Waterbirds are birds that depend on wetlands for their survival. Well-known swans, geese, ducks, herons, storks, flamingos, cranes, buzzards, cormorants, etc. are all water birds.
There are many species of waterbirds in China, and the vast majority of species of waterbirds distributed in Asia have been recorded in China. For example, among the more than 50 species of endangered waterbirds in Asia, China has more than 40 species; the world has 166 species of geese and ducks, and China has more than 40 species; and the world's 15 species of cranes, China has 9 species.
China is located in the East Asia- Australasia, Central Asia - South Asia, West Asia - East Africa and other global migratory bird migration routes, every year through China there are many species and numbers, including a large number of water birds, storks, cranes, plovers, gulls and so on are important international migratory species. Occasionally, during the annual migration tide, some bird species that have never been seen in China before are mixed.
Wetlands are home to water birds. China's wetlands are rich and diverse, with 18,000 kilometers of mainland coastline, more than 7,600 offshore islands, 14,000 kilometers of island shoreline, large rivers such as the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and large lakes such as Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, Qinghai Lake, etc. Diverse wetlands connect land, sky and water bodies together to form diverse habitats, providing suitable migration stations, habitats, wintering grounds and breeding grounds for a variety of water birds.
White-necked stork, found in Yunnan. Photography / Lai Byung-hung
Since 2000, dozens of new records of waterbird species have been discovered in China.
There are many new records of Plover waterbirds. China is the most important country through which migratory birds of the plover swim. During their migration, they need to stop, eat and replenish their energy in China. The rich intertidal mudflats of the Yellow Sea ecoregion (including the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea) are key stops and replenishment stations for the north- and southward migration of sandpiper migratory birds.
For many partridge birds, China's eastern coast is their only stop. Every year from March to May or from August to October, the coastlines of Jiangsu, Shandong, Tianjin and Liaoning have the opportunity to see tens of thousands of plovers gathering on the beach. They look for crabs, worms, mollusks and insects in the mud.
Geese and ducks are worth mentioning in the new record of Chinese birds. The geese and ducks on the East Asian-Australasia migration route are very impressive, some of which are the rarest geese in the world, such as the blue-headed diving duck mainly distributed in China, which is a critically endangered species, and the Chinese autumn sand duck, which is also mainly distributed in China, there are only more than 3,000 chinese autumn sand ducks in the world. In addition, there are some species that are only found on this migration route, such as the Hong geese and the Mandarin duck, which are widely distributed in China and are more common, but have a very limited distribution range outside of China.
In recent years, four species of goose-shaped ducks have been recorded in the waterbird family: the white-winged perched duck, the Canadian black goose, the little American black goose, and the white-cheeked black goose. Among them, the Canadian black goose, the small American black goose, and the white-cheeked black goose all appear in China during the winter or migration season. White-winged perch ducks have been recorded in Yunnan, China, which may be their new distribution, but there is also another possibility - they have been roosting in Yunnan for a long time, but have only been discovered in recent years.
The new waterbird distribution records do not only appear on the eastern coasts of Fujian, Tianjin and Hebei, but also in Xinjiang, which is far from the ocean, there are also five new records of waterbird species. The five new Chinese recorded waterbirds that appear in Xinjiang are the pygmy cormorant, the Indian pond heron, the black-winged swallow plover, the yellow-cheeked wheat chicken and the white-tailed wheat chicken. Pygmy cormorants prefer to fly low on the shores of coastal strips, lakes, ponds and deltas, at sea outlets. In Xinjiang, they integrate dozens of wetlands that appear in the Manas River Basin.
People expect to see more water birds on the land of China and give birth to more new bird records. (Author Li Siqi Editor Wang Qiang)
