How I Started Birding

My interest in birds started when I was five. Even before I brought birding into my family, we always spent a lot of time up in the mountains and out in nature. We love learning about the flora and fauna of Taiwan and about Taiwanese indigenous culture. One long weekend, we visited a small village. Just by chance, the other guests were birders, and one of them was actually the chairperson of the Tainan Wild Bird Society (like the Audobon in America). One morning, after a hike, they got super excited by a large bird circling around in the sky. I was curious, so they lent me their binoculars, and told me it was a Mountain Hawk-eagle, the rarest eagle in Taiwan.

Mountain Hawk-Eagle, Ali 2021

They also had a field guide, and showed me some birds I might see in the area and how to identify them. Sure enough, on our next morning walk, we found birds that we had never noticed before. From that point on, I was hooked. At first, I would beg my dad to buy us a pair of binoculars and later begged him to take me all over Taiwan just to bird. A couple years later we joined the Tainan Wild Bird Society, and we met a bunch of experienced birders very eager to share their knowledge. For nine years my love for birding has not diminished in any way.

Mountain Hawk-Eagle, Hehuanshan 2022

What keeps me interested in birds is the excitement when I finally see a lifer, the relief when I finally see a bird after three hours of searching or waiting; but sometimes it doesn’t need to be a lifer or a rare bird that gets me excited, sometimes it might just be a bird I haven’t seen in a long time, or sometimes it is just normal birds doing interesting or weird things that intrigues me. After a long week at school, just observing birds makes me happy.

Mountain Hawk-Eagle, Hehuanshan 2022

~ Article and photos by Isaac Lang

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