Sichuan Province is China’s premier birdwatching area, with many of its sites host to such feathered luminaries as Golden, Lady Amherst’s, Blood and White-eared Pheasants, Temmink’s Tragopans, Chinese Monals, Black Necked Cranes, Hume’s Groundpeckers, Sichuan Jays, Lammergeiers, Blue Magpies, Firethroats, Gould’s Sunbirds, Wallcreepers, Grandalas, White-speckled Laughingthrushes, Golden-breasted Fulvettas, Hume’s Groundpeckers, White-browed Tit Warblers among a bewildering variety of others.

 

The Adjacent Tibetan Plateau is home to Blue-eared Pheasants, Chinese Grouse, Tibetan Sandgrouse, Tibetan and Himalayan Snowcocks, Isisbills, Snowfinches, Rosefinches, Przevalski’s Redstarts and Henderson’s Ground Jays among many others. The best time to visit Suchuan and Tibet for birding is during the spring, especially May.

 

Bordering these areas, Yunnan Province, best visited in winter, especially during December and January, offers the chance to spot Black-necked Cranes, Yunnan and Giant Nuthatches, Long-tailed Wren-babblers, Fire-tailed Sunbirds, Himalayan Cutia, Fire-tailed Myzornis, Hooded Pittas, Sptted Elachuras, Pale-billed Parrotbills, Red-tailed Laughingthrushes and Collared Mynas and a vast array of other bird species which can also be seen in close by Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.

 

Beidaihe, on the coast due east of Beijing is another birding hotspot whose feathered inhabitants include Siberian Rubythroats, Siberian Thrushes, Siberian Blue Robins Needletail Swifts, Oriental White Storks, Lanceolated Warblers, Mugimaki Flycatchers, Chestnut-eared Buntings, Asian Dowitchers, Spoon-billed Sandpipers, Fairy Pittas, Blue-fronted Redstarts, Mongolian Larks, Long tailed Minivets and Blue Whistling Thrushes among a host of others. Best visited during the spring.