Birds can be wonderfully colorful. Here are some prime examples. Two Black-rumped Flamebacks with their distinct red crown and crest. A Blue-throated Barbet –...

Last Sunday, it was raining hard, but I went out to Chongming Island, a part of Shanghai, anyway. Mostly I went because some farmers...

I am not crazy about alliterations. They seem a poor device, suitable for children’s books but not for refined literature. After all, there is...

The reception of bulbuls in the ornithological world is decidedly mixed. A typical description of the family is that of “a tropical African and...

Shanghai is basically a very flat place. The highest elevations here are all buildings, including the second-highest building in the world, the Shanghai Tower...

Chongming Island is part of Shanghai – but it does not look much like the rest of the city. Located right where the Yangtze...

As the Purple Swamphen awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, it found himself transformed into a Grey-headed Swamphen. It must indeed have been a...

Good news for those frightened by the title of my last blog post – we are now back in the safe and boring world...