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Birding Ruili, Yunnan

10,000 Birds

Ruili is a Chinese city right on the border to Myanmar, and a major border crossing. When I last visited the town almost 10 years ago, it had a Wild West feel, and Wikipedia claims that it is “an important location for trade with Myanmar, in both legal and illegal goods and services” but it seemed pretty tame to me this time.

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Birding Hongbenghe, Yunnan (Part 1)

10,000 Birds

Hongbenghe is directly at the border to Myanmar – before COVID-19, it was easy enough to walk across the border on foot, but now a monstrous long steel and barbed-wire fence separates the two countries. Very appealing to tourists nostalgic for that iron curtain feeling.

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Birding Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China

10,000 Birds

Menglun in Xishuangbanna is less than 50 km away from the Chinese border to Laos and Myanmar, and it has a big botanical garden. Apparently, many bird species have employed the same concept as me for a long time. Birds, maybe? Anyway, I guess you wanted to read about birds? Enjoy your vacation! (I

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Birding Hongbenghe, Yunnan

10,000 Birds

Hongbenghe is a very small village in Yunnan, right next to the border with Myanmar. Even better, there is a wooden, unguarded, slowly decaying bridge over to Myanmar – so while I do not have the passport stamp to prove it, I can honestly say that I have been to that country as well.

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Hornbills of Yunnan

10,000 Birds

China is not that well-known for its hornbills, but in Yunnan province, on the border to Myanmar, some species can be found. The bird in the photo is a male, as indicated by the yellow rather than blue throat sack – and by the fact that it is outside of the hole at breeding time (the female is in the hole). Visiting the family.

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Pink-headed Duck: The Search is On!

10,000 Birds

Presumably, only the swamps and reedy rivers of Myanmar hold the answer. About four years ago I first wrote about the Pink-headed Duck , a charming species related to the pochards (although how, exactly, is up for grabs, like so much duck taxonomy.) Maybe they’re extinct. Maybe they’re not.

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Exploring the Uncharted Bird World

10,000 Birds

Birders follow different patterns of bird migration and their local activities and travel accordingly. It illustrates the bird richness per country. Shown as a list, it looks like this: Less than 200 bird species: Antarctica; oceanic islands. Focus on the wider triple border area – the birding top of the world.).