Status of the Xinjiang Ground Jay: population, breeding ecology and conservation

The Xinjiang Ground Jay (Podoces biddulphi) is a bird species endemic to China. It has a restricted range, living only in the Taklimakan Desert, southern part of Xinjiang. So far, little information has been known of the status and ecology of the bird in the world. Since 1988, I have been taking field investigations on the distribution, population size and breeding ecology of the Xinjiang Ground Jay in the desert. In this thesis, the desertification in relation to the eastward expansion of the ground jays was discussed.