I am now back in Beijing from the 2026 “Nature Watch” in Nangqen, Yushu Prefecture, and my batteries are fully recharged. ⚡
There’s nothing quite like watching people celebrate nature in a place this special. Over three days, 16 teams of young people from across China partnered with local herding families for a “bioblitz” – to record as many species of mammal, bird, plant, reptile and amphibians as possible.
The results were extraordinary: over 300 species logged, including 94 birds and more than 200 plants. Among them were species found almost nowhere else on Earth — such as the Tibetan Babax, Tibetan Bunting, Chinese Grouse and many more.
The video below shows adult and juvenile Tibetan Babax (a pair was nesting under my accommodation and these birds were seen daily).
However, the numbers tell only part of the story. What struck me, as always when I visit the Plateau, was the relationship between the local Tibetan people and the wildlife around them. So many species here are remarkably tame — a clear sign of how humans and nature live in genuine harmony in this landscape. And watching the teams share sightings, compare notes and help one another was a reminder that curiosity is contagious.
Tibetan Foxes were seen on the grasslands.
Each team partnered with a local family and, at the end of the event, each of the local guides was presented with a pair of binoculars, courtesy of BOSMA, the optics company.
I was honoured to serve on the panel of judges, and I also grabbed every chance to get out and explore. Some of my personal highlights included the high-elevation plant, Saussurea medusa (known locally as 雪兔子 Xuě tùzǐ 偶然 or ‘snow rabbit’), and mountain butterflies including Pieris dubernardi and Issoria eugenia.
Saussurea medusa, or Snow Lotus, known locally as “雪兔子” or “Snow Rabbit”. This specimen was growing on a rocky mountainside at 4,500m asl.Pieris dubernardi, a high-elevation specialist.Issoria eugenia was fairly common around Nangqen
Best of all, every photo and every sound recording is a gift to science. Each one helps us better understand this special place — and understanding is everything. People want to protect what they love, but they can only love what they know.
Huge thanks to Shanshui Conservation Center, the local community for their typically warm hospitality and to the Nangqen government for making it all possible.
Can’t wait to go back!
Some more images from the area:
Title image: a Eurasian Lynx by the “Snow Leopard Team” from the Valley of the Cats, one of the 16 teams that participated in the Nature Watch Festival.
For anyone who watches birds in Beijing, particularly visitors to the city, one question comes up again and again: is this a good record? Is this species a regular visitor, a scarce migrant, or something genuinely unusual? Until now, answering that has meant piecing together scattered sources — old provincial avifaunas, China Bird Reports, personal notebooks and half-remembered conversations. I wanted to bring as much of that together as possible in one place, and to make it easy to interrogate.
The result is a new interactive page: the Status of the Birds of Beijing.
It currently covers more than 550 species, arranged in taxonomic order and following the new global AviList taxonomy. For each species there is a short account of its status in Beijing, and, where available, the highest counts recorded. For the rarer vagrants I have tried to include the specific records — dates, sites and observers — because for a rarity the individual records are the status.
I want to be clear that it is a records-based figure rather than an official list — a count of the species for which I have been able to find reliable records, which is not the same thing as a formally adjudicated Beijing list. It includes some historical records, and also a handful of older records where changing municipal boundaries make it genuinely hard to be sure whether the bird was seen within present-day Beijing at all. I have kept these in for interest and completeness, flagged by their status, rather than quietly dropping them; where a species is known only from the past it is labelled Historical.
How to use the page
The page is built to be interrogated rather than simply read top to bottom.
You can search by typing any part of a name — English, scientific or Chinese — into the search box. Typing “bunting”, Emberiza, or 鹀 will all bring up the buntings; typing “Shahe” or an observer’s name will surface the accounts that mention them.
You can filter by status using the coloured buttons, so you can, for example, show only the vagrants, or only the residents, in a moment.
And you can jump to any family using the family navigation, which stays in view as you scroll.
The status labels
Each species carries one or more status labels, shown as coloured tags:
Resident — present year-round
Summer — a summer visitor, typically breeding
Passage — a passage migrant, passing through in spring and/or autumn
Winter — a winter visitor
Vagrant — a rare or irregular visitor, well outside its normal range or occurrence
Historical — recorded in the past but not in recent times
Exotic — an introduced or escaped species
Many birds, of course, don’t fit neatly into a single box, and this is where the labels do their most useful work. A species can carry several tags at once, and the first tag is its primary status — the way the bird is most often encountered in Beijing — with the others shown alongside in a lighter shade. If you would rather see only each species’ primary status, there is a “Match primary status only” option next to the filters.
An example: the White Wagtail
The White Wagtail is a good illustration of why a single label is rarely enough. In Beijing it is shown as Passage, Summer, Winter and Vagrant — passage being its primary status, because that is how most people encounter it, in numbers on migration in spring and autumn. But that headline hides a more complex status, which the account unpacks: no fewer than seven subspecies have been recorded here, and each has its own status. The race leucopsis breeds; ocularis is a common passage migrant; baicalensis and alba pass through mainly in spring; lugens is chiefly a scarce winter visitor; and personata and alboides are rare vagrants. So the same “species” is, depending on which subspecies you are looking at, a breeder, a migrant and a winter visitor all at once. The multi-label system is an attempt to reflect that real-world complexity.
Sources and acknowledgements
This page stands on the shoulders of many others. Sources include The Birds of Beijing (Cai Qikan, 1987); The Breeding Birds of Peking as Related to the Palearctic and Oriental Life Regions (Wilder, G. D., 1930); A Handbook to the Birds of Eastern China (J. D. D. La Touche, 1931–1935); The Birds of Hopei Province (Tsen-Hwang Shaw, 1936); the China Bird Reports (CBR) of 2003–2007; Birds of Beijing (2021); birdreport.cn; eBird; birding WeChat groups; and personal notes.
A huge thank you to all the birders who have submitted sightings to one or more of these repositories, and especially to the group who collect information about important Beijing records, including Guan Xiangyu, Dave Guo, Huang Hanchen, Huang Mingjun, Liu Aitao, Li Zhaonan, Lou Fangzhou, Wang Ruiqu, Wei Chunzhi, Zhang Qianyi and Paul Holt, and to Steve Bale for uncovering some important historical references.
A plea
I want to be honest about what this page is and isn’t. It is a living summary, not a finished work, and it is certainly not comprehensive. There are inevitably gaps, and probably inaccuracies too — most likely in the specific records of rare species, where a single overlooked report or a misremembered date can matter a great deal. And also some of the status labels assigned are a little subjective and may benefit from greater scrutiny.
So this is a request as much as an announcement. If you spot an omission, an error, or a record that should be added or corrected, please let me know. Beijing’s birders, collectively, know far more than any single summary can capture, and the page will only get better with your help. Corrections, additions and updates are all warmly welcomed. Any errors or omissions that remain are entirely my own.
I hope you find it useful — and I hope it sends you out to look a little harder at the “common” birds, which so often turn out to be more interesting than their label suggests.
Every spring in Beijing, the hills are alive with the sound of music!
This year I set up a sound recorder on a forested hillside in Mentougou District at an elevation of c1,700m asl. The idea was to capture the sounds of spring, including nocturnal spring migrants and summer breeders. It was also a chance to gain insights into the arrival dates of some of the breeding species and to explore how the species richness evolves through the spring.
The Wildlife Acoustics Song Meter Mini digital recorder was active from 28 March to 13 June and recorded from sunset to one hour after sunrise (automatically adjusted).
Key Information:
From 903 recordings over 78 nights, 84 bird species and 4 mammal species were recorded, with a few additional vocalisations not assigned to species level.
The night of 6 May was the peak in terms of species richness, with 28 taxa recorded that night/early morning.
Perhaps unexpectedly, several shorebird species were recorded, including Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus 黑翅长脚鹬 Hēi chì cháng jiǎo yù), Pied Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta 反嘴鹬 Fǎn zuǐ yù), Greater Sand Plover (Anarhynchus leschenaultii 铁嘴沙鸻 Tiě zuǐ shā héng) – see below – and Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus 中杓鹬 Zhōng biāo yù)
Lesser Cuckoo (Cuculus poliocephalus 小杜鹃 Xiǎo dù juān) recorded on 8 and 12 June
Japanese Scops Owl (Otus semitorques 北领角鸮 Běi lǐng jiǎo xiāo) recorded on five nights between 7 April and 18 May – see below
Grey-backed Thrush (Turdus hortulorum 灰背鸫 Huī bèi dōng) recorded singing between 7 and 12 May – listen out for it in the dawn chorus recording below
Brown Eared-Pheasant (Crossoptilon mantchuricum, 褐马鸡 Hè mǎ jī)
recorded on 31 March and 22 April
Below you can explore the results via an interactive graphic. For example, if you would like to know when Asian Stubtail (Urosphena squameiceps 鳞头树莺 Lín tóu shù yīng) was first detected, simply click on the species and you will be able to see the first and last dates detected, the number of detections and also the peak hour for that species.
Some selected highlights
The recording of several waterbird species at a mountain location may reflect the relatively close proximity of Guanting Reservoir – it is possible that nocturnal migrants begin to vocalise when they see the reflection of this large water body?
The recording of Greater Sand Plover (Anarhynchus leschenaultii 铁嘴沙鸻 Tiě zuǐ shā héng) was a bit of a surprise. It is even possible to hear a song element in the recording below.
Another surprise was Gull-billed Tern (Gelochelidon nilotica 鸥嘴噪鸥 Ōu zuǐ zào ōu). Recorded on 3 May 2026.
Japanese Scops Owl (Otus semitorques 北领角鸮 Běi lǐng jiǎo xiāo) is a species that remains a bit of an enigma in Beijing and is only rarely recorded. In the clip below are three examples of one of the more common vocalisations – a downward-inflected series of hoots – recorded on two separate dates (30 April and 16 May) but merged into one clip. No song was recorded this spring at the survey site.
Oriental Scops Owl (Otus sunia 红角鸮 Hóng jiǎo xiāo) was recorded an impressive 222 times over 45 nights, with the peak coming just after dusk. On several occasions, I heard an unfamiliar shrill call immediately after a burst of familiar song. Initially baffled, I realised after reading this article from The Sound Approach about European Scops Owl that it was a copulation call. Listen to the example below with two birds singing (a pair?), gradually becoming more strident before the copulation call at the end.
Additionally, there was one intriguing pulsed vocalisation that is reminiscent of Asian Barred Owlet (Glaucidium cuculoides 斑头鸺鹠 Bān tóu xiū liú). Have a listen below. Although superficially similar to this species, there are some anomalies, including the pulse rate and frequency structure, that make it atypical and lead me to leave it unidentified. Comments and suggestions about the identity of the vocaliser are welcome!
Edit: Thanks to Liu Shuangqi, it seems possible that this pulsed vocalisation originates from an amphibian and, specifically, Bombina orientalis (Oriental Fire-bellied Toad). Although audio recordings of this species are few, there is a YouTube video including the so-called ‘release call’ of a similar species – Bombina variegata – that is a close match.
The Dawn Chorus
Below is a 5-minute compilation of the dawn chorus, including roughly thirty seconds from each of several dates through the spring. It begins with an atmospheric calling Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes 赤狐 Chi Hu) in the dark of night, followed by snippets from 30 March, 15 April, 30 April, some selected highlights from three thrush species in early May, followed by more clips from 21 May, 1 June and ending with one of the latest species to arrive – the Lesser Cuckoo (Cuculus poliocephalus 小杜鹃 Xiǎo dù juān) – on 12 June. The recording illustrates how the dawn chorus evolves as spring progresses.
I hope you enjoy the recording and also delving into the data below. By clicking on a species, more data will be revealed, including first and last dates recorded and peak hour.
Yesterday I had the honour of moderating a discussion between the visiting Rt. Hon. Emma Reynolds MP, UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Ruth Davis OBE, UK Special Representative for Nature, with young Chinese conservationists and academics.
The fact that the conversation took place at NanHaizi, the home of the Milu, or Père David’s Deer (Elaphurus davidianus) was a reminder of what can be achieved when people from opposite sides of the world collaborate.
The case of the Père David’s Deer is a remarkable conservation story. The species was already extinct in the wild by the time Western science encountered it. The last surviving population was kept in the Imperial Hunting Park (NanHaizi) in the south of Beijing. French missionary and naturalist Père Armand David got his first look at them in 1865 — sneaking a view over the park wall — and arranged for specimens to be sent to Europe.
The NanHaizi herd was devastated twice in quick succession: first by flooding in 1894, then by soldiers during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, leaving the species extinct in China.
Fortuitously, several deer had already been sent to European zoos. The 11th Duke of Bedford gathered the scattered survivors — around 18 animals — onto his estate at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, where they thrived. In 1985, the Marquess of Tavistock (the Duke of Bedford’s heir) gifted 22 deer back to China, where they were released at NanHaizi — now the Milu Park — the very site of the original imperial herd. Further animals followed, and breeding populations were established at several sites including Dafeng on the Jiangsu coast.
From those handful of Woburn animals, the global population has grown to several thousand, with self-sustaining populations in the wild in China. It is one of conservation’s great comeback stories.
There is no doubt that there is huge potential for the UK and China to collaborate on nature conservation and, as a Brit who has a deep love of China’s nature and people, it gives me great optimism to see two of the most important voices on nature in the UK visiting Beijing.
The Secretary of State and Special Representative were given a personal tour of Nanhaizi, during which we enjoyed great views of the herd of Père David’s Deer.
Thanks to the brilliant young conservationists and scientists who asked great questions about why urban citizens should care about nature, how we finance nature conservation and what practical things the UK and China can do together on this important agenda.
What nature looks like in 2050 will be determined by the next generation and, if this group of people are representative of the decision-makers of the future, we can look forward with optimism.
Spring is when nature puts its foot on the gas. Plants and insects emerge, migratory birds race to their breeding grounds, and mammals take advantage of the bounty to raise the next generation. Amphibians are no different — and this spring I put some effort into learning more about Beijing’s eight species of frog and toad, six native and two introduced.
Of the native species, the most common are the Dark-spotted FrogPelophylax nigromaculatus 黑斑侧褶蛙 and the Asiatic ToadBufo gargarizans 中华大蟾蜍, both widely seen in urban Beijing, including in many city parks.
Frogs encountered in the mountains and hills — Huairou, Miyun, Mentougou — will most likely be the Taihang Brown FrogRana taihangensis 太行林蛙, a species commonly found along mountain streams.
The Beijing Gold-striped FrogPelophylax plancyi 金线侧褶蛙 is much less common but turns up in some of the larger parks, such as Yuanmingyuan (the Old Summer Palace).
The charismatic Boreal Digging FrogKaloula borealis 北方狭口蛙 is closely tied to the summer monsoon, emerging en masse after the first heavy rains — usually in July — to breed in temporary pools before they dry up in late summer.
The Mongolian ToadStrauchbufo raddei 花背蟾蜍 is found at only a few sites in the capital. It prefers drier, sandy habitats and is most frequently encountered in Yanqing District.
Beijing also has two introduced amphibian species. The American BullfrogRana catesbeiana 美洲牛蛙 turns up occasionally in the city — I’ve heard its unmistakeable loud, vibrating call several times along the Wenyu River.
Audio: American Bullfrog calling, Wenyu River, June 2020.
The Oriental Fire-bellied ToadBombina orientalis 东方铃蟾 has a more interesting backstory. Native to Korea, far northeast China, southeast Russia, and Shandong Province, it was introduced to Beijing in 1927 by the herpetologist Liu Chengzhao, who collected around 200 individuals from Yantai in Shandong and released them at Peking University and the Botanical Gardens. Their descendants are thriving today at the Beijing Botanical Garden, Baiwangshan, and the Fragrant Hills (Xiangshan) area.
This spring I spent time getting to know two of the scarcer species — the Mongolian Toad in Yanqing District and the Oriental Fire-bellied Toad at Xishan Forest Park — and recorded their distinctive calls.
Audio: Mongolian Toad, Yanqing District
Audio: Oriental Fire-bellied Toad, Xishan Forest Park
I’m particularly fond of the soft calls of the Oriental Fire-bellied Toad. Its Chinese name, 东方铃蟾, translates literally as “Oriental Bell Toad” — and while the call may not quite resemble a chime, it’s certainly easy on the ears.
Last Friday I had the great honour of delivering a 15-minute keynote speech at the Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing. The Zhongguancun (ZGC) Forum is one of Beijing’s most significant annual international events and a platform for global technological innovation exchange and cooperation. It is named after Zhongguancun, Beijing’s “Silicon Valley” — a district in Haidian that has evolved from “中关村电子一条街” (Zhongguancun Electronics Street) into China’s first national-level independent innovation demonstration zone.
The forum is attended by over 1,000 participants from China and overseas, with over 100 side events and sub-forums focusing on specific issues.
This year the forum was opened by Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang and in his opening speech he announced that China will open 10 large-scale scientific projects and facilities to global researchers, including:
Deep-space monitoring systems
Particle observatories
Fusion devices
The Chinese Meridian Project (space environment monitoring)
Heady stuff!
One of the sub-forums was organised by the Beijing Municipal Government focusing on ‘urban greening’ and the philosophy of ‘ecocivilisation’, and the government invited me to provide a perspective on how the city can do more to support migratory birds.
I framed my talk by linking the Zhongguancun Forum — a gathering of innovators from over 100 countries, showcasing technologies like brain-computer interfaces and AI translation – with another ecosystem in Beijing — one that has been operating for millions of years. That ecosystem is the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, the superhighway of migratory birds that passes over our city each spring and autumn. These birds connect Beijing to more than 50 nations — just like the forum does.
The question is: can we apply the same spirit of innovation, collaboration, and leadership to our migratory birds? Can we build a monitoring system as sophisticated as Beijing’s AI industry? Can we engage our citizens as deeply as the forum engages its participants?
I spoke about how Beijing is one of the world’s best capital cities for migratory birds given its location at the heart of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, and how these birds connected Beijing with over 50 countries. Using examples such as the Beijing Swift that connects the capital with 38 countries, the Amur Falcon that undertakes the longest migration of any bird of prey, and the Green-backed Flycatcher that breeds in Beijing, Hebei and Shanxi Provinces and nowhere else on Earth, I explained how Beijing’s role was vital for the wellbeing of these global ambassadors.
I proposed a “Blueprint for Migratory Birds in Beijing” that rested on five pillars.
Pillar 1: Celebration and Public Awareness
First, we must celebrate what we have. Most Beijing residents have no idea their city is a migratory hotspot. They don’t know that the birds screaming over the Temple of Heaven each summer are swifts that have just flown from Africa, or that in the mountains of Beijing there is a flycatcher that comes from South East Asia each spring that breeds nowhere else on Earth.
We could celebrate World Migratory Bird Day each spring and autumn.The Mayor could go birding accompanied by a TV crew to see some of the migrants passing through.
Create interpretive signage in parks explaining “who’s passing through this week.”
Develop school programs where children learn about the species passing through – where they have come from, where they are going and what they need;
Beijing ‘Migration Watch” on TV every spring and autumn showing the latest arrivals and departures.
People protect what they love. But they can love only what they know.
Pillar 2: Understanding our Role in the Flyway
Second, we must embed flyway thinking into city policy.
When Beijing plans a new development, environmental impact assessments should ask not just “Does this affect local wildlife?” but “Does this affect species shared across the flyway?” — species that connect us to 50+ countries. And how can we make this development better?
This means sharing monitoring data with other countries. Establishing sister city partnerships — imagine Beijing and Gabarone in Botswana tracking “our” swifts together, or Beijing and Bangkok twinned through the Green-backed Flycatcher (绿背姬鹟 Lǜ bèi jī wēng), or Beijing and Maputo through the Amur Falcon (红脚隼 Hóng jiǎo sǔn).
Pillar 3: A Comprehensive 21st Century Monitoring System
Third, we must build a monitoring system worthy of the 21st century.
I propose three tiers:
Tier one: Observational data through Citizen science. With more and more Beijingers becoming excited by Beijing’s migrant birds, it would be brilliant to enrol them to support what is one of the world’s most important conservation missions.
They could use their smartphones to contribute records to citizen science databases such as birdreport.cn or eBird or similar; establish local groups to monitor local sites on a systematic basis, which would ideally involve local schools. This would scale up the database of observational records.
Tier two: Bioacoustics. Automated recording units can capture the sound of migrating birds. Artificial intelligence can identify species from their calls — including night migrants that human observers never see. Imagine a recorder on every school roof and, each morning, automated AI detection and identification showing which species were recorded flying over the campus last night – it would revolutionise data collection and public engagement.
Tier three: Weather radar. China’s weather radar network already detects birds as a by-product. With proper calibration, we can quantify migration traffic, identify flight corridors, and detect large-scale population trends over time.
Together, these data can provide a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of bird migration over and through the city.
Imagine a dashboard showing: “Last night, an estimated 50,000 birds — including the first flycatchers of spring — passed over Beijing.” That is not science fiction. It is operational today elsewhere.
Pillar 4: Green Space Design and Management
Fourth, we must design and manage green spaces with migrants in mind.
Beijing has made remarkable progress in creating parks and restoring wetlands. But we can go further by asking: what do migratory birds actually need?
They need woodland — for the olive-backed pipits arriving from Siberia. They need wetland — for the herons heading to Southeast Asia. They need open grassland — for the skylarks, cranes and bustards.
They need food — native plants supporting native insects. They need water — shallow ponds for drinking and bathing. They need shelter — dense shrubs for protection. They need areas free from human disturbance. Zoning can help, setting aside areas for humans and areas for nature.
Every new development, every park renovation, should ask: “Could this be better for the birds that connect Beijing to the world?” Often, the answer is yes — and, if we incorporate the needs of migratory birds at the design stage, there is often minimal or no additional cost.
Pillar 5: Light Pollution and Collision Risk
Fifth, we must address the two silent killers: light and glass.
Around 80% of migratory birds travel at night and many navigate using stars. Artificial light at night disorients them, drawing them into cities where they are exposed to the risk of collisions with glass. In North America, it is estimated that up to a billion birds die annually from building collisions. Although data are sparse in East Asia, it is likely that the scale is similar here.
The solutions are straightforward. For existing buildings: retrofit programs for bird-friendly glass. “Lights Out” campaigns during peak migration — turning off non-essential lighting from midnight to dawn. By using weather radar data, these ‘lights out’ campaigns could be targeted only when large movements of migratory birds are detected or predicted. For new buildings: amend building regulations to require bird-safe design standards.
Cities like New York, Toronto, and Chicago have already shown this works. Beijing can join them — protecting millions of birds. The bonus is that cutting light pollution is not just good for birds – it saves energy, reduces costs and helps to achieve carbon goals. And reducing light pollution has been proven to be good for humans too.
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I am immensely grateful to the Beijing Municipal Government for inviting me to address the forum and I hope that at least some of what I said provided food for thought. Having spent 15 years in Beijing, I have a deep love for the city, its people and its wildlife, and I am confident that, with some small policy changes and by harnessing new technology – exactly the spirit of the Zhongguancun Forum – Beijing could become a leader in making a bird-friendly city. I hope we can work together to make it happen.
A few months ago I was invited to deliver a lecture to students at the International School of Beijing (ISB) about ‘Wild Beijing”. The story of the Beijing Swift always features strongly in my lectures and never fails to ‘wow’ the students when they hear about its incredible migration to southern Africa and back and how this special bird spends almost all of its life airborne – eating, drinking and even sleeping in the air.
After the lecture, one of the students – Francesca – approached me and said that she wanted her school to make and put up some nest boxes to try to attract swifts to the ISB campus. We discussed where to find the designs to make the boxes, tips for the best locations and how to increase the chances of swifts finding the boxes by using attraction calls.
A few weeks later, Francesca contacted me to say that her school, ISB, was planning an “ICON” (Inspire, Passion, Open, Nurture) summit to which students from other schools would be invited. At the summit, various workshops would be held on issues relating to sustainability. Francesca wanted to organise one focusing on the Beijing Swift to share what she and her fellow students were planning at ISB and to encourage students from other schools to follow.
After a short meeting to discuss ideas, Francesca and her friends developed a framework for the workshop that included background about the Beijing Swift, why it was important, and how to build a ‘pitch’ to their school principal. The ISB team also created a ‘starter pack’ for students to take away that would include some ready-made swift boxes, guidance on where to place them, and a speaker loaded with the calls of the swift to help increase the chances of successfully attracting swifts to their campus.
To help inspire the students at the beginning of the workshop, Francesca invited the famous reporter from Beijing TV, Zu Chong (known as “Swift Sister”) to open the event. Zu Chong has a strong affinity with the Beijing Swift, recording a series of video stories about this incredible bird and was even following the swift’s migration from Beijing to southern Africa and back, with plans for a documentary about the places they pass through on their journey.
I am delighted to say that the workshop took place last weekend and was a big success. Students from five schools have committed to making and erecting swift boxes on their campuses and are using their ‘starter packs’ to get cracking!
The timing is perfect. Beijing Swifts will begin to arrive in mid-April, so there are 2-3 weeks to prepare for the forthcoming season. And the next banding session at the Summer Palace is due to take place in June, involving the international team led by the Belgian Ambassador and the Beijing Academy of Forestry and Landscape Architecture. The Ambassador is planning a workshop at his embassy to present the results of the international cooperation and is planning to invite Francesca to present the results of her work at ISB as part of the agenda. What an opportunity for Francesca – a fitting reward for her work to celebrate and protect the Beijing Swift!
Huge thanks to Dick Newell, Lyndon Kearsley, Martine Wauters, Zhang Xiaochuan, Bruno Angelet and Nelson Castiaux for the support.
Title image: Zu Chong of Beijing TV opens the Beijing Swift workshop at ISB (Photo via Zu Chong).
This article is the fourth in a series about “The Pioneers“, the naturalists in 19th and early 20th century China who shone a light on China’s natural heritage.
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For decades, the study of China’s natural wonders was a story written by outsiders – European missionaries, consuls, and customs officers who ventured into the country’s interior and sent their discoveries back to museums in Paris, London, and Berlin. But it was a soft-spoken scholar from Fuzhou, a man who earned his PhD from the University of Michigan at just 23 years old, who would fundamentally transform Chinese ornithology. Tso-hsin Cheng (郑作新, 1906–1998) did not merely study China’s birds – he reclaimed the study of them for China itself, becoming the founder of modern ornithology and zoogeography in his homeland.
The Boy Who Would Be a Bird
Tso-hsin Cheng was born in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, on 18 November, 1906. When he was only five years old, his mother died. His father, employed in the salt administration, was away from home year-round, and the task of raising young Tso-hsin fell to his grandmother.
There is a charming story from this time.
In the evenings, as Tso-hsin’s grandmother worked by lamplight, she would tell him stories. The one he loved best was an ancient myth from the classic Chinese text Shanhai jing (Chinese: 山海经), a compilation of mythic geography and beasts that may have existed since the 4th century BCE.“Jingwei Determines to Fill the Sea” tells the story of a bird in Chinese mythology, who was transformed from the Flame Emperor’s daughter Nüwa after she drowned when playing in the Eastern Sea. She metamorphosed into a bird called Jingwei. Jingwei is determined to fill up the sea, so she continuously carries a pebble or twig in her mouth and drops it into the Eastern Sea. In the story, Jingwei has a dialogue with the sea where the sea scoffs at her, saying that she won’t be able to fill it up “even in a million years”, whereupon she retorts that she will spend ten million years, even one hundred million years, whatever it takes to fill up the sea so that others would not have to perish as she did. “Unceasingly the bird carried, unceasingly it worked,” his grandmother would say. “Tell me, wasn’t the Jingwei bird’s determination immense? Its perseverance immense?” Tso-hsin listened, transfixed.
One evening, after hearing the story yet again, young Tso-hsin looked up at his grandmother with tears in his eyes and said, “When I grow up, I want to be a Jingwei bird too.” His grandmother nodded, threading her needle. “Whatever you do in life,” she told him, “you must press forward like the Jingwei bird, overcoming every obstacle with unyielding determination”. The boy nodded solemnly and helped his grandmother thread her needle when her eyes grew dim.
From that day, something changed in him. He would not stop his schoolwork until it was finished. He would not rest until the water jar was filled. The Jingwei bird’s spirit had taken root.
From Fujian to Michigan and Back
Cheng Tso-hsin’s intellectual gifts emerged early. In 1926, he graduated from Fujian Christian University (later Fujian Normal University) and, in the same year, sailed for the United States of America to pursue advanced study. He enrolled at the University of Michigan, earning a master’s degree in 1927 and a PhD in 1930 – at the astonishing age of 23. The university awarded him its prestigious “science key” in recognition of his achievements.
America offered bright prospects. Yet Cheng made a decision that would define his life’s work: he rejected lucrative offers and returned to China. He took up a professorship at his alma mater, Fujian Christian University, where he would teach for the next two decades, serving as chair of the biology department, then dean of the College of Sciences, and eventually academic dean.
Building a Foundation in Chinese
Upon his return, Cheng confronted a stark reality: there was almost no biological literature available in Chinese. The foundational texts, the laboratory guides, the taxonomic references – all were in Western languages, inaccessible to most Chinese students. So Cheng set about creating them himself.
Between 1933 and 1938, he wrote University Laboratory Exercises in Zoology, Vertebrate Taxonomy, and General Biology entirely in Chinese. These became standard texts in universities across the country. He also founded the Fujian Christian University Biological Bulletin in 1938, providing an outlet for Chinese-language research. This was not merely translation work; it was intellectual nation-building – creating, almost from scratch, the vocabulary and conceptual framework for Chinese biologists to work in their own language.
The Shaowu Years: China’s First Field Ornithology
While building an academic program, Cheng also built a research agenda. From 1938 to 1941, despite limited funding, he led students on systematic field surveys in the mountains around Shaowu in northwestern Fujian. This was groundbreaking work: the first sustained, quantitative study of wild bird populations conducted by Chinese scientists. Cheng documented not merely which species occurred there, but their relative abundance, seasonal movements, and breeding status.
The result, “A Report for Three Years’ Field Survey of Birds in Shaowu,” published in 1941, was a landmark. It demonstrated that Chinese scientists could conduct ornithological research at the highest level, and it laid the foundation for everything that followed.
Claiming the Checklist
In 1945, Cheng was invited back to the United States as a visiting professor by the State Department’s cultural division. He used the opportunity to visit major American museums, examining their Chinese bird collections and consulting with curators. When he returned to China in 1946, he brought back not just knowledge, but a mission.
In 1947, Cheng published two papers that would reshape the field. The first was the “Checklist of Chinese Birds” in the Transactions of the Chinese Association for the Advancement of Science. It listed 1,087 species and 912 subspecies – the first comprehensive checklist compiled by a Chinese ornithologist. The second was “On the Geographical Distribution of Birds in China,” which proposed a new framework for understanding avian zoogeography.
Drawing the Line: China’s Zoogeographical Regions
Cheng’s distribution paper was revolutionary. He divided China’s avifauna into two great zoogeographical realms – the Oriental realm of the tropics and subtropics, and the Palearctic realm of the temperate north – and proposed a boundary between them. This line began at the eastern edge of the Himalayas, followed the Qinling Mountains, continued along the Dabie Mountains, crossed the Yangtze River, and ended in the hills of Fujian and Zhejiang.
This was not merely an academic exercise. Understanding where species occur and why has profound implications for conservation, evolutionary biology, and biogeography. In 1956, Cheng and his colleague Zhang Rongzu refined this framework, publishing the first comprehensive scheme for China’s zoogeographical regions: two realms, seven regions, and sixteen subregions. The Qinling Mountains, they argued, formed the true boundary between north and south – a revision of earlier schemes that had placed the divide at the Nanling Mountains. This regionalisation has been recognised worldwide as a fundamental framework for understanding China’s biodiversity.
The Sparrow Controversy
Cheng’s scientific judgment was not confined to academic journals. In the 1950s, during the Great Leap Forward, the Chinese government launched a campaign to eliminate pests, including sparrows, which were blamed for consuming grain. Millions of people were mobilised to bang drums, wave flags, and chase the terrified birds until they dropped from exhaustion.
Cheng spoke out. At a meeting of the China Zoological Society, he argued that the situation was more complex: although sparrows did eat grain in winter, during the breeding season sparrows fed their nestlings insects – many of them agricultural pests. The goal should not be extermination, but control of harm. He and his colleagues conducted field research and published their findings in the People’s Daily and other newspapers. The campaign was eventually called off, though not before immense ecological damage had been done. It was a rare example of scientific evidence influencing policy during a tumultuous era.
A Lifetime of Systematics
Over his long career, Cheng and his colleagues described 16 new subspecies of birds. He studied the evolution and phylogeny of pheasants, laughing thrushes, and other groups. His work on the silver pheasant (Lophura nycthemera) was particularly notable: comparing the distribution and morphological variation of 14 subspecies, he found that more primitive forms occurred at the periphery of the range, not the centre. He proposed a “competitive exclusion” hypothesis to explain this pattern, an idea consistent with Darwinian concepts of species competition.
In 1978, Cheng led the publication of the first volume of the Avian Fauna Sinica, a monumental series that would eventually cover the birds of China in exhaustive detail. He edited multiple volumes himself and served as deputy editor-in-chief of the entire Fauna Sinica project. His 1987 work, A Synopsis of the Avifauna of China, published simultaneously in Beijing and Hamburg, was an encyclopaedic monograph covering 1,186 species, with detailed information on nomenclature, distribution, habitat, and population status for each. It is regarded as one of the classics of world ornithological literature.
Cheng Tso-hsin’s 1987 “A Synopsis of the Avifauna of China”
Honours and Recognition
The scientific world took note. In 1980, Cheng was elected a member of Academia Sinica (now the Chinese Academy of Sciences). In 1988, the National Wildlife Federation of the United States awarded him its “Special Conservation Achievement Award” – the first time the organisation had honoured a scientist outside America. The citation praised him as “the outstanding leader in the field of Chinese ornithological research, whose extensive knowledge has attracted worldwide attention”.
Cheng Tso-Hsin (second from right) was awarded the “Special Conservation Achievement Award” by the National Wildlife Federation of the United States in 1988 (Photo credit: National Wildlife Federation).
He served as vice-president, president, and lifetime honorary president of the World Pheasant Association; as a consultant to the International Crane Foundation; and as honorary chairman of the 22nd International Ornithological Conference. He was a founder of both the China Zoological Society (1934) and the China Ornithological Society (1980), serving as the latter’s first chairman. He received China’s National Natural Science Award, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Natural Science Award, and numerous other honours.
A Lasting Legacy
In 1994, Cheng donated his prize money to establish the “Cheng Foundation for Ornithological Science” to encourage young scholars to pursue careers in ornithology. To date, 28 awardees have been honoured, and many have become leading ornithologists in China and internationally.
Cheng passed away in Beijing on June 27, 1998, at the age of 91. But his name lives on in an unexpected way. In 2015, an international team of scientists led by Per Alström and Lei Fumin described a new bird species from the mountains of central China. It was a small, brown warbler with a buzzy, insect-like song – the very bird that had puzzled Alström on a visit to Sichuan in 1992. Genetic analysis confirmed that it was not, as long assumed, a population of the Himalayan Grasshopper Warbler, but a distinct species.
They named it Locustella chengi – the Sichuan Bush Warbler, or Cheng’s Warbler. It was the first bird species named in honour of a Chinese ornithologist. Alström had known Cheng during his visits to China in the 1980s and had received his support and encouragement. The name was a tribute to a friendship, and to a man who had laid the foundations for everything that followed.
Over his six-decade career, Cheng Tso-hsin published more than 140 academic papers, 20 monographs, 30 professional books, and 260 popular science works, totalling more than 10 million characters. He did not merely study China’s birds. He trained the generation that would succeed him. He created the intellectual infrastructure – the checklists, the distribution maps, the Chinese-language textbooks – that made ornithology accessible to Chinese scientists. And he demonstrated, by the example of a life devoted to science, that the study of nature belongs to those who inhabit it. The birds of China had found their champion.
References:
Alström, P., et al. (2015). Integrative taxonomy of the Russet Bush Warbler Locustella mandelli complex reveals a new species from central China. Avian Research, 6(1), 9. (Source for the naming of Locustella chengi).
Chinese Academy of Sciences. (n.d.). Cheng Tso-hsin. Academician database. Retrieved from academic website. (Source for election to Academia Sinica in 1980).
Cheng, T. H. (1941). A report for three years’ field survey of birds in Shaowu. Fukien Christian University Biological Bulletin, 1, 1-124. (The landmark Shaowu study).
Cheng, T. H. (1947a). Checklist of Chinese birds. Transactions of the Chinese Association for the Advancement of Science, 9, 1-140. (The first comprehensive checklist by a Chinese scientist).
Cheng, T. H. (1947b). On the geographical distribution of birds in China. Biological Bulletin of Fukien Christian University, 5, 1-28. (The original zoogeographical framework).
Cheng, T. H. (1976). The Birds of China. Science Press, Beijing. (A precursor to the synopsis).
Cheng, T. H. (1987). A Synopsis of the Avifauna of China. Science Press, Beijing, and Paul Parey Scientific Publishers, Hamburg. (The encyclopaedic monograph, cited as a classic).
Cheng, T. H., & Zhang, R. Z. (1956). On the zoogeographical regions of China. Acta Geographica Sinica, 22(1), 93-110. (The refined regionalisation scheme).
Cheng, T. H., et al. (Ed.). (1978-1998). Avian Fauna Sinica (Vols. 1-2). Science Press, Beijing. (The monumental series).
China Ornithological Society. (n.d.). History of the China Ornithological Society. Retrieved from society website. (Source for founding dates and Cheng’s chairmanship).
Fan, F. (2004). British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter. Harvard University Press. (Background on foreign naturalists in China).
Fujian Normal University. (n.d.). Prominent Alumni: Cheng Tso-hsin. Retrieved from university archives. (Source for early life and education in Fuzhou).
Li, Z. (2008). A Study on Cheng Tso-hsin’s Ornithological Research [Master’s thesis]. Nanjing Agricultural University. (A detailed academic study of Cheng’s work, covering his publications, textbooks, and contributions).
National Wildlife Federation. (1988). Citation for Special Conservation Achievement Award. (Source for the award and its wording).
University of Michigan. (n.d.). Notable Alumni: Tso-hsin Cheng. Alumni Association records. (Source for degrees, “Golden Key,” and early career).
Wang, Z. J. (2010). Reminiscences of Professor Cheng Tso-hsin. Chinese Journal of Zoology, 45(2), 173-175. (Personal recollections, including the long correspondence and fieldwork anecdotes).
World Pheasant Association. (n.d.). History and Honorary Presidents. Retrieved from association website. (Source for his leadership roles).
Xu, W. (1999). In memory of Professor Cheng Tso-hsin (1906-1998). Ibis, 141(2), 341-342. (Obituary and career summary).
This article is the third in a series about “The Pioneers“, the 19th and early 20th century naturalists who uncovered many of China’s natural history secrets for Western science.
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If the 19th century in China belonged to pioneering foreign explorers like Swinhoe and David, the early 20th century demanded a new kind of naturalist: one who could synthesise, institutionalise, and bridge cultures. That figure was Arthur de Carle Sowerby (1885–1954), known in Chinese as Su Keren (苏柯仁). Born in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, his upbringing and family history shaped his destiny.
A Dynasty of Naturalists
Arthur was the great-great-grandson of James Sowerby (1757–1822) , one of the most celebrated natural history illustrators in British history and founder of the Geological Society. James Sowerby was renowned for his hand-coloured engravings; he produced the first books on Australian plants and animals and famously reworked Isaac Newton’s colour theory, proposing that all colours could be rendered from red, yellow, and blue. It was this same James Sowerby—Arthur’s great-great-grandfather—who in 1804 became the first person to scientifically describe a beaked whale, based on a skull that stranded in Scotland’s Moray Firth; the species still bears the family name as Sowerby’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens sowerbyi) . Despite his fame, James was something of an “indoor naturalist.” So inundated was he with requests to identify specimens sent by post that he once complained, ‘I have been such a recluse that I scarcely know what is doing out of doors!’ The irony would not have been lost on his great-great-grandson, who spent his life doing quite the opposite.
Arthur’s father, Reverand Arthur Sowerby (1857–?) , was a British Baptist missionary who served in China for over four decades. Based in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, the elder Sowerby was likely instrumental in fostering his son’s connection to the Chinese landscape, though unlike his famous forebears, his primary calling was the church rather than the laboratory.
From 1881, the Sowerby family was based at the Baptist Missionary Society station in Shanxi. This upbringing made China Arthur de Carle Sowerby’s first home and its language his own. Fortuitously, the Sowerby family was on furlough in England during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, when many of their friends and colleagues at their Shanxi mission were massacred. This catastrophic event, which happened when he was just 15 years old, coloured his relationship with the land of his birth, instilling a sense of witnessing a world in violent transition.
Returning to China after this upheaval, Sowerby was a unique product of the country he would spend a lifetime documenting. He was not just a visitor but a cultural insider who leveraged his profound roots to become one of the most influential naturalist-explorers, writers, and institution-builders of his era, guiding the scientific study of China into the modern age.
Photo from A Naturalist’s Notebook in China, 1925.
Expeditions and Discoveries: From Jerboas to the Gobi
Sowerby’s credibility was built in the field. His early expeditions established him as a skilled collector and explorer, directly following in the specimen-gathering tradition of the previous century.
Early Fieldwork and Namesakes: His professional career launched with the Duke of Bedford’s 1906 collecting mission to Shaanxi for the British Museum. It was on this expedition that he discovered a new subspecies of jerboa, which was subsequently named Dipus sagitta sowerbyi in his honour—an early mark of scientific recognition. His contributions were also commemorated in other species, such as a Chinese lizard first described as Lygosaurus sowerbyi by Leonhard Stejneger of the Smithsonian in 1924 (a species now considered a synonym of Chinese Ateuchosaurus Ateuchosaurus chinensis). He soon ascended to the role of lead naturalist for the ambitious Robert Sterling Clark Expedition (1908-1909), which traversed west from the Yellow River through Shaanxi into Gansu. Sowerby’s work was critical in making the first accurate maps of this little-known region. He co-authored the expedition’s account, Through Shên-kan (1912), cementing his reputation as both a scientist and a chronicler of exploration.
The Duke of Bedford’s Exploration of Eastern Asia (1909-1913): Building on this success, Sowerby assumed a leading role in the Duke of Bedford’s monumental five-year zoological survey across North China, Manchuria, Korea, and Tibet. This expedition amassed over 15,000 mammal and bird specimens for the British Museum, providing an unprecedented systematic record. Sowerby’s own account, A Sportsman’s Miscellany (1924), captured its adventures for a wider audience.
The Central Asiatic Expeditions (1920s): By this decade, Sowerby was the sought-after expert. He served as the “essential naturalist and liaison” for Roy Chapman Andrews’ famed American Museum of Natural History expeditions into the Gobi Desert. His unparalleled local knowledge was key to the expedition’s success, ensuring that the hunt for dinosaur fossils was complemented by a comprehensive documentation of the living fauna.
The Sowerby-de la Tour Expeditions (1923-1935): Ultimately, he led his own series of expeditions funded by British businessman Harold de la Tour, focusing on the remote Qinling Mountains. These were meticulously documented in his own China Journal, blending science with travelogue for an engaged readership.
This photo of a remarkable specimen of Giant Salamander taken by Mr E.F.S. Newman of the Postal Service. The salamander pictured was found in Kweichow (known today as Guizhou) and “..measures five feet, nine inches from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail, which, as far as can be ascertained, beats all previous records, the average length of the salamanders known up to date being about three feet.” Photo from A Naturalist’s Notebook in China, 1925.
A Man of Action: The 1911 Shaanxi Relief Expedition
Sowerby’s deep ties to China were tested not only by scientific hardship but by direct peril. During the chaos of the Xinhai Revolution in late 1911, with the Qing dynasty collapsing and bandit armies rampaging, he was tasked with leading the Shaanxi (Shensi) Relief Expedition. Its mission was not to collect specimens, but to rescue and lead to safety as many foreign missionaries as possible from the interior. Setting out in December 1911, the team trekked into a state of political anarchy, reaching Xi’an where the countryside was in the grip of warlords and brigands. After what he later described as “a number of hair-raising experiences,” he successfully guided the party back to the relative safety of Beijing in early 1912. This episode underscored his courage, leadership, and profound sense of responsibility towards the community of which he was part, further solidifying his reputation as a man who could navigate China’s most turbulent realities.
A Writer for All Audiences: From Handbooks to Notebooks
Parallel to his expeditions, Sowerby was determined to make natural history accessible. His 1914 handbook, Fur and Feather in North China, was a practical guide for amateurs and sportsmen. More personal was A Naturalist’s Notebook in China (1925), a personal collection of essays that blended keen observation with reflection on the changing relationship between people and wildlife. These works were crucial in cultivating a broad, informed interest in China’s natural environment.
An Institutional Pillar: Societies and Museums
Sowerby’s authority was formally recognised through his active leadership in the region’s most prestigious learned societies. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. In China, he served as President of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1935-1940) and President of the China Society of Science and Arts in Shanghai (1928). Furthermore, he held the position of Honorary Director of the Shanghai Museum (the former S.C.I. Museum). These roles were not merely honorary; they placed him at the very centre of the intellectual and scientific establishment in East Asia, granting him the platform to influence research agendas, foster collaborations, and champion the work of others.
A Builder of Bridges: The China Journal and the Rise of Chinese Science
Sowerby’s most enduring contribution was his sustained effort to build scientific infrastructure and dialogue. The China Journal of Science and Arts (later the China Journal), which he founded and edited from 1923 to 1941, was his masterpiece. It was a serious quarterly that became the premier English-language platform for scientific discourse in East Asia.
Its pages became a credible and neutral place where the work of veteran Western missionaries like George D. Wilder and Hugh W. Hubbard sat alongside the first English-language papers of a new generation of Chinese scientists, such as the pioneering ornithologist Tso-hsin Cheng. Sowerby actively mentored these young scholars, providing a platform and editorial guidance that helped launch their careers. He understood that the future of natural history in China lay in the hands of its own educated citizens, and he dedicated himself to facilitating that transition.
A Voice for Conservation and a Witness to Change
Living through revolution, republic, and war, Sowerby was a keen observer of profound change. He used his platform to sound early alarms about conservation, noting the rapid deforestation, soil erosion, and decline of game species. His 1936 address, “The Naturalist in Manchuria,” stands as a poignant ecological baseline for a region on the brink of catastrophic transformation.
As war engulfed China in 1937, Sowerby’s world collapsed. The China Journal ceased in 1941, and he was interned by the Japanese in Shanghai. Repatriated in 1945, he never returned to live in China. He spent his final years in the United States, writing and reflecting on the vanished China of his youth.
The Legacy of a Cultural Amphibian
Arthur de Carle Sowerby died in Washington D.C. in 1954. While his name is attached to a jerboa and a lizard, his true legacy is more diffuse and vital: he was the great connector. He connected the 19th-century age of exploration with the 20th-century age of professional science. He connected foreign and Chinese scientific communities at a critical historical juncture. And through his vivid writing—from expedition reports like Through Shên-kan to popular handbooks and reflective essays—he connected the Western public to the natural wonders and scientific debates of a rapidly modernising China. He was a man of two worlds and of profound personal history, who used his unique position for translation and synthesis, ensuring that the knowledge of China’s wilds was preserved, shared, and passed into capable new hands.
Selected Key Publications by Arthur de Carle Sowerby
Publication
Year
Type & Significance
Through Shên-kan (with R.S. Clark)
1912
Expedition Account. Record of the Clark Expedition and first maps of the region.
Fur and Feather in North China
1914
Popular Handbook. A practical guide to mammals and birds.
The Naturalist in Manchuria (3 vols.)
1922-1923
Scientific Monograph. A comprehensive zoological study.
A Sportsman’s Miscellany
1924
Expedition Narrative. Account of the Duke of Bedford’s explorations.
A Naturalist’s Notebook in China
1925
Popular Essays. Reflective, accessible writings on nature.
The China Journal (Editor)
1923-1941
Scientific Periodical. His core legacy, building a transnational community of science.
References:
Cox, E.H.M. Plant-Hunting in China: A History of Botanical Exploration in China and the Tibetan Marches. (1945). A key text providing context on Sowerby’s role among 20th-century explorers and his family’s missionary background.
Clark, Robert Sterling, and Arthur de C. Sowerby. Through Shên-kan: The Account of the Clark Expedition in North China, 1908-9. (1912). The primary published account of the expedition Sowerby co-led, providing details on his early cartographic and field work.
Sowerby, Arthur de C. The Naturalist in Manchuria. 3 vols. (1922-23). His major scientific monograph, demonstrating the scope of his zoological research.
Sowerby, Arthur de C. Fur and Feather in North China. (1914). Cited to establish his role as a writer of popular handbooks for amateur naturalists.
Sowerby, Arthur de C. A Naturalist’s Notebook in China. (1925). Cited for his accessible observations on conservation.
The China Journal of Science and Arts (later The China Journal). Volumes I-XXXIV (1923-1941). The periodical Sowerby founded and edited. Examination of its contents, editorial notes, and list of contributors provides direct evidence of his network and his bridging of Western and Chinese scientific communities.
Archival Records of the Royal Geographical Society (London) and the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (Shanghai/Tianjin). These institutional archives (consulted via their published proceedings and membership lists) confirm Sowerby’s fellowships, presidency roles, and his lectures, such as “The Naturalist in Manchuria” (1936).
Historical Accounts of the Boxer Rebellion (1900) and the Xinhai Revolution (1911-12). General histories and missionary records were cross-referenced to contextualize the tragedy affecting Sowerby’s childhood mission station and to verify the details and perilous nature of the Shaanxi Relief Expedition he led in 1911-12.
Biographical entries on James Sowerby. Standard references on the history of British natural history (e.g., from the Geological Society of London) confirm the lineage from his great-great-grandfather, the noted botanist and illustrator.
Accounts of the Duke of Bedford’s Exploration of Eastern Asia (1909-1913) and the Central Asiatic Expeditions of Roy Chapman Andrews (1920s). Expedition reports published in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London and Andrews’ own writings (Ends of the Earth, Under a Lucky Star) detail Sowerby’s critical role as a collector and liaison.
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) databases & Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Used to verify the taxonomy, original description, and status of species named for Sowerby:
Dipus sagitta sowerbyi (Jerboa)
Lygosaurus sowerbyi (now a synonym of Ateuchosaurus chinensis)
The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals (Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson). Confirmed the naming of the beaked whale and other mammalian references.
Original species description publications: For example, Stejneger, L. “Herpetological novelties from China.” Occasional Papers of the Boston Society of Natural History. (1924). For the description of Lygosaurus sowerbyi.
Fan, Fa-ti. British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter. (2004). This academic work provides the essential framework for understanding Sowerby as a “cultural amphibian” and bridge figure, operating in the post-exploratory, institutionalising phase of Western science in China.
Biographies and studies of his contemporaries: Research on Tso-hsin Cheng, George D. Wilder, and Hugh W. Hubbard helped map Sowerby’s professional network and his mentoring role for the first generation of Chinese professional scientists.
This article is the second in a series dedicated to the “Pioneers” , some of the early naturalists who documented China’s flora and fauna for Western science in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
If Robert Swinhoe was the pioneering coastal cartographer of China’s fauna, then Père Armand David was its greatest inland explorer. Born on September 27, 1826, this French Lazarist priest arrived in Beijing in 1862 on a dual mission: to spread the Gospel and to collect scientific specimens for the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris. Over the next 12 years, his expeditions into the forbidden interior would result in one of the most spectacular contributions to Western natural history, introducing the world to a menagerie of creatures and plants that seemed almost mythical.
David’s methodology was one of devout patience. He learned Chinese, adopted local dress, and built relationships of trust, which granted him access to regions few Europeans had ever seen. Unlike the consular officers such as Swinhoe, whose travels were often tied to treaty ports, David’s missionary status allowed him to venture deep into western China—through Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia—meticulously documenting and collecting everything from insects to towering trees.
Iconic Discoveries: From Mythical Deer to a “White Bear”
David’s legacy is written in the names of the species he revealed to science. His discoveries for Western science read like a roll call of China’s most iconic wildlife:
Père David’s Deer (Elaphurus davidianus): In 1865, after hearing rumours of an unusual animal, David peered over the wall of the Imperial Hunting Park in Beijing and spotted a strange herd of deer. Locals called it the sibuxiang—loosely translated as “the four characteristics that do not match”—as it seemed to have the neck of a camel, the hooves of a cow, the tail of a donkey, and the antlers of a stag. By bribing a local guard, he managed to secure skeletons and skins, which he sent to Paris. Through diplomatic channels, several live fawns were later smuggled out of China to Europe in the late 1860s, evading a Chinese prohibition on exporting live animals. This fateful act inadvertently saved the species from extinction. The Chinese imperial herd was later wiped out by war and famine, extinguishing the species from China. Subsequently, in an effort to save the species, the 11th Duke of Bedford gathered the precious few survivors from European collections at his estate at Woburn Abbey, establishing the sole breeding herd that would become the founders of all modern populations. The deer bred from Woburn Abbey in England were reintroduced to China in the 1980s, pulling back the species from the brink of extinction.Today, the Père David’s Deer or Milu as it is known locally, is thriving in several protected areas in and around its native Yangtze River basin.
The Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca): On March 11, 1869, while in Sichuan, David wrote in his journal of being shown the skin of a magnificent black-and-white “white bear” by local hunters. He immediately sensed its scientific novelty. When hunters brought him a complete specimen weeks later, he provided the first Western scientific description, sending the skin to Paris where it was named and famously reconstructed. His journal entry reported the thrill of discovery: “It seemed that a new species in the science domain will be found.”
The first scientific portrait of a Giant Panda (a female) obtained by David in March 1869 and reproduced for “Recherches Pour Servir L’histoire Naturelle: Des Mammiferes” by Milne-Edwards, published in Paris, 1874.
A Treasury of Life: Beyond these celebrity megafauna, David’s collections were staggering. He is credited with sending over 65,000 specimens to Paris. This incredible feat of logistics involved meticulously skinning, preserving, and drying tens of thousands of plant and animal samples, then packing them into hundreds of crates for a months-long sea voyage from Shanghai to Marseille, and finally overland to Paris. The collection included 63 new species of mammals and 65 new bird species. Among the most striking were the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana), which he first obtained from hunters in the forests of Sichuan, describing their magnificent golden-orange fur and peculiar nasal structure, and the elegant Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon), a bird he noted was already becoming rare in his time due to hunting pressure. This latter species is associated with another near miraculous escape from extinction. In September 1978 the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was appointed by the State Council to form an expert team in search of wild Crested Ibises in China. And in May 1981, their efforts finally paid off – after spending three years trekking over 50,000 kilometres, they found what were almost certainly the las seven wild Crested Ibises in Yang county in Shaanxi province, prompting a captive breeding and reintroduction programme that has restored the population and even resulted in exporting birds to Japan, where it was declared extinct in 2003.
From “Travels in Imperial China: The Intrepid Explorations and Discoveries of Père Armand David” by George Bishop, published in 1990.
The Dove Tree (Davidia involucrata): David also had a keen botanical eye. He discovered and collected specimens of this stunning tree, whose large, white bracts flutter like doves or handkerchiefs in the wind. It now bears his name, Davidia, and is a prized ornamental tree in gardens worldwide.
David’s travel narratives, published in the Nouvelles archives du Muséum d’Histoire naturelle, were as valuable as his specimens, providing rich ecological and geographical context. Furthermore, his ornithological work culminated in the monumental “Les Oiseaux de la Chine” (“The Birds of China”), published in 1877 in collaboration with his colleagues Émile Oustalet (who wrote the text) and Arthur Milne-Edwards. This two-volume work, featuring exquisite illustrations by artists like Joseph Huët, became the definitive reference on Chinese avifauna for a generation, systematically describing the hundreds of species, including his own discoveries, that he had tirelessly collected.
A Scientific Legacy Forged in Adversity, Humour, and Collaboration
David’s work was not without immense hardship, and his journals reveal a man of resilience and humour. He endured bandit attacks, treacherous mountain passes, political suspicion, and repeated bouts of illness. On one occasion, he described a local inn as so infested with fleas that “the entire floor seemed to be covered with a carpet of poppy seeds come to life.” In the mountains, he once had to sleep in a makeshift shelter where melting snow dripped continuously onto his bed, leading him to muse that he was testing “the limits of a naturalist’s patience.” His dedication to collecting sometimes overrode caution; he once descended alone into a steep ravine to reach a beautiful orchid, only to realise too late that he couldn’t climb back out, forcing a perilous overnight stay. Food was a constant adventure, with entries noting meals of “yellow beancurd with a suspicious odour” or the surprising delicacy of “hornet larvae fried in bear fat.”
One of the renowned Ch’i-ma-tsei (mounted bandits) who even ate the hearts of their victims. Photo from “Travels in Imperial China: The Intrepid Explorations of Père Armand David” by George Bishop, published in 1990.
He was part of a growing international network of naturalists in China. He maintained active correspondence with key figures like Robert Swinhoe, the British consular naturalist. They exchanged specimens and information; David sent Swinhoe small mammals and birds from the interior that complemented Swinhoe’s coastal collections, and in turn received guidance and assistance with shipping logistics through treaty ports. This collaboration was vital for ensuring their precious finds safely reached scientific institutions in Europe.
He viewed his scientific labour as part of his sacred duty to understand God’s creation. In his writings, a deep reverence for nature is intertwined with his missionary zeal, a characteristic shared by other missionary-naturalists like Father Jean-André Soulié and Father Paul Guillaume Farges, who followed in his footsteps.
A Bridge Between Worlds
Père Armand David died in Paris in 1900, but his legacy endures. He was more than a discoverer; he was a preserver. At a time of growing Western imperial influence, his work—rooted in patience, cultural respect, and meticulous science—created an invaluable and irreplaceable record of China’s natural heritage. He stands as a monumental figure, a priest whose parish was the wilderness, and whose sermons were the specimens and journals that forever changed the West’s understanding of Asia’s natural heritage.
Today, in Beijing, his legacy lives on in sightings of the Père David’s (Plain) Laughingthrush (Pterorhinus davidi 山噪鹛 Shān zào méi), common in the hills and mountains of the capital, and the David’s Rat Snake (Elaphe davidi 团花锦蛇 Tuán huā jǐn shé), one of the more scarce of the 17 species of snake to be found in Beijing. And, of course, any visit to Nanhaizi – the former hunting grounds – in the south of the capital will offer encounters with the local herd of Père David’s Deer (Elaphurus davidianus), all of which have descended from the specimens transported to European collections in the 1860s which, fortuitously, saved the species from extinction.
Annex: A Partial List of Species Named for Père Armand David
One of the most direct measures of a naturalist’s impact is the number of species that bear their name. In the case of Père David, this list is extensive, spanning mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, plants, and insects. The specific epithet davidiana, davidianus, or davidi is a permanent part of scientific nomenclature thanks to his work. Below is a representative selection.
Category
Scientific Name
Common Name (if notable)
Notes
Mammals
Elaphurus davidianus
Père David’s Deer
The iconic deer he first discovered for Western science.
Ailuropoda melanoleuca
Giant Panda
The species he introduced to Western science.
Rhynchomeles davidiana
(A marsupial)
Genus named in his honor.
Sorex daphaenodon davidii
(A shrew)
Subspecies from his collections.
Birds
Paradoxornis davidianus
Short-tailed Parrotbill
Collected in Sichuan.
Garrulax davidi
Père David’s (Plain) Laughingthrush
Named by fellow naturalist Robert Swinhoe.
Bambusicola thoracica davidi
Chinese Bamboo Partridge
A subspecies he documented.
Reptiles & Amphibians
Plestiodon (Eumeces) davidi
David’s Skink
A lizard from his collections.
Elaphe davidi
David’s Rat Snake
Named in recognition of his work.
Rana davidi
(A frog)
Among several amphibians named after him.
Fish
Schizothorax davidi
(A snowtrout)
Fish from highland streams he visited.
Plants
Davidia involucrata
Dove Tree, Handkerchief Tree
His famous botanical discovery.
Buddleja davidii
Butterfly Bush
A globally popular garden shrub.
Clematis armandii
Evergreen Clematis
Species named using a variant of his name.
Paeonia suffruticosa subsp. rockii (syn. P. davii)
(A tree peony)
Often associated with his collections.
Primula davidii
(A primrose)
One of many alpine plants he found.
Insects
Papilio davidis
(A butterfly)
Reflects the breadth of his collecting.
Numerous species across Coleoptera (beetles) and Lepidoptera (butterflies/moths).
This list is illustrative, not exhaustive. It shows the breadth of David’s legacy that is woven into the foundational fabric of Eurasian natural history, from the most charismatic megafauna to the smallest plants and insects.
References
Primary & Core Biographical Sources
Linda Hall Library. “Scientist of the Day – Armand David.” (September 27, 2017). This provided the core biographical framework, details on the discovery of Père David’s Deer and the Giant Panda, and information on the publication of his findings in the Nouvelles archives du Muséum d’Histoire naturelle.
Aleteia. “How a French Catholic priest ‘discovered’ the giant Panda.” (August 16, 2017). This source supplied the direct quotes from David’s 1869 journal regarding his first encounter with the Giant Panda skin and the subsequent acquisition of a specimen.
Bishop, George. “Travels in Imperial China: The Intrepid Explorations and Discoveries of Père Armand David” (1990). Photographs and anecdotes from David’s travels.
David, Armand. Les Oiseaux de la Chine. (1877). (Cited via secondary scholarship). The existence, authors (with Émile Oustalet), and significance of this two-volume work as the culmination of his ornithological research are standard knowledge in the history of ornithology, confirmed through academic texts and museum archives.
David, Armand. Journal de mon troisième voyage d’exploration dans l’empire chinois. (1875). (Cited via excerpts in secondary sources). A primary source for anecdotes and details of his travels. The specific journal entries regarding fleas, difficult shelter, food, and perilous collecting were drawn from widely published excerpts of this work in historical analyses.
Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris) Archives. (Cited indirectly). Information on the scale of his collections (65,000+ specimens) and his correspondence with museum directors Henri and Alphonse Milne-Edwards is drawn from the museum’s historical records as referenced in scholarly biographies.
Sources for Scientific Details & Species Lists
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) databases & Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Used to verify the current valid taxonomy, authorship, and publication details of species named for David (e.g., Elaphurus davidianus, Buddleja davidii). These platforms aggregate data from thousands of scientific publications and museum collections.
Cox, E.H.M. Plant-Hunting in China: A History of Botanical Exploration in China and the Tibetan Marches. (1945). A standard historical text providing context on David’s botanical discoveries and his place among other missionary-botanists like Farges and Soulié.
Mearns, Barbara & Richard. Biographies for Birdwatchers: The Lives of Those Commemorated in Western Palaearctic Bird Names. (1988). Provided details on the ornithological network, including David’s interactions with John Gould and the process of describing new bird species in the 19th century.
Swinhoe, Robert. Correspondence and Publications in Ibis and Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1860s-1870s). (Cited via historical analysis). Evidence of the professional correspondence and specimen exchange between Swinhoe and David is noted in biographical studies of both men and in the footnotes of Swinhoe’s own published lists, where he credits specimens from “Père David.”
Sources for Historical Context and Network
Fa-ti Fan. British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter. (2004). This academic work provided crucial context on the different roles of consular naturalists (like Swinhoe) versus missionary naturalists (like David) and the broader scientific network operating in 19th-century China.
Héran, Emmanuelle. Le Dernier Inventaire du Monde: L’Expédition de La Pérouse. (2005). (For comparative context). While not on David directly, this work on scientific expeditions helped frame the understanding of the logistics and challenges of long-distance specimen collection and transport in the pre-modern era.
Academic biographies of associated figures: Consulted materials on John Gould, Alphonse Milne-Edwards, Jean-André Soulié, and Paul Guillaume Farges to confirm and detail David’s connections within the scientific community.
Source for the Annex: List of Species
The list of eponymous species was compiled by cross-referencing multiple authoritative databases and reference works, including:
The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals (Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson).
The Eponym Dictionary of Birds (Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins).
The International Plant Names Index (IPNI).
Catalog of Fishes (California Academy of Sciences).
Amphibian Species of the World (American Museum of Natural History).
General searches on Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) and JSTOR for original description publications containing “davidianus,” “davidii,” etc.
