The Chinese Grouse (Bonasa sewerzowi) is a bird endemic to China,inhabiting the conifer-dominated high mountains.It occurs in the most southern range of grouse and is the smallest grouse species in the world.The Chinese Grouse has been listed as an endangered species by the China Red Data Book and placed in Category I of nationally protected animals.Since 1995,we have systematically conducted work on the Chinese Grouse using radiotelemetry techniques at the Lianhuashan Nature Reserve in Gansu Province,western China.In this presentation we summarize the mating behavior,nest site selection,incubation rhythm,winter social behavior,diet and other natural history characteristics of this species.With the aid of landscape ecological methods,we also analyze the condition of habitat fragmentation and propose suggestions for conservation.
Supported by BP Conservation Programme, we mounted 40 nest for Strix davidi in suitable habitat at Lianhuashan Natural Reserve, Gansu in 2002-2003. Those nest boxes enable us close observing of breeding success of this rare species in 2005 for the very first time. The first pair bred laid 2 eggs in a nest box and both young were fledged. In May 2006, we monitored 3 territorial males in an area around 500 hm2 by playback method. In mid-June, we found droppings and pellets at the side of a vertical precipice, with hint that an active breeding site there. Two young owls were detected in the crown of a tall spruce tree, situated directly at the base the precipice, on which was thought to be their nest site.
The Three-toed Woodpecker subspecies Picoides tridactylus funebris is endemic to the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in China. No part of its life history was ever reported since its discovery in 1870. To close this gap, we observed foraging behavior of a pair between April and August 2007. A total of 117 observations (28 for male and 89 for female) were obtained by following the birds within their home-ranges using radio-tracking. P. t. funebris preferred foraging on live spruces and snags bigger than available with an average diameter of breast height (DBH) of 32.7 ± 9.2 cm. The most frequent foraging technique was pecking (39.8% of foraging time) and peeling (13.2%). Moreover, sap-sucking was observed more often in P. t. funebris than in P. t. alpinus, suggesting that P. t. funebris was more dependent on the tree sap than the other subspecies. We found distinct niche partitioning between the sexes with respect to use of three out of four investigated parameters of the foraging substrates. These differences were likely related to sexual dimorphism pronounced by slightly larger bill of the male. We concluded that the subspecies P. t. funebris displayed foraging behavior which was very similar to that of other subspecies of the Three-toed Woodpecker.
The Chinese Grouse (Tetrastes sewerzowi) is a rare, endemic bird in China, inhabiting conifer-dominated mountain forests. Both the natural fragmentation and heavy cutting of mature forests have resulted in patchy grouse habitats. We used SPOT (XS-sensor) satellite imagery to discriminate between open land and conifer or broadleaf forests. The area analyzed is about 120000 ha in size and includes the Lianhuashan Nature Reserve and the Yeliguan Forestry Park. We identiifed 4111 ha of mature coniferous forests in 229 patches (maximum 332 ha, mean 18 ha) as the habitat used by Chinese Grouse throughout the year. We examined 31 forest islands of different sizes and degrees of isolation for the presence of Chinese Grouse. We used generalized linear models (GLM) with binomial error structure and logit link function to estimate the probability of Chinese Grouse occupancy in a forest fragment. Habitat patch size (hs) and distance to the next occupied fragment (doc) were used as predictor variables, important for occupancy. Small habitat islands were disproportionately less likely to be occupied than large, nearby habitats. There was a clear speciifc habitat size of about 40 ha, above which habitat fragments were occupied more often. Suitable habitat fragments isolated by more than 2 km appeared to be inaccessible to Chinese Grouse. The results have been used in reforestation projects to establish linking corridors in the study area.
