The Weiwei Kunlun Mountains stretch from the eastern part of the Pamir Plateau in the west to Xinjiang and Tibet and extend to Qinghai. When it comes to Kunlun Mountain, most of the words that pop up in people's minds are drought, barrenness, desolation, and thickness. There are few forests here, the environment is harsh, but there is a precious and rare bird living here- the red-winged whirling finch.
Many small birds nest in trees and fly in the air, but the red-winged whirling finch has lived on cliffs all his life, nesting on cliffs, flying on cliffs, and catching insects in stone crevices to eat.
The small and mysterious red-winged whirling wall finch, due to its strange behavior, attracts the attention of many bird friends. After photographing the red-winged whirling wall finch, a bird friend in Xinjiang excitedly said that it flew like a beautiful butterfly, and it flew over the cliff to walk on the wall, just like the "Batman" in the movie.
The red-winged whirling wall finch is also called tree climbing bird, stone flower, and rock climbing tree, and each name reflects its form and habits. It is the only member of the ornithischidae of the order Finches.
The red-winged whirling whistling finch inhabits cliffs, is small in size, weighs about 15-23 grams, and the main color is gray-black, which has a certain camouflage effect, and when it retracts its wings, it is difficult to find. But when it opens its wings, it reveals bright and beautiful wings.
The tail is not long, but the wings are broad, with distinctly large crimson spots on the wings, dotted with small white spots. Flapping its wings, in the sunlight, colorful, very much like a beautiful butterfly. So the red-winged cuneiform is called the "butterfly bird on the cliff".
A small butterfly bird, but with a long, thin and long beak, the peak of the mouth is black and pointed, slightly curved downwards, like the beak of a sunbird.
The red-winged whirling finch is small and beautiful but lives in a desolate place, and for them, if they do not have the skills of leaning over, they are embarrassed to mix in the natural world.
In order to adapt to the living environment of the alpine cliffs, in addition to the beautiful wings, the red-winged whirling wall finch also grew a pair of feet like steel claws, and its beautiful wings, which look very strange and do not match, but are an important "magic weapon" for survival!
According to Ma Ming, a researcher at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, the red-winged wall finch has a pair of legs that can retract like a spring, and the claws are particularly strong, with natural adsorption and strong "wall grip", so it can easily "stand" on the vertical cliff, and can fly over the wall.
In addition to its strong claws, it also requires broad, rounded wings to assist, which can assist and balance when climbing over cliffs.
We see the red-winged whistling crater roaming easily on the vertical cliffs without a point of force, flexible and fast, depending on the anti-slip of its claws and the balance of its wings.
The red-winged crawl evolved this superb "climbing ability", not for anything else, just for food, only to fill the stomach, in order to survive! Curiously, sunbirds use their long beaks to suck in nectar, while red-winged wall finches use their long beaks to eat small bugs in the crevices of the cliffs.
So the red-winged whistling "climbs" or jumps and dances on the cliffs, many times in search of food. It specializes in finding bugs to eat on the cliffs, and its slender, curved mouth can reach into narrow stone crevices and peck at bugs.
When the red-winged wall finch forages for food, its body is close to the rock wall, and its claws will firmly grasp the rock wall, spreading its wings and fanning it constantly to maintain its balance.
The food of the red-winged crater is mainly insects and spiders that hide in the rock crevices for hibernation, mainly feeding on beetles, scarabs, centipedes, stone jumpers, centipedes, nocturnal moths, grasshoppers, black ants Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, Hymenoptera and other insects and insect larvae, often catching locusts and beating their teeth.
Usually, the red-winged whirling whistling always likes to act alone, whether it is foraging or moving on a cliff, it is a single shadow. Rest on the rock walls by yourself, or fly forward in waves and swim over short distances.
It does not like to be lively but is active by nature, and its actions are erratic, and only when it reaches the breeding period will it be fixed on a cliff wall to build a nest, lay eggs, and breed offspring.
The breeding season is from April to July, and the females will choose to nest in the crevices of the cliffs and rocks on high places, using moss, lichens, weeds, feathers and so on.
The nest should be hidden, and the nest is very soft, but also has a good warmth, after all, the high place is not cold, to ensure the temperature of the chicks can break the shell smoothly.
A clutch lays 4-5 eggs, with an incubation period of about 20 days and a brooding period of about 30 days. During the breeding period, the male birds, who are usually alone, become very responsible, take good care of the female birds, guard the nests, find food, and care for the young birds.
Moreover, during this time, the male bird behaves differently than usual, leaving the nest and returning to the nest very carefully, often returning to the nest along a roundabout route. Male birds would rather spend more time and energy around the detour home, just to avoid being discovered and tailed by predators, bringing innocence to females and young birds.
I have to say that the red-winged whirling wall finch is both dashing and responsible, usually free of charge, once it is "married and baby" with the female bird, it is responsible for the end, really a responsible "good man". It will take care of the female and the young until the young are old enough to live alone.
The red-winged whistling is widely distributed, generally inhabiting the cliffs and steep slopes of high-altitude mountainous areas, or on the rocky cliffs of forest areas, and even in some deep valleys in Qinghai that are heavily washed and cut.
However, in winter, it will also migrate to the wasteland or low mountain area below 500 meters above sea level, and specially select inaccessible places, where the most desolate, where to settle.
There is no relatively reliable data on the population of the red-winged crater, but it is widely distributed, distributed in Europe, Southwest Asia, and in China, it is possible to see its beautiful posture in Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Sichuan provinces and regions.
The "strangeness" of the red-winged whirling wall finch is reflected in its contrast, obviously a beautiful little elf, but likes to live on a desolate cliff; obviously usually likes to be alone and free, but once it reaches the breeding period, it has a "sense of family responsibility" and dutifully guards the female birds and young birds.
However, for most people, the red-winged whirling is a relatively unfamiliar bird. At present, there are still many unsolved questions about the red-winged koifinch, such as its origin and evolution, population structure, family relations, and clearer behavioral habits, which have yet to be discovered by scientists.
Snow Spirit Valley Animal Lab/Production References: Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Wildlife Conservation Association, Nature Exploration