Helan Mountain Rock Wren. (Photo by Qi Yingtao)
Ningxia News Network News (reporter Qi Yingtao text/photo) "This is the Helan Mountain Rock Wren! On January 4, the reporter confirmed from Qi Lin, vice president of the Ningxia Bird Watching Association and director of the Chengdu Bird Watching Association, that the birds photographed by the reporter in a desert in Shapotou on January 2 were helan mountain rock wrens, a national second-level protected wild animal.
Helan Mountain Rock Wren is one of the two species of birds named after Helan Mountain, the other is the Helan Mountain Red-tailed Plover, both of which are national second-level protected wild animals. Among them, the Helan Mountain red-tailed plover is occasionally seen in Helan Mountain, but the Helan Mountain Rock Wren has not been found on Helan Mountain, and the records of the bird in recent years are in Inner Mongolia, and the records of the bird in Ningxia are in the Zhongwei Shapotou Yingshui Bridge and Gaodun Lake more than 30 years ago. Specimens collected here in 1986 and 1987 are extant in The Shapotou Nature Reserve in Ningxia, and there has been no news of the bird for more than three decades.
On February 16 and December 11, 2021, the reporter went to Zhongwei with bird friends of the Ningxia Bird Watching Association to find unsuccessful results. At the end of the year, after learning that the bird friend Shen Yan photographed the Helan Mountain Rock Wren in Zhongwei, on January 2, 2022, the reporter and ningxia famous birdwatcher @ 3rd Eye went to Zhongwei Shapotou again, and after a day of hard work, they finally photographed the Helan Mountain Rock Wren in a desert.
According to relevant information, the Helan Mountain Rock Wren is a small bird of the Rock Wren family and the Rock Wren family, with a body length of 14-16 cm. The head is tan , the back is pale yellowish brown or sandy brown , with dark longitudinal stripes. The two wings are dark brown with white band spots. The chin, throat, and pectoral smoke are grey or brown, with narrow white plumage that form distinctly scaly spots, and the rest of the lower body is milky white or brownish white with brown longitudinal stripes. It inhabits desert or semi-desert areas, with obvious wild features and easy identification. The iris is dark brown, the mouth is dark brown, and the feet are earthy yellow or fleshy yellow. It mainly inhabits the highland desert, Gobi Desert and semi-desert areas where desert plants are distributed, especially in the Gobi, dune shrubland and artificial shelter forest at the edge of the desert, and also inhabits the desert, Gobi Desert shrubland and artificial sand jujube forest with sandy plants such as sand dates, sand pons, sand artemisia and other sand plants, and is the most habitat-friendly, sometimes found in wilderness, farmland and foot forest edges. Often alone or in small groups, good at walking and hiding in the shrubs such as sand dates, and taking off vertically in case of alarm, scattering and running away. It feeds mainly on the fruits and seeds of insects and sandy plants.