Xinjiang Morning News (text/reporter Zhao Mei photo/correspondent Kang Zhengzhong) There are only about 100 white-headed hard-tailed ducks left in China, and most of them are concentrated in Xinjiang. They once had two stable breeding grounds in Xinjiang, namely: the Bird Lake Wetland in Urumqi Anduitun Wetland. Recently, a new breeding area was added around Urumqi City, which made Xinjiang bird friends excited.
After two months of tracking and filming the breeding and growth process of a group of white-headed hard-tailed ducks, Kang Zhengzhong, a bird friend in Xinjiang, recorded the touching pictures of the duck father and duck mother as "protecting the cubs" and driving away the "invaders" red hemp duck and bone-top chicken.
According to Yasu masayoshi, this group of white-headed hard-tailed ducks consists of a pair of adult white-headed hard-tailed ducks, a male sub-adult duck and three baby birds. In late May, he accidentally bumped into birds in a water area near Urumqi, "At first, I saw only a male white-headed hard-tailed duck, with a white face and blue beak, a straight tail, and it was very conspicuous among the water birds, thinking that it only stopped here occasionally, took a few photos and left." He said that he did not expect that a few days later, when he came here again to photograph birds, he saw them again, "This time I saw two white-headed hard-tailed ducks, one an adult male." Because he didn't see the females and young birds, he still thought that the waters might just be "supply depots" for them to pass by.
It wasn't until mid-June, when he came here again to photograph birds, that he suddenly noticed that in the grass in the distance, there seemed to be a female white-headed hard-tailed duck foraging with three hairball-like young birds, "At that time, the distance was very far, and they were hiding in the grass again, and they did not see very clearly." He said, however, that the female's gray-brown round body and straight tail were clearly characteristic of the white-headed hard-tailed duck.
This sighting made Kang Zhengzhong excited for a long time, and for the next few days, he would come to the waters almost every day to crouch and observe, and finally in the afternoon of early July, he took a clear picture of the duck father and mother swimming to the lake with three young birds to forage for food, "They are very alert, I followed and photographed them for two months, only three close observations captured them, most of the time, they are perched in the grass far away, once they find movement nearby, they quickly hide in the grass." ”
During the two months of observation, he found that the white-headed hard-tailed duck couple also had a strong ability to "protect the cubs", "Once a red hemp duck or bone-top chicken is found to be close to the young birds, the duck father and duck mother will immediately swim to each other and pose a position ready to fight." ”
Recently, Kang Zhengzhong sent the pictures he took to the WeChat group of the Xinjiang Bird Watching Association, and the Xinjiang Bird Watching Association confirmed that this is another new record created by the white-headed hard-tailed duck in Xinjiang, "indicating that they have added another breeding area in Xinjiang." ”
According to the relevant person in charge of the Xinjiang Bird Watching Association, because the white-headed hard-tailed duck is a transit bird in Xinjiang, in recent years, although researchers have found more than ten habitats of white-headed hard-tailed ducks in Xinjiang, these habitats rarely find records of young bird breeding, "In addition to the Urumqi Bird Lake Wetland and Kuitun Wetland, there are records of young bird breeding, and other waters have not yet taken records of young bird breeding." ”
In China, there have been few reports of white-headed hard-tailed ducks in Places such as Ordos in Inner Mongolia and Honghu Lake in Hubei Province, but in recent years, reports have disappeared, and at present, their most important habitat and breeding ground in China is in Xinjiang.
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