China July - August 2010, Beijing

My summer holiday in 2010 was spent travelling through China. This trip was not focused on birds, like most of the travels I did recently. It was more of a cultural trip, however I still did some birding and that yielded not much, but at least some species worth noting. We started (and ended) our trip in Beijing. This gigantic city has many cultural highlights, but also holds a surprising amount of interesting birding sites and birds (I learned this only when I was back in the Netherlands...) For more up to date and better information about birding in Beijing, visit this excellent blog.

Almost all the birding I did within Beijing was within the massive parks that are spread throughout this city. I spent most of my time in the massive Beihai Park. This gave me a small introduction to the local avifauna. I noted among others Mandarin Duck, Common Swift (ssp. pekinensis), Great Spotted Woodpecker, Spotted Dove, Asian Azure-winged Magpie, Large-billed Crow and Crested Myna within this park. Beihai park is located in the center of the capital and is rather easy to reach and find from any direction.

Juvenile Asian Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus)

The world famous Temple of Heaven, which truly is a sight to behold, is surrounded by another large park. I also spent a day walking through this park, noting similar species as observed in Beihai park. Furthermore I also observed Eurasian Hoopoe, Red-billed Blue Magpie and Grey-capped Greenfinch here. The Temple of Heaven is located in the South of city center and since it is one of the most famous tourist sites of the city, it should be no problem to find it.

Red-billed Blue Magpie (Urocissa erythrorhyncha)

Apart from the above mentioned sites within the city, we also spent a day at the Chinese Wall. We arranged this day-trip through our hostel (Drum Tower Hostel) and they brought us to a wonderful and authentic part of the Chinese Wall. It had not yet been repaired and therefore was still in its original state. This also resulted in no other tourists being present. We enjoyed a tough 10 km walk over this part of the wall and I managed to see some birds here as well. Species observed here included Ring-necked Pheasant, Red-billed Chough, Coal Tit (of the weird crested subspecies), Japanese Tit and Meadow Bunting.

Record shot a singing male Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides)

We enjoyed our time a lot in Beijing and I must say it is a pleasant city. However we barely did any birding, so I am looking forward to an opportunity to go back there and have a proper look at Beijing's birds. I mean even Ibisbill can be seen within the city! For more posts on my trip to China see the posts in the section "China (Southern)" in the "Oriental " section, as China is part of two biogeographical regions. This post and other posts concerning my 2010 China trip can be downloaded as PDF here.