Luan Xiaona, chief reporter of The Paper
Do you know how many species of wild birds there are in Shanghai?
On April 12, the surging news (www.thepaper.cn) reporter learned from the Shanghai Municipal Greening and City Appearance Administration that as of now, 506 species of wild birds have been recorded in Shanghai, covering 22 orders and 79 families, and the number of species has accounted for about 1/3 of the number of bird species in the country.
Statistics show that in the past year, a total of 700,000 migratory birds have migrated through Shanghai or wintered here. Among them, in the winter from November last year to March this year, due to the cold tide in the north and other reasons, about 120,000 birds overwintered in Shanghai, of which chongming dongtan, Hengsha dongtan and Nanhui dongtan were the most concentrated, accounting for more than 90% of the number.
Aurora Jawl (now a national second-level key protected wild animal) Photo by Zheng Yunxiang
Many birds stay in Shanghai and don't leave
Records show that of the 700,000 migratory birds that migrated through Shanghai or overwintered here in the past year, Nanhui Dongtan had 300,000 migrations, compared with only 100,000 nanhui Dongtan last year. Why are there so many birds staying in Shanghai for the winter in the past year?
Yuan Xiao, a second-level researcher at the Wildlife Protection Department of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Greening and City Appearance, pointed out that there are two main reasons. On the one hand, last winter's temperature was low, many cold waves struck, and many birds that originally spent winter in the north stayed in Shanghai; on the other hand, the area of green woodland in Shanghai increased year by year, and the bird habitat environment became larger and better.
"A lot of birds are 'opportunists', and if a place has food, shelter and play, the environment is good, and no one drives them away, it is willing to live." Yuan Xiao said that in order to attract birds to stay and roost, it is necessary to meet both safety and food conditions. In recent years, Shanghai has worked hard to make the bird habitat less disturbed by humans, and at present, the city has set aside 6 wildlife hunting areas, and birds feel safer to live here, and do not have to worry about being hunted all day.
In addition, Shanghai is also actively restoring bird bases, such as the Chongming Dongtan Bird National Nature Reserve To treat the mutual flower rice grass project. After the "Human Grass War", about 24 square kilometers of restoration area can attract hundreds of thousands of birds to live every year.
Therefore, some birds not only choose to come to Shanghai for winter in winter, but also stay and regard Shanghai as a permanent home, such as birds such as bone-top chickens. "Historically, bone-top chickens rarely stayed after wintering in Shanghai, but about 10 years ago we observed more than 20,000 bone-top chickens at a time on Hengsha Island, and later found that a small number of them were left to lay eggs and breed offspring, and now, in many wetlands and parks and lakes, you can see bone-top chickens all year round." Yuan Xiao introduced.
There are also some winter migratory birds such as egrets and night herons, which were originally only wintered in Shanghai, and can now be observed all year round, showing the entire life cycle of nesting and incubating eggs. The wildlife protection department once tracked some egrets, one of which was tracked for three years, and found that it stayed in Shanghai all year round, and as far as Xitang to play a circle, and later returned.
Photo by Zheng Yunxiang of the Great Sandpiper (now a national second-level key protected wild animal).
Many birds get lost and become "new friends"
The comfortable habitat not only makes more and more "old friends", but also many "new friends" come.
According to the Municipal Bureau of Greening and Appearance, among the 506 bird records, a small number of them are new records or rare records of Shanghai birds, that is to say, they have never been or rarely observed in Shanghai before, they are either "blown" by cold air, or "blown" by typhoons, or lost when migrating with birds. The Ryukyu mountain pepperbird and the collared crane are the most recently recorded rare guests, the former being observed in Shanghai for the first time, and the latter only recorded in the middle of the last century.
In December last year, bird watchers spotted a Ryukyu mountain pepper bird at the Nanhuizui Bird Park, with small and tall body feathers and a white ring around its forehead and neck, resembling a pearl ornament. This is not only the first time it has been observed in Shanghai, but also the first time it has been recorded in Chinese mainland, and the figure of this bird has subsequently been found in many places such as the Shanghai Botanical Garden.
Photo by Zheng Yunxiang, red-throated singing duck (now a national second-level key protected wild animal).
During the Qingming Dynasty this year, bird watchers recorded a collared partridge catching rats to eat in Nanhui. The collared partridge is a type of owl, and it is said that a mouse caught at that time was about the size of a bird.
Making the birds willing to come to Shanghai and stay in Shanghai is the result of the joint efforts of the people of the city. Gu Xiaojun, deputy director of the Shanghai Greening and City Appearance Bureau, was selected at the launching ceremony of the 40th Shanghai "Bird Love Week" held on April 11, and Gu Xiaojun, deputy director of the Shanghai Greening and City Appearance Bureau, said that this year's event entered the factory area, and the coverage of the wild protection publicity work was further extended and expanded, and the next Bird Love Week launch ceremony will enter the Shanghai Disney Resort.
During this year's Shanghai "Bird Love Week", a wealth of online and offline activities such as the Shanghai Citizens' Bird Watching Competition and the "Bird Love Assisted Flight" online fun game will be held to publicize the importance of protecting bird protection for wildlife resources, maintaining ecological balance and improving the human living environment, helping citizens to further understand the importance of protecting birds and protecting wild animals, and firmly establishing the scientific concept of "harmonious coexistence between man and nature".
Editor-in-Charge: Gao Wen