Hubei Province

Bar-tailed Treecreeper Certhia himalayana ©Alister Benn Website
Birding Hubei

Hubei is a central province of the People’s Republic of China. The name Hubei means ‘north of the lake’, referring to Hubei’s position north of Dongting Lake. The capital of Hubei is Wuhan.Hubei borders Henan to the north, Anhui to the east, Jiangxi to the southeast, Hunan to the south, Chongqing to the west, and Shaanxi to the northwest. The high-profile Three Gorges Dam is located in Yichang, in western Hubei.The Jianghan Plain takes up most of central and eastern Hubei, while the west and the peripheries are more mountainous, with ranges such as the Wudang Mountains, the Jingshan Mountains, the Daba Mountains, and the Wushan Mountains (in rough north-to-south order). The Dabie Mountains lie to the northeast, on the border with Henan and Anhui; the Tongbai Mountains lie to the north on the border with Henan; to the southeast the Mufu Mountains form the border with Jiangxi. The eastern half of the Three Gorges (Xiling Gorge and part of Wu Gorge) lies in western Hubei; the other half is in neighbouring Chongqing. The highest peak in Hubei is Shennong Peak, found in the Daba Mountains and in the forestry area of Shennongjia; it has an altitude of 3105 m.The Yangtze River enters Hubei from the west via the Three Gorges; the Hanshui and Shen Nong Stream enter from the north. Shen Nong Stream is a tributary of the Yangtze River which has also been degraded by the Three Gorges Dam project. The Yangtze and Hanshui rivers meet at Wuhan. Thousands of lakes dot the landscape, giving Hubei the name of: ‘Province of Lakes’; the largest of these lakes are Lake Liangzi and Lake Honghu. The Danjiangkou Reservoir lies on the border between Hubei and Henan.Hubei has a subtropical climate with distinct seasons. Hubei has average temperatures of 1 – 6 °C in winter and of 24 – 30 °C in summer; punishing temperatures of 40 °C or above are famously associated with Wuhan. Important cities are Wuhan, Jingmen, Shiyan and Shashi.

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Contributors
Number of Species
  • Number of bird species: 477

    (As at August 2018)
Useful Reading

  • Birding in Wuhan University

    By Li Weilin | Huayu Nature Book Trade Co.Ltd | 2014 | Paperback | 157 pages, colour illustrations | Chinese Text | ISBN: 9787510055898 Buy this book from NHBS.com
Museums & Universities
  • Wuhan University

    Website
    Wuhan University Animal Specimen Museum , is one of the oldest, biggest specimen museum in our country. It was first founded in 1929. Untile present time, totally collected 556 kinds of fish, 98 kinds of amphibian, 126 kinds of acrawl, 1300 kinds of birds, and 175 kinds of mammalia. And also some typical specimens, such as duckbill kangaroo, kiwi, African and Australian ostrich, etc. Have nearly 700 square meter showroom and workroom. Collected specimens number and scale is top among the whole country…
Organisations
  • Hubei Wild Bird Conservation Committee (Hubei Wild Bird Society)

    Website
  • Wuhan Bird Watching Society

    Website
Reserves

Abbreviations Key

  • NNR Shennongjia

    InformationSatellite View
    It is known that there are 336 species of terrestrial vertebrate, 200 species of birds, 30 species of reptiles…
  • NR Tian'ezhou White-Flag Dolphin Reserve

    InformationSatellite View
    …The main protection targets are white-flag dolphins and their habitat. The white-flag dolphin, a rare mammal on the verge of extinction in the Yangtze River…
Guides & Tour Operators
  • Alpine Birding

    Tour Operator
    Birding trips here are made for avid birders including yearly-run trips and new China birding trips developed by AlpineBirding team and guided by our bird experts in the best
Trip Reports
  • 2008 [06 June] - Jean-Philippe Paris

    Report
    …The village is surrounded by rice fields and different kind of cultures with a lot of fruit trees. In some place there are still some remaining forest areas with a big colony of Herons in one of them. The weather were always cloudy with very bad light for taking pictures unfortunately. I finally won a third price but we were several in this case I think. I saw more than 60 species in less than 2 days with 40 lifers and a lot of very good memories: Paradise Flycatcher, Tiger Shrike, Plain prinia but the main one is certainly the good moment with all this people!
Other Links
  • Birding In Hubei Province

    Webpage
    ...About 456 bird species have been recorded in this province, of which 237 species are migratory birds including Red-crowned Crane and Scaly-sided Merganser and some other rare species....

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