Trip Report — China’s Sichuan Province 2026

May 30-June 21, 2026 with Doug Gochfeld & Local Guide Shay Xie

What a fantastic tour this was! It is nearly impossible to figure out where to start- how does one pick between the scenery, the birds, the mammals, the food, and the camaraderie!?

We traced a meandering trail through and around the mountains separating the Sichuan Basin from the Tibetan Plateau. Wiggly roads and countless tunnels took us around, through, and under the mountains from excellent spot to excellent spot. The ends of each day of great bird and mammal sightings punctuated by tasty local and regional dishes.

After a birding warm-up at the Chengdu Botanical Gardens, we headed south into the hills, towards the village of Tanshi, where the community has set up bird hides to view a few difficult-to-eyeball species, most notably Sichuan Partridge, Silver Pheasant, Temminck’s Tragopan, Lady Amherst’s Pheasant, Emei Shan Liocichla, and Buffy Laughingthrush. We were successful on all of those primary targets, and had a great supporting cast of other birds as well. We then headed west to Wawu Mountain for a couple of nights, then had three one-nighters in a row in different mid-mountain sites where the birds (and more!) came fast and furious: Erlangshan, Hailuogou, and Lianghekou, before spending another double at Labahe NNR, a reserve known for both birds AND mammals (both groups of which showed very well for us!).

After Labahe, we spent a night at Wolong, visiting the Giant Panda Base there. Then we transited Balangshan during the day, to get to Maerkang for two nights, which gave us close access to Mengishan, and preceded our ascent onto the Tibetan Plateau! Our two days up there were jam-packed, and then we descended for the final few days of the tour, doing a couple of one-night stands in the mountains NW of Chengdu, en route to our final two-nighter at Tangjiahe.

The weather was excellent for birding, staying a bright high overcast for days on end, with an exception for a rainy evening and morning above the cloud layer at Hailuogou Glacier Park (a somewhat typical experience at that site). The birds stayed active late into the morning, the temperatures never got too hot, and the clouds protected us from a lot of the high-elevation harshness of the sun.

This is a tour known for its chickens, and it even puts our “chicken tour” to Colorado to shame in terms of total species. After the great morning at Tanshi, mentioned above, which started us off with 5 species of Phasianidae, it was a few days before our next new chicken. Our morning at Lianghekou saw us add three more species: a couple of troops each of Snow Partridge and White Eared-Pheasant, and then several encounters with the unforgettable and knock-your-socks off Chinese Monal! Golden Pheasant proved tricky at Wolong, but we all did eventually see at least one, then came excellent Chestnut-throated Monal-Partridge the next morning, and then Blood Pheasant the morning after that (with more Monal-Partridges and White Eared-Pheasants to boot!). That brought us to 11 chickens, and then it was up onto the Tibetan Plateau, and our two days here provided us with brief views of a Tibetan Partridge, a pair of Chinese Grouse scampering across and down the trail for a lucky few as we walked a forest path one morning, a few Ring-necked Pheasants (where they’re from!), and an excellent experience with the shy Blue Eared-Pheasant on our final morning there. We had yet one more grouse to find, and the morning after leaving the plateau, find it we did, making Tibetan Snowcock our sixteenth species of Phasianidae for the tour, and our experience with them included a fluffy baby picking around the slopes in between mama and papa snowcock.

Though our 19 species of Phylloscopus warbler was impressive, more memorable yet was our ten species of parrotbill (and 15 species in the parrotbill family – the excellently-named Paradoxornithidae). Several of the birds in this family are range-restricted Chinese endemics, and we spent much of our first week racking them up: Vinous-throated and Ashy-throated parrotbills in the lower lying areas, Gray-headed Parrotbill in the bamboo hills, and the endemic Rufous-tailed Babbler performing well near Erlangshan. The epicenter of parrotbills during our expedition was Wawu Mountain though, where we had Himalayan specialties Brown and Great parrotbills, the gorgeous Golden-breasted Fulvetta, the endearing Golden Fulvetta, and the endemic Three-toed Parrotbill. Then, a last ditch visit to the summit on our final morning there saw us pull out the extremely range restricted and skulky Gray-hooded Parrotbill! Spectacled Parrotbill, a central China endemic, rounded out our epic parrotbill haul during a morning visit to Baxi Forest, at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

We also got our fill of finches, coming in with 23 species in total, 11 of which are in the genus Carpodacus, known colloquially as the rosefinches (and two additional species have “rosefinch” in the common name, but are in different genera). We had great experiences with the sharp-looking Sharpe’s and Vinaceous rosefinches early on, found the low density Three-banded, Long-tailed, and Blanford’s rosefinches along the way, found Crimson-browed Finch and Red-fronted Rosefinch in their high elevation haunts, and finally came through with Pink-rumped and Streaked rosefinches on our very last opportunity. All the while, enjoying more common charismatic finches that never got old: Chinese White-browed Rosefinch (and its silly nuthatch-like sounds), Himalayan Beautiful Rosefinch (what’s in a name?), and some stunning Gray-headed Bullfinches. We even had a nice visual AND vocal showing the Himalayan taxon of Red Crossbill. Almost all these species are highland birds, and so were well-distributed through our tour, with good showings everywhere except for the final couple of birding sites, as we descended back towards Chengdu.

In addition to the birds though, this tour was also a real mammal-palooza, with over 30 species of mammal seen when all was said and birded! Here is as complete a list as I can produce at the moment (this is in addition to Giant Panda, several of which (including adorable youngsters) we also enjoyed greatly at the Wolong Panda Base):

Our three weeks in China were so well-provisioned with highlights that we did two separate Top 3s at the end: one for birds, and one for mammals, experiences, and anything else that came to mind. Even with two lists, the variance in responses among our merry band was a testament to just how many memorable experiences were had.

Food, food, food, and food was a common theme of the first list, including one vote for “every single meal,” and this was joined in attaining half or more of the group’s votes by the scenery (the mountains, clouds, the sheer scale, and even the infrastructure), and of course our lovely early-tour experience with Red Panda (no fewer than 3 of them!). A couple of particular moments of scenery, at Lianghekou and Tangjiahe, as well as the soundscapes throughout, also got votes, emphasizing the scenery and landscape theme. The Golden Snub-nosed Monkeys also picked up a couple of votes, as did our excellent guide Xie (the hardest working man in birdbusiness). Rounding out these votes were our Moon Bear experiences (especially the second one!), the privilege of seeing a Eurasian Goshawk nest, and the excellent company we kept throughout.

Since this is a bird tour, of course, the votes for top birds are also important. Phasianidae as a whole was mentioned, as were Tibetan Snowcock (4 times), Chinese Monal (thrice), and the eared-pheasants, especially our “victory-from-the-jaws-of-disappointment" experience with Blue eared-Pheasant. Grandala, all of our Carpodacus (including a shout out to Sharpe’s), and of course the Pinktail, were all featured as well. The rest of cast of characters was varied, and included parrotbills as a whole, Sichuan Owl of many names, our phenomenal up close experience with Brown-cheeked Rail, Wallcreeper, White-throated Redstart, Red-billed Leiothrix, Emei Shan Liocichla, Crested Tit-Warbler, the Black-necked Cranes, Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Saker Falcon, Firethroat, Yellow-billed Chough, and of course the freakishly strange and memorable song of the visually unremarkable Yellowish-bellied Bush Warbler.

Thank you all so much for joining me on this Sichuan adventure. I know that I speak for Xie as well, when I say that it was a pleasure to travel with such an interesting, and interested, group through this fascinating region. I hope to see and sing the Wawu Shan song with all of you again soon, whether that be near or far. Until then, take care of yourselves, and bird on!!

You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/541007

You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/csi26TRIPLIST.pdf