Beidaihe - Bird Migration Hub of the Orient

Spring songbirds on the China coast

During the watch, we noticed songbirds arriving from over the sea. With only occasional duck flocks by midday, we had the chance to bicycle in search of them during the afternoon, and we found there was an influx — a fallout. Red-flanked Bluetails Tarsiger cyanurus were plentiful; their wheet calls could be heard from most of the gardens and thickets. Flycatching low in the still-bare vegetation, they were easily seen, allowing us to enjoy the handsome, blue-and-white males, splashed orange on their flanks. Tiny Pallas's Leaf-Warblers preferred bushes and trees, sometimes hovering to snatch insects, sometimes shivering out a burst of melodic song.

There were also buntings: a late Rustic Emberiza rustica, flocks of Yellow-throated E. elegans, their crests raised when excited. A pair of Long-tailed Rosefinches Uragus sibiricus lingered at Eagle Gully — they were lightly built, acrobatic birds, the male delicate pink with two white wing-bars.

Another lingering bird was an immature male Harlequin Duck Histrionicus histrionicus, on the sea off the rocky east coast. I had found it three days earlier, an unexpected and thrilling sight — the first for Beidaihe, and one of few recorded in China (there have been two more sightings at Beidaihe), as well as a long-wanted life bird.

Less of a surprise were some species that turned up for the first time on 9 April, and would soon become common. A couple of Dusky Warblers Phylloscopus fuscatus were tired and approachable in sea-front bushes, a Black-faced Bunting Emberiza spodocephala shuffled over a patch of bare ground, there were two Dusky Thrushes Turdus naumanni eunomus in a field that is now covered by hotels, and, in the evening, two Oriental Pratincoles hawked insects over the small reservoir.

The spring migration peaks around the middle of May. With a handful of early migrants still to be found, a wide variety of birds that pass primarily at this time, and each day likely to produce new species as the migration gathers pace, two weeks' birding may yield 200 species.

Among the month's highlights are some stunning songbirds. Male Siberian Blue Robins are electric blue above, clean white below; fond of thickets, they hop on the ground, tac tac tacking, and furiously vibrating their tails. Also skulking are male Siberian Rubythroats, which put all their plumage in their throats.

Although Blue Robins and Rubythroats might give only brief, tantalising glimpses, Yellow-rumped Flycatchers Ficedula zanthopygia are show-offs. Below they glow yellow, like Prothonotary Warblers Protonotaria citrea; above they are black with white wing-bars and yellow rumps. Scarcer Asian Paradise-Fycatchers Terpsiphone paradisi are hardly special plumage-wise, just black headed, rufous above, and light grey below, but boast long, flowing tails almost twice the length of their bodies.

No such frills — nor even any colour — for male Siberian Thrushes Zoothera sibirica. They are slaty black, with a bold white supercilium (you barely notice the pale vent); a simple, striking pattern that surely places them among the ultimate `Sibes'.

Flocks of Yellow-breasted Buntings Emberiza aureola add colour to the fields. Common Rosefinches Carpodacus erythrinus gather in trees, the red males breezily whistling to one another.

If all these birds sound like they won't challenge your identification skills, try looking at some of the other songbirds occuring at this time. Phylloscopus warblers, for example. Now, even if the only `Phyllosc' you know is Arctic Warbler P. borealis, you have a fair idea of what to expect — several members of this family look pretty much like Arctic Warblers, with greenish upperparts pale supercilium and dark eyestripe, and white or off-white underparts.

Identifying the early Pallas's Leaf- P. proregulus and Yellow-browed [[Inornate]] P. inornatus inornatus, the later Eastern Crowned P. coronatus, Pale-legged P. tenellipes, Arctic, scarce Blyth's Leaf- P. reguloides and — perhaps the latest of all — Two-barred Greenish P. plumbeitarsus warblers is based on characters like wing-bars (are there any?; if so, one or two, broad or thin?), rump (if yellow, Pallas's — that was easy enough), presence of a crown stripe, tertial fringes, leg color, lower mandible color; and even the amount of mottling on the ear coverts — not easy to notice when a bird is busily moving through the foliage. Calls help too: I still find the very different calls are the best way of confidently distinguishing Arctic and Two-barred Greenish warblers, and the high, bluetail-like wheet helps with finding unobtrusive Pale-legged Leaf-Warblers. Call is also a big help in identifying Beidaihe's brown Phylloscs, Dusky, Radde's P. schwarzi, and — much rarer — Yellow-streaked P. armandii warblers.

Then there are the reed-warblers. The biggest — Oriental (Great) Reed-Warbler Acrocephalus (arundinaceus) orientalis — is straightforward enough, its face pattern helping to tell it from the similar Thick-billed Warbler Phragmaticola aedon. But picking out a Manchurian Paddyfield Warbler A. (agricola) tangorum (right) or a Blunt-winged Warbler A. concinens from the host of Black-browed Reed-Warblers A. bistrigiceps that arrive late in May relies on subtle features.

Adding to the fun are Locustella — or `grasshopper' — warblers, which I mostly see in flight: dark, thin-tailed Lanceolated Warblers (left), Pallas's Grasshopper-Warblers L. certhiola with longer tails and reddish-brown rumps. Similar Japanese Marsh-Warblers Megalurus pryeri seem even more loathe to be seen well. Other brown skulkers, like Spotted Bush-Warblers Bradypterus thoracicus davidi and Gray's Grasshopper-Warblers L. fasciolata, favour wooded areas.

Confused? I'd like to say you won't be, after a visit to Beidaihe. But maybe you will: for some of the eastern Palaearctic warblers, identification techniques are still evolving.