It’s May and for ornithologists that means only one thing – field season! This year I was privileged to accompany the JANKOWSKI’S BUNTING (Emberiza jankowskii) survey team to Inner Mongolia alongside China Birdwatching Society’s Fu Jianping, Hong Kong Birdwatching Society’s Vivian Fu and a team of local researchers from Northeast Normal University in Jilin, led by Dr Wang Haitao.
I’ve just arrived back in Beijing and I’m thrilled to bits… Here’s why..
Under the guidance of Dr Wang, we visited some “new” sites in eastern Inner Mongolia and, although we were able to cover only a fraction of the total area of suitable habitat, we recorded more than 100 Jankowski’s Buntings. If the density of the buntings we encountered is typical of the whole area, there should be many hundreds of pairs at the largest of these new sites. Fantastic news!
Encouragingly, we also found some Jankowski’s Buntings in an area of regenerated grassland, replanted only 3 years ago, suggesting that these birds can, and will, colonise areas where the grassland is allowed to recover.
However, amongst this heady cocktail of good news, there is a sobering thought – none of these sites has any form of official protection, meaning they are potentially vulnerable to the main threats to the species and its grassland habitat – overgrazing and the expansion of agriculture.
Nevertheless, it is uplifting to find out that there are, in the unique Inner Mongolian grassland, more of these beautiful “little brown jobs” than we had dared imagine.
The full results of the survey and the fascinating latest research from Dr Wang and his team will be published this summer. A link will be publicised on Birding Beijing when it is available. With the latest information, we are slowly developing a greater understanding of the range, and population, of this special bird, found nowhere else on the planet. This information will form the basis of the next engagement with the local government in Inner Mongolia, during which we will be pushing for official protection for as many of these sites as possible. And, in the meantime, Dr Wang and his team will be exploring new areas to further understand the boundaries of Jankowski’s Bunting’s range and considering the use of colour-ringing to better understand breeding ecology and seasonal movements. Could Jankowski’s be extant in northern Hebei? Or far southeastern Mongolia? Time will tell…
I was impressed with Dr Wang Haitao and his researchers. Dr Wang has been studying Jankowski’s Bunting since 1999 and has a wealth of knowledge about the species, built up by years of field observations. I learned so much from our conversations over the duration of the survey..
Despite the almost omnipresent gales that sweep across this vast landscape in spring, I was able to record some video of the buntings, a compilation of which is below. Such beautiful birds in their full breeding finery and they looked a real picture amongst the Siberian Apricot blossom.
We left Inner Mongolia encouraged and, at the same time, determined not to let this special bird slip away.
Big thanks to Vivian Fu, Fu Jianping and Dr Wang and his team for the faultless logistics, thorough field work and great company during the trip.
Very encouraging news and a nice video!
Those buntings really wag their tails a lot. They also seem to be watching insects closely, but I assume they don’t fly catch.
Thanks Gretchen. Encouraging indeed. Insects form a major part of their diet in summer but I have never seen them “fly catch”… usually they forage on the ground… but they clearly get “distracted” by insects that fly by!