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Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Elliot's Laughing-thrush Trochalopteron elliotii ©Dubi Shapiro Website

Strictly speaking Guangxi is not a province but an Autonomous Region the People’s Republic of China. Located in the southern part of the country, Guangxi is bordered by Yunnan to the west, Guizhou to the north, Hunan to the northeast, and Guangdong to the east and southeast. It is also bordered by Vietnam in the southwest and the Gulf of Tonkin in the south. It covers 236,700 km2. The capital and largest city is Nanning and its metropolitan area has a population of 4.3 million people, about twice as many as the second city, Liuzhou.

Its location in southern China, along its border with Vietnam, and mountainous terrain, has made it one of the border frontiers of Chinese civilisation. Even into the 20th century it was considered an open, wild territory. It also has 697 islands of different sizes are scattered in the sea. The current name ‘Guang’ itself means ‘expanse’, and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in 226 AD. It was given provincial level status during the Yuan Dynasty and in 1949 was reformed as one of China’s five minority autonomous regions. The abbreviation of the province is (Gui), which comes from Guilin, former capital, centre of much of Guangxi’s culture, politics, and history, and currently a major city in the autonomous region.

Paddy Fields of Longsheng – ©Drolexandre CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Guangxi is a mountainous region. The Nanling Mountains are found in the northeast border, with the Yuecheng Mountains and Haiyang Mountains being its shorter branching ridges. Nearer to the centre of the region are the Dayao Mountains and the Daming Mountains. To the north there are the Duyao Mountains and the Fenghuang Mountains, while on the southeast border there are the Yunkai Mountains. The highest point is Mount Mao’er located in the Yuecheng Mountains, at 2141 m.

Li Jiang River – ©Charlie fong Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Many rivers cut valleys through the mountains. Most of these rivers form the tributary basin of the West River. Guangxi has a short coastline on the Gulf of Tonkin. Important seaports include Beihai, Qinzhou and Fangchenggang. Its climate is subtropical. Summers are generally long and hot. Average annual temperature is 17 to 23°C, while average annual precipitation is 1250 to 1750 mm. January temperatures typically ranging from 4 °C to 16 °C and July temperatures typically ranging from 27 °C to 32 °C.

Birding Guangxi

Abundant rainfall provides Guangxi numerous rivers and an excellent natural environment with over 50% forest coverage and various wetland types. There are 8,354 plant species distributed in Guangxi and 929 species of land vertebrates with which 149 species are under national key protection. Over 540 bird species have been recorded in Guangxi, including Chinese Merganser, Hume’s Pheasant, and other rare and precious animals.

Located in Longzhou and Ningming County covering 10,077 hectares, Nonggang Nature Reserve has a unique karst forest ecosystem that makes the reserve one of the 14 key regions of biodiversity in China. There are over 200 bird species present such as the recently discovered Nonggang Babbler. Other birds linclude: Bar-backed Partridge, Red Junglefowl, Greater Coucal, Green-billed Malkoha, Crested Honey-buzzard, Jerdon’s Baza, Crested Serpent-Eagle, Collared Scops Owl, Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Dollarbird, White-browed Piculet, Bay Woodpecker, Long-tailed Broadbill, Blue-rumped Pitta, Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike, Black-naped Monarch, Indochinese Green-Magpie, White-winged Magpie, Golden-headed Cisticola, Puff-throated Bulbul, Black-crested Bulbul, Limestone Leaf Warbler, Pale-footed Bush Warbler, Yellow-bellied Warbler, Yellow-eyed Babbler, Pin-striped Tit-Babbler, Chestnut-capped Babbler, Large Scimitar-Babbler, Spot-necked Babbler, Streaked Wren-Babbler, White-rumped Shama, Hainan Blue Flycatcher, etc.

Other reserves also offer wonderful birding opportunities such as Mt. Jingzhong Nature Reserve with 274 are bird species, Guantouling National Forest Park where nearly 10,000 birds of prey a day migrate during Autumn! Mao’er Shan also named Cat Mountain, is the highest mountain in South China is chock full of special birds too, such as as Temminck’s Tragopan, Chinese Bamboo-Partridge, Silver Pheasant, Crested Serpent-Eagle, Black Baza, Chinese Sparrowhawk, Crested Goshawk, Collared Scops Owl, Oriental Scops Owl, Chinese Barbet, Blue-throated Barbet, Yellow-bellied Tit, Yellow-cheeked Tit, Pygmy Cupwing, Golden-breasted Fulvetta, Streak-throated Fulvetta, Grey-headed Parrotbill, Golden Parrotbill, Indochinese Yuhina, Black-chinned Yuhina, Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler, Gold-fronted Fulvetta, Huet’s Fulvetta, Spotted Laughingthrush, Red-tailed Laughingthrush, etc.

This page is sponsored by Alpine Birding

Contributors
Number of Species

  • Number of bird species: 721

    (As at June 2024)
Endemics

  • Number of endemics: 1

    Nonggang Babbler Stachyris nonggangensis

  • Number of endemics: 3 Breeding Endemics

    Three species breed only in the territory. They are:

    Chinese Leaf Warbler Abrornis yunnanensis
    Alström's Leaf Warbler Seicercus soror
    Chinese Thrush Otocichla mupinensis

Checklist

  • Avibase

    PDF Checklist
    This checklist includes all bird species found in Guangxi Zhuang , based on the best information available at this time. It is based on a wide variety of sources that I collated over many years. I am pleased to offer these checklists as a service to birdwatchers. If you find any error, please do not hesitate to report them.

  • eBird

    PDF Checklist
    362 species (+29 other taxa) - Year-round, Current year
Useful Reading

  • Birding South East China

    | By Tim J Woodward | Tim Woodward | 2006 | Paperback | 423 pages, 88 colour photos, 160 maps | ISBN: 9789628508426 Buy this book from NHBS.com

  • The Birds of Hong Kong and South China

    | By Hong Kong Birdwatching Society | Edition 9 | 2022 | Paperback | 372 pages, plates with colour illustrations | ISBN: 9789627508342 Buy this book from NHBS.com
Organisations

  • Guangxi Biodiversity Research and Conservation Association

    Information
    See Wuying Lin (the scientific director's) Linked-In page: Wuying Lin
Reserves

Abbreviations Key

Guides & Tour Operators

  • Alpine Birding

    Tour Operator
    Looking for Endemics and Specials in Nanling NNR, Nonggang NNR, Hainan Island

  • BirdQuest

    Tour Operator
    CHINA IN WINTER – A wonderful selection of special birds, from the Beijing region south to subtropical Hainan Island

  • China Bird Tour

    Tour Operator
    Mr. Tang Jun, owner and founder of China Bird Tour,worked in the travel industry since 1993 and his first experience on birding was from 1999 when the focus of his work gradually inclined to birdwatching tourism. Till now his yearly travelling covers all popular birdwatching places within China.

  • NatureTrek

    Tour Operator
    A 13-day birdwatching tour exploring China's Yellow Sea coast in search of Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Nordmann's Greenshank and a variety of other charismatic East Asian migrants.

  • WINGS

    Tour Operator
    Understandably given its huge size, China has a massive variety of habitats and an equally varied and fascinating avifauna. We’ve been offering tours to China for more than two decades and this new tour is a major overhaul of a firm favorite – our winter waterbird spectacular.
Trip Reports

  • 2015 [12 December] - Craig Brelsford & Elaine Du

    Report
    At Longheng, a village near Nonggang National Nature Reserve in Guangxi, Nonggang Babbler has gone from “unknown to science” to “automatic tick.”

  • 2016 [06 Jun] - Matthew Kwan - Nonggang

    Report
    It was here that a bird had evaded scientists and ornithologists for centuries, hiding away in the limestone karst landscape that make up this unique area, it wasn't until 2008 that this species was first described by Chinese ornithologists Zhou Fang and Jiang Aiwu (not just a split new species, but a completely new species unknown to science!), and appropriately named the Nonggang Babbler...

  • 2018 [06 June] - Lo Chun Fai

    Report
    ...The White-eared Night Heron is one of our dream ticks when studying South-east China bird guide because it is so secretive due to its nocturnal behavior and small population size. I missed two times for seeing the night heron, one in Zhejiang because of my schedule; and one in Guangxi because of bad weather. This year, when I found a paper about the breeding of White-eared Night Heron in Guangxi, I decided to try our luck again....

  • 2021 [10 October] -

    PDF Report
    Having recently made a trip to Beihai city in Guangxi, I wanted to post some basic information about the hawk watch and birding in the city to expand some of the information available in English for those wanting to bird in this area.

  • 2024 [01 January] - Hannu Jännes

    Report
    ...Then a short visit to Nonggang close to the Vietnamese border before the tour reached its conclusion on the subtropical island of Hainan...

  • 2024 [05 May] - Matthew Kwan - Fairy Pitta & Other Last Spring Migrants

    Report
    The one morning that I decided to head up Tai Po Kau on my own, I heard the unmistakable call of the Fairy Pitta coming from below a gully. While we get Fairy Pittas annually as a passage migrant, they are more often silent, therefore I was quite surprise to hear this one being very vocal! With a bit of patience, I got cracking views of this lovely bird. No matter how many times you see them, every encounter is just as exciting as the first. This species actually breeds fairly close to Hong Kong, there is hope that they will one day establish a breeding population here.
Other Links

  • 56 Wildlife Nature Reserves Established in Guangxi

    Article
    The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has set up 56 nature reserves, initially forming a comprehensive and reasonably distributed nature reserve network for the effective protection of wildlife resources.

  • Ornithological surveys of two reserves in Guangxi province

    Article
    In September–October 2004 and April–May 2005,we surveyed parts of two recently established reserves insouthern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People’sRepublic of China (henceforth called Guangxi)...

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