111 Species at Core Shanghai Sites

Shanghai birders
Shanghai birders at Cape Nanhui. On 10 Dec., this international team attained the first-ever record of Red-crowned Crane on the Shanghai Peninsula. Standing, L-R: Andy Lee, Xú Yáng (徐扬), Xú Fènqiáng (徐奋强), Cài Jiàndōng (蔡见东), Michael Grunwell, Russell Boyman, & Lán Bāngxiàn (蓝邦宪). Bottom row: Zhāng Xuěhán (张雪寒), Zhāng Xiǎoyàn (张小艳), Zhāng Huá (张华), Lán Xī (兰溪), Chéng Yīxuān (程一轩), Craig Brelsford, Elaine Du, Mrs. Hao, & Hǎo Lèzhī (郝乐之). (Hǎo Zhàokuān [郝兆宽]).
by Craig Brelsford
Founder, shanghaibirding.com

Elaine and I birded four of the eight days between 3 Dec. and 10 Dec., noting 111 species. We birded three days at Cape Nanhui, half a day on Hengsha Island, and half a day at Binjiang Forest Park in Pudong. On 10 Dec. Elaine and I led a group of members of the Shanghai Birding WeChat group on a tour of Cape Nanhui. We birded the other days with Shanghai-based U.K. birder Michael Grunwell and U.S. birder Susan Lessner.

Major highlights were 2 Red-crowned Crane and Hooded Crane at Cape Nanhui and 3 Siberian Crane on Hengsha as well as Baikal Teal and Red-breasted Flycatcher at Nanhui and Ferruginous Duck on Hengsha.

Nanhui also gave us three-day counts of 20 Vulnerable Swan Goose, 14 Greater White-fronted Goose, 190 Tundra Swan (bewickii), 255 Common Shelduck, 11 Greater Scaup, 4 Black-necked Grebe, Brown Crake, Vulnerable Saunders’s Gull, 2 Mew Gull Larus canus, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull (heuglini), late Eurasian Wryneck, uncommon winter visitor Dusky Warbler, 22 Near Threatened Reed Parrotbill, and 2 extralimital Common Starling.

We noted shorebird stragglers at Nanhui, among them Near Threatened Eurasian Curlew (2), Bar-tailed Godwit (1), and Red Knot (3). We recorded just 2 Endangered Black-faced Spoonbill, and we found 3 Black-collared Starling near Pudong Airport.

Hengsha gave us a rare Shanghai sighting of adult-male Hen Harrier as well as 3 Chinese Grey Shrike and impressive numbers of buntings. In a single stretch of scrub just 500 m long, we counted 14 Little Bunting, 18 Rustic Bunting, 17 Yellow-throated Bunting, 4 Black-faced Bunting, and 150 Pallas’s Reed Bunting.

Binjiang Forest Park once again proved to be one of the only places in urban Shanghai where Great Spotted Woodpecker is reliable. Thrushes were numerous, with Naumann’s Thrush leading the list.

PHOTOS

Hen Harrier with Peregrine Falcon, Hengsha, 6 Dec. 2016. Craig Brelsford.
Hen Harrier with Peregrine Falcon, Hengsha. (Craig Brelsford)
Red-breasted Flycatcher
Red-breasted Flycatcher, Nanhui, 6 Dec. Rare Shanghai record. Note pinkish bill. (Craig Brelsford)
Dusky Thrush, 3 Dec. 2016, Nanhui. Photo by Craig Brelsford.
Dusky Thrush, Nanhui. (Craig Brelsford)
Common Pochard, Nanhui, 6 Dec. 2016. Craig Brelsford.
Common Pochard, a diving duck. Nanhui. (Craig Brelsford)
Zitting Cisticola, Hengsha Island, 7 Dec. 2016. Photo by Craig Brelsford.
Zitting Cisticola, a drop of color in the drab scrub. Hengsha Island, 7 Dec. (Craig Brelsford)
Collared Finchbill, Binjiang Forest Park, Pudong, 7 Dec. 2016. Digiscoped image by Elaine Du.
Collared Finchbill, parking lot of Binjiang Forest Park, Pudong, 7 Dec. Feral or natural? The jury’s still out on Binjiang’s Collared Finchbill, a mainly south Chinese species. (Elaine Du)
Shanghai birders viewing Baikal Teal. 10 Dec. 2016. Craig Brelsford.
Shanghai birders viewing Baikal Teal at Cape Nanhui, 10 Dec. (Craig Brelsford)

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