Whose birds are back? Check out this Beijing Spring Bird Watching Guide →

As spring arrives and flowers bloom, migratory birds return north. Please check out this bird watching guide in Beijing.

Are there birds in Beijing? Of course! The diversity of birds in Beijing is remarkable all over the world, ranking second among the capitals of G20 countries, second only to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Among my many bird lovers, there are several foreigners who have settled in Beijing for many years as "bird guides" (guides for bird watching and bird photography).

▲Foreign bird watchers in the bird watching community (Photo: Guo Geng)

Why do many bird lovers from all over the world come to Beijing to watch birds? It is because Beijing's birds attract worldwide attention! Beijing accounts for less than 0.2% of China's land area, but it is home to 79.17% of the orders, 68.32% of the families, and 32.68% of the species of Chinese birds. In recent years, bird lovers have counted as many as 500 bird species in Beijing. Beijing is known as the "Beijing Bay" and is like a treasure pot. It has been home to many birds since ancient times, all of which are determined by Beijing's geographical location and topographic ecology - there are Yanshan Mountain and Taihang Mountain in the west, and Yongding River, Chaobai River, Juma River and other rivers running through it. The terrain difference is large, the habitat is diverse, and the vegetation is diverse, presenting various ecological environments of mountains, water, forests, fields, lakes, grass, and sand... Ecological diversity is the basis of species diversity. "Only when there are sycamore trees can there be phoenixes" is this reason.

Bird habitat patterns

Birds can be divided into resident birds, migratory birds, and traveling birds according to whether they fly away or not. Not all birds migrate, and according to the type of residence, they can be roughly divided into:

01. Resident birds (birds that stay in a certain place and do not leave in all seasons) 02. Migratory birds (birds that fly away with the change of seasons, including summer migratory birds and winter migratory birds, etc.) 03. Traveling birds (birds that pass through a certain place but do not breed or overwinter there) 04. Lost birds (birds that come here by chance because they get lost) 05. Wandering birds (birds that fly and drift to a certain place at will) Three-quarters of the more than 10,000 bird species in the world are migrating; there are 10 billion birds flying around in the sky every year; among the nearly 1,500 bird species in my country, 560 species migrate in an orderly manner in a year. Scientists used to track the laws of bird migration by "ringing", but now there are more advanced satellite positioning methods to understand the laws of migration.

There are about 500 bird species in Beijing, including about 130 resident birds, more than 200 migratory birds, 60 to 70 summer migratory birds, and more than 30 winter migratory birds. Nowadays, bird protection has become popular. Many caged birds that were used to be common in the past, such as thrush, mynah, white-eye, lark, skylark, and point-throated owl, have been listed as national protected birds. Breeding, transportation, and sales are all illegal. Why should we protect birds? Let's start with the value of birds. Seed dispersal may be the most important ecological function of birds. In forests, birds can help up to 92% of trees spread seeds. Some tree species even rely on a few specific birds, such as yew, anti-malaria strychnos nux vomica, which relies on hornbills and crested pheasants. The function of jays to spread seeds can save thousands of dollars in labor costs. In addition, although the spread of plant pollen by birds is not as common as seed dispersal, according to research, birds are believed to pollinate 3% to 5% of the world's more than 1,500 crops or medicinal plants, three-quarters of which cannot self-pollinate. For some economic plants such as eucalyptus, loquat, silver birch, and kapok, birds may provide better pollination services than bees, especially in winter. At the same time, birds can effectively reduce the intensity of aphid outbreaks and reduce insect pests in agricultural and forestry crops such as apples, broccoli, coffee, corn, cabbage, grapes, and oil palm. Most passerine birds are insectivorous. If there are fewer birds in nature, insects will proliferate and become harmful. If there are more insects, pesticides will be applied. Excessive pesticides will lead to environmental hormone poisoning, endangering human reproduction and health, which will become "starting with hurting birds and ending with hurting oneself"!

Six major ecological groups of birds in Beijing

Birds can be divided into six major ecological groups: waterfowl, wading birds, raptors, climbing birds, land birds, and songbirds.

"Two orioles sing in the green willows, and a line of egrets fly in the blue sky." Orioles are songbirds, and egrets are wading birds; "Thousands of miles of orioles sing, green reflects red" and "The green silk is weaker than the oriole." Willow warblers, commonly known as "little willow warblers," have dozens of species and are typical songbirds.

▲Female yellow-bellied tit (Photo: Ding Lin)

▲Male yellow-bellied tit (Photo: Ding Lin)

As a layman, you can take a quick look at the common birds around us: the common waterfowl in Beijing include mallards and little grebes; the wading birds include herons, egrets, white-rumped snipes, and moorhens; the birds of prey include kestrels and long-eared owls...

▲Little Grebe (Photo: Ding Lin)

I recently saw the Short-eared Owl, a nocturnal bird of prey, at the Dongjiao Wetland Park in Chaoyang District, Beijing.

▲The short-eared owl photographed by the author in Dongjiao Wetland Park, Chaoyang District (Photo: Guo Geng)

In addition, common land birds in Beijing include spotted doves and ring-necked pheasants. Among them, ring-necked pheasants are distributed in various places, but the rings on their necks vary from place to place: the ring-necked pheasants in northwest China have no rings, the rings in northeast China are large, and the rings in east China are broken in front.

▲Red-necked Thrush (Photo: Ding Lin)

Common songbirds in Beijing include tree sparrows, white wagtails, gray starlings, white-headed bulbuls, mynas, magpies, gray magpies, small-billed crows, great tits, and house martin. In his poem "Poems about Swallows to Liu Sou", the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi made a detailed observation and description of house martin: "There are two swallows on the beam, a male and a female, carrying mud between two rafters, and giving birth to four chicks in one nest."

▲Tree Sparrow (Photo: Ding Lin)

In addition, there is another small bird that is common in Beijing in winter: the wren. As early as the Western Jin Dynasty, Zhang Hua, a native of Daxing, wrote the eloquent "Ode to the Wren" in his "Records of Natural History". The birds discovered by British Robert Swinhoe in Beijing include black woodpeckers, mountain thrushes, greater sandpipers, Beijing swifts, blunt-winged reed warblers, etc., all of which were included in his masterpiece "Catalogue of the Birds of China" published in 1863. We often regard the swift as the representative bird species of Beijing, but in fact it is a subspecies, and there is another bird that is unique to China and "most Beijing", that is the mountain thrush.

▲ Mountain Babbler - the "most Beijing" bird

In addition, the common climbing birds in Beijing include the Great Spotted Woodpecker, the Star-headed Woodpecker, the Hoopoe, the Common Kingfisher, etc. The well-known "Single is so miserable" is the climbing bird Cuckoo. There are also common swifts, including the Beijing subspecies: Beijing House Swift, which are all climbing birds. The mascot of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, "Nini", is based on the Beijing Swift.

▲Grey-headed Woodpecker (Photo: Ding Lin)

Learning bird watching is like getting a ticket to the natural theater, which is free for life. As long as you want, you can go to the wild stage at any time to enjoy the wonderful performances of birds.

Watch birds without locking them up, photograph birds without shooting them

As early as 1999, I participated in the International Bird Watching Competition held in Beidaihe with Professor Gao Wu of Beijing Normal University, a professional instructor of our Beijing Bird Watching Organization. This was the first international bird watching competition held in inland China. At that time, the British Wild Wings team won the first place in the group with an excellent score of 183 species. The first place in the individual competition was shared by Hannu Yamus of Finland and Paul Hout of the United Kingdom; Qiao Zhenzhong of Beidaihe Banding Station won the second place. Our Chinese team composed of Friends of Nature (FON) won the special group award with a score of 83 species. At that time, I had the honor to speak on behalf of the Chinese team. I still remember that our foreign aid "bird guide" Dr. Martin from the UK saw someone setting up sticky nets in the mountains and forests while bird watching, so he angrily stepped forward and said to the bird catcher: "I love your Chinese birds, you should love them more!" Unfortunately, we were still accustomed to this phenomenon at that time.

▲The large bird cage designed by the author for people to think in other people’s shoes (Photo: Guo Geng)

Therefore, please let us call together - if you love birds, don't lock them up, please come and watch them, don't shoot them, you can take pictures of them. In this regard, there is a similar motto in the West: Please take pictures with a camera, don't shoot with a gun (Shoot, with camera, without gun)! Chinese and English, the same idea, both have their own merits.

▲The author's car shooting action is to minimize the impact on the bird (Source: Guo Geng)

▲Still from the American movie "Bird Watching Year"

Chaoyang bird watching, I'm waiting for you!

So, as one of the most prosperous areas in Chaoyang District, Beijing, what birds can be seen? Don't underestimate it. You should know that Chaoyang District not only has the Olympic Forest Park, but also the Dongjiao Wetland Park, Dongba Country Park, Majiawan Wetland Park, Laojuntang Park... They form a green barrier and provide a suitable environment for birds to live. Recently, I saw short-eared owls in Dongjiao Wetland Park, white-tailed sea eagles in Chaobai River, great bustards in Taihu Lake in the sub-center, and swans in Nanhaizi. Qin Guan, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said, "The thatched eaves in the deep alleys are getting longer, and I lie down to watch the flowers and birds competing for the sunrise." It can be said that I am watching birds nearby, enjoying the ecology, and having a pleasant mood. A vivid portrayal.

▲Four little swans photographed by the author in Nanhaizi (Photographer: Guo Geng)

So what are you waiting for? Spring is here, let’s go out into the great outdoors and watch, recognize and love birds!