yunnan, natural Birds recorded

Tourist may bring a binoculars to watch birds

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birds seen at Xishan, Kunming, may not belong under a Western Yunnan heading, but they're included here for convenience. Stott (1993), reporting a number of additions to the Kunming area list made by members of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, indicated the frequency with which 177 species (of the 328 listed for the area) had been recorded as 1) rarely recorded, 2) uncommonly recorded, 3) often recorded, 4) commonly recorded, and 5) recorded on almost all visits. While a paper such as this is a handy and welcome reference for visitors to the area readers should bear in mind that these "records" are in fact no more than unassessed reports. Although individual "records" are not initialled in the paper's Annotated List of New Species section it is easy to work out from the dates who saw what, and it turnsout that seven of nine problematical species (ie. sufficiently surprising and/or difficult-to-identify to warrant scrutiny by a records panel), namely Spotted Wren Babbler Spelaeornis formosus, Rufous-winged Fulvetta, Striated Yuhina, Pale-footed & Manchurian Bush Warblers, Slaty-blue Flycatcher and "Chinese Greenfinch" Carduelis sinica, were all reported by an observer making - I happen to know - his first visit to S Asia and who by his own admission was further disadvantaged by the unavailabilty then of a decent field guide. Streak-throatedFulvetta and Blue-throated (=Chinese) Blue Flycatcher are also problematical.
No. of species recorded at the main localities:
Lijiang - 105 Dali - 110 Wanding - 148 Ruili - 318 Tengchong - 145 Yunfengshan - 180 Gaoligongshan - 170 Xishan - 95