Tour Info Sheet
Highlight Birds | Lady Amherst's Pheasant, Snow Partridge, Temminck's Tragopan, Golden Pheasant, Tibetan Snowcock, Buff-throated Partridge, Chinese Monal, Blood Pheasant, White Eared Pheasant, Grandala, Vinous-throated Parrotbill, Brown Parrotbill, Fulvous Parrotbill, Ashy-throated Parrotbill, Great Parrotbill, Three-toed Parrotbill, Grey-hooded Parrotbill, Golden Parrotbill, Emei Shan Liocichla, Ibisbill, Collared Grosbeak, White-winged Grosbeak, Goldcrest, Giant Laughingthrush, Elliot's Laughingthrush, Slaty Bunting, White-browed Tit Warbler, Chinese Fulvetta, Sichuan Tit, Wall Creeper, Lammergeier (Bearded Vulture), Red-billed Chough, Yellow-billed Chough, Long-tailed Rosefinch, Common Rosefinch, Chinese Beautiful Rosefinch, Chinese White-browed Rosefinch, Pink-rumped Rosefinch, Dark-breasted Rosefinch, Crimson-browed Finch, Red-fronted Rosefinch, etc. |
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Numbers of Species to Expect | 120-150 |
Ease of Birding | mostly easy birding with a few tricky species |
Highlight Mammals | Red Panda, Hog Badger, Tibetan Macaque, Chinese Goral, Sambar, Masked Palm Civet, Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel, etc. |
Other Attractions | Tibetan culture, wild panda habitat, delicate food |
Photography Opportunities | birding focused but with very good photography chances |
Habitats Covered | subtropical forests, woodlands, snow mountains |
Expected Climate | mostly comfortable, windy and cold on snow mountains, rain is possible |
Physical Requirements | mostly easy, demanding but optional in certain parts |
Accommodation | very comfortable |
Transportation | 19-seat van |
What makes this trip irreplaceable?
2. Our experienced guides have guided birding tours in these areas for many times, they have great knowledge about local birds and birding sites with good access to the latest bird info. At the same time, they have rich experiences of guiding birders from different countries and understand clients' needs well.
3. Besides birds, we can enjoy some fascinating mammals like Red Panda. The unique Tibetan culture is also a bonus for this trip.
4. The scenery is breathtaking. The highest places we will visit during this tour are Pamuling at around 4,000m and Balang Mountain pass at around 4,484m, we will see some magnificent snow mountains there.
5. A small group size of no more than 8 birders.
6. Years of working as a local partner for some prestigious western companies specialized in birds and other wildlife.
7. A strong logistic team in the office to ensure our trip goes smoothly and every participant has a comfortable and memorable journey.
Dates & Prices
Dates | Booking Status | Price | Single Supplement | Group Size | Guide |
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Apr 8-21, 2025 | Space Available | 3,250USD/pax | 390USD/pax | 8 | Local Guide |
2. All meals from dinner on day 1 to breakfast on day 14.
3. All the entrance tickets for places listed in the itinerary including cable cars and shuttle buses.
4. Hotel stays from the first day to the last day, two clients occupy one twin-bed room on sharing basis at nice 3 or 4 star hotels in big cities and local best guesthouses in remote areas.
5. Bottled water and snacks throughout the trip.
6. Simple western breakfast whenever possible.
7. Service charges of a professional and experienced local bird guide throughout the whole trip.
8. China domestic travel insurance.
9. Service of all logistic supports.
b. Extra charges due to change of itinerary from the client's side or factors beyond the control of AlpineBirding such as natural disasters or governmental policy changes.
c. Discretionary tips to local guides and drivers.
d. All personal expenses such as laundry service.
e. ANY AIRFARE except those stated in the itinerary.
f. Any program not listed in the itinerary.
Itinerary
Tour Map
Guide(s)
We will arrange one of our best local guides for this trip who has rich experiences of guiding tours in this region. The following are some of our best local guides.
Philip He
Bella Zhang
Bella, the director of AlpineBirding, graduated from Sichuan Agricultural University with a Bachelor's Degree. She joined AlpineBirding in early 2016 and became the director of AlpineBirding in 2018. She was born and grew up in a Bai ethnic family in Yunnan Province which boasts of the largest number of bird species in China. Her interests toward birds started with her observation of a Long-tailed Minivet in her mom's garden at a very young age. As she grows up, the interests and love toward birds become stronger and stronger. Because of that, she found AlpineBirding before graduation and joined the company for further learning of birds. Bella has guided a number of birding trips in cooperation with AlpineBirding guide in the past years, her passion, readiness to help and detail-oriented attitude have won her lots of praise from our clients.
Reports
We don't have a report available for this tour at this stage, please feel free to email us, we are more than happy to answer any of your questions and share the latest bird information with you.
Testimonials
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Wonderful Birding trip with AlpineBirding
On November 2019 we had an amazing birding trip to Sichuan area with AlpineBirding.
We went for 6 days to Wolong, Longcanggou and Labahe, and thanks to Shay, our guide, we manage to see many beautiful birds in an incredible scenery.
One of the highlights were 4 different Red Pandas that gave us amazing view!!!
You can't go wrong with AlpineBirding and I can highly recommend to travel in Sichuan and china with them, and I hope to do that again myself.
Yohay Wasserlauf / Western Sichuan October 13, 2019
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The Birds of Balang Shan
My husband and I are just returned from an amazing and very professional Birding Tour by Alpine Birding in the Wolong Preserve/Balang Shan area; Western Sichuan Province. Gorgeous forests and alpine landscapes, the dividing line between the Sichuan Basin and the Qinghai Plateau. Awe-inspiring views!
We had a 1 1/2 day experience, all inclusive with a private driver (to and from and during the location), delicious meals and snacks and water provided, a room for the overnight stay, and our extraordinary Birding Guide Shay who showed and instructed us on far more birds than we could've hoped to see had we been on our own! He generously shared his superior equipment and bird identification field guide, and went above and beyond our expectations in stopping at many many locations to look for birds! We were impressed by his knowledge of bird identification and his deftness of scoping! Attention to detail was one of the hallmarks of our experience; We felt very well taken care of:)
While our trip was of necessity a simple overnight/daytrip, I highly recommend a longer excursion; We will definitely do another AlpineBirding tour in the future:)
Alice and Silas / Balang Mountain Excursion May 25, 2019
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Awesome fun birding in TibetWe decided to visit Tibet for birding and contacted Alpine Birding for itinerary recommendation. The suggested routing is interesting and their staffs were highly efficient in arranging the land transfer and accommodation for us.
Philip, our guide is an exceptionally competent knowledgeable birder and photographer. He was quick to spot the birds and seemed to know all the best spots to see them. He was eager to help us to get a good spotting on different spectacular feather creatures through our binoculars. Even though many of the birds were well hidden and moving from tree to tree, he would quietly tracked their movements and swiftly showed us the direction.Through his passion, we were able to see the winter migratory birds in Tibetan region. We were successful at seeing flocks of impressive species, such as the Black-necked Crane, Himalayan Monal, Tibetan Eared Pheasant, Blood Pheasant, Lord Derby’s Parakeet, Snow Pigeon and some waterfowls. All these could never have even glimpsed on our own.Philip was a great birding companion, he has given us a great deal of information concerning the behaviours of those birds that we have encountered. We felt at ease with him as he patiently showed us the specific cues in bird photography. He even offered his professional telephoto lens to us to enhance our photos presentations which obviously was the icing on the cake.We place a very high value on the professional guide we had in Philip especially because of the high altitudes in our birding trail. The tour was well thought out and executed. He is reliable and will deal with all details in advance. Hot tea and snacks are always available which were soothing and recharging when the outdoor temperature was freezing. The pace was comfortable and we never felt rushed or inadequate during birding. Philip always concern about our responses to the environment and would refine the itinerary according to our physical conditions and preferences.We have experienced a safe and enjoyable Tibetan Plateau birding tour and see a different facet of Tibetan nature. The landscape was breathtaking, it was such a pleasure to see stunning snow-capped mountains, beautiful lakes, forests and wild animals throughout the whole adventurous trip. Besides, we have tried stone claypot chicken hotpot (shiguoji), the soup was super delicious and welcoming especially after a long excursion.All in all, the entire tour was full of positive experience and invaluable memories. Philip is superb and well acquainted with the nature ecosystem. We really appreciated the time he took to share with us about the birdlife, local culture and no need to mention the tremendous photos we took. We will never forget this fabulous experience and feel so fortunate to see all these wonderful flying creatures under his guidance. Certainly, it was clear that how much he loved what he does and we did learn a lot in this trip.We cannot recommend his services enough and have no hesitation in recommending Philip for his birding skills, his determination to find beautiful birds and his pleasant character.
If you have any interest in birds or even just want to take a walk through some incredible forest or wildlife related travel with a guide there to teach you something new, this is the company for you! We think you will be as pleased as we have been and want to go somewhere new as soon as you return home.Esther and Rick / Qinghai-Tibet Plateau February 03, 2019
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Several Very Good Weekend Trips in Sichuan and Yunnan
My wife and I are serious birders from the US. During 2018, we lived in Thailand for a work assignment, and had the opportunity to do several weekend trips up to China to go birding with Alpine.We had successful and memorable outings in Zixishan (Yunnan), as well as Balangshan and Longcanggou (Sichuan), picking up specialties such as Alpine Accentor, Lammergeier, Black-headed Mountain-Finch, Blood Pheasant, Dark-breasted Rosefinch, Elliot's Laughingthrush, Giant Laughingthrush, Golden Pheasant, Koklass Pheasant, Snow Partridge, Snow Pigeon, Tibetan Snowcock, Verreaux's Partridge, White Eared-Pheasant, White-capped Redstart, Chinese Bamboo-Partridge, Golden-breasted Fulvetta, Gray-faced Liocichla, Lady Amherst's Pheasant, Red-tailed Laughingthrush, Temminck's Tragopan, Bar-tailed Treecreeper, Godlewski's Bunting, and Yunnan Nuthatch, in addition to many others.Even without the birds, Balangshan has the most inspiring mountain vistas we've ever seen.Bella and her team arranged for comfortable transportation, lodging, and very experienced guides. But the best additional benefit was the food - our guides always took us out for the best local lunches and dinners - it will be very difficult to return home and have Sichuan food now, knowing how it pales in comparison to the real Chinese food in China...Bella and Alpine were also very responsive and attentive to our overall satisfaction, and when we suggested some things that could be improved, they were happy to accommodate us. It was much appreciated.We recommend Alpine Birding as a great way to see some of the most incredible birds found only in one of the most beautiful regions of Asia.
Claire and Michael / Southwest China (Sichuan & Yunnan) May 29, 2018
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Birding in Sichuan
Arrange a birding / hiking trip in northwestern Sichuan. Our guide Parus Yang was a good guide with excellent ornithology knowledge. We saw despite not the best season lots of birds and mammals.
Accomodation which was arranged was fine.
Mathieu W / Northwest Sichuan June 19, 2015
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Hi, Philip
I have been busy answering e-mails and writing text for our newsletter and other things since getting back as lots of things needed doing - but things already calming down again.Thank you for your kind words and can I also say it was a complete pleasure working with you too, the words I said on our final evening were all completely from the heart and I can honestly say that the combination of you and Parus made for an excellent experience from the wildlife and cultural perspective. The guests were all telling me how much they enjoyed the holiday and how much your input made the holiday for them. To have someone who could explain and point out aspects of Chinese culture as diverse as architecture, food, religion, day to day life and more was just fantastic. I would say with hand on heart that this was one of the best trips I have led and for that I have you to thankI am also very aware that you had a huge amount to think about during the trip – timing the travel days to arrive at a sensible time while still giving us time to enjoy a few stops along the way is not always easy and you did it very well indeed. Organising our evening meals and breakfasts in the field and so much more is all time consuming and needs thinking through and again you did a fabulous job. In fact the trip simply worked very well indeed and I feel very privileged to have worked with you and visited your wonderful country.
I think the itinerary we chose was superb and clearly both the Terracotta Warriors at the start and pandas at the wend were both extremely popular.——Roy Atkins, a professional Bird Guide from UK in Custom Birding Trip in Sichuan in 2015
Roy Atkins / Custom Birding Trip in Sichuan May 20, 2015