The yellow-browed bunting discovered by the animal ecology research team of the College of Life Sciences of Lanzhou University in Luqu County, Gansu Province, is a new record of the distribution of birds in Gansu and has added a new member to the Gansu bird family. Courtesy of Lanzhou University
Lanzhou, May 22 (Song Sen) May 22 is the "International Day of Biodiversity". When the animal ecology research team of the College of Life Sciences of Lanzhou University conducted a bird diversity survey in Gansu Province, it photographed a bird of the order Finches in Xicang Township, Luqu County, Gansu Province, and after consulting relevant information, it was confirmed that it was a male bird of the yellow-browed bunting of the family Finches. This discovery is a new record of the distribution of birds in Gansu, adding a new member to the Gansu bird family.
According to the research team, the bird's forehead, crown, occipital and head side are black, and there is a narrow white crown stripe from the forehead to the occipital; the eyebrow stripes are bright yellow and turn white behind the eyes; the upper body is all brown, the hind neck feathers have chestnut brown fine stripes, and the back has a wide black central stripe; the wings and tail are black brown, the outermost two pairs of tail feathers have white wedge-like spots, and the waist and tail cover feathers are more chestnut red; the wing covert feathers and the medial secondary flying feathers are brown; the middle and large coverts are white to form two white wing spots; the chin and cheek lines are black; the chest and two flanks are chestnut brown. The thorax and flanks are dark brown stripes ; the ventral center and subtail coverts are white.
The yellow-browed bunting is mainly distributed in Japan, South Korea, Laos, North Korea, Mongolia and Russia; in China, it is distributed from northeast, north China, west to eastern Sichuan and eastern Guizhou, and south to Guangdong, Fujian and Taiwan. According to the records, the yellow-browed bunting breeds in the Siberian region north of Lake Baikal in Russia, overwinters in southern China, and migrates in the spring and autumn of each year. The distribution area of the Yellow-browed Bunting in the Vertebrate Chronicle of Gansu and the Catalogue of the Taxonomy and Distribution of Birds of China (Third Edition) does not include Gansu.
After consulting relevant information, it was confirmed that it was a male bird of the yellow-browed bunting of the family Finches. Courtesy of Lanzhou University
According to the research team, the data record that the yellow-browed bunting is distributed in the neighboring provinces of Sichuan and Shaanxi, which are adjacent to Gansu, so it is speculated that the yellow-browed bunting observed this time should belong to the traveling birds passing through Gansu during spring migration. However, the recorded yellow-browed bunting is distributed in the eastern part of both provinces in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and has a longer distance from the places observed this time, which will require continuous observations in southern and eastern Gansu in the next few years to verify whether the yellow-browed bunting occasionally gets lost through Gansu, or whether the southern and eastern Gansu has become the bird's migration route due to environmental changes.
Since 2014, in cooperation with the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, 17 county bird diversity observation sample areas and 3 mammal infrared camera observation sample areas have been set up in Gansu, Ningxia and western Inner Mongolia.
Through years of continuous investigation and observation of animal diversity in Gansu Province and surrounding provinces and regions, 3 new species of birds in Gansu, 3 new species of birds in Ningxia and 1 new record of mammals have been reported, and the campus bird atlas "Cuiying Feathers" and the ningxia Liupanshan Bird Atlas have been edited and published, contributing to the promotion and protection of biodiversity. (End)
Source: China News Network
Editor: Liu Hui