Hunchun Jingxin Wetland Welcomed a Large Flock of White-Crowned Cranes - A Spectacular Sight!
On March 20th, a photographer in Hunchun captured over a thousand white-crowned cranes migrating through the Jingxin wetland. The cranes were foraging and playing freely in the Jingxin wetland, sometimes soaring low and sometimes flying in the blue sky, and after playing, they quietly fed.
This is their best stopover on their north-south migration.
White-crowned cranes (scientific name: *Grus vipio*) are similar in shape to the red-crowned crane but smaller than it, and larger than the white stork. The upper body is gray like slate, and the tail feathers are dark gray with wide black markings at the end. When feeding, they mainly use their beaks to peck at food or use their beaks to rake the surface soil and then peck at the seeds and rhizomes buried underneath, while walking and pecking.
This bird is a rare caged ornamental bird, mainly breeding in vast areas of Heilongjiang, Jilin and north of these provinces, and partially migrating south to winter in wetlands in Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces.
White-crowned cranes are a national level Grade 2 protected rare bird in China.
Produced by Jilin Daily.
Planner: Jiang Zhongxiao
Photographer: You Yewu Writer: Bu Lifeng
Editor: Ma He
