Field Guides to the Birds of Beijing

The Birds of Beijing (2021)

This brilliant new book, published in December 2021, is not a field guide per se but more a reference guide to the status of 508 species recorded in Beijing at the time of writing.  Put together by an all-Chinese team led by Professor Zhao Xinru, this book is a fantastic reference and a significant contribution to knowledge about the avifauna of Beijing, and what better species to grace its cover than the Beijing Swift?  This should be on the shelf of any resident or regularly visiting birder, indeed anyone with an interest in Beijing’s avian diversity.

With Chinese, scientific and English common names provided, together with Chinese and English text, this book is accessible and a must-have for all resident and regularly visiting birders.

If you are looking for a regular field guide, there are several major books that cover the birds of Beijing.  

Historically, the only field guide that covered all the birds of China was the Mackinnon and Phillipps “Guide to the Birds of China” (2000) published by Oxford University Press.  At the time, this was a pioneering work and, crucially, it was also translated into Chinese, so it was THE standard guide for most Chinese birders.  For that reason it is a book that deserves much respect and praise – it made birding accessible to the nascent scene in China.  

However, as of December 2023, there is a new kid on the block.  My strong recommendation for any birder interested in China’s birds is the Princeton-published English translation of the 2021 China National Geographic (CNG) Field Guide to the Birds of China.  This spectacular book includes many revisions to the original Chinese version and was produced by a young team of Princeton-based Chinese academics.  With high quality plates and concise text, it is certainly the best English-language field guide to the Birds of China.  At 1.6kg it is a hefty tome but any buyer will not be disappointed.

For Chinese readers, the original (2021) CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China is available from Chinese National Geography (CNG).  Put together by an all-Chinese team led by Professor Liu Yang of Sun Yat-Sen University, with a series of plates by Chinese artists and new distribution maps, its publication was a major and welcome step forward for birding in China.  The main text is in Chinese, but both scientific and english bird names are given.  It is available for delivery overseas to a limited number of countries, including the UK and US, via the Hong Kong Birdwatching Society.  

In 2022 Oxford University Press published an updated version of the “Guide to the Birds of China” by John MacKinnon and Karen Phillipps.  With significant revisions of the species accounts and some terrific new plates by young Chinese artists – not least the beautiful rosefinch cover – to complement the best of Karen Phillipps’ original work, this edition is a significant upgrade to the trailblazing 2000 edition and is a worthy successor.  

For the birder interested only in Beijing and east China, a strong contender is “The Birds of East Asia” by Mark Brazil.  This book covers southeast Russia, eastern China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan.  Although not flawless, in general it has excellent plates, good covering text and distribution maps.  As of April 2020, this book is available in Chinese as well as English.

If you read Chinese, there is another book you may wish to consider about Beijing, although it is out of print, so only available in second-hand book stores or online:

The Birds of Beijing by Cai (1987).

This book describes the status of birds in Beijing and includes some original sketches, including this Japanese Waxwing…

and a comparison of the tails of grey shrikes.

And if you travel to Shanghai, do consider the new Birds of China, Southeast China, including Shanghai by Liu Yang, Yu Yat-tung and Yong Ding Li.  Written by locals with excellent photographs and descriptions.