Shaoyang News Network, April 4 (Correspondent Lin Yujie, Deng Xiaoxiang) A few days ago, the wildlife protection staff of the Forestry Bureau of Xinning County discovered for the first time in the field ridge of Yaoshi Village, Kunshan Town, the county, that the wild bird under national key protection - the color ibis.
Spring, when everything is in motion, is a time when wildlife activities are more frequent and a critical period for wildlife conservation. The county forestry bureau has increased the protection of wild animals and plants and increased the frequency of daily patrols.
During the patrol, the conservators found that a large black bird had attracted everyone's attention. The bird is 40–50 cm long, with a long beak bent downward like a knife, dark reddish-brown feathers from the head to the base of the wings, and copper-black for the rest of the feathers. Seeing the humans approaching, they hid in the ditch of the rice field and looked out with a vigilant look. As people approached further, they jumped up, quickly flapped their wings, and flew up at once. In flight, the head and neck strive to straighten forward, and the feet are also straight back, exposed behind the tail. With the flapping of the wings, the feathers take on a copper-green sheen. The birds seemed to be teasing people, and after flying for a distance, they stopped the agitation of their wings, glided and made a bend, landed in the fields in the distance, looked back at the people, and paced leisurely.
The conservation personnel immediately took photos, and through consulting with wildlife experts in Hunan Province and comparing information on the Internet, it was determined that this was a national-level key protected wild animal - the painted ibis. According to bird experts, the colored ibis belongs to large birds, is a close relative of rare birds crested ibis, mainly distributed in southern Eurasia, Africa and other places, in China's number is extremely rare, the distribution area is very narrow, in the "Red Book of Endangered Animals in China", once asserted "has been extinct in China", since 2009, in the mainland has been sporadically found.
The Painted Ibis is a dark maroon glowing ibis, with a green and purple luster on the upper body and most of its body feathers, and a nasal grunting sound that cries and grunts in the nest area. It inhabits warm rivers, lakes and swamps, and sometimes in rice paddies. They prefer to live in groups and often live in groups with other ibises and herons. It feeds mainly on small invertebrates such as aquatic insects, insect larvae, shrimp, crustaceans, and molluscs.
"The appearance of this bird in our county shows that xinning's ecological protection system has been effectively protected and restored, and xinning's ecological environment is getting better and better." The wildlife protection staff of the Xinning County Forestry Bureau said.
In recent years, Xinning County has vigorously implemented the "ecological leadership" strategy, further increased the intensity of ecological environmental protection, and strived to build an excellent tourist destination in the world. Nowadays, Xinning has pressed the "fast-forward button" of the construction of "Beautiful Xinning", focused on building a modern ecological environment governance system, further consolidated the achievements of the "National Ecological Civilization Construction Demonstration County", adhered to the ecological priority and green development, and Xinning strived to move quickly towards the beautiful Xinning with green mountains, green water and eternal blue sky.
(Editor: Lin Ling)