Birding Jeju

Jeju is a volcanic island south of the Korean Peninsula. It is a popular tourist destination for both Koreans and oversea visitors due to its mild climate and beautiful coastal scenery, lush nature and fresh seafood.

My wife and I spent a week in mid June driving around the island, mainly to visit the waterfalls, nature parks and touristy spots. I searched through eBirds for birding hot spots close to where we stay or enroute. Luckily for us, most of the hot spots were within short driving distances from our hotels. No problems getting here using the rental car’s GPS.

These are some of the sites that we visited: Ongpo-ri, an estuarine wetland and Hallim Park in the Eastern part of the island; Cheonjieon Waterfall Forest Park and Saeseom Island at Seogwipo in the South: Hado-ri Bird Sanctuary, Seongsan Wetlands and Jondal Bay in the West and the Ramsar site at Dongbaek Dongsan in the north.

Ongpo-ri Estuary and Park.

Japanese Cormorant at the Ongpo-ri estuary. Can be found as far south as Taiwan.

Brown-eared Bulbul, a native of East Asia is a common and widespread noisy species in Jeju. In winter they migrate to the southern part of their range.

Oriental Greenfinch, another common species in the parks and gardens.

Unfortunately June is not the best time to bird as most migrants have gone up north. But it is the breeding season for most of the passerines. I ended up with only 35 species ( Checklist at the bottom) but we still enjoy visiting these birding sites for its natural beauty.

Cheonjiyeon Water Falls. The forested area of the park is good for birding as well.

Japanese White-eyes at the Cheonjiyeon Park.

Seongsan Wetlands, a major site for waterbirds in the eastern part of the island.

IUCN Endangered listed Black-faced Spoonbills at Seongsan Wetlands

Herring Gull 2 CY at Jondal Bay. This is the only seabird I encounter during the trip. No terns seen.

Herring Gull, Non-breeding adult of the Vegae race? with Little Ringed Plover. This gull group has a ring distribution around the northern hemisphere.

Hado-ri Bird Migratory Bird Sanctuary consists of abandoned fish farms and aquaculture. One of the richest wetland in Jeju and an important stop over for migratory waterbirds.

Juvenile Blue Rock Thrush, a common parkland species in Jeju.

Dongbaek Dongsan Wetlands. The rests of the park are covered by Camilla forest.

White-backed Woodpecker (female) at the Dongbaek Dongsan Ramsar Wetlands. This is the largest of the spotted woodpeckers in the western palearctic and ranged from central and northern Europe all the way to Japan and Korea in the east.

Nesting Japanese Paradise Flycatcher at its breeding site at Dongbaek Dongsan Ramsar Site. We came across three active nests at this site. This is the only paradise flycatcher found on the island.

Reference: Wikipedia. eBirds, Birdlife International. Birding Korea. Birds of Japan.

birds-of-jeju-checklistDownload

Our “Bird of Paradise”

2 May 2015.

The closest we get to seeing a Bird of Paradise in Singapore are the Pin-tailed Whydahs, an escapee from Africa and the handsome Paradise Flycatchers especially the males with its long dangling tails. Two species visit and pass through Singapore, the rare Japanese Paradise Flycatcher and the commoner Asian Paradise Flycatcher. The latter was a former resident in our forests but went extinct early in the 20th century (Hails 1988b, Lim K.S. 1992). During the Autumn migration, most of the Paradise Flycatchers that come through are female birds. In Spring, only then do we get to see a few males stopping by on the way back north.

This afternoon an alert from Vincent Ng shook me out from my nap. A male white morph Asian Paradise Flycatcher was spotted at Bidadari. I missed one the year before and I do not want to missed out again. Tried my best not to speed down Lornie Road and arrived at Bidadari where many of the Sifus were shooting away. With its long white tail fluttering behind and a dark purplish head, it was a truly splendid looking bird.

it was moving from tree to tree staying mainly at mid storey, behind the foliage. I was told that it came lower down earlier and some great videos and shots were taken. Nevertheless, we somehow managed to get some shots before the light started to fade.

Last year, the last Asian Paradise Flycatcher male was recorded on the 10th April again at Bidadari. The extreme date was 26th April which makes this late record our new extreme date.

I first saw this white morph with its long tail at Taman Negara way back in the 90s and was totally in awe. Got to see them again at the Kubah National Park in Kuching where they are breeding residents. But did not have a chance to get any decent photos until now. Hope it will stay for another day for the rest to get to see and photograph it.

Reference: The Avifauna of Singapore. Lim Kim Seng. 2009.