Status of Sichuan Birding Sites 2024

A quick summary of the how birding possibilities have changed at the top Sichuan birding destinations – there has been a lot of change since the pandemic pause in regular birding trips to what we have today. Some of it rather bad – like a surge in tourist development/numbers, increased safety regulations that have closed off some key areas to birders, the new Giant Panda National Park that has put more birding sites inside restricted reserve zones and more. But this is balanced up by the good of, new sites coming online, an increase in hide birding opportunities,  more Sichuan birding exploration and site-finding through the growing army of local birders and a better and faster road network, literally allowing you to travel to sites that formerly took at least a day’, now reachable in hours.

The result of all of this is that although some iconic sites – like Balang have been seriously degraded -  we haven’t lost any species ticks and in fact have gained some better chances to see formerly very difficult mega-ticks – like Sichuan Partridge and Biet’s Laugher.

Even the big upsurge in domestic tourism  has its plusses – more hotels to better standards – if nothing else Sichuan birding has become a little more comfortable!

Despite the disappointing changes, 2024 brought us some great birding, and included one trip where we exceeded the 330 species mark https://ebird.org/tripreport/259887 - proving Sichuan is still a world class birding destination.