A monthly celebration of the voices of Beijing's wildlife — from birdsong and nocturnal flight calls to the chorus of frogs and toads. Press play, and listen to the wild city.
October 2026
Red Fox at Lingshan, in the mountains of far-western Beijing.
A series of harsh, far-carrying screams in the October dark — the call of a Red Fox. There is something almost human in their anguish, and they are not a sound you would want to hear alone on a mountainside at night.
The calls are low-pitched, with most of their energy around 1 kHz, though the harmonics climb through 2 to 4 kHz and beyond, lending them their piercing, unsettling quality. In the spectrogram you can see the repeated series of calls, each a vertical burst rising from the fundamental.
The Red Fox is rare in Beijing, seen with any regularity only in the far west of the municipality, in the mountains of Mentougou District. This series was recorded at Lingshan on an October night.
Recorded: 28 October 2024 · Location: Lingshan, Mentougou District, Beijing · Recordist: Terry Townshend
The Archive
Past sounds of the month. Press play on any recording to listen.
September 2026
Red-throated Pipit
红喉鹨 · Hóng hóu liù
Anthus cervinus
A thin, high "pseeez" drifting down from a clear autumn sky — a characteristic sound of migration over Beijing, usually from a bird you never see, high overhead. A common September migrant. Recorded over the ChaoBai River.
A soft, bell-like chorus on warm summer nights in the hills around Beijing — the gentle, repeated "oomp… oomp… oomp" that gives the "bell toad" its Chinese name. Recorded at Xishan on a July night. Introduced to Beijing in 1927, when 200 individuals were released at the Botanical Gardens and Xishan.
We'd love to hear it. Whether it's a bird in your local park, frogs in a city wetland, or insects on a summer night, your recordings could feature as a future Wild Sound of the Month. Get in touch and tell us what you heard, and where.
