Mengbishan Forest:

An area of coniferous forest where we will have our first chances to look for the endemic Crested Tit-Warbler, which unobtrusively feeds high in the spruces, and the retiring endemic Sichuan Jay.

This is also a good area for the endemic Verreaux’s Monal Partridge, although it only occasionally comes to the roadside to put on a great show for visiting birders. The secretive endemic Severtzov’s Grouse also inhabits the uncut sections of these primeval forests, although we would be very lucky to see one from the road.

Other species likely to be encountered in this splendid area include the beautiful Blood Pheasant, the huge Black Woodpecker, Winter Wren, Himalayan Red-flanked Bluetail (split from Northern), the smart White-throated Redstart, Greenish, Hume’s Leaf and Yellow-streaked Warblers, Goldcrest, the near-endemic Chinese Babax, the endemic Giant Laughingthrush (which lives up to its name), the endemic Chinese Fulvetta, Hodgson’s (or Himalayan) Treecreeper (split from Eurasian),

Oriental Crow (split from Carrion), the attractive endemic Pink-rumped (or Stresemann’s) Rosefinch, Chinese White-browed Rosefinch (split from Himalayan White-browed) and both White-winged Grosbeak and the even more impressive Collared Grosbeak. If we are in luck we will come across the unobtrusive Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker