Hi, I am a recent graduate of Taipei American School (K-12 international school) and will be attending Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences starting August. This page is an introduction to me as a person and how I became interested in what I enjoy today. Since young, I have been intensely interested in the natural world, and as you can probably see, it has become a large part of my life. I am trying not to make this page look like my resume, but just to give you an idea of the things I've done in the past.

At the moment, I am a great bird fanatic. Unsurprisingly, I am a member of the Wild Bird Society of Taipei (the Taipei division of the Chinese Wild Bird Federation), and I regularly join the birding activities they sponsor. I've been a leader at every one of the bi-annual Kuantu Water Birds' Seasons since 1997, helping the public understand the importance of wetland conservation, and in the 1997 Summer Birding Camp teaching elementary school children the joy of birding. Every time I go birding, I compile detailed field records and submit them to the Wild Bird Society to contribute to our island-wide bird census that helps us understand a great deal about Taiwan's birds and their habits. Recently, I discovered that by combining birding with biking, I can cover a lot of ground and see many more birds. The only drawback is that biking can sometimes be exhausting going up steep mountain roads! So far, I have seen nearly 300 species of birds in Taiwan (photographed more than 50), 152 in America, 162 in Borneo, 74 in Australia, and a couple dozen more in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. I haven't compiled a world list yet, which should be slightly less than the total of all these regions added up together.

Bird-watching is my main passion, but I am just as interested in collecting or photographing various insects, especially butterflies and beetles. I own a personal collection of insect specimens that I've gathered from the wild since sixth grade, including butterflies, moths, beetles, cicadas, wasps, dragonflies, grasshoppers, praying mantids, and much more. I have ceased my collecting in recent years and began photographing them instead. Some of my works may be seen in the Photo Gallery, though these are not the best examples because I normally use slide film and I have yet to get a slide scanner. So far, I've photographed more than 110 species of butterflies in Taiwan, but I haven't been keeping track of how many species I've seen. I've also published a couple articles about Taiwan butterflies and beetles, and I also own a website on Stag Beetles of Taiwan. I am considering to joining the membership of the newly established The Butterfly Conservation Society of R.O.C. One project I am currently working on is gathering specimens for the first insect collection of Taipei American School. I hope to obtain as many of the species on the checklist as possible, and I will eventually donate the entire collection to the school when I graduate. I also help other institutions around the world obtain specimens from Taiwan, and I send specimens upon request to Europe, Australia, Japan, and USA.

Since forth grade, I have also been a cetacean (whale and dolphins) and shark enthusiast. My brother and I are volunteers at the young Cetacean Research Laboratory of the National Taiwan University. I am in the observational committee, and we go on research excursions to identify the cetacean species that occur in the coastal waters of Taiwan (see Dolphin Research Cruise Off Ilan trip report).

I have various other interests besides nature. The World Wide Web is my "second home," where I spend no less than two or three hours online everyday. To see me online or to chat with me, follow the recent trend and get ICQ! I also enjoy an occasional battle of Doom II, WarCraft II, StarCraft, or Duke Nukem with my friends. Away from the computer, I collect stamps for leisure. I focus on animal stamps from around the world (surprise, surprise!).. Another passion of mine is music. I play the cello and performed in the Taipei Century Symphony Orchestra for over two years. I enjoy listening to classical music, movie soundtracks, modern musicals, some jazz, some pop, and many others. Some of my favorite composers are Antonin Dvorak (Cello Concerto in B minor, Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" etc.), John Williams (Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones etc.), and Andrew Lloyd Webber (The Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, "Amigos Para Siempre" etc.). I don't have a favorite pop singer, but I especially like Michael Jackson's pieces that call attention to practical problems our world is facing ("Earth Song," "Heal the World," "Black or White" etc.).

A word about my pets. Since the day that I began keeping silkworms before I entered elementary school, I have always had animals beside me as I grew up. I love my two adopted Common Kestrels, especially as I watch them become more tame day by day. I used to be a fish-keeping fanatic as well when I was in sixth and seventh grade, but the interest somehow faded away even though I still enjoy keeping my aquarium of tropical fish. If you already think my pets are unusual, you might be surprised to learn that I raise many different types of insects at different times of the year. During the summer, I often collect beetles from the wild and keep them for the month or so they live. Some species breed well in captivity, and through the winter I raise their larvae until they turn into adult beetles (how long this takes depends on the species). I also bring home butterfly larvae whenever I encounter them in the wild and take care of them until they become adult butterflies. Then I usually bring them back to where they were found to set them free.

Name: Wayne Hsu
Nicknames: F.B.Magpie, Kooka
B-day: December 16 (same as Ludwig van Beethoven)

Pets (including former): budgerigar "Stanley," a pair of Common Kestrels, aquarium of freshwater tropical fish (mostly Amazon), aquarium of goldfish, a red-eared turtle, dragon-lizards, albino mice (kestrel food), mealworms (turtle & lizard food), Japanese rhinoceros beetles (Allomyrina dichotomus), Potosia aeruginosa, and larvae (grubs) of Eudicella smithi bertherandi.

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