Jeju Birds

2025-08-03

2025-08-03: Caspian Tern on Jongdal Coast

A short late afternoon / early evening visit to the east coast of Jeju turned out pretty nice, with a great sighting of a Caspian Tern flying over Jongdal Bay. This species shows up sporadically on Jeju, as I guess the habitat is nice and it's nicely in between breeding and wintering sights. Still, not a common sight and always nice to find one in Korea.

Caspian Tern

Mongolian Gull

2025-08-02

2025-07: Southern Taiwan

We took a week trip to southern Taiwan at the end of July. The goal was to see Lantau Island, Kenting National Park, and Kaohsiung. Unfortunately, Lantau Island was cancelled because of the weather, and Kenting was absolutely soaking with torrential typhoon rains so mountainous regions and hiking in general was off the table. Despite these conditions, some nice trips were taken in city parks and coastal areas. Here's a selection of different birds and other wildlife we saw during our stay.

Black Bulbul

Taiwan Japalure

Malayan Night Heron

Taiwan Hwamei

Crested Goshawk

Taiwan Barbet

Swinhoe's White-eye

Grey Treepie

Red Collared Dove

Lesser Coucal

Formosan Macaque

Taiwan Scimitar Babbler

Paddyfield Pipit (a particularly unusual species to find in Taiwan)

Barn Swallow

Black-naped Tern

Styan's Bulbul

Spotted Dove

Great Crested Tern

Black-naped Oriole

2025-07-17

2025-07-17: Pitta in the Gotjawal

Fairy Pittas are somewhat common on Jeju Island during summer time, although very difficult to find. Usually they heard rather than seen. But, someimes you get incredibly lucky, like I did while walking through Dongebaekdongsan on the northeast of Jeju. This fella was seen right on the trail, and with some fieldcraft and patience I managed extended looks of this rarely seen jewel of the summer forests.

2025-07-11

2025-07-11: Foggy Bulgeun Oreum

I like to try to visit a variety of parks when birding on Jeju, mainly because I'm curious to see what surprises are in areas that aren't visited by birders often. Bulgeun Oreum Recreational Forest is a park I visited back in 2021, and then again briefly in March 2025. But I had never visited this forest during spring and summer, so of course I had to check it out. It was fairly rainy and foggy, so visibility was poor, but I managed to see a nice variety of summer birds, such as Barn Swallows and Black Paradise Flycatchers. The real highlight was a Chinese Sparrowhawk, a summer visitor to Korea that is rarely found on Jeju. There's the possibility that this individual was breeding in this forest, which is exciting to think about. Definitely worth a visit again in some better weather.

eBird checklist here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S258773006

Barn Swallows resting on hay bales.

A family of very noisy Large-billed Crows.

Black Paradise Flycatcher

Chinese Sparrowhawk

Some sort of Antlion or Owlfly I think.

Some sort of parasitoid wasp (Ichneumonid?)

Black-spotted Frog, a common species in Korea.

2025-06-15

2025-06-14: Painted Snipe in Ulsan!

Painted Snipe! Back in mid or late May a pair of Painted Snipes were reported in a small patch of rice fields in Ulsan, on the far southeast of Korea (just a bit north of Busan). Painted Snipes used to be more numerous in Korea, but their numbers have dropped a lot making them difficult to see. As this species was massively high on my list of birds to see in Korea, and given how difficult it is to see them in general even when they are found, I took a flight from Jeju to see them before the rice grew too high.

We located them shortly after arriving, thanks to very helpful information provided by other local birders. We saw the female first, which was a relief as this is the most charismatic of the pair, and the one I had wanted to see the most. Painted Snipes are interesting in that the roles are reversed: the females are the flashy ones, and the males are the ones that take care of the young.

The next morning I went out again on my own to get some more time with them. I couldn't find the female, but after about an hour of waiting around I saw the male as well as some chicks. It was a very pleasant experience to see not only the male and female, but also the chicks. The rice had grown quite tall by this point as well, and basically they were unfindable a week or so later. I hope the chicks were raised successfully and visit Korea again in the next year.

Female Painted Snipe. Note the strong colouration and markings. She made a hooting sound that was a bit like a cross between an owl and a frog. Image digiscoped with my phone and scope.

The male, and some chicks in the foreground (although difficult to see in this image). Digiscoped with my scope and phone.

Another photo of the male, and one of the chicks. This one taken with my camera, although given their distance it was better views through the scope.

2025-06-09

2025-06: Liaoning, China

A long-weekend visit to Liaoning province in northeastern China with a good friend, Dr. Amael Borzee (one of the leading amphibian experts of northeast Asia!). The plan was to take the ferry from Incheon to Dandong, drive along the border with North Korea, and then head up to the mountains and then depart from Shenyang. It was an ambitious plan, and admittedly we didn't have enough time for half of what we planned, but a lot of amazing habitat was explored and saw many familiar species and a few new ones. What a beautiful area to visit, and hope to see it again in the future.

North Korean fishing vessel

Chinese Pond Heron

North Korean government building along the Yalu River (압록강)

Stejneger's Stonechat (soon to be relumped with Siberian Stonechat with the upcoming Avilist update)

Swinhoe's White-eye

Manchurian Ratsnake or Korean Ratsnake? Seems some confusion between these two species, and opinions differ among experts.

Forest Wagtail

Blue-and-White Flycatcher

Neptis sp.

Eastern Crowned Warbler

Papilo sp.

Ring-necked Pheasant

Long-tailed Rosefinch

Pallas' Leaf Warbler

Oriental Fire-bellied Toad

Manchurian Rat Snake- this individual was very large, and the black and yellow contrast makes the ID much easier than the younger one seen the day before.