Some common birds seen in Shanghai

Eurasian tree sparrow

One of the most common birds found all over China, the little brown birds are adaptable and enjoy living near humans. In the national campaign against four pests in the 1950s: flies, mosquitoes, rats and sparrows, a large number of sparrows were killed mistakenly as harmful creatures. It was said earlier that the indigenous sparrows of China went extinct during that period, and all the sparrows found in China now are foreign species. Zhang Chenliang, editor-in-chief of the Nature History magazine, dismisses this citing images of sparrows in ancient Chinese paintings, which all share the characteristic black spots on both sides of the bird's face as today's sparrows in China.

Azure-winged magpie

A member of the crow family, azure-winged magpies are widely found in China's northeast, eastern and western regions. They tend to be noisy, and live in groups high up on trees. However, the birds are not natural inhabitant of Shanghai, but were introduced from other parts of China in the 1990s, as they proved an effective ecological solution to pine moths, a wood pest.

Light-vented bulbul

This is a beautiful song bird with patches of white on its head, throat and chest, and the tips of its wings are yellowish green. The mating season of these birds is from late spring to early summer, when they gather in the woods and sing their "love songs". They eat lots of bugs, from beetles to moths, locusts and cicadas, as well as fruits such as hawthorn, mulberry, cherries and even the fruits of camphor trees, when food is scarce.

Spotted dove

They look like gray pigeons "with a pearl necklace" and are found in most parts of China, and are adaptable to human environment. They often peck on the ground for food, while making their cuckoo sound. Spotted doves live so carelessly close to human residents, that these birds gained a nickname among China's bird lovers, the "lousy architect", because they nest on people's window panes or plant pots by simply placing a few twigs.

Daurian redstart

These little migrant birds usually spend the winter season in Shanghai, where they are often observed in the woods, shrubs and parks from November to March. They then fly to the northeastern part of China and breed there. The male birds have dark orange or red feathers on their lower backs and bellies, with large white wing patches. The female birds are less brightly colored, with orange rumps and white patches on the wings. Their tails often shake up and down when perching, with their head nodding repeatedly.

Little egret

A beautiful wading bird of the heron family often found in rivers, ponds and rice patches, the little egret is slim and white with a slender black beak that enables it to feed on small fish and frogs. The birds are often pictured standing on one foot, the other hiding underneath their bellies. They tend to gather in groups in the breeding season, from March to July.