Xi que - happy magpie
They are a sign of good luck and happiness in China. We saw them in the Temple of Heaven gardens in Beijing, at the Beihai Park as well and in Xi'an too.
Sadly could not get better pictures than this.
There is a love legend surrounding this bird. culminating in the Qixi festival sometime in August - the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. On this day, so the legend goes, the magpies form a heavenly bridge to unite two unlucky lovers - Zhinu the weaver girl, and Niulang the cow herd. So, Zhinu is now symbolised by the star Vega and Niulang by Altair, and the festival includes some star gazing!
It dates back to the Han dynasty, and the Manchus considered the bird sacred, and the Song dynasty has a poem about the lovelorn couple too.
To me it was a happy, cheerful, cheeky birds, reminding me in its manner and appearance to our Oriental magpie robin as well.
The other bird was the Azure-winged magpie. Very camera shy they were, but beautiful as they glided between trees.
The one thing that surprised me was the abundance of sparrows. From the Forbidden City to our hotel plaza they were everywhere. Gazillions of them.
Pretty impressive I thought, given that Mao had ordered their extermination - along with rats, mosquitoes and flies! The Great Sparrow campaign in 1958, part of the Great Leap Forward, saw the Chinese tearing down sparrow nests, breaking eggs, and constantly shooing them, completely decimating their populations.
All because they ate grain.
The local sparrow population was restored via imports of sparrows from Russia! Their cheerful chirping was a welcome interlude in all the parks and green spaces that we visited.
It got me wondering though. In India, we wring our hands at the falling numbers of sparrows in our cities. So the question is how are they thriving in Beijing, nototrious for its air pollution and where the density of human population, skyscrapers, cars, cell phones and every other supposed anti-bird development is extremely visible?
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| These magpies we saw all over Beijing. Happy as a magpie. (Pica pica - Eurasian magpie) |
Sadly could not get better pictures than this.
There is a love legend surrounding this bird. culminating in the Qixi festival sometime in August - the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. On this day, so the legend goes, the magpies form a heavenly bridge to unite two unlucky lovers - Zhinu the weaver girl, and Niulang the cow herd. So, Zhinu is now symbolised by the star Vega and Niulang by Altair, and the festival includes some star gazing!
It dates back to the Han dynasty, and the Manchus considered the bird sacred, and the Song dynasty has a poem about the lovelorn couple too.
To me it was a happy, cheerful, cheeky birds, reminding me in its manner and appearance to our Oriental magpie robin as well.
The other bird was the Azure-winged magpie. Very camera shy they were, but beautiful as they glided between trees.
The one thing that surprised me was the abundance of sparrows. From the Forbidden City to our hotel plaza they were everywhere. Gazillions of them.
 |
| The tree sparrow - a little different from our house sparrows, they had a white collar. |
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| Nesting in the dragon's mouth at Beihai Park! Passer montanus |
Pretty impressive I thought, given that Mao had ordered their extermination - along with rats, mosquitoes and flies! The Great Sparrow campaign in 1958, part of the Great Leap Forward, saw the Chinese tearing down sparrow nests, breaking eggs, and constantly shooing them, completely decimating their populations.
All because they ate grain.
The local sparrow population was restored via imports of sparrows from Russia! Their cheerful chirping was a welcome interlude in all the parks and green spaces that we visited.
It got me wondering though. In India, we wring our hands at the falling numbers of sparrows in our cities. So the question is how are they thriving in Beijing, nototrious for its air pollution and where the density of human population, skyscrapers, cars, cell phones and every other supposed anti-bird development is extremely visible?
At last.I was womdering about birds in china.Nice piece.Thanks
ReplyDeletedo they have a govt program to feed the sparrows in the cities? that might explain it
ReplyDeleteNot one that is public Arati. So I dont know.
DeleteThis is great!
ReplyDelete