Since beginning his birding career at the age of 10, Noah Strycker has always kept his eyes skyward.
“Birds are a great way for people around the world to connect with nature. Birds are accessible, interesting and somewhat mysterious,” said the 29-year-old from the US, who set a world record on Sept. 16 for notching up the most birds spotted in a calendar year — which is known in the birding world as the “Big Year” challenge.
For Strycker, the magic bird — No. 4,342 since Jan. 1, helping him break a record — was a Sri Lankan frogmouth, a greyish bird he spotted in the Thattekad Bird Sanctuary in India.
However, Strycker — who is recording his journey in a blog called “Birding Without Borders” for the US-based National Audubon Society, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to bird conservation — is not satisfied with his tally.
Aiming to observe at least 5,000 bird species in his Big Year challenge, the globetrotting birder is to visit Taiwan this week in a bid to add 100 new species to his count in four days.
The task might sound daunting, but luckily Strycker is to be assisted by the Chinese Wild Bird Federation, Taiwan’s most established birding society, and two of the nation’s foremost birders.
With the help of Wayne Hsu (許哲瑋), the federation’s director of conservation and international affairs, and Hung Kuan-chieh (洪貫捷), a former director of the federation, Strycker said he is expecting to see a lot of birds.
“Taiwan is an important stop on my 2015 world Big Year effort to become the first human to see half of the world’s bird species — about 5,000 — in a single year,” Strycker said.
However, to meet that goal a precise, but flexible plan is needed, Hsu said.
“The focus will have to be the Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Area,” Hsu said, referring to Taiwan’s birding paradise, where 26 of Taiwan’s 27 endemic bird species can be observed.
Although the objective is clear, the plan cannot be fixed and has to take numerous variables into consideration, including weather, traffic and, most of all, luck.
For now, Strycker’s whirlwind tour is to start with camping on Dasyueshan (大雪山) in Taichung County from tomorrow to Friday. That is to be followed on Saturday with a visit to the nearby Huisun National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County for birds like the Taiwan blue magpie and the varied tit.
Finally, after a trip on Sunday to southern parts of the nation to see Taiwan bulbuls and black-faced spoonbills, Strycker is to conclude his journey at about midnight and take an overnight flight to the Philippines for the next stop of his odyssey.
The main focus of the trip is to observe as many bird species as possible, Strycker said, adding that it would still be nice to simply marvel at beautiful creatures that can only be found in Taiwan.
“I hope to get a glimpse of the rare and magnificent Mikado and Swinhoe’s pheasants in their natural environment at Dasyueshan,” Strycker said.
“And I don’t think any trip to Taiwan would be complete without a look at a Taiwan blue magpie — Taiwan’s national bird, beautiful and awesome,” he said.
Strycker’s visit could stir up interest in birding and raise conservation awareness in Taiwan, Hsu said.
“Taiwan has one of the highest densities of bird species in the world, and is seeing a growth in the number of people interested in birding,” Hsu said.
“Hopefully, through Noah’s journey, Taiwan can raise its global profile and share its experiences in conservation,” he added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and