Taiwan is a birdwatchers' paradise, and it is easy to see why. Rising to almost 4,000 metres, the island offers a huge range of habitats - tidal estuary mud-flats, mangrove swamps, wetlands, tropical rice-paddies, temperate forest elevations and high-altitude mountain tops. In addition, the island lies off a continental coastline used by innumerable bird species on their seasonal migrations.
Even Taipei has a significant range of bird species, as revealed in A Birdwatcher's Guide to the Taipei Region, recently published by the city government. One can find egrets, grey herons, collared Scops owls and turtle doves in the inner-city parks, and the sight of black drongos swooping down on one city swimming pool is an unforgettable emblem of summer.
Barn swallows, once a common nesting species in the eaves of downtown Hsimending, can still occasionally be seen there in June, and are still common in suburban Beitou, the hot-spring area developed as a resort 100 years ago by the Japanese.
You only have to walk for 30 minutes or so out of town to see Chinese sparrow hawks, the Formosan whistling thrush, Japanese green pigeons, plus the large but surprisingly common Taiwan blue magpie, with its characteristic long tail. One of the prides of the city government is the Guandu Wetland, recently established as a birdwatching site on the Danshui River, but a stopover point for migrating birds for centuries. Every autumn and winter, more than 200 species rest here on their journey south, following the coast of China from their summer homes in insect-rich Siberia to the tropics.
The preservation of the wetlands has been controversial, however. Taiwan's industrialists need all the flat land they can find, and conserving such areas for wildlife needs a strong political will.
Taipei's mayor, Hong Kong-born Ma Ying-jeou, is a keen jogger and open-air enthusiast, and he has further improved a city that has been at pains to enhance its ecological record.
