First Jankowski’s Buntings in Beijing for 75 years

by Terry Townshend

Courtesy of the Oriental Bird Club (OBC), an article about the first JANKOWSKI'S BUNTINGS in Beijing for 75 years, just published in BirdingASIA, is now available as a downloadable PDF.

For more great articles like this about Asia's birds, please consider joining the OBC - they are doing fantastic work to celebrate and protect the birds in this wonderful continent!
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The above has been copied from the fabolous Birding Beijing blog

Northern Inner Mongolia in Winter

Trip Report

Great Grey Owl, Wuerqihan, Inner Mongolia,

China, December 2014. © T. Townshend

Terry Townshend, author of the fabulous blog and website Birding Beijing has finally completed a report of his Christmas trip to northern Inner Mongolia, close to the Russian border. It covers time in two locations – Wuerqihan and XiQi. There is a focus on owls but he and his companions were rewarded with a host of good birds including, among others, Arctic Redpoll, Siberian Jay, Pere David’s Snowfinch and Asian Rosy Finch. You can download the report here (Word, 12 MB).

Wuerqihan is c2.5 hrs E of Hailar (red pointer: Hailar),

and XiQi is c4 hrs W of Hailar (red pointer).

An almost 24 years old Mongolian Gull!

Terry Townshend just published a record of an almost 24 years old Mongolian Gull, found at Jinzhou Bay, Liaoning Province, north-eastern China, on his blog BIRDING BEIJING. Read more about it: click here. See also previous post here, with some info on Abu's wing-tagged gulls.

Large number of Dalmatian Pelicans

in Jiangsu, eastern China

from the OB mailing list of the Oriental Bird Club, communicated by Simba Chan

From a Chinese news website: on 19 March 2013, 72 Dalmatian Pelicans were seen at Yancheng Nature Reserve, Jiangsu Province, China on 18 March 2013: click here (with photos)

This is probably the highest count of the Dalmatian Pelicans recorded wintering in East Asia for many years. The birds were probably wintering at Wenzhou Bay of Zhejiang Province, where at least 66 birds were reported from in late December 2011. This species used to winter at Deep Bay between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Location of Yancheng Nature Reserve (YNR) in Jiangsu Province (red); pelican breeding area in the Great lakes Basin in western Mongolia (green circle). map base: Wikimedia Commons.

The origin of Dalmatian Pelicans wintering on the Chinese coast is not known. Do they come from breeding sites western Mongolia?

Rare footage of Snow Leopard
recorded in NW China

Footage shows a Snow Leopard in the mountains of Qinghai Province, China. The images were captured on infrared cameras by wildlife photographer Matse Rangja, who has only managed to film the leopard once before in eight years. Snow Leopards are rarely seen by humans and are listed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red list of Threatened Species.

New Relict Gull colony found

in Inner Mongolia, China

An important new Relict Gull Larus relictus site has been found in Inner Mongolia, the Chinese Journal of Zoology reports.

In May 2012 a total of 640 Relict Gulls, including 285 individuals sitting on nests, were counted at Aotai lake in the western suburbs of the regional capital, Hohhot, according to the brief report posted online in English and Chinese: see here.

The birds were seen on four islets in the lake and nesting 20-50 cm above the water level.

(Info supplied by Michael Rank via OrientalBirding, the mailing list of the Oriental Bird Club.)

Relict Gull, adult, Khar Us Nuur,

NW Mongolia, May 2010. © A. Buchheim

White-crowned Sparrow in Inner Mongolia!

(info by Jesper Hornskov via the Oriental Birding mailing list of the Oriental Bird Club)

The November 2012 issue of China Bird Watch revealed that a White-crowned Sparrow Zonotrichia leucophrys, a North American species of the buntings and sparrows family Emberizidae was seen and photographed on 28 Oct 2012 at Yakeshi Wuerqihan forest area (roughly 280 km NE of easternmost Dornod, i.e. the easternmost part of Mongolia), NE Inner Mongolia, China, by WANG Qin. The bird was part of a mixed flock consisting of Common and Arctic Redpolls and Long-tailed and Pallas’s Rosefinches! This is the first record for China. 

White-crowned Sparrow, California, USA

(photo by Mike Baird, licensed under the

Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)

This record was followed hot on the heels by two further firsts for China, involving North American species, too: American Wigeon Anas americana on 12 Dec 2012, and Redhead Aythya americana on 13 Dec 2012, both at Yancheng National Nature Reserve, Jiangsu province (both duck records by Paul Holt & a tour group, via Oriental Birding mailing list).

Bird Conservation in China

Terry Townshend is a British birder and conservationist who has been living and working in Beijing since August 2010. See his great blog Birding Beijing. His article about the ongoing Oriental Stork poisoning incident at Beidagang Reservoir, Tianjin (just 30 minutes from Beijing by train) and how it could mark a turning point in China, is now online at Birding Frontiers: click here.

Tragic: An globally Endangered Oriental Stork poisoned by poachers at Beidagang. The population of these majestic birds is estimated to be fewer than 2,500 individuals.

In addition, there’s a podcast where he’s talking with Charlie Moores of Talking Naturally about his involvement in a campaign to draw attention to the widespread use of illegal mist nets in China (millions of birds are estimated to be caught every year) and the campaign being led by Chinese activists to stamp out their use: click here.

Read more here, and please leave a message of support for the wonderful work of the many volunteers involved. Thanks!: click