CCTV News: Starting from today (October 8), the live broadcast team of the main station will take you and experts to "find the spoon-billed sandpiper". Let's go and see what a spoon-billed sandpiper is? Why look for spoon-billed sandpipers? What did you find? Explore the rich biodiversity together.
When you mention the spoon-billed sandpiper, you can't fail to mention Jiangsu Yancheng. In July 2019, the first phase of the Huang (Bo) Sea Wetland Migratory Bird Habitat in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, was inscribed on the World Natural Heritage List.
At the Biodiversity Conference in a few days, Yancheng's "Natural Solutions for the Goal of Restoring Bird Habitats" was selected as one of the "Biodiversity 100+ Global Special Recommended Cases".
The wetland is an important part of the East Asia-Australasia route of nine migratory bird migration routes around the world. It is the migratory bird migration season, more than 300,000 migratory birds are arriving in yancheng Huang (Bohai) Sea wetland, and one of the birds is particularly concerned by researchers, its name is called "spoon-billed sandpiper", there are only more than 600 in the world, which is a critically endangered migratory bird.
Spoon-billed sandpiper: There are only more than 600 birds with "rice spoons" in the world
Researchers come to Yancheng every year during the migration season to observe changes in the population of spoon-billed sandpipers. Through the big screen behind us, we have seen the appearance of the spoon-billed sandpiper, I believe that everyone is like me, the first thing that is attracted to this small animal is the most "cute" place that is its mouth shape. The spoon-billed sandpiper has a special mouth shape, like a rice spoon, so many bird lovers also affectionately call it a bird with its own "rice spoon".
Spoon-billed sandpiper, nicknamed "Small Spoon", has a body length of 14 cm - 16 cm, and its mouth is like a small black spoon. In the summer, the feathers of the "little spoon" are mainly black and brownish red, but in the winter, they become a relatively light color of gray-brown and white. Coupled with the unique way the "little spoon" forages on the tidal flats and wetlands, sweeping the mouth back and forth like a broom in the water or mud, it is easy to distinguish it from other sandpipers in the wild. At present, there are only more than 600 spoon-billed sandpipers worldwide, which is a critically endangered species.
"Small spoons" mainly inhabit the shores of tundra swamps, meadows and lakes on the Arctic coast during the breeding period; during the non-breeding period, they mainly inhabit shoals and mud in coastal and estuarine areas, and do not penetrate deep into inland waters. Therefore, every year in September and October, the "little spoon" will travel a long way to the Huang (Bo) Sea Wetland Migratory Bird Habitat in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, which is the central node of the migration route of the "East Asia-Australasia" migratory bird with the most endangered species and the highest degree of threat, and is also an important "apron" and "gas station" during the long migration of the spoon-billed sandpiper.
Source: CCTV