Some common birds seen in Shanghai

Eurasian tree sparrow

One of the most common birds found all over China, the little brown birds are adaptable and enjoy living near humans. In the national campaign against four pests in the 1950s: flies, mosquitoes, rats and sparrows, a large number of sparrows were killed mistakenly as harmful creatures. It was said earlier that the indigenous sparrows of China went extinct during that period, and all the sparrows found in China now are foreign species. Zhang Chenliang, editor-in-chief of the Nature History magazine, dismisses this citing images of sparrows in ancient Chinese paintings, which all share the characteristic black spots on both sides of the bird's face as today's sparrows in China.

Azure-winged magpie