We enjoy birding with Alpline birding, most of the plan were realistically set to meet the target.

Highly recommend to explore and experience to participate in the Alpine birding program with veryresponsible birds lead Mr.philip He.

Extremely professional birdguide in China

What an amazing experience! This is the second time that l have gone birding with AlpineBirding inChina. This time it was with Bella as my guide in Yunnan in the Xishuangbanna area. She is an extremelyprofessional and well organised guide, with absolute eagle eyes of her own. l had provided a list ofwhat l wanted to see and she had developed a plan to try and find as many as possible in our 4 1/2 daytrip. She is fluent in English and knows all the English names of the birds.l highly recommendAlpineBirding.

One day birding tour from Guangzhou

I had a lay over in Guangzhou on a flight from London to Melbourne. Alpine Birding were able to offerme a one day birding tour to fill in my time of which l was most appreciative. The communications anohelp in organizing this was excellent and made it easy for me. They even booked me a hotel. Given thetime of year and only having one day the task for my guide, Jiang was an ominous one. However theday was enjoyable, with a guide who really knew his stuff, and not just the birds but the butterfliesdragonflies and other wildlife as wel. We did not amass a bia bird list but still had some cool sightingsand the effort the guide went to was superb. We made it to some quiet rural areas, plus a forest walkwhere we saw no-one else, plus we had a peaceful lunch in a quiet village.Can recommend thiscompany, and hope i can return some day with more time to get further into the mountains of China forsome even better birding.

Sichuan Province

I am a novice of Asian bird identification (I am only familiar with North American). I am bare-bones binoculars and bird book--no photography. I did a trek in Sichuan with Bella, Phillip, and another birder with camera equipment-- they were fantastic at accommodating our needs as well as being flexible with changeable birding conditions. Bella is crazy knowledgeable and passionate about all things birdies! I learned so much, and had a lovely and memorable experience. I would definitely do another trip with AlpineBirding!

Excellent Birdwatching in Sichuan

Full disclosure at the start of this review of a Sichuan birdwatching tour with Alpinebirding in early 2023: This was already my fifth tour with them, so you might say I am biased toward them. On the other hand, I guess this also shows that I think of them very highly.

So, where did we (Philip and Bella of Alpinebirding, me, and a second guest, a lady from the US) go? To Longcanggou, Kangding, Wawushan, and Yibin in Sichuan – all places with interesting and special birds, if you know where to find them. Which without Bella’s knowledge would not have been the case for me.

In terms of species, highlights for me were the Gold-fronted and the Golden-breasted Fulvetta, Lady Amherst’s Pheasant (despite the ridiculous name), several parrotbills (with a specific mention to the Fulvous Parrotbill), as well as a (decidedly non-avian) Red Panda.

A few random things I particularly enjoyed about traveling with Alpinebirding this time:

They are very flexible in their trip planning – whenever we realized a place was less interesting than originally thought (or simply too crowded), they suggested a good alternative and let us choose whether to go with it.

They added an extra day to the trip at no cost (which of course got me some additional birds).

Philip lent me his shorter lens when I needed it (an 800 mm lens can be a bit much for a Silver Pheasant or a Lady Amherst’s Pheasant, given how close we got to these birds).

They kept a rather good balance between the different interests of the two guests – sometimes by simply splitting up, with one of them taking care of the diligent photographer and one of the rather more spiritual traveler.

They sometimes even pretended to enjoy my rather bad jokes. Customer service at its best.

I think this is enough – I am afraid this review does not sound quite as gushingly positive as some of the others, but that is due to my character and nature (I am a rather negative person not prone to exuberant praise). So, if you are looking to see birds in China, Alpinebirding is probably your best choice, in my opinion.

P.S. All photos were taken on the trip described.

Excellent 3-days birding Balang Shan and Wolong

I was fortunate to experience 3 incredible days birding Balang Shan and Wolong in Sichuan Province with Alpine Birding. I had wonderful guiding and service from Philip and was professionally and ably supported by Alpine Birding throughout the trip. If I had any questions for Bella or Philip before, during, or after the trip, I just needed to send a quick WeChat and they would reply within minutes. The night before the trip, they even sent me locations of hospitals in Chengdu to do my first Covid test, and offered to drive me from the train station (none of which was part of the deal).

Philip was good company and an absolute machine! He picked me up early (7am) from my hotel in Chengdu on the Tuesday, and from there it was solid birding until I was dropped-off back at the hotel in Chengdu on Thursday. The pace was entirely dictated by myself, but lots of suggestions from Philip, which I really appreciated - especially up at 4,500 m!

Philip went out of his way to ensure I was comfortable, and that I had enough food, and drink throughout the trip. He also made the 3 hour round trip to get me to my second covid test in Yingxiu on the Wednesday of the trip.

We were in the car and birding from 5am-8pm every day, exploring the beautiful forests of Wolong, and alpine areas of Balangshan, at elevations ranging from 1,000 to 4,500m. It truly is an amazing and rich birding hotpot, and it was great to have Philip’s keen ears and knowledge of the birds, and hotspots to track down the majority of my targets in such a short space of time.

Managed to get my eyes onto the endemic Golden Pheasant, as well as a number of other specials including: White-eared Pheasant, Tibetan Snowcock, Snow Partridge, Blood Pheasant, and the electric blue Grandala! Numerous flycatchers (wonderful sightings of Chinese Rubythroat, Golden Bush Robin, and White-throated, Blue-fronted, and White-capped Redstarts); numerous warblers (Aberrant Bush-warbler, White-browed Tit-warbler, Alpine Leaf-, Claudia’s Leaf-, Marten’s, and Hume’s); thrushes (Chestnut, white-backed, chestnut-bellied); accentors (Alpine and Rufous-chested); mountain finches (plain and black-headed), and a bunch of rose-finches (common, dark-breasted, red-fronted, streaked, Chinese white-browed).

Spotting some rare mammals including Tufted Deer, Blue Sheep (Bharal), Chinese Goral, Northern Hog Badger, Mountain Weasel, and Himalayan Marmot was also an added bonus!

I cannot recommend Alpine Birding enough! They really are a dedicated birding outfit, committed to both their clients, and the nature and culture of Sichuan province. With so many mouth-watering birding hotspots in Sichuan, I know who I will be calling first to guide me through Sichuan.