Hiking Bird Watching - Themed Tourism

Author: Fan Zhiyong, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: The activities of birds exhibit distinct cyclical changes throughout the year. Most birds enter the breeding season in spring, while in autumn, except for resident birds that stay in the same place year-round, the rest migrate to lower latitudes. Birds that breed in northern China (high latitudes) will migrate to central China (mid-latitudes) for wintering or continue southward. Therefore, bird-watching should be timed to coincide with peak migration periods when a greater variety of bird species can be observed. When bird-watching in the field, initial species identification can be based on certain morphological features and movement patterns of birds.
1. Identification based on body size and shape: Similar to sparrows are species such as buntings, chickadees, finches, goldfinches, and waxwings.
2. Identification based on beak shape: Long-beaked birds include kingfishers, woodpeckers, sandpipers, egrets, herons, and cranes.
3. Identification based on tail shape: Short-tailed birds include quail, blue-footed sandpipers, coots, nightjars, and wrens.
4. Identification based on feather color: Birds mostly black in color include cormorants, red-breasted mergansers, white-winged scoters, coots, dippers, cuckoos, blackbirds, black drongos, crested drongos, black woodpeckers, red-billed magpies, and crows.
5. Identification based on flight and perching posture: Birds with a wavy flight pattern include swallows, wheatears, larks, and woodpeckers.