18 Years of a Passion for the Mountain Hawk-Eagle, Linsanity Takes the Stage Tomorrow

The Mountain Hawk-Eagle's Mysterious Allure Is Irresistible

The reason the Mountain Hawk-Eagle (Nisaetus nipalensis) is described as a "phantom of the mountain forest" is its mysterious aura, like the protagonist of The Phantom of the Opera, deeply captivating. The first time Lin Wen-hung saw a Mountain Hawk-Eagle was in the summer after his college entrance exams, when he and a few friends went to Xitou for fun. Suddenly he saw a big, black shadow fly through the air, which left a deep impression on him. After returning home, he looked it up in a field guide and only then learned it was a Mountain Hawk-Eagle.

He had joined a bird club back in high school and had loved birds since childhood. After the age of 20, birdwatching was no longer about adding to his list of species, and he fixed his gaze on raptors. He said that even the common Crested Serpent Eagle never grew tiresome no matter how many times he saw it. Based on his love of birds, after graduation he went to work for the Chinese Wild Bird Federation, and his first research project was a raptor survey of all of Taiwan, China, at the time conducting a distribution survey of 6 resident bird species of Taiwan, China.

The Endless Pursuit of the Mountain Hawk-Eagle

Lin Wen-hung pulled out research materials from many years ago. Following latitude and longitude, he drew 64 cells within each 1-degree grid and applied them proportionally to a map of Taiwan, China, using this method to record each raptor counted, entry by entry. "Back then information wasn't as developed as it is now. Because of worries about military data being exposed, you couldn't even buy a fairly large map." Lin Wen-hung, alone on a single Yamaha Wolf motorcycle, rode all over the mountains and forests of Taiwan, China, covering the route at least 3 times during the survey period. Many forest roads were in poor condition, and he often found himself in perilous situations. It was precisely in this process that he saw quite a few Mountain Hawk-Eagles and gained a preliminary understanding of their habits.

It was not until 1994 that Lin Wen-hung obtained his first research funding for the Mountain Hawk-Eagle. For 18 years now, Lin Wen-hung has never given up his passion for studying the Mountain Hawk-Eagle. Although funding support came on and off during this time, more often it was a few like-minded enthusiasts who, relying on passion, carried out the research on their own. Lin Wen-hung knew that to understand the Mountain Hawk-Eagle, he had to understand its life history, food, reproduction and chick-rearing, and the key lay in finding the nest.

9 Years Spent Searching for a Nest

But raptors are superb fliers, and without any special tools or equipment, sometimes relying only on binoculars, a group of companions, driven by passion, groped their way through the mountain forests.

Several companions observed the forest in Pinglin for years. To find the tree where a pair of Mountain Hawk-Eagles roosted, they often had to cross mountain ridges, and even build treehouses in the canopy to observe this pair from above. Yet being able to see the pair did not mean finding the nest. To find the nest, the research companions often relied on visual observation, locking onto the approximate location where the pair flew into the forest, and then, relying on their sense of direction, walked into the woods to search. Once, a research companion walked half an hour of mountain trail, waded upstream for a full hour, and then used a machete to clear a path for another hour before reaching the approximate location, yet still did not know which tree was their roosting spot. Lin Wen-hung also once recklessly climbed a tree barehanded. When he climbed to 10 m high and looked down, he couldn't help trembling, and in the end had to give up.

Once they finally locked onto a patch of mature broadleaf forest. The group patrolled beneath the trees at least ten times, constantly searching upward for traces of a bird nest. One sharp-eyed companion noticed that one tree was different from the others, seeming to have many dead branches sticking out. Everyone judged there might be a nest, so they marked the spot, went home to find an expert tree climber, and with full equipment followed the same route back to the base of the tree. That climb indeed revealed a Mountain Hawk-Eagle nest. In 2004 they found a Mountain Hawk-Eagle nest for the first time, the only time in 9 years.

However, this time what they found was an empty nest. Mountain Hawk-Eagles change nests every year, so this nest had clearly been abandoned.

The Mountain Hawk-Eagle Population Is Sparse and Awaits Survey

The experience of finding this nest was extremely precious. He observed that the nests were all in mature broadleaf trees, and these trees were all tall and straight, and at 20 m above them there were sure to be epiphytic bird's-nest ferns or Drynaria ferns. The Mountain Hawk-Eagle was right among the ferns, and then stacked large branches carried back in its beak into a large nest. In 2008, Lin Wen-hung found a second nest. This time there were finally traces of the Mountain Hawk-Eagle, and his companions also set up photographic equipment to fully record the eagle's life.

From 2004 to the present has been a period of relatively intensive study of the Mountain Hawk-Eagle, and it has all focused on the Fushan Botanical Garden. This history of Lin Wen-hung's pursuit of the Mountain Hawk-Eagle was all recorded in the film "Phantom of the Mountain Forest -- Mountain Hawk-Eagle." Director Liang Chieh-te is also a raptor enthusiast, and he and Lin Wen-hung knew each other and went birdwatching together when they were young, so they were diehard buddies. The precious footage in the film is all the fruit of long-term collaboration. Lin Wen-hung said that whenever something happened with a Mountain Hawk-Eagle, one phone call was all it took, and Liang Chieh-te would rush over, dusty from the journey, and spare no effort in filming and recording.

The Mountain Hawk-Eagle lives deep in the mountains and forests, and its habit of not living in groups with others makes it seem both mysterious and solitary, but because of this it is not as easily trapped and hunted as the Hodgson's Hawk-Eagle. From his long-term observations, Lin Wen-hung concluded that the total number of Mountain Hawk-Eagles in Taiwan, China, does not exceed 1000, within 500 pairs, an extremely sparse number. At present there has been no research survey of the Mountain Hawk-Eagle's population. In the future, Lin Wen-hung hopes to carry out a survey of the Mountain Hawk-Eagle's population.

Lin Wen-hung believes that Taipei City has exceptionally favorable conditions for birdwatching, with forests right nearby. Whether Neihu, Yangmingshan, or even Wulai, all are very close. But he believes that birdwatching is not about whether you can see a star species, but rather about cultivating a heart that loves nature and wants to get close to nature. Whether or not you see a rare bird does not matter, because a heart that wants to get close to nature will create for itself a reason for the next birdwatching trip.

"Don't go birdwatching just to add to your list of bird species, and don't pressure or deceive birds just to photograph them," Lin Wen-hung said. These are all bad behaviors. The most important thing is a heart that loves birds, otherwise "even if you get the outward appearance in a photo, you will never feel the beautiful side."

(Original text reprinted from http://e-info.org.tw/node/74862)

※ Further reading

"Phantom of the Mountain Forest -- Mountain Hawk-Eagle" premiere
A Lone Walker in the Forest: A Few Things You Didn't Know About the Mountain Hawk-Eagle