Species Composition and Temporal Patterns of Wild Bird Trade in Beijing: Evidence from Physical Market Surveys, 2014–2026

Wild bird trade poses a persistent threat to global biodiversity, highlighting the importance of long-term market monitoring for detecting changes in trade patterns and informing conservation and management. However, systematic assessments of long-term changes in physical bird markets at the city scale remain limited. Based on long-term surveys conducted in major physical bird markets in Beijing, China, from 2014 to 2026, we characterized the species composition and recorded numbers of wild birds, the representation of protected species, and their temporal variation. In total, 217 wild bird species and 29,803 individuals were recorded. Records were strongly concentrated taxonomically, with Passeriformes accounting for 89.4% of recorded species and 99.5% of recorded individuals. Twenty-eight species listed under China’s National Key Protected Wild Animals or in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices were recorded, accounting for 12.9% of all recorded species and 35.7% of all recorded individuals. Seasonal patterns differed between species richness and individual records: spring had the highest cumulative number of recorded species (166 species, 76.5% of all recorded species), whereas autumn had the highest mean number of individuals recorded per survey (260.34 individuals per survey). Interannually, the number of wild birds observable in physical bird markets showed an overall declining trend. Overall, this study documents the long-term composition and temporal dynamics of wild bird records in physical bird markets in Beijing, providing a baseline for city-scale monitoring of wild bird trade and supporting the regulation of high-priority species and broader wild bird conservation and management.