About me and the www.tibetbirds.com webpage
This page is by David Holler, born in Wiesbaden 20.03.1969.
Tibet and me
In 1988 when 18 years old after highschool and some factory work I travelled through Asia with a friend and came to Tibet. I fell in love with the place, it's people, religion, landscape and culture. I started studying Anthropology and Tibetan Studies in Berlin to keep close to the place and continued coming to Tibet every one or two years, each time for 3 or more months. After finishing my MA in Central Asian (Tibetan) studies I started teaching and working as a Scientific Assistant 1999-2005 at Humboldt University. Having not enough time being actually physicall present here in Tibet I quit Berlin in 2005 to live here forever.
Birds and me
In my youth I was an active boy scout and scout leader for many years and used to roam the forrests of Central, Northern and Southern Europe whereby I learned to love nature, feel home in nature with it’s creatures without much equipment. (Scouts are very different in Germany from the US or UK!!! no badges, no military elements whatsoever, we were more like "Wandervogel"). This attitude I would continue on my travels in Tibet, alone, on foot, without tent or stove, sleeping in caves or bushes, relish under the stars, using roots and yakdung for fire, or ask for hospitality with nomads and farmers or hermits and monks ... whose language I learned.
After some years of absence from nature due to study and work I rediscovered my love for nature and especially it’s birds ...
The aim of tibetbirds.com
One aim of this page is to be a tool for Tibetans to learn about their birds and their names. Only once you can name a creature one can get interested and can develop a sense to esteem and protect it.
As for the Tibetan bird names ...this is a research project going on. There is no book or dictionary where one can just look up the Tibetan bird names. For some birds there may be no names, for some there may be different names in different areas and dialects. To gather and compile Tibetan bird names is another purpose of this page.
For us westerners I want to introduce the birds of Tibet with pictures and short descriptions. I planned to do this in a blog style ... but Chinese internet surveillance is not fond of blogging - and since I live in China I had to find another method.
I will insert here photographs of birds from Lhasa and Central Tibet in irregular intervals. The aim is to show the wonderful diversity of birds in Tibet and which birds can be seen at what times of the year. I also want to help the interested birder and birdwatcher with information how to get into Tibet for birding/ birdwatching and where to go for birdwatching.
Also I would be interested in exchange of information about Tibetan birds.
One remark ... I am not professional, neither a professional birdwatcher, nor a professional photographer or a professional web designer ... I am just an enthusiast! My camera equipment is limited, most pictures are done with a Nikon D5000 and a Nikkor 70-200 mm zoom lens. Christmas 2011 I got a Sigma 200-500 mm zoom lens. Sure I often see birds and don't carry a camera, or pictures got too bad to post here etc. Please forgive.
For identification I use "A Field Guide to the Birds of China", John MacKinnon & Karen Phillips, Oxford University Press 2006.