Sun Link Sea Forest & Nature Resort, Taiwan

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When: June 2025 Weather: hot 25C

Nikon P900, Nikon P950, Leica M11 35mm summilux

After our meeting ended in Taipei, we did the 2.5hour drive up to a birding location, Sun-Link-Sea Forest in Nantou province in the middle of Taiwan, on our way to the scenic attraction of Sun Moon Lake. It did not bode well that we arrived in SLS Forest in rain with a dark sky. Undaunted, our birding guide MrPao handed out umbrellas and ponchos and we boarded the shuttle bus for the famous waterfall about 10min away….apologies for the poor photos but it was dark and wet…

We stopped for lunch near Taichung at a restaurant called the Master of Mushroom….

Eastern red rumped swallow posed for us outside the Master of Mushroom restaurant

red rumped swallow
Arriving on a dull, wet day in Sun-Link-Sea Forest
the waterfall is approached by a partly sheltered cave walk
First bird of the trip was the very pretty Little Forktail, perched on the steep rocky cliff side
Little Forktail
Male plumbeous water redstart …by the water as usual
Female plumbeous water redstart…I got much better pictures in Chengdu Qing Cheng mountains last year…see a previous post.
rather splendid waterfall

We then took the shuttle bus back to the ‘red building’ where we got off and walked to seek out other local birds in the rain….

First bird was the endemic Taiwan Yuhinia, a lively and chirpy bird…
then our guide heard the Steere’s or Taiwan Liocichla and he soon showed up..
Taiwan Liocichla
another Taiwan Yuhinia
then in the distance the Taiwan Whistling thrush whose whistle was easily heard
Taiwan whistling thrush
a very active ferruginous fly catcher entertained us
another Taiwan Yuhinia
final bird of the afternoon was the brown bullfinch
brown bullfinch couple

We called it a day about 430pm and headed for our destination for the next two nights…the Lalu Hotel on the Sun Moon Lake…although we didn’t get many birds in the miserable weather, we still saw a few things and it was fun…

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