The spoon-billed sandpiper, also known as the spoon-billed sandpiper, is a world-class critically endangered species, reportedly only about 300 pairs worldwide, and China upgraded it to the ranks of first-class protection this year.
Spoon-billed sandpipers are of the genus and do not differ much from other plovers in appearance, but the mouth of spoon-billed sandpipers is particularly special, such as a tablespoon, which also resembles a whistle.
The spoon-like mouth increases the foraging difficulty of the spoon-billed sandpiper, which sweeps back and forth through the mouth in the muddy shallow water beach to catch soft shell insects, small fish and shrimp to fill the hunger.
When the shrimp are found, they will also stand and eat with their mouths, and rotate rapidly with the direction of the shrimp's escape.
The human exploitation of habitats is the main cause of a significant decline in the spoon-billed sandpiper, and if left unprotected, the species is likely to go extinct.
The mangrove wetland of Beiliao Village, Yangxi County, Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province, is an ideal wintering point for spoon-billed sandpipers, where the mudflats are vast and the food is relatively abundant, which is very suitable for the life of spoon-billed sandpipers. Every winter, spoon-billed sandpipers overwinter here, with a maximum of 6, which is the largest in Guangdong Province.
It has been observed that only spoon-billed sandpipers have been found in The Yangjiang and Zhanjiang coasts in Guangdong Province to overwinter. Due to the small spoon-like mouth, the spoon-billed sandpiper forages for a long time, except for rest, the rest of the time is used for feeding.
Even the occasional grooming of feathers is a hurry, a little tidying up and burying one's head in search of food.
The breeding ground of spoon-billed sandpiper is in the permafrost area of Siberia, and the spoon-billed sandpiper that winters in Yangjiang flies back to the breeding ground every year about April, and then flies to Vietnam to cross the winter in the winter of that year, and the cycle repeats, almost unchanged.
Beiliao Village Mangrove Wetland has been listed as a wild migratory bird protection area, in addition to the spoon-billed sandpiper, there are many other types of migratory birds, roosting, foraging, frolicking when the entire beach birds flock, magnificent.
Transitional development, human greed and bottomless plunder, the increasingly bad ecological environment, the habitat of birds is becoming less and less, fragmented, no longer alert, no longer protected, the extinction of species will be inevitable.
The crisis of the spoon-billed sandpiper comes from humans. If the wild animals are not lit up on any day, the call of humans can only hear their own echoes. Let us cherish wild animals, cherish the natural environment, and cherish our common home.
2021.3.13