fauna and flora Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Stuck in Beijing since 1980

My little friends

Referring to Beijing birds I am not thinking of all the pretty mini-skirts invading my Gongti Strip, now facing a slow destruction.

I have two balconies I love, where I grow plants and even some vegetables. But the birds visiting me daily are my fluffy friends. They come to drink, eat, play, fight, make love. I am not an expert but I tried to identify some of my guests. Especially in winter they love it and wait for me to feed them. At times there are some 25 of them fighting for the food.

Eurasian tree sparrows and spotted doves are the regulars. Eurasian magpie (pica pica) are afraid to visit but there are many flying around in my compound. I think crows also come here.
To spot the swallows and the small bats, one need to go out in the late evening when they zoom around to catch insects.

Contrary to the birds in Belgium and Phuket, here they are pretty scared of humans and fly away at any sign of us. In Phuket I have to be careful they don’t jump on my breakfast plate.

Of course sometimes we are suspicious of all those “birds”. Are they simply spying on us?

Taking care of the Beijing birds

Over the years I changed the way they can eat. I installed some wire in one pot so the doves and sparrows don’t fight to much – the doves can’t land because of the wire.
I mostly give them corn grain, we can buy it very cheap in the local market. They love it.

Sometimes I get some unexpected visitors, such as the Pallas’s Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus proregulus), see the pic. Sometimes a bird hits the window; some I help recover, some don’t make it. Once I had to free a sparrow who got entangled in the balcony fence.

I am sure I have seen other “exotic” ones, as I can see what is flying around here: https://birdingbeijing.com/birders-guide-to-beijing/.
There is indeed an active group of bird watchers in Beijing.