Greenery authorities in Shanghai have surveyed the city's birds to mark Bird Week beginning on Saturday.

 

The year-long survey found 95 kinds of wild birds in the 18 parks and greenery spaces in downtown Shanghai, including Gongqing Forest Park (Yangpu District), Jing'an Park (Jing'an District) and Luxun Park (Hongkou District), according to the Shanghai Greenery Administrative Bureau.

 

The survey results included:

 

- The number of summer migrant birds is small. Only 10 kinds of summer migrant birds were found to reproduce in the city, occupying 22 percent of all such birds found in the city. More than 93 percent of the birds recorded stayed in the city.

 

- Water birds are rare in downtown areas. Only 10 kinds of water birds were found in Daning Lingshi Park (Zhabei District), the Shanghai Botanical Garden (Xuhui District) and Gongqing Forest Park, which have large areas of water and little human disturbance.

 

- Most birds living in the city are vegetarians, while only 21 percent of the birds eat insects or worms.

 

- Exotic wildlife species have increased in the downtown area. Previous surveys recorded small numbers of wild azure-winged magpies only in Gongqing Forest Park and Shanghai Botanical Garden, but this time magpies were found in Huangxing Greenbelt, and the number in the original two sites increased. Styan's squirrels were also found.

 

- Black-crowned night herons were found in Luxun Park and Changfeng Park (Putuo District), but the number was not large. The bureau is closely watching the increase of such bird, whose excrement is bad for trees.

 

"In general, large parks and greenery areas with flourishing trees attract more birds, but human activities are also a big factor," said a bureau official surnamed Gao.

 

The bureau also released the 10 best spots for bird watching in the city.

 

The downtown area has three good sites for bird lovers - Shanghai Botanical Garden, century Park in Pudong New Area and Gongqing Forest Park.

 

(Shanghai Daily April 10, 2007)