Summer Palace Birds Fly 26,000km Annual Migration Route, Birding Beijing Confirms

Birds that lay their eggs each year in the eaves of the Summer Palace’s buildings begin and end a 26,000-kilometer migration, a group of scientists and birding enthusiasts including Birding Beijing’s Terry Townshend confirmed Sunday.

In 2014, 31 Beijing Swifts were briefly captured and a geolocator attached. In order to ensure that the devices were light and would not impede the birds’ flight, these particular recorders did not have transmitters, leaving Townshend and his group on pins and needles until their return this spring.

Thirteen of the 31 Beijing Swifts were recaptured during the weekend, with their flight data recorders proving what had been previously believed: that the birds migrate each year from perches in northwest Beijing, across Central Asia, then south across the Arabian Peninsula and into Africa, finally reaching Namibia, where they spend three months before returning along a similar path to Beijing. 

Townshend was elated at the news. “‘Woohoo!' was the shout when the first geolocator-carrying swift was caught,” he wrote on Birding Beijing.

Over 400 species of birds can be spotted in Beijing, either permanently nesting here or passing through seasonally. That number surpasses the number of species that can be seen regularly in London or New York. 

Learn more about the common swift’s journey and other Birding Beijing events at their website.

More stories by this author here.

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Images courtesy of Birding Beijing