursner's presentation on birdwatching and bird conservation in Taiwan during his visit to Prague in December 2023, the destination of my family's next holiday was decided. We would visit Taiwan.

Preparing the trip was extrememly easy because we don't need a visa, and even though Taiwan is partly in a tropical zone, we didn't need any vaccinations. Plus, there is now a direct flight connection from Prague to Taipei.

It was a challenge to plan the route though. We were a family of four and everyone has different interests. Of course, we were all looking forward to experiencing Taiwanese nature and culture, but I am most interested in birdwatching while my husband Michael, currently serving as a president of Europarc Federation, is very interested in protected areas and their management. Our son who wants to study geography and international relations is particularly interested in cities, modern architecture and geographical and historical contexts. Meanwhile our daughter is mainly interested in people and animals—the cuter, the better. Needless to say, striking a balance and planning such a trip for less than two weeks was not easy. But with the kind help of Scott and his colleagues, it all got worked out and I can already say that everyone was more than satisfied and enthusiastic with the travel schedule.

Here is a brief description of the main places visited and our impressions

Taipei—A really big city, full of contrasts. Its hustle and bustle helped us overcome our extreme fatigue and the ever-present jet lag. Nice parks full of birds and flowering trees. Large and monumental Liberty Square, presidential palace and other interesting buildings. Good coffee and first experience with tasty Taiwanese food. Beautiful lantern festival and our first Night Market which was a truly memorable experience. Above all—our kind and knowledgeable guide Scott, who helped us understand and enjoy the city much more than if we'd been alone.

Festival of Lights makes night Taipei a special place of many colours

Especially tourists from Europe appretiate the playfulness with which dragons are incorporated into everyday life, even in transport, in the Year of the Dragon
 

Pinglin—A nice small town, surrounded by tea plantations. At the Tea Museum, we found  mention of famous Czech writer Karel Čapek and how he invented the word "robot". We also had an amazing tea tasting with the tea farmer, who was also very nice.

Taroko National Park—A breathtaking gorge of unbelievable proportions with beautiful waterfalls, suspension bridges, the Water Curtain Cave, cheeky monkeys, magnificent temples and shrines with a panorama of mountains in the background and many colourful birds.

Kenting Peninsula—Palms everywhere, another great Night Market with lots of fresh seafood, remnants of uplifted coral reefs overgrown with the aerial roots of banyan trees. Amazing coastline and swimming in a pleasantly warm sea. Eluanbi Light House and its surroundings. Beautiful encounters with rays, sharks, countless fish (and beluga whales!) at the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium.

Kenting National Park, an example of primary forest, is easily accessible to tourists.

Kaohsiung—Though the approach was a bit depressing as we were stuck in traffic in the industrial outskirts, we liked this modern city very much. A lovely half-day trip to Shoushan with many monkeys, many steps, and many breathtaking views. Walking around Love River, seeing the great modern architecture. We took in an amazing sunset on Cijin island though it was terribly crowded with people as it was on the 2/29 public holiday. And there was another  great Night Market. Formosa Boulevard Station was the most beautiful metro station I had ever seen. Lotus Pond was very interesting and colorful though we found the temples, and dragons and pagodas there a bit too touristy. Foguanshan was a a remarkable place with an incredibly peaceful atmosphere. It was also looks very touristy, but the 120 m statue of the seated Buddha is really impressive and the beauty of the shrine with the white jade reclining Buddha is stunning.

Dinner at night markets is always interesting, varied, and fun. In addition, it allows you to experience the cultural diversity of the different regions of Taiwan

Tainan—A beautiful historic city which unfortunately we didn't have enough time to visit. Beautiful temples and narrow streets decorated with lanterns. An illuminated gazebo on the lake with dozens of bats flying around. And amazing morning of birdwatching at the Taijiang National Park.

We really liked the ubiquitous lanterns, which gave the cities a special spiritual atmosphere at night.

Access to bird observation platform in Taijiang NP leaves no one in doubt which rare bird is the focus here

Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Area—Breathtaking mountains, mysterious misty forests, sakura trees covered with lichen, giant thousand-year-old cypress trees. An adrenaline rush going through thick fog. Accommodation in cozy cabins located right in the forest. Cold weather compared to the rest of our stay but heated electric blankets in the beds solved that. And the birds!

The giant trees in Dasyueshan breathe history and remember a lot - they are more than a thousand years old.

In Dasyueshan visitors are accommodated directly in the forest

Taipei again - arriving in Taipei on a multi-level highway like something out of a science fiction movie. Nice visit to the TWBF office for a meeting with Scott and Dali Lin from Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute. Climbing the 600 steps up Elephant Mountain and being rewarded with incredible views of Taipei 101. A stimulating discussion with Scott about possible future collaboration between our organizations. One last stroll through the city streets and one last visit to the Night Market before heading to the airport.

The author of the article and Scott Pursner at Elephant Mountain. Scott got that shirt from the CSO when he was in Prague in December 2023. The Barn Swallows symbolize how birds connect our world as they are found in both the Czech Republic and Taiwan.

Birdwatching in Taiwan

I will not hide the fact that one of my main goals during the trip was birdwatching and the desire to see as many Taiwanese endemics as possible, at least one "blue pheasant", and wintering Black -faced Spoonbills. I can say with confidence that I fulfilled this basic goal, although I missed many bird species of course. In the end, I recorded 90 species on my bird list, of which about 40 were lifers, including 14 endemics.

My first Taiwanese endemic was the beautifully colored Taiwan Barbet. Scott pointed it out to me and my family in Daan Park during a tour of Taipei City the day we landed. Getting an  extremely close sighting of a Malayan Night heron and observing a nesting colony of Black-crowned Night Herons, Little Egrets, and Cattle Egrets was also very nice. On our second day, in Pinglin, my family was lucky enough to see two Taiwan Blue Magpies flying. Unfortunately this was our only sighting of the whole trip. In Pinglin I was also delighted to see a Black Kite and Plumbeous Water Redstart. After arriving to the east coast, we were abit disappointed that we did not have enough time to take a closer look at the rice paddies, where many herons and waders weere foraging or roosting.

Taroko NP did not disappoint us—my daughter was thrilled to finally see Formosan Macaques and we all enjoyed seeing some really colorful bird species—not just endemics like Yellow Tit or Chestnut Bellied Tit, but also Gray-chinned Minivet and Rufous-capped Babbler. As we left Taroko early in the morning, two beautiful Yellow Throated Martens watched us curiously from the side of the road.

There wasn't much time for birdwatching as we headed down the east coast, but at least we did get excited when we realized that what we thought was a Light-vented Bulbul was actually the endemic Styan's Bulbul! From the bridge at scenic Sanxiantai, we also spotted a hunting Pacific Reef Heron.

In Kenting, the birdwatching was a big disappointment at first, with the Kenting Forest Recreation Area a stunning place with uplifted coral reefs covered with banyan trees, but almost no birds tp be seen. Getting up early the next morning, a walk around the accommodation revealed different results. I saw Gray Treepie, Black Drongo, a flock of White-shouldered Starlings and a beautiful Black-naped Oriole.

We then visited the Long Luan Lake Nature Centre. Using their telescopes, we were able to see many waterbirds. Aside from for the Eastern Spot-billed Duck and Intermediate Egret, they were all well-known Eurasian species such as Great Cormorant, Great Egret, Eurasian Wigeon, Tufted Duck, common Pochard and Northern Shoveler. However, watching an Osprey eating a fish it just caught fish via webcam in the visitor's centre was really interesting. The rest of that day belonged to fish rather than birds—unless you count penguins and puffins. We visited the aquarium in Kenting and enjoyed it very much, particularly the beluga whales. We didn't see the whale shark as we had originally wanted to, as we found out it was released back into the sea seven years ago. We hope it's still doing well there.

We really enjoyed our time at Shoushan in Kaohsiung. True, there are monkeys everywhere, even with babies which were pretty cute. But we also saw the Crested Serpent Eagle, the endemic Taiwan Scimitar Babbler (which I really liked!) and Morisson's Fulvetta.

The best birding moments for me came at the end of our trip—first a visit to Taijing NP and then 2 days in Dasyueshan. In Taijing NP I fulfilled my dream of seeing a Black-faced Spoonbill—near the closed-for-the-day Black-faced Spoonbill Conservation Association Center we saw a flock of 11 of these beautiful birds along with many familiar waders such as Black-winged Stilt, Pied Avocet, Kentish Plover, Common Redshank, Common Greenshank and Dunlin. A Black-shouldered Kite also flew in to see us. We saw another Black-faced Spoonbill from a nearby observatory which was equipped with Swarovski telescopes manned by volunteers. Here, however, we were more interested in the large flock of Caspian Terns accompanied by Whiskered Terns, Whimbrels, and Pacific Golden Plovers. I would have liked to spend much more time in the Taijiang NP, but we needed to get to Dasyueshan within five hours, so we had to leave Tainan after three hours of nice observing.

Dasyueshan is a truly breathtaking area. Unfortunately, we could not admire the changing vegetation along the way uphill drive because a thick fog had rolled in, making our journey very adventurous. The stress of driving through the fog was eased a bit when we all saw a beautiful male Swinhoe's Pheasant perched right on a guardrail.

The Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Area is simply beautiful. We loved the place immediately. And the birds! The morning after we arrived, even though it was raining, I added Green-backed Tit, the very cute Black-throated Tit and two other endemics—White-eared Sibia and Taiwan Yuhina to my bird list. The next day we saw more endeimcs such as the Collared Bush-Robin, White-whiskered Laughingtrush, Taiwan Flamecrest, but also old familiar friends suchs as the Eurasian Nutcracker and Eurasian Nuthatch, a couple of the most common birds of the Czech Republic. We also met many Taiwanese birdwatchers and photographers. Right b our accommodation we could observe a Reeve's Muntjac and about five incredibly cute Red and White Giant Flying Squirrels. Unfortunately we were not lucky enough to see a Mikado Pheasant, but at least we had a Taiwan Vivid Niltava and a Taiwan Whistling Thrush on the way down from the mountains. Though we didn't want to go....

Finally, Our Overall Impressions and What We Liked the Most

Definitely the people—Taiwanese are really friendly and nice, always willing to help although the conversation often took place via mobile phone translation. We had many pleasant encounters, including drinking tea at a tea maker's place in Pinglin and meeting the enthusiastic multilingual Steve. He was a volunteer a temple in Lotus Pond, and helpfully explained the basics of Taoism to us in a combination of English, German and Polish and was excited to practice languages he doesn't normally get to use. There was also the elderly couple up at Shoushan who handed out tea and umeboshi prunes as well as a wonderful women at our Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Area accommodation who helped prepare special vegetarian meals for our daughter.

We loved the beautiful temples everywhere—full of light, colour, and positivity. They could be found all over. It didn’t matter if it was in the mountains or a cities, a big street or a small alleys. Sometimes we even saw shrines in a home's garage.

We also admired the good tourism infrastructure. Roads and hiking trails were in very good condition and the visitor centres were well-equipped, even providing telescopes for observing birds. It was also surpriosing to see clean and well-equipped toilets even in remote parts of protected areas etc. We also really appreciated the hard work of the volunteers we often met. We should (and want to) share Taiwan as an example in this regard with people in Czechia.

I can't forget the food—Taiwanese cuisine is really great and we enjoyed it very much. Compared to Czech cuisine it is much more varied, healthier, and uses more fruits and vegetables and less pastries. Of course we in Czechia don't have the opportunity to enjoy fresh fish and seafood as a landlocked country. And because we love tea, we were really excited that there was great tea available everywhere, be it hot, cold, or in bubble tea form. Even the coffee is excellent in Taiwan. We all loved the waffles filled with ice cream (especially the matcha flavor) sold at 7-11 and the freshly prepared waffle cookies filled with black sesame, sweet beans or custard. And the mochi! Sometimes we came across quite unusual dishes, especially at the Night Markets. We even tasted some of them but we didn't dare to try Stinky Tofu, sorry...

The high population density, especially in the western part of the island, brings with it traffic jams much worse than those in the Czech Republic. The massive use of scooters also really surprised us—they really were everywhere. Sometimes it felt like too much for us and we didn't feel completely safe, either driving or walking through the city. Aside from this, we felt the overall security level of Taiwan is very high indeed.

In conclusion, I can only add that we did not want to leave Isla Formosa and that we really hope to return one day. In the meantime, I look forward to further collaboration between CSO and TWBF, as Scott and I have already come up with some ideas. I will certainly spread my enthusiasm for your beautiful country and, by the way, a field trip of Czech Society for Ornithology members to Taiwan should take place next year.

PS: While finishing this article, we learned the news of a strong earthquake that struck Taiwan. Natural disasters are always horrible, but this one feels worse because we now know the places, having recently been to them and we are thinking of you all the more. We really do hope that all readers and their loved ones are safe, that the damage and losses are kept to a minimum, and that the repair and recovery of the affected areas takes place is as quick as possible.