In the primary school Chinese class, we have learned a lot of texts about birds, such as "Bird's Paradise", "Bird on a Boat", "Father and Bird", "Kingfisher", and "Egret". These texts make us feel the beautiful form of birds and the beautiful environment in which they live.
But how much do we know about birds after leaving the textbook?
Wading Bird Collection Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
There are about 10,000 species of birds in the world, and there are 1387 species in China (January 2008 data). To know more birds, you need to understand their classification. The most classical taxonomy of birds is based on the traditional taxonomic system of morphological features, but morphological features sometimes do not truly reflect the evolutionary relationships between species.
In the 1980s, American ornithologist and molecular biologist Charles G. Sibley used DNA hybridization technology to study the phylogenetic evolution and kinship of birds and proposed a DNA classification system. This taxonomic system divides the ornithischia into the paleoornith suborder and the suborder ornithopodium, and the suborder ornithopodium is further divided into three subclasses: Archaeopteryx, Tritonoptera, and Neoornithidae, and all living birds belong to the suborder Aviana. The order Oftes is divided into two subclasses and so on.
Bird Genome Phylogeny Tree Source: science
Sketch of wading bird living environment Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
Li Shizhen and other ancient Chinese "naturalists" have long noticed the use of differences in morphological characteristics to classify species. Due to the adaptation to different environments and lifestyles, birds have converged on morphological structure, and similar groups have formed different bird ecological groups. According to the ecological habits and morphological characteristics of birds, they can be roughly divided into seven ecological groups: walking birds, songbirds, climbing birds, birds of prey, land birds, wading birds and game birds.
Both wading birds and game birds live on the water. Waders have the characteristics of long legs (hind limbs), long neck (neck), and long beak (beak), and the distinctive image features are more impressive. They are adapted to live in swamps and watersides, generally inhabiting shallow waters or shores. Resting on one foot, mostly getting food from the water or swamp.
The egret in the primary school Chinese text "Egret" belongs to the wading bird class.
Predatory Egret Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
What we usually call the egret is a medium-sized wading bird, which is taxonomically speaking, it is the genus Egretta of the heron family, which contains a total of 13 species of birds, of which "great egret", "medium egret", "small white heron", "yellow-billed egret" and "snow heron", because the whole body is as white as snow and is commonly known as "egret". The little white heron summer feather has a crown on its head, like two flowing pigtails, full of fairy spirit. The ancients of our country also called it "snowballer" or "snow invincible" because of their white feathers.
Some waders have webbing between the toes, but unlike pylons, the webbing of waders exists only at the base of the inter-toes, and the main role is to increase the contact area with the ground, reduce the force on the unit area, and facilitate walking or standing on the wetland. Some waders often walk on aquatic vegetation, and their toes are thin and long, which helps to distribute the weight on the surface of the vegetation, such as black water chickens, bone-top chickens, etc.
Big Blue Heron Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
In Chinese painting, "song crane figure" is common, but in fact, the crane lives in swamps or shallow waters, and is often called the "god of wetlands". It has nothing to do with pine trees that grow in the hills of the mountains, and it is possible that the ancients mistook the wading birds such as egrets that inhabited the trees for red-crowned cranes. Cranes generally have a lifespan of only 20 to 30 years, and they are not very long-lived. Their first toe is short and high, making them unsuitable for grasping branches and perching. Both egrets and egrets have a flat, long backward first toe, such as the first three toes, and can inhabit trees. Among the cranes, except for two crowned cranes that can rest in the low trees, the remaining 13 species of cranes do not roost. More than 370 years ago, the agronomist Wang Xiangjin said: "Xuan is in front, so the back toe is short", he pointed out these characteristics of the crane, which was later estimated to have been ignored by some poets and painters.
Cranes are large waders and are migratory birds in China. They are good at galloping and flying, living in groups when migrating, with beautiful and handsome forms, and their spirit is lofty. They have the characteristics of "monogamous" monocommunality, as well as legends of 60 years of lifespan, etc., in the history and culture of our country they are symbols of auspiciousness, longevity, loyalty, elegance and fitness, and are often recognized as first-class "literary birds". In the Ming and Qing dynasties, people gave the red-crowned crane the cultural connotation of loyalty, purity, and high morality. In 2006, the "China National Bird" selection activity was carried out on the online platform, and the red-crowned crane ranked first.
Red-crowned crane Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
When it comes to wading birds that roost in trees, we have to mention "the auspicious bird that has been lost and recovered, the crested ibis.". They have experienced "extinction" to rebirth, from 7 to 7,000, and after 40 years of hardship under the efforts of researchers, the threat level of the crested ibises has been reduced from critically endangered to endangered.
Crested ibis perched on a tree Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
The crested ibis, also known as the "Vermilion Heron", was recorded in the ancient Bird Sutra as the name "Vermilion Heron". The Ming Dynasty 'Compendium of Materia Medica' called it "as large as a heron and short in tail, red and white, and deep in sight". Decades ago, crested ibises were commonly found in a large area of eastern China, and there are also certain numbers in the Far East of the former Soviet Union, North Korea, Japan and other places. The crested ibises went from near extinction to population recovery, and it is also a successful example of human rescue birds to coexist with them.
Crested ibises and red-crowned cranes in flight straighten their necks Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
The big blue heron preparing to take off is shrinking its neck Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
The partridge Platalea is named after its beak that resembles a lute. Although also known as herons, they do not belong to the heron family, but are members of the family Ibis. The two are best distinguished when flying, with birds of the Family Oyster and Crane family flying with their necks outstretched. And all heron birds fly with their necks constricted. If you master these characteristics, when they fly overhead, you can recognize who they are at a glance!
Spoonbills Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
Spoonbills have such a large mouth, they can be "willful" when foraging, not by the eyes directly preying on visible food, but while walking in the shallow water at the edge of the water, while using their open mouths, reaching into the water to sweep back and forth, like a semi-circular scythe swinging back and forth to cut grass, is not very handsome!
There is also a species of wader that forages with its own "rice spoon", the spoon-billed sandpiper, which belongs to the sandpiper family. Most of the impressions of sandpipers come from the ancient fable of "Sandpipers And Clams Fight", or from the short story "Sandpiper" produced by Pixar Animation in 2016. Sandpiper in the anime lives an Eden-like life on a fantastic beach, while in the real world, the spoon-billed sandpiper is nearly endangered due to the shrinking natural wetlands.
Spoon-billed sandpiper Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
Spoon-billed sandpiper, also known as spoon-billed sandpiper and spoon-billed sandpiper, is distributed along the beach in eastern Asia, breeding in the Russian Far East in summer and wintering in Southeast Asia, passing through the coasts of East China, South China and Taiwan. Black brown feathers, small in size, weighing only 30 to 40 grams, less than the weight of a cup of tea, a spoon-like mouth, making them look particularly cute; they are also super flying flat mouth "Xiao Qiang". In my impression, the so-called north generally refers to the Area around Beijing, and the South is Jiangnan, but on the bird migration map, the South is like this.
Migration map of the house swallow
According to the Global Waterbird Assessment Report published by Wetlands International over the years, the global population of spoon-billed sandpipers is less than 500, and populations have been on a downward trend in recent years.
The mouth of the sandpiper is different from others
Black-winged sandpiper Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
Wading birds often need a clean and open wetland environment as a habitat, and are also the most sensitive indicator organisms to changes in the wetland environment. As a result of their growing population, their habitats are constantly being destroyed, or turned into farmland, cities, or polluted. Lack of food and habitat loss will directly lead to the extinction of birds. This is not only the crisis facing the survival of birds, but also the thinking of the future brought by the deterioration of the earth's environment to mankind.
Spot-tailed Sandpiper Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
The American writer Deborah Kramer once wrote: "Does it matter if you lose one more bird?" "In the face of such a topic, we can't just respond with silence or dismissiveness. At present, "love of birds" has become an urgent call for people all over the world. Let us act together to open up a beautiful blue sky for the birds, and to plan the future for the harmonious coexistence of all living beings.
Red-bellied Sandpiper Painting: Lin Xiaoyan
"Holding a red-bellied sandpiper in the palm of your hand and feeling its heartbeat is feeling the heartbeat of the earth."
—Deborah Kramer, Desperate. The Epic Journey of the Sandpiper and the Horseshoe