Seven Mountain Ridges Make Chongqing Ideal for Raptors on their Yearly Migrations

Chongqing- The Chongqing Birdwatching Society was set up in 2012 to promote ornithology in Chongqing, spread knowledge of popular science, and conduct research. The society organizes up to 100 bird watching activities each year and has attracted the participation of enthusiasts in their tens of thousands, who also make contributions to the cause of environmental protection and civilization in Chongqing.

As summer approaches each year, bird watchers congregate at the Golden Eagle stood 671 meters on a peak of Nanshan, where there are panoramic views over the surrounding mountain ridge and downtown Chongqing.

At a meeting of bird watchers at Nanshan on May 1st, 2021, the president of the Chongqing Birdwatching Society, Mr. Wei Qian, explained why up to 100,000 migratory birds of prey fly over Chongqing each year on their journeys to and from Southeast Asia and Russia.

Seven principal mountain ridges traverse Chongqing Urban Area roughly north to south and form unique geographical features that can only be found elsewhere in the northeast of Canada and the USA and the northwest of South America.

While spring and autumn see the migration of raptors, there are various kinds of birds to be seen throughout the year in Chongqing. In winter, nationally protected bird species such as the scaly-sided merganser can be seen around the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers. In addition, there are large numbers of black-naped orioles, lesser cuckoos, and tiger shrikes in summer, which come to Chongqing for breeding.

This year, the peak time for raptors and birds of prey migrating through Chongqing was the first week of May, so we visited the Golden Eagle on Nanshan to meet with Wei Qian to learn more about the Chongqing Birdwatching Society and experience one of their meetings.