Voting starts on feathered friends
Print Edition
IF you have a favorite bird, now’s your chance to see it more often.
Shanghai’s greenery authorities launched a voting campaign over the weekend as preparation for a city bird selection.
Shanghai Wildlife Protection Management Station has picked 50 avian species from 476 species for the vote.
People can vote for their favorite five species of birds via www.shwildlife.org, which currently only has a Chinese-language service. Videos about the 50 birds will be aired on the city’s Metro network. The voting deadline is June 30.
“We consider whether these birds are common, easy to be recognized and promoted when we selected the 50 species,” said Yuan Xiao, deputy director of the station.
“The voting result of the final five will provide important reference and consideration for the municipal bird selection.”
The birds species include the little egret, Eurasian blackbird, Eurasian skylark, great knot, light-vented bulbul, reed parrotbill and the azure-winged magpie. Voting began when the 36th “Shanghai bird protection week” opened at Century Park over the weekend.
The recommended criteria for selecting an official bird has four components, according to Tu Rongxiu, another deputy director of the station.
These are that the bird lives in the region; has links with the region; is favored by local residents; and plays a key role in maintaining the ecological balance, she said.
The selection follows a proposal last year by two municipal political advisers who suggested making a rare parrotbill native to Shanghai the city’s official bird.
So far, the light-vented bulbul and the reed parrotbill are the front-runners.
“Reed parrotbill is rare and precious,” said Li Yongtao, deputy director of the Chongming Forestry Station. “If it becomes the municipal bird, it can raise people’s awareness on its protection and the protection of intertidal zone and wetland, which are the habitat of the bird.” The parrotbill had become endangered in recent years, he added.
The light-vented bulbul, in contrast, is one of the four most commonly seen birds in Shanghai. “Light-vented bulbul is native to Shanghai and is very commonly seen in the city, particularly in bushes and fruit trees,” said Yao Li, secretary-general of the Wild Bird Society of Shanghai.
“The bird is distinctive in appearance and its name has the auspicious meaning of being together for an entire lifetime,” he said.
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