Nocturnal Migration in Beijing – Autumn 2022

Autumn 2022 Summary

Recording period: 18 July to 10 November 2022

Recording time: sunset to sunrise

Recording location: roof of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

• 34,460 calls recorded, of which 940 (2.7%) remain unidentified.
• Of those identified to species, the most common calls were Olive-backed Pipit Anthus hodgsoni 树鹨 Shù liù (12,689), Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis daurica 金腰燕 Jīn yāo yàn (4,451) and Muscicapidae sp. 鹟科 (2,280).
• Interesting recordings included:
  • a big push of >1,000 calls of geese (mostly Bean Geese 豆雁 Dòu yàn) combined with our first recording of Bewick’s Swan (Cygnus columbianus 小天鹅 Xiǎo tiān’é)
    on the night of 2-3 November (all between 2330-0430hrs)
  • Our first identifiable Phylloscopus warbler in the form of a Two-barred Warbler (Phylloscopus plumbeitarsus 双斑绿柳莺 Shuāng bān lǜ liǔ yīng)
    on 16th August at 0006hrs

The graph below shows the volume of bird calls per night over the recording period.

Below is the species list for autumn 2022 by volume

 

Acknowledgements

The Beijing Nocturnal Migration project would not be possible without the wonderful team at AIIB, including Sir Danny Alexander, Alberto Ninio, Li Zeyu and Tian Hua and the team at Peking University, led by Assistant Professor Hua Fangyuan, and including 张棽 (Zhāng Shēn), 任晓彤 (Rèn Xiǎotóng), 刘双祺 (Liú Shuāngqí) and 杨晓彤 (Yáng Xiǎotóng).  Andrew Farnsworth and Benjamin Van Doren at Cornell Lab have provided valuable advice and encouragement and we look forward to ongoing collaboration.  A number of people have helped with the identifications, including Jonas Buddemeier, Geoff Carey, David Darrell-Lambert, James Eaton, Paul Holt, James Lidster, Magnus Robb, Seán Ronayne, Joost van Bruggen and Stanislas Wroza, to whom we owe a debt of gratitude.

Title image: the spectogram of calls from a Siberian Accentor Prunella montanella 棕眉山岩鹨 Zōng méishān shí liù on 13 October 2022 at 0442hrs