Jeju Birds

2026-02-19

2026-02-19: Chuja Island

A mid-February trip to Chuja Island to see what winter birds were around, as well as to soak in that amazing 4 hour round trip boat ride with seabirding opportunities. Black-legged Kitiwakes seen from the boat, as well as various gulls and loons. The island wasn't super birdy, but a large group of Eurasian Siskins, a nice Rustic Bunting, and a Red-throated Loon preening in the east harbour kept me busy.

Rustic Bunting

Large group of Eurasian Siskins

Oriental Greenfinch

Eurasian Siskin feeding

Red-throated Loon - Look at that food! Wow

Red-throated Loon

2026-02-16

2026-02-15+16: Jeju Winter Tour

A two day birding tour showing a visitor around Jeju. Quite a bit of habitat was covered, which helped us manage just about all of the target species and then some.

The Siberian Cranes were still around and cuaght them at sunset on the first day.
Brambling, White-backed Woodpecker, and Grey-backed Thrush in Shinsan Park.
Rooks, Daurian Jackdaws, and Smew in the midland region.
Cinereous Vulture flying over Halla Eco Forest
A pair of Harlequin Ducks that were still hanging around Gwangchigi Beach.
Red-flanked Bluetail at the top of Eoseungsaengak.
A small group of Baikal Teal with the usual group of Mandarin Ducks at Cheonjiyeon Waterfall.

Trip report here:

https://ebird.org/tripreport/477345

Brambling

Cinereous Vulture

Siberian Cranes

White-backed Woodpecker

Japanese Cormorant

Mandarin Ducks

Baikal Teal

2026-02-12

2026-02-12: Seonheul Gotjawal

A winter visit to Seonheul Gotjawal. Great spotting of a male Red-flanked Bluetail (but blurry photo unfortunately), a Goldcrest, and a nice male Pale Thrush.

Red-flanked Bluetail

Goldcrest

Pale Thrush

2026-02-06

2026:02-06: Starlings in Jeju City

Eurasian Starling can be difficult to find in Korea, but for whatever reason they seem to enjoy spending the winter in downtown Jeju City, sometimes just a few individuals, sometimes large groups. This isn't really a recent phenomena either, with records going back at least 15 years at this point. I have been pretty lucky to find them near the bus terminal for the past four winters, and sometimes other starling species are mixed in, such as the locally common White-cheeked and recently-common Red-billed.

Eurasian Starling

White-cheeked Starling

2026-01-25

2026-01-25: West Coast of Jeju

A Sunday drive along various spots along the west side of Jeju. A coastal area to look for a previously reported Brant Goose (succesfully located); exploration of Cheongsu Gotjawal; a reservoir I haven't visited previously; and a beach to top it off. Cold and windy!

Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon - there were two individuals at this location

Brant!

Black-tailed Gulls

Eastern Spot-billed Ducks in a newish reservoir.

Pale Thrush

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Hawfinch

White Wagtail on the beach

2026-01-10

2026-01-10: Surpries Cranes and Bonus Gull

A day after the Green Pigeon on Hallasan, we went off to the east coast to see three Siberian Cranes at Hado Wetland. It was super cool to see this species finally, making it the last crane species to see in Korea of the species known to occur in Korea. A week prior to this I saw a Demoiselle Crane up on the mainland, so it was very unexepected to see another new crane species so soon.

After soaking in the nice crane views, we went to the coast to see what was around, and found a Pallas's Gull mixed in with a large group of gulls. What a bonus!

Siberian Cranes

Greater Spotted Eagle, attempting to steal the show.

Pallas's Gull!

Vega Gull

Taimyr Gull

Vega Gull (?)

Black-tailed Gull

2026-01-09

2026-01-09: Green Pigeon in the White Snow

I went up to 1100 Altitude Wetland up on Hallasan in the morning to see a White-bellied Green Pigeon that has made the odd decision to overwinter in a snowy area at 1100 meters. It was quite confiding, just casually eating small berries. I heard a few weeks later that later it had a collision with a car and flew off into the forest, not to be seen again by birders.

White-bellied Green Pigeon

Perched in a tree

Varied Tit

Brown-eared Bulbul

2026-01-04

2026-01-04: Mara-do

A short trip to Mara-do in early January to see what was around. Well, not much aside from a nice variety of gulls mainly, and three Osprey which is more than the usual one or zero I see on Mara.