A farewell to Peking swifts

A farewell to Peking swifts

By Zhang Yuchen

They have lived in the city's tall nooks and crannies for thousands of years, but now they appear to be bidding farewell.

A protected animal and an Olympic mascot, the Peking swift is losing its habitat to the huge changes of the city.

Old Beijinger Zheng Guangmei cycled along the moat outside the Forbidden City in late June 1965 and counted almost 400 Peking swifts.

In early July 2007, retired professor Gao Wu repeated the same route and noted 80, according to an in-depth article published in the China Youth Daily on July 30.

From 410 Peking swifts residing in the Forbidden City in 1974 there were 64 in 2000, Beijing Daily reported.

English consul and naturalist Robert Swinhoe in 1870 for the first time cataloged a kind of swallow that was a little larger than the common or family swallow: apus apus pekinensi. Of the nine swallow species to be found in Beijing, the Peking swift remains the only one named after the city.

With dark brown feathers and slim white vertical lines across the belly, the swifts fly from the Africa or East Asia to Beijing every March and stay till late July. They fly fast, employing among the fastest wings in the world.

The four toes of the Peking swift extend forwards and prevent it from standing on flat ground. Once it lands, it's hard for a swift to take off without some kind of step acting as support.

Old city residents recall the little birds extending their wings and hovering around Zhengyang Gate, a gate that was once south of Tiananmen Square and Baoguosi, a temple area in the southeast corner of the Second Ring Road.

Gao Wu, a retired professor of Capital Normal University, watched hundreds of Peking swifts hover by the Dongzhimen gate tower like "a big dark cloud" when he was at middle school.

There were once so many Peking swifts that it was natural for old Beijingers living near city gates to pick baby birds off the ground. Many could recognize the subtle differences between family swifts and Peking swifts.

Feathered snobs

Beijingers used to joke the little creature is "snobbish", naming it "mansion swift" as the birds seemed to prefer the high beams of lofty temples or palace buildings to regular hutong alleyway housing.

An old woman with gray hair living in the Houhai area remembered that in late spring and early summer, residents opened their house doors wide and broke the windowpane paper to let the swifts enter and exit freely. The birds would often perch above doors and sing their spring songs.

Thanks in part to the happy connection with a new season, Beijingers came to believe the bird auspicious and even made kites in the shape of their beloved animal neighbors.

In 2002, 3,182 Peking swifts were counted in 65 city observation points, according to the China Youth Daily. In 2007, the number fell to 2,275 at 28 observation points; in 2008, 2660; in 2009, 2,331, according to the Research and Protection of Peking Swift and Other Swallows in Beijing, a report conducted by the Beijing Bird Watching Society, which was founded in 2004 by amateur researchers.

Demolition of habitat is the main reason for their exile, Gao Wu said. The retired ornithologist found urban development and bird decline "basically match each other".

Some swallows have ceased their snobby behavior. Li Qiang, leader of the bird-watching group in the Friends of Nature, a Chinese environmental protection organization, told the Global Times that a few birds have appeared in the cracks of overpasses including Guo Mao, Tianningsi and Xizhimen junctions.

Li believed the number of swifts should have increased in recent years due to their high breeding rate, but "they may disappear in the future".

"They are losing their normal habitat," Li said. "It's hard for them to adjust their habits."

Cultural demolition

From 1952 to 1969, most of the main city walls, gates, temples and towers were demolished including popular swift spots like Chaoyangmen, Xizhimen and Fuchengmen. Gao said during this period the number of Peking swifts plunged.

The 1980s saw some reconstructed buildings, but no new birds: cultural protection work units wrapped the building in anti-bird nets.

"Beijing was once a forest in the 1950s," according to Gao. The rural areas had wild meadows of aromatic flowers, begonia and magnolia.

With the demolition of tall buildings, urbanization invaded remoter and remoter areas, leaving only man-made parks downtown. The swifts couldn't even find the mud to construct their nests.

On what little grass remains, the birds can't find seeds, insects, reptiles or worms after municipal botany departments scattered pesticide across the city.

"The bird is the reference animal of the living environment," said Gao Wu, "A kind of living environment friendly to a bird must be friendly to the human being. And vice-versa."

One adult Peking swift can feed 280 mosquitoes, flies or aphids a day to a baby swift, according to research by the Beijing Bird Watching Society.

"I am worried human behavior toward the environment will do more harm to the little bird and threaten the little creatures' future," Li Qiang told the Global Times.

A senior professor pointed out that protecting wild animals needs cooperation among environment, forestry, water supplies, tourism, sanitary and even construction bureaus. But he confessed communication between departments was much less than that needed to fix the problem.

When repair and restoration began on the Forbidden City in March 2007 – the exact wrong dates for the swift – a bird expert suggested a new substitute structure. Architects responded this kind of structure would increase costs and then the unanswered question emerged: Who should pay?

"A little more humane adjustment may better solve problems of this kind," Li said. "We just need to take the birds' needs into consideration. Don't do so much work on the high nooks of ancient temples and buildings."

"Just leave them in peace to breed."

Following fast in the tailwind of the Peking swift, the common or family swallow will also soon die out, according to Fu Jianping, director of the Beijing Bird Watching Society.