Here is the full transcript of Beijing-based biodiversity and climate change expert Terry Townshend’s talk titled “The Incredible Life of the Beijing Swift” at TEDxShanghai 2025 conference.
TERRY TOWNSHEND: Hello, everyone. Today, I’m going to talk to you about the relationship between humans and nature. And I start with this very famous photograph known as Earthrise. It was taken on December 24, 1968, by the astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 mission as they were orbiting the moon. It was the first time that we could see our beautiful blue planet and how vulnerable it is in the vast darkness of space.
The Devastating Loss of Wildlife
The reason I start with this photograph is that since that image was taken, humans have devastated the wildlife on earth. In the last fifty years, the populations of vertebrates—mammals, birds, reptiles—have fallen by an average of 69%. It’s estimated that about 90% of the large fish have disappeared from the oceans. And the extinction rate, that is species that we lose forever, is thought to be at least a thousand times the natural rate. A student at one of the schools I visited created a graph, which I think shows very well the trajectory that we are on.
If we continue on this pathway, we face a future where we could lose as many as 50% of all species by February. I grew up in a very small village by the sea in England. And I was captivated by nature since the age of four. So when I heard statistics like this, I was heartbroken and I wanted to do something to help. So the first thing that I did was try to understand why we’re losing our nature so fast.
Of course, one of the main reasons is we have a rapidly growing human population.
And everybody wants their smartphone, a nice car to drive, and to go on holidays overseas. And all of these things put pressure on our natural resources. But I also realized there was another reason.
Every day around the world, we lose lots of nature unnecessarily simply because we don’t know what we have around us.
Beijing’s Surprising Biodiversity
Now this is a problem all around the world, but I want to give you an example from China. When I first came to Beijing and people found out I like to watch birds, this was the most common reaction. They would say to me, “Why are you in Beijing? There are no birds in Beijing.” And so to me, this was very disappointing.
But as I started to explore around, I realized that was fake news. Because actually, Beijing has recorded more than 500 different species of birds. And that beats my capital city of London. It beats Washington DC. It beats Moscow. It beats Paris. In fact, Beijing ranks number two in G20 capital cities in terms of the number of birds it’s recorded. Who knew?
The East Asian Australasian Flyway
So why is Beijing so good for birds? Well, if we look at this map, we can see that Beijing is right at the heart of what we call the East Asian Australasian Flyway. This is like an expressway for birds. It comes right from the North, the Arctic, Siberia, Alaska, all the way down through 22 countries to Australia and New Zealand.
If we look at the map again, to the North of Beijing, we see Siberia, a vast landmass. Very few people live here. But in the northern summer, there is an explosion of insects in the forests and the Arctic tundra. If you ever go up there in July and August, you need a net to protect yourself. But what is an inconvenience for us is like a free “eat as much as you like” buffet for birds.
That is why millions of birds migrate north every spring to take advantage of this free food because they can have more babies more quickly than if they stayed further south. But of course, in winter, it gets really cold in Siberia, down to minus 50. Very few insects. So the vast majority of these birds must move south to find food and survive. Some will spend the winter in Beijing. Some will go to South China. Some will go to Southeast Asia. Some go as far as Australia, New Zealand.
And of course, in the spring, the reverse happens and they fly back north. So we can think of spring and autumn as like rush hour on this Bird Expressway. And we can think of Beijing as like a service station on this expressway. Because just like us, if we go on a long journey on the expressway, we have to stop sometimes, rest, eat something, drink something. Birds are the same.
The Remarkable Beijing Swift
So Beijing is a service station on this expressway. And I want to introduce you to one particular migratory bird from Beijing called the Beijing Swift, Beijing Yuan. Now this is a very special bird because it spends nearly all of its life in the air. It eats in the air. It drinks in the air. It even sleeps in the air.
Beijing has a historical connection with this bird because the Beijing swift first moved into the city in the 1400s when the original city walls were built. The swift loves these traditional old buildings with these wooden beams on which they can land, make their nest, and lay their eggs. Now every spring, the Beijing swifts arrive in April, and they depart again in July.
The China Birdwatching Society has been studying a colony of these birds at the Summer Palace, and they put special little metal rings on their leg with a unique number. And over time, they learned that these birds are incredibly loyal to their birth site. So they come back year after year to exactly the same place. And they also learned roughly how long they live. So seven to ten years on average. But what they didn’t know was where the Beijing swift goes for the winter.
Tracking the Swift’s Migration
Now in Europe, where I’m from, we also have swifts, but a different race, a different subspecies. And scientists there used cutting edge technology to track the migration of the European swift. And they found that they spend the winter in Central Africa. So we brought over some of those scientists to China. We bought some of this technology. And together with the China Birdwatching Society, we fitted 31 Beijing Swifts with these tiny tracking devices.
Now these tiny tracking devices have to be very, very small and very lightweight. So they don’t have a transmitter. So to access the data, we have to catch the same birds a year later. So we had to wait a whole year. And we had a long time to think about where the swift goes for the winter.
Some people thought, maybe they’ll go to India. India is not so far. It’s warm in winter. Lots of insects. Some people thought maybe they’ll go to Malaysia, Indonesia, on the Equator. All year round, nice and warm, lots of insects. Some people thought maybe they’ll even go to Australia. Because of course, when it’s winter in Beijing, it’s summer in Australia.
An Incredible Discovery
So a year later, we went back to the Summer Palace. And in that first hour, we managed to capture 13 of the original 31 birds fitted with those tracking devices. And the first one was a very exciting moment. We took off the tracking device, connected it up to the laptop, waiting for the data to download to show us for the first time where does the Swift go for the winter. And this is what we found.
So the Swift doesn’t go to India. It doesn’t go to Malaysia, Indonesia. It doesn’t even go to Australia. It actually goes all the way to Southern Africa and back. It can fit in the palm of your hand, this bird. It’s a return journey of 30,000 kilometers. It crosses about 20 international borders. No passport. No visa. No health code.
Even more incredibly, we’re 99% sure that this bird flies all the way to Africa and back without landing. That is nine months in the air.
Inspiring Action
Now this obviously is an incredible story. So it attracted media attention, not just scientific media, but mainstream media, both in China and around the world. And it’s a story that I tell when I visit schools in Beijing. And one of the things we discuss is how the population of the Beijing swift has gone down over the last few decades because we’ve lost a lot of those traditional old buildings with those wooden beams.
So the students always say, “How can we help the swift?” And of course, they can help. And so now, there are several schools in Beijing that are making and putting up special nest boxes for the swift with the right sized hole to give these swifts new homes.
And then one little girl, eight years old, she put up her hand and she said, “Well, it’s easy for us to make nest boxes for swifts. But can we also write to the building companies and ask them to make their new buildings more friendly for Swift?”
So brilliant idea. Four students got together and wrote a letter to the CEO of one of China’s biggest building companies. And the CEO wrote back and said, “Please come and see me.” So we had a special workshop where the students told the CEO about the incredible lifestyle of the Swift, how they eat, drink, sleep in the air, the incredible migration to Africa and back. How the population’s gone down and what the schools are doing to help.
And then collectively, they asked him, “Can you also help?” And so the CEO, you might recognize him, Han Shuyi, he stood up and he said, “Yes.” He said, “Thank you so much for telling me about this bird I didn’t know before. We’ve been making buildings for twenty years to make people’s lives better. We should be making buildings not just for people, but also for nature.”
So he made three commitments. First, to make and put up 200 special boxes for Swifts on his existing buildings. Second, to integrate into the design of new buildings the right size holes for the Swift. And third, to promote nature among the whole building sector in China.
A Call to Action
Now this is one story about one species. But what it shows is that when we discover the incredible stories about the nature we have all around us, even in cities, it inspires people to do incredible things.
Now the good news is that there is still so much to discover. Scientists estimate there are about 8 million species on our planet. That’s everything. Animals, birds, insects, plants. We’ve only formally described 1.3 million. That’s just a sixth of the species on our planet. And every single species plays a role in our ecosystem. And every single species has a story.
We can’t all be scientists, but we can all do something to help nature. So if you’re a student, ask your head teacher to help manage the campus in a way that’s more friendly for nature. If you live in a community with a green space, you can do the same. And if you’re an employee in a company, go and ask the CEO what the company is doing to minimize and measure its impact on nature.
And if we can make more of those exciting discoveries about birds like the swift. And if we can all do something, no matter how big or small, then maybe we can bend that curve of biodiversity loss. And what happens next is up to every single one of us.
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