Sites - Important Bird Areas (IBAs)

General characteristics 

This EBA includes the hills and mountains of most of south-east China, in southern Anhui, southern Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, northern Guangdong and eastern Guizhou provinces, and Guangxi autonomous region (and possibly adjacent northern Vietnam). The natural vegetation here is subtropical broadleaf forest, with some coniferous and mixed forest in the mountains, and a zone of tropical lowland rain forest in the south. However, the human population density of this region has been high for the past several hundred years (Institute of Geography et al. 1994), and much of the natural forest cover had been cleared well before ornithological recording began. The bird species of the region which are treated here as having restricted ranges are thus those which are considered to have occupied areas of 50,000 km² or less throughout the period for which data exist, although the original ranges of some of them are likely to have been larger than this threshold; all are forest birds. As virtually all level lowland forest in this part of China has been cleared, the EBA is represented on the map by all the land above 300m, although only a small percentage of this area actually supports natural forest.

In Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi, this EBA overlaps with the eastern part of the Chinese subtropical forests (EBA 140). The birds of that EBA are also associated with subtropical broadleaf forest, but the available informatiupon on that region is not good enough to determine whether the birds of the two EBAs are separated ecologically, or occur together in the same habitats.

Restricted-range species 

The restricted-range species vary in their habitat requirements and distributions, and some recent major extensions in their known ranges suggest that much remains to be learned (see e.g. He Fen-qi and Lu Tai-chun 1991, Zheng Guang-mei and Zhang Zheng-wang 1993). Gorsachius magnificus is known historically (in this EBA) from Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangxi, but the only recent records are from Guangxi (Zhou Fang >in litt. 1993); a record from northern Vietnam (Vo Quy 1983) suggests that the boundary of the EBA should perhaps be extended to include part of that country. Tragopan caboti and Arborophila gingica apparently have a more southerly distribution than the other species, in southern Zhejiang, Fujian, southern Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi and south-east Hunan, and range to higher altitudes (see Li Xiao-liu et al. 1990, Young et al. 1991, Ding Chang-qing and Zheng Guang-mei 1993). Syrmaticus ellioti breeds between 500 and 1,000m (Ding Ping and Zhuge Yang 1990), and is the only species recorded from eastern Guizhou at the western extreme of the EBA (He Fen-qi and Lu Tai-chun 1991). Rhinomyias brunneata occurs in lowland forest, and is the only species recorded from southern Jiangsu.

Important Bird Areas (IBAs)

Threats and conservation 

This EBA is in one of the most densely populated regions in the world, and most of the natural forest has been cleared or modified as a result of the demands for agricultural land and timber. Rapid forest lost has taken place in most provinces in the EBA in the past fifty years, for example in Fujian, where timber reserves declined by 50% between 1949 and 1980 (Smil 1984). All five of the restricted-range species are listed as threatened, mainly as a result of this continuing loss and fragmentation of their habitat, but Tragopan caboti and Syrmaticus ellioti are also hunted for food (McGowan and Garson 1995). More widespread threatened forest species which breed in this EBA are Fairy Pitta Pitta nympha and Short-tailed Parrotbill Paradoxornis davidianus (both classified as Vulnerable). The threatened Yellow Bunting Emberiza sulphurata, which breeds in the Central Honshu montane forests (Secondary Area s090), is a non-breeding visitor to south-east China.

There are at least 40 protected areas within this EBA, most of which apparently have some suitable habitat for the restricted-range birds (Li Wenhua and Zhao Xian-jing 1989, IUCN 1992d). However, these reserves tend to be relatively small and isolated, and it is not clear how many of them contain large enough areas of suitable forest to support viable populations of these birds. The large Wuyi Shan Nature Reserve (565km²) in Fujian is likely to be especially important for their long-term survival.

Recommended citation  BirdLife International (2013) Endemic Bird Area factsheet: South-east Chinese mountains. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 20/06/2013

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