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China Bird Report China Bird Report is an annual report published by the China Ornithological Society which complied and vetted bird records, based on bird watchers' observations. To obtain a copy of China Bird Report, please contact chinesewildbird@hotmail.com for information. Bird watchers outside China mainland who wish to buy a copy could contact the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (hkbws@hkbws.org.hk) for arrangement. The price is HK$100 (not including handling fee and postal fee) and the money will be treated as donation to the China Ornithological Society for producing the next China Bird Report. For details of record submission, please CLICK HERE. Message from the 2007 report editors: Publication of 2007 "China Bird Report"This is the fifth annual collation and publication of bird records from mainland China, following the inaugural China Bird Report 2003. Coverage of China, especially by birdwatching societies based in eastern coastal provinces and in larger cities in the west of the country, has grown significantly over the past five years accompanied by a massive increase in the number of bird records submitted and an overall improvement in the quality of records. Birdwatchers, both local and overseas, have made increasingly valuable contributions to knowledge of the Chinese avifauna and biodiversity conservation in China by counting ecologically-important congregations of waterbirds, monitoring threatened birds of international concern, finding new species at national or provincial levels and rediscovering species that were long-lost or feared extinct. Over the past five years the China Bird Report, which is the only journal publishing annual bird records from China, has grown into a substantial and credible information source on the current distribution and conservation status of Chinese birds. It has both reflected the development and progress of the birdwatching scene in China and stimulated it. The opportunity provided to birdwatchers to publish their records formally in the annual report has promoted a more scientific attitude and encouraged birdwatchers to observe record and report more actively. The preferred channel of reporting for the vast majority of local birdwatchers is the “Chinese Bird Online Report Centre”, which has a current registration of over 3,000 users and a database of over 17,000 reports. Such a rich source of bird data has enabled all China Bird Reports since 2005 to publish records of over 1,000 species, representing about 80% of the China list. During this period the editorial team of the China Bird Report has itself also undergone some major developments. The initial small group of editors who compiled the 2003 report has now grown into a coordinated team of over 30 members, including professional ornithologists and experienced birdwatchers from the mainland, Hong Kong and abroad, whose reviewing of records based on their unparalleled understanding of the Chinese avifauna ensures the quality of the report. Like a baby being born and then starting to learn to walk, the China Bird Report has embarked on a journey full of difficulties, challenges, and the excitement of achievement. There is still plenty of room for improvement, for example in setting up more formalized standards for acceptance of records, improving the quality of editing, increasing the efficiency of the publishing process, streamlining distribution and so on. Striving toward these clear directions for future improvement, we will try to bring about a better China Bird Report as time progresses. China Bird Report 2007 is the outcome of nearly a year' s collective effort of all editors. For the third consecutive year, geographical coverage encompasses all provincial-level administrative districts in China, with the exception of Hong Kong and Taiwan. A total of 1071 species from 16 orders and 68 families are included in this report, representing over 80% of all bird species in China as listed in Zheng (2005). These records include one species which is newly described by science, three species which are additions to the national checklist, and a suite of species which are additions at provincial-level. In terms of globally-threatened species on the IUCN red-list, the current report includes four Critically-endangered species, 10 Endangered species, and 42 Vulnerable species (BirdLife International 2008), whilst also highlighting species under Protection Class I (Zheng and Wang 1998). As in previous years, the report introduces and discusses a number of relevant taxonomic changes proposed in the recent ornithological research literature. Finally, this year’s report includes a report on sightings of colour-banded waterbirds in mainland China during 2007, which provides important information on the migration and conservation of these birds. Editors, China Bird Report
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