China Environmental Law

The original The Birds of Shanghai post remains one of the most popular here at CELB.  Shanghai Daily (SD) just ran a story about one of Shanghai’s most active birders, Gu Ren, so the time seems ripe to revisit this issue. 

The city once had 370 bird species according to “Shanghai Birds, Resources and Their Habitat” (1993), but that number has shrunk to 137 today.  The SD article notes that

in the 1950s, magpies, sparrows and other birds were killed in the nationwide Four Pests Campaign (rats, mosquitoes, flies and sparrows). Urban expansion destroyed birds’ habitat and they were further repelled air pollution and heavy use of pesticides to kill the insects they fed on.

Things are slowly getting better.  One sign of progress is the fact that the European (shouldn’t that be Eurasian) or Common magpie is inching closer to the city center.  The magpie is a “bird of good luck and happiness” in China.  I think it’s called a 喜鹊 in Chinese.  Magpies have been spotted in the Shanghai suburbs of Fengxian, Qingpu, Baoshan and Jiading, and it seems only a matter of time before they return to People’s Square or Jing’an Park.  That will be incredible. 

As mentioned above, the SD article features Gu Ren who received his first “received binoculars as a gift in 2003, searched online for what to do with the magnifiers and came across birdwatching.” 

At first he was too clumsy and not quick enough to catch the birds.

He was hooked when he spotted a Chinese light-vented bulbul (turdus merula) in his own community. He matched it with the bird online. Now Gu spends most of his spare time watching birds in city parks or suburbs, poring over pictorial bird guides and talking shop with other bird lovers.  In 2004, Gu and friends founded the Shanghai Wild Bird Society.

The Shanghai Wild Bird Society has a website which at least one forum written primarily in English.  Every month there’s an outing to the Botanical Garden, Century Park, Gongqing Forest Park, Changfeng Park, Daning Lingshi Park and other spots.  In case you can’t hook up with the group, I’ve mapped the locations here [click View Larger Map for marked locations]

Additional China birding resources include:

A database of the birds of China

China Bird Gallery

Rare Birds of China Wonderful watercolors. The full boxed set of 32 prints is available for $25,000, or $1,000 each. CELB’s first birthday is fast approaching, and either the boxed set or a single print would make a wonderful gift.

China Hotspots 

Bird links to the world (China page)