Bulletin 301 - China #1 - Waterfowl

I had an 8 day birding to trip in eastern China with a wonderful guide Lin Zhang based in Shanghai. He is perfectly fluent in English. We visited 5 different locales. FYI making contact within China by email is a problem as the government blocks some email accounts coming, including gmail.  So I had to contact him using MS Outlook. His email is zhanglinas@hotmail.com.

Wintering waterfowl were still present and I saw several new species and lifers. The Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides) is a familiar bird as it is often found as a feral introduced domesticated goose. It is IDed by the bicolored neck and black bill. You will notice that the wild populations do not have the big hump on the bill.

Swan Goose

The Tundra Bean Goose (Anser serrirostris) is the smaller of the bean goose species. It is IDed by size and grayish brown color and bicolored bill.

Tundra Bean Goose

The last goose was a Greylag Goose (Anser anser). It is a gray goose with pink bill. We saw only a couple of these birds.

Greylag Goose

There were also several duck species. The Eastern Spot-billed Duck (Anas zonorhyncha) is a large brown duck with a black bill with a yellow tip.

Eastern Spot-billed Duck

The male Eurasian Teal (Anas crecca) is similar to our Green-winged Teal, but it lacks the vertical white stripe ion the flank.

Eurasian Teal - male

The male Eurasian Widgeon (Anas penelope) has a brown head and beige stripe across crown.

Eurasian Widgeon - male

Two species of diving ducks were also found. the female Common Pochard (Aythya ferina) has a reddish brown head. The male would have a solid red head similar to our Redhead.

Common Pochard - female

The rare Baer's Pochard (Ayhtya baeri) is listed as vulnerable and restricted to east Asia. The male has a greenish head and brown breast and light colored eye.. The female is lighter.

Baer's Pochard - pair with male in front

Also we found 2 merganser species. The male Smew (Mergellus arbellus) is a white duck with a black face. and wings.

Smew - male

And the last was another vulnerable rare east Asian endemic. The male Scaly-sided Merganser (Mergus squamatus) is similar to our Red-breasted Merganser, but has pronounced scaly appearance to the flanks and a long crest.

Scaly-sided Merganser - male

The female has a reddish head.

Scaly-sided Merganser - female

We watched several pairs of birds in a fast rushing mountain river. They would drift down river and then fly back upstream. It was a treat to see such a rare bird.

Scaly-sided Mergansers

We also saw Mandarin Duck, Tufted Duck, and Ferruginous Duck as well as species that also occur in North America (Mallard, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler and Northern Pintail). All of the birds pictured here were lifers for me except the Eurasian Widgeon.


I have put the different bird families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 60 of the 165 species of waterfowl

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2018 David McDonald

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