Abstract: Wild bird is an important indicator in biodiversity monitoring, countries in Europe and North America have been already carrying on systematic surveys and monitoring of wild birds for more than 100 years, and wild bird diversity index has become an official one in biodiversity monitoring in some of these countries. However, China has not yet developed any formalized wild bird monitoring program, except for a few regional monitoring projects set up in the past ten years. Problems in China’s bird monitoring were discussed and suggestions put forth on how the bird monitoring network of China should be developed in future. China has carried out some bird monitoring programs, including monitoring programs for rare and endangered species, important wetlands, and nature reserves, and some other special bird monitoring projects, such as wild bird monitoring for bird flu prevention, etc. However, so far China does not have a coordinated, national wide bird monitoring network,so that, the overall level of its scientific research on wild birds is much lower compared with many European and North American countries, meanwhile, there are very only a few experienced field survey workers in China. In terms of survey design, China has not yet set up a unified system of sampling strategies and survey methods. What is more, China mainly focuses on rare and endangered species, which are not representative of the overall status of wild birds, and pays less attention to common wild birds. In most of the surveys, China used the fixed distance line transect method and seldom the variable distance line transect method, which is more precise compared with the former. Based on analysis of the status quo and problems of wild bird monitoring in China, it is suggested that China to build a government-led, multi-stakeholder wild bird monitoring network. The multi-stakeholders should include research institutes, universities, nature reserves, bird-watching associations and volunteers, etc.. Standard technical rules for wild bird monitoring should be worked out and published as soon as possible, so that, data collection and analysis can be conducted in a  unified way. In terms of sampling strategies and survey methods, it is suggested that stratified random sampling is more proper, because experienced field workers are very limited and not enough for even distribution overall the country. Variable distance line transect method should be used in common landbird monitoring, for example, in habitats like farmland, shrub-steppe and moorland. The method can also be used in monitoring of offshore seabirds and water fowls. The total number counting method can be used in counting colonial water fowls. Under the framework of the national bird monitoring network, some special monitoring programs can be established, such as the bird ringing program and the wild bird avian influenza epidemics monitoring program. China’s bird monitoring should combine with cutting-edge scientific issues, such as impacts of global climate change on bird distribution and breeding. New technologies and equipment should be used to improve accuracy of the field survey. The public awareness should be improved and volunteer training should be provided to encourage more and more people to join in the bird monitoring network.

Key words: biodiversity, bird monitoring, sampling strategy, monitoring method, monitoring network